He’s Not Afraid of a Little Pressure

Talk about a delicate situation. You’re 36. It’s your first American movie to direct. Better yet, it’s your first studio movie to direct.

Here’s the tricky part: The studio just happens to be DreamWorks SKG (the S stands for Steven Spielberg). It stars Steven Spielberg’s wife. Steven Spielberg’s wife is producing it. Steven Spielberg frequently pops by the set, usually daily, just to say “hey” and check out how things are going.

Peter Chan is to Chinese romantic comedy what Woody Allen is to American romantic comedy (albeit sweeter than Allen’s brand of angst-ridden New York neurosis). In fact, Chan says Allen is the inspiration for all of his films, including “The Love Letter”--the DreamWorks movie starring Kate Capshaw, the film’s producer and Spielberg’s wife. The film is tentatively scheduled for a spring release.

The bright young director-producer--who already had 15 films under his belt before heading to the States to dazzle Hollywood with his auteur skills--says he never noticed Spielberg’s presence on the set. Understand that Spielberg is a god among young filmmakers.

Intimidating? Inhibiting? For any self-respecting Hollywood wannabe, absolutely. For the latest wunderkind import, not a bit. At least that is what Chan is selling.

“’[Spielberg] makes himself invisible when he’s there,” Chan says. “He would never interfere. He would never give advice unless people seek it. He is one of the kindest, most generous and thoughtful people I’ve ever met.

“Only one time did he ever say anything. It was during the first week of production, and he had headphones and the monitor on. After one of the takes, he came up to me and said: ‘I had the urge to go up to the actors and say you might try this differently. But then I heard you say that.’ And that was it.”

End of unsolicited advice.

Based on the novel of the same name by Cathleen Schine, “The Love Letter” is about a New Yorker (Capshaw) who returns to her small New England hometown, opens a bookstore and settles in for the simple life. She winds up with anything but, when she finds a sensual, unsigned love letter that leads to two flames: one, a lover from the past (Tom Selleck); the other, a young lover in the present (Tom Everett Scott).

The letter becomes hot property, exchanging hands right and left with residents of the town. In the process, it changes their lives: For some it douses their inhibitions, and they fall madly in love. For others it ignites hope, allowing them the dream of taking the step to falling in love.

“A lot of people need to be rescued romantically, and the letter frees them to experience love,” Chan says. “It’s about fate. It’s about last chances and letting go of inhibitions.”

As an actor, Capshaw found Chan “very patient. If he said no, we all learned that yes might be around the corner. He is not manipulative, but very confident, articulate, stubborn, very energetic . . . a wonderful artist.”

In her role as producer, Capshaw chose Chan for several reasons. She had seen a few of his films and enjoyed them, and she wanted to keep costs down by not selecting a better-known high-priced director. Plus, “I knew he was looking for his first American film to direct.

“When I spoke to him I knew right away he got the art of the piece. He said he saw it as ‘the missed moments between people.’ I knew he had it right then.”

Terrence Chang, a producing partner of action director John Woo, says Chan earned his stripes working on Hong Kong films, including serving as a translator on a Woo film. But it’s the films Chan made in China that earned him his reputation.

“This is his reputation overseas,” notes Chang, who says he hopes to work with Chan in the future. “He likes romantic comedies and dramas, which is kind of funny because he got his start working on action movies. He started out as a production manager, so he has a realistic attitude about budget costs. As a director, he is great with actors. He somehow manages to get their best performances out of them.”

Love and all its complications is a theme familiar to many of Chan’s movies, including his critically acclaimed “Comrades, Almost a Love Story” and “He Is a Woman, She Is a Man.”

“To me life is about contradictions. And all movies are relationship movies,” Chan says. “Which is kind of funny, considering where I am from. Action films are the bread and butter of Hong Kong, the biggest genre there. But I’m not interested in that. I would rather examine relationships.” (Interestingly, Chan, who is single, says he has never had a long-term relationship.)

Born in Hong Kong, Chan moved to Thailand at age 12. He later studied in the U.S., then returned to Hong Kong in 1983, just at the debut of Hong Kong’s new wave of young directors, including Woo, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, Kirk Wong and Stanley Tong. He was a translator on Woo’s Thai action film “Heroes Shed No Tears” and later served as production manager on three Jackie Chan films.

By 1989 he began producing his own films. He has produced 15, eight of which he also directed, mostly in China.

“You know, people asked me all the time, before ‘Love Letter,’ if I could direct an American romantic comedy comfortably. . . . Would it translate?” Chan says. “I tell them people in Asia have been watching American movies for 80 years.

“When ‘When Harry Met Sally’ came out, everybody thought it would bomb in Asia. It did huge business,” he says. “All human beings have the same needs, the same urges, and that’s why, for me, relationships in movies are what it’s all about. The world is really smaller than you think.”