Hello, everyone. I am Neo Yau.
And before I start,
I have to apologize to all of you
because I speak really, really bad English.
(Laughter) (Applause)
I kept asking the organizers if I can speak Cantonese today,
and they told me
that some of you cannot understand Cantonese very well.
Who cannot understand Cantonese here?
(Laughter)
Oh my god.
So it's you, you, you, you bastards
(Laughter)
who makes me suffer for the last weeks for an English script, okay?
Okay, let's get started.
Okay.
First of all,
I would like to know the name you guys put on me.
Any of you know me before today?
Okay, thank you.
So, any of you know me
because of watching the movie "She Remembers, He Forgets,"
"哪一天我們會飛"?
Okay, thank you.
How about the "Ten Years"?
Thank you.
How about the online videos,
such as the "Mocking Jer" and "CapTV"?
Okay, okay.
So, what does that make me?
An actor?
A short film producer? Or what?
I don't know.
I will talk about it later.
I would like to make today's event, the speech, meaningful.
So I'm going to talk about something
that I don't usually talk to the magazine or the newspaper,
such as the relationship between me and the "100Most"
that nobody knows, okay?
So,
the first name they put on me -
or the first name they put on all of us -
what's that?
I would say a student.
When we were a student,
it means that we have lack of experience.
When we were a student,
we can try, we can fail,
we can be reckless,
we can be anything.
And we are always forgiven
because we are still studying.
Back in my days in secondary school, when I was a student,
actually, I didn't spend a lot of time to study.
(Laughter)
But instead, I spent my time on swimming and basketball,
video games
and girls.
(Laughter)
Girls are very important, you know,
for school.
I can't imagine how do boys live in a boys' school.
(Laughter)
So, and more important,
is that I made short films.
I made short films, and I acted in my own short films.
And also I played in dramas,
which is the thing I really loved.
It turns out,
my academic result was not that bad.
But not bad means not good enough -
I'm not good enough to get an offer from the university.
And it was really, kind of, the end of my world
at that moment,
because my family wanted me to study in university
and I didn't really consider any other choices.
So, what can I do?
I became a repeater.
I repeated studying Form 7.
And one year later,
I got one grade better,
which is in Use of English.
How ironic.
(Laughter)
I actually got a B in oral.
(Laughter)
Okay, so,
one year later,
I got an offer from PolyU
for a degree
which studies about some mechanics,
calculators, science, etc,
something that -
[No clue WTF to study]
(Laughter)
I have no clue what it is.
But there's also another way,
which is The [Hong Kong] Academy for Performing Arts,
APA, 演藝學院.
I applied for two courses:
the drama school and the film/TV school.
Actually, drama school was my first priority,
but when I get to the second audition in drama school,
I actually don't dare to take it very serious.
I got zero preparation for that audition.
Why?
Because I don't want to have any hope.
Because I don't think my family will allow me to get there.
When you study in APA,
you're not considered as a college student.
But actually, it is a degree course.
So, the second audition in drama school
became the most embarrassing performance in my life so far,
which is really, really bad because zero rehearsal.
So, as a result, I got into film/TV school.
(Laughter)
But don't get me wrong:
I get passion in both behind the camera and acting.
So, what does that make me become?
A filmmaker, actor, director, scriptwriter?
No, not yet.
I became a film-making student.
In that four years,
what I most benefit from, in my opinion,
is that I got the chance to act in my classmates' films -
in acting in my classmates' short films.
It gave me the opportunities about camera acting.
And four years later, I become a graduate.
And I know most of you think that I was a YouTuber:
I make some online videos,
and one day, I don't know why,
a director picked me up on the street
and took me to the movie industry to act as a leading role,
right?
I was a YouTuber,
and I turned to a movie actor -
which is not true.
It actually never happened in Hong Kong history.
You can ask Tommy.
(Laughter) (Applause)
It never happened.
So, what did I do after I graduate?
When we graduate,
it means that we are hopeless.
(Laughter)
We are hopeless for our future,
and we are hopeless in our industry.
We got twenty students in my class,
and only seven students studied major scriptwriting -
I am one of those.
And only one out of seven students
are actually working in the industry -
and that's not me,
(Laughter)
because I'm not doing a scriptwriting job, right?
So, that is what I mean, "hopeless."
So what did I do after I graduate?
I was very lucky
because there were two movies,
got a public audition,
which is, you all know it,
"哪一天我們會飛" -
"She Remembers, He Forgets,"
and another movie, "Weeds on Fire" -
"點五步,"
a baseball movie, which was actually produced by your school,
and I applied [for] both auditions,
and I actually earned both leading roles
in these two movies.
But they don't want me to act at the same time in two movies,
so I have to choose.
But I like Adam Wong a lot -
I like his last movie, "The Way We Dance."
So, actually, I got no choice.
So I chose to act in "She Remembers, He Forgets."
It turns out, I think, it is really, actually, a wise choice
because this movie ["Weeds on Fire"],
it still hasn't released.
(Laughter)
Don't get me wrong: it may be a good movie.
I believe it would be a good movie,
but I would not be standing here to share with you,
because I would still be nobody.
Nobody means no money.
(Laughter)
So after I shot this film ["She Remembers, He Forgets"]
but the movie needed to prepare for the post-production,
so I got some money in my pocket,
but I was still nobody.
