A small circus coming to rural England turns out to open up new opportunities and perspectives for a young woman in Calif Chong’s feature film High Wire, which world premiered at the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF), which wraps on Sunday.
“Go-Wing’s future feels predetermined,” reads a synopsis for the movie, which Chong co-wrote with Jackie Lam. “Days are filled with working at her father’s Chinese takeaway and studying. Beneath her sense of duty is a crushing loneliness and the prospect of a life unfulfilled. So, when an acrobatic circus comes to town, with a little accidental blackmail, Go-Wing is able to join them and finds the promise of community, artistic release, and a fulfilling future lived on her own terms.”
Isabella Wei, Dominic Lam Kar Wah, and Jose Palma star in High Wire, a Silent D Pictures production in association with Make a Difference Films and Ajamax Productions. The cinematography was handled by Matthew P. Scott. Check out a film clip here for a first taste of what to expect.
The film marks the feature directorial debut for Chong, who has mostly worked as an editor.
She, Wei, and Scott talked to the press at a LFF afternoon tea event this week.
“The circus was the perfect place for my dream to tell an immigrant story that’s set in the food business environment, because I myself experienced working in a restaurant in Chinatown in Manchester,” Chong told THR. “I felt very weird because I was there to chase some sort of dream. I hate this word, by the way. People say dream. I’m here to make a career, and it’s not meant to be a dream.”
Wei recalled going for the lead role. “I submitted a self-tape audition, and I think just a few hours later, I heard back from them that I was cast in a role,” she told THR. “So, it was super-exciting. And it was such a beautiful role.”
She didn’t audition locally, though. “I was in Hong Kong at the time, but it was really nice to be telling the story of someone from Hong Kong, or ethnically Hong Kong, in the U.K., which is where I spend some of my time,” she said. “And it incorporated a lot of really creative, expressive, especially physically expressive, outlets.”
Before she found Wei, Chong realized the challenges of casting for a circus performer role. “It was a hard casting. At some point, I thought, ‘Why did I write this?’ The bilingual ability was one thing,” she recalled. “But they also had to be able to dance and rollerblade,” and more. “So, when I saw her tape, I was like, ‘Oh, god is saving me’.”
As Chong’s partner, Scott had the advantage of being part of planning discussions, which allowed him to be ready for many scenes. “But, technically, probably the hardest scene was the final high wire act, because it’s very hard on set doing that much visual effects work,” he told THR.
Wei found other parts more challenging. “For me, some of the hardest scenes were probably in the takeaway,” explained the star. “Because we needed that relationship between me and my dad, and I think creating that relationship or dynamic to make it look like we have been living together and coexisting in this really tight, narrow space for so long was quite a challenge.”