Let Me Tell You Something: Films
1st March 2022
FilmsLet Me Tell You Something is a creative project by percussionist, multidisciplinary artist, and sound designer Angela Wai Nok Hui. As well as a live show and her debut album, the project comprises short films made in collaboration with photographer and filmaker Ilme Vysniauskaite, with original sound design by Angela Wai Nok, exploring themes such as nostalgia, memory, homesickness, and the concept of self. Here Angela Wai Nok shares some reflections on what these personal, intimate films mean to her.
Click here to read our interview with Angela Wai Nok and find our more about Let Me Tell You Something.
“I have this auntie – she is not really a close relative, although we used to be very close. She used to come and pick me up from pre-school. Flicker in 3 is me describing all these memories in tiny, tiny chunks, in a non-linear way. And one memory is me talking about this auntie picking me up, and going to a new flat. We hadn't spoken in about 6-7 years I would say, and she came to the Let Me Tell You Something show in Hong Kong! It was really surprising to see her, and it really meant quite a lot.”
“The film Monday Noodles is the one where I keep eating noodles for one minute. There are bubbly sounds in the background, and me singing a childhood tune, that I think only me and my sister would know. Noodles are a comfort food for me, they're a hangover food. When I get back home from clubbing at 3am or 4am, I always go for noodles. 'Monday Noodles' was actually the original title for the whole project, so I have a special bond with this name. The sound-making is kind of funny, but also very unsettling. The lighting that me and Ilme chose was kind of reflecting some themes as well... in the live show we make it super big - literally my head is 3 or 4 metres big, and it’s so uncomfortable and at the same time very powerful. The power dynamics between me and the audience suddenly change when that movie is put on. It’s interesting to make them uncomfortable and to make them watch me eat.”
“We were trying to capture all the tiny movements on the body, the flickering pulse under the skin. We were trying to find the tendons, and the tensions…those very small movements. The message we wanted to convey was that something small could trigger something very big, something under the skin that you might not notice at first could have a big impact, like the Butterfly Effect theory. The sound I was going for was a very soft and very gentle bowed marimba, and then in Logic I twisted the EQ and made it into a massive drone sound. When you watch it on the computer it doesn't really come across as that huge, but in the live shows I ask the sound engineer to make the sound really, really huge, so that the audience, even if they can't hear the sound, they can definitely feel the vibration, from the chair and from the ground.”
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