So what should I do?
That was 2014.
In 2014, we all know what happened in Hong Kong:
the Umbrella Movement.
It gave me a lot of impact and a lot of ideas.
So I started to gather my crew, my friends and my classmates
to make my first online videos.
We established the organization Mocking Jer,
but it was barely an organization,
because we have no money, no income, nothing.
We are just some friends gathered together.
And we started to make our first film with zero budget,
the film named "陳浩南教書篇."
That video
became the top video of the week
in Hong Kong YouTube.
It gained 200,000 views in one week.
So the magazines, the newspapers started to interview us,
and we were encouraged.
We started to make another film and another film, with no money.
So we are happy to make our own films,
but the problem is still there.
I got no income.
I barely lived with my freelance jobs.
So what's next?
At that time, our savior comes out:
the boss of "100Most,"
(Cantonese) Roy Tsui.
He called me.
He gave me a phone call and asked me to work in "100Most,"
which is - actually, I was the supervisor for "TVMost"
before it launched.
Why?
Because, actually, I did lots of the funny TV news online,
(Cantonese) "Most News."
Actually, I did a lot for a month.
Every day I did this news,
but it was never published, because we had to test,
and before the day "TVMost" launched, I quit the job.
I think there are many talented youngsters in the company,
and I like to work there,
but somehow,
we are not on the same track of making films -
I mean, me and the bosses -
so I have to leave there.
So a few months later,
CapTV find me to make other funny videos online.
And a few more months later,
(Cantonese) "She Remembers, He Forgets"
finally released.
(Laughter)
And the movie released, it means that I'm relieved,
because, finally, someone knows me by the movie,
and they started to call me an actor,
and I started to have a more stable income.
So,
here's today's moral of the story:
I was not a YouTuber first and turned to movie actor.
Actually, there's no door.
There's no door for any YouTubers to become movie makers or movie actors.
There's no door.
And, in my opinion,
there is no door for youngsters to get in the industry, any industry.
It is very difficult nowadays.
So I'm telling you today:
you will never make it.
Whatever your dream is, you will never make it.
Does that sound evil?
(Laughter)
You will never make it.
Why?
Even as lucky as me,
I got the chance to move into the movie industries,
but I have not got a bright future,
as you've seen.
I still have not got many opportunities.
So, why would that happen?
In my opinion,
there are too many old men in the industries.
(Laughter)
They just simply cannot understand our situations.
They think we are (Cantonese) "waste youth";
they think we are "rubbish youngsters" -
I don't know how to translate this term.
It is really difficult to translate, okay?
(Laughter)
Because back in their days,
they work hard, they get paid.
They can move in their own flats.
We cannot buy our own flats -
it is, as you said, "mission impossible," right?
We are barely living on our own.
In their eyes, we are rubbish:
"Why would you do that?
Because you are not hardworking enough.
That makes you rubbish."
They are not willing to open the door.
They keep the door shut,
without which the youngsters cannot get into the industry.
Every time I see some young actors,
like me or even younger than me,
they are as talented as me or even better,
but they are still being unseen
because there are no platforms for them to show up,
and that really breaks my heart.
So, that's why I am telling you:
whatever your dream is, you will never make it.
To the big bosses
(Laughter)
today -
I don't know if there are any big bosses sitting here -
I am telling you:
so, please, give out opportunities to the youngsters
or we will kill you.
(Laughter)
Just kidding.
And to the youngsters,
like me, and all the students here:
you will never make it,
but that's not your fault.
Even you will never make it -
please tell yourself you'll never make it, prepare for that -
but please, still try your very best to achieve your goals.
So, that's what I want to say:
please walk your own way.
Because nowadays in Hong Kong,
we don't know what will happen tomorrow.
In every aspect, it is such a mess,
especially the politics.
We all know it.
So walk your own way.
And we have to stand together.
We have to stand by each other for our new generation.
If we cannot get in the door, we create our own door.
We create our own generations.
There's a sentence in Chinese,
(Cantonese) a misfortune may be a blessing in disguise,
which means - I'll try my best to translate -
(Laughter)
which means
if you lost something, you may be able to get something back.
But in the way I see it,
we must - we must be able to get something back.
In my case,
I wasted a lot of time in my secondary school.
But I did try many aspects, many things,
which is really good for my actor career
because I need to play different roles, right?
And I failed to get to university,
but I got the chance to study what I loved.
I failed to get in drama school,
but I got a chance to know more about the camera acting,
and for the scriptwriting majors, I can write my own stories,
I can write my own films,
and that's what I got.
And the camera acting experience didn't make me fail
for the public audition of the feature-length films.
So, you never know what you've got from your past,
so don't regret for what you did or what you didn't do.
It's never too late.
Don't think that if I did this or did that,
didn't do this, didn't do that,
maybe I can be better.
Don't think about it,
because that's just some assumption which never exists.
So think about it:
the way you walked is always the best way,
that's what I think.
And we have to stand together.
You will never make it,
but please,
try your very best to achieve it.
Because we are in such a messy society.
Do I still got time for a short story?
(Crew: Cantonese) Let's save it for later.
Okay. Thank you very much.
(Cheers) (Applause)