Screentime: Em Jaay, Film Director
What TV show did your parents love? When did you begin to understand its appeal?
Thinking back I never saw my parents watch TV. I spent a lot of time with my grandma though and she loved Antiques Roadshow. My cousin and I used to laugh about it but then one day we sat down to watch it with her and were hooked. We ended up playing Antiques Roadshow with all the ‘old’ things in her house.
In the biopic of your life, which scene should be filmed as a silent movie?
So I’m thinking silent movie as in black and white, piano music in the background and everything moving a bit faster than normal. When I lived in Xi’an my crazy roommate and I hung our out clothes to dry on a pole outside the window. One windy day the hanger with all our underwear blew off, but instead of falling all the way down they got stuck on the awning of the neighbor’s house below. Cue expressions of horror! We spent the next hour trying to tie two mops together with string then swinging it back and forth to try and knock the underwear down. At one point, another neighbor stuck her head out of her window and almost got a mop in the face. She then took a small broom and tried to help as well! Finally, we knocked the underwear to the ground where we could collect them. Cheers all round!
What TV show or movie did you have to be coerced into watching but now readily admit that you love?
Guardians of the Galaxy. I was on a plane, and I needed to borrow a pen from the guy next to me to fill out a form. He then wouldn’t stop talking to me, and he persuaded me the film was amazing and I’d regret not watching it. He even watched it on his screen in time with mine so that we could laugh in sync, pausing it if I needed to pee or anything. And I have to say, it was amazing.
What hangout from a TV show or movie would you like to spend your spare time in?
Oh so hard, so many choices. Love the Kit Kat Club from Cabaret, and Korova Milk Bar from Clockwork Orange would be fun, like one time. I actually really like Rick’s Cafe from Casablanca, that’s somewhere I’d spend a solid amount of time. That said, my life right now looks more like I’m hanging somewhere like the Midnight Express food place from Chungking Express.
Look out around town for screenings of Em Jaay’s new film Beijing Being.
More stories by this author here.
Email: danielkippwhittaker@thebeijinger.com
Photo: Uni You