Chris Wu & Jake Hsu | HIStory 3: Trapped

Q: What was the book that started nurturing your reading habit? Do you have a daily reading plan?

Jake:  Looking back on it now, the first book that I was crazy about reading is <The Power of Film> (by Howard Suber). It was also the first book I read about movies. It introduced the complicated elements of movies in a simple way. At that time I had just entered University, and that book was like a treasure trove to me, with every page filled with amazing knowledge. 

A memory that is still vivid to this day is when I was waiting to go on [stage] in the black box theatre, snuggling up to the smallest of lights and roaming leisurely through the book. Although I don’t have a fixed reading plan, reading books still fills me with delight and is irreplaceable. 

Q: Do you have any special habits while reading?

Jake: I don’t know if everyone has the same experience as me, but when I start a book, I can’t read another one before I finish the first one, otherwise I would get confused. If I’m reading a novel that has many characters in it, I even draw character interrelationship diagrams, otherwise I would easily forget who is who. 

Q: Do you pay attention to certain rituals when reading?

Jake: I have to play instrumental music while reading, especially Lo-Fi style music, which can make me concentrate better. 

Q: Apart from work-related books, what kind of books do you prefer?

Jake: I was fascinated by world literature at one point. I would often go to the university library’s translated novel section to look for treasures there. I still remember that after I closed the last page of <A Thousand Splendid Suns> (T/N by Khaled Hosseini), I sat beside myself (from excitement) in front of my writing desk for a long time. These days, most of the books I read are materials related to movie creators or famous people, or knowledge reference books. 

Q: Have you ever starred in an adaptation of a literary work that you liked? Or have you ever become a fan of the book because you acted in an adaptation?

Jake: When I was studying drama in university, I performed in the classic <The Mousetrap> by famous British writer and playwright Agatha Christie. From then on, I started loving the deductive logic of this queen of detective (writers). Her most representative character Hercule Poirot has been adapted into television works that I enjoy ardously, such as <Murder On The Orient Express>, <Death On The Nile> and <A Haunting in Venice>.

Q: Please share with us the book that has had the most profound impact on you with respect to your life, and your acting.

Jake: The book that left the deepest impression on my life is <Just Like The Speed of Walking: My Daily life, Creations and the World> by (movie) director Hirokazu Kore-eda in which he describes several philosophies in life. 

(T/N: Jake then shares an excerpt from the first chapter, but I won’t attempt to translate a Chinese translation of a Japanese original book into English). 

The director’s perspective on the world, on roles/characters and on a person has had a very big impact on me. 

And the book that influenced my acting the most is <A Challenge For The Actor> (by Uta Hagen) which I studied while in University. Even though I have developed my own thoughts on acting at this point, the exercices and homework for actors in <A Challenge For The Actor> laid a lot of foundation during my first venture into acting that are still useful today. 

Q: If you have to go live on an uninhabited island for a year, and you could only bring one book with you, which one would you choose?

Jake:  Since it would be a deserted island, I would like to bring the whole series of <One Piece> (Eiichiro Oda), which I hope to finish in due time. If I can’t bring multiple books, I would like to take with me <Freeing The Natural Voice> by Kristin Linklater, practice it diligently for a year and see what happens. 

Q: Finally, please share three of your favourite recent books? 

Jake: First, the two-volume manhua <Shen Ming Convenience Store> by Xie Donglin that I rediscovered at the Taichung Comic Museum. [The author] has turned Taiwan’s traditional gods and deities into characters and tells the stories in a clear and humorous way. I couldn’t stop laughing and really love it. 

The second book is <Selected Film Reviews of Steven Tu: A Decade 2012-2022> which collects his masterpieces of ten years of film criticism. It’s like browsing a map of the film world of the past ten years through the eyes of Teacher Tu, which is close to reaching nirvana. 

Finally, the book in my hand called <Voyage With Kiki Kirin>, which covers the period from 2007 until Kiki Kirin’s passing in 2018. During those twelve years, director Kirokazu Kore-eda and Kiki Kirin conducted scattered interviews in different situations and different times. I feel like I have spent countless wonderful afternoons with this book.