Prolific Taiwanese author Giddens Ko has turned his adolescent regrets into an unusually presentable teen drama. He tells Edmund Lee how it all began.

An aura of laidback confidence seems to tenaciously follow Giddens Ko, who became one of Taiwan’s bestselling writers before he made his feature film debut, You are the Apple of My Eye, to widespread acclaim. The movie is adapted from Ko’s most personal novel to date – out of an astonishingly growing body of work that resulted from his years of writing 5,000 words a day, an insanely prolific phase that ended with his new-found cinematic pursuit – and looks back at the writer-turned-director’s clumsy attempts, at the age of 17, to win the heart of his dream girl. It wasn’t pretty – although it’s admittedly quite funny.

What do you make of your immense popularity as an author?
Because my novels are good. [Laughs] I’ve written some 60 books so far and, as they say, even if you’ve written one mediocre novel, you can still have another chance with your next one. Movies are different: if you make a bad one, there’s no next time. [Laughs]

I read before it’s your biggest dream to make a movie that’s as good as your novels. Is that still the case?
I’d put it the other way round: I’m afraid of making a fool of myself. I’m afraid that my readers may think that I’m just fooling around with my movie, and that I should go back to writing novels. I wasn’t totally willing to devote myself to filmmaking because, if I’d failed at the end, what should I do next? [Chuckles]

We know this story is supposed to be autobiographical. Can you tell me how much of it is actually based on real life?
The novel is 100 percent real, whereas the film has undergone some necessary adjustments according to the demands of the cinematic language. For example, in real life I had the fight with the girl on the phone, and that was what I wrote in the novel. But since that doesn’t look very dramatic onscreen, the fight happens in the rain in the movie. The changes are more or less limited to this extent; it’s all based on my real experience. The film version is actually even closer to my heart, because… have you seen the film?

I have.
(Spoiler alert) Because in the last 10 minutes of the film, the male protagonist is deeply regretful of the fact that he hasn’t apologised to the girl earlier on. This part is the major reason that I wanted to make the movie. I’m not only trying to reconstruct my adolescence, but I want to improve upon it.

Since the two protagonists are essentially you and the girl of your dreams, what was the casting process like? What made you feel that they’re the right actors?
Because Michelle Chen [who plays the female protagonist] is a [contract] actress of our company. I’m not saying that I cast her because of the contract, but rather because we have a lot of opportunities to meet socially, when she doesn’t have her makeup on. I’ve seen a Michelle Chen that the public hasn’t seen: she looks like someone who can really study. I feel that we aren’t lacking beauties in the showbiz – there are too many of them – but… there aren’t many beauties who look like they can do well at school. [Laughs] As for Ke Zhendong [who plays the male lead], he’s just an idiot. You can tell that from the way he looks. He looks handsome, but also shy and stupid – you don’t feel threatened by his good looks. When I make a film, I’m not going to cast an ordinary-looking guy like me. [Laughs] I think [Ke] is quite endearing – do you think so?

I think he’s a good choice.
That’s nice to hear. I’m not good at judging people. [Sniggers]

After this, do you still feel like continuing with your film career?
The moment we wrapped up this movie, I thought that I would absolutely not [make another film], because it’s too exhausting. But after it came out, I felt a huge satisfaction. Maybe I can visit that satisfaction after another three years.

So do you have any concrete filmmaking plans at the moment?
No. To be honest, I can make more money by writing novels. [Laughs] The [only] reason I make movies is for the fun. So I’ll save up some money before starting another film project in two years’ time. After [my second feature], maybe I’ll stop making movies altogether. Nobody knows what the future holds, but that’s what I have in mind for now. People like to say that I just got lucky [with my first movie], but I fully intend to prove them wrong. What’s the worst case scenario? The worst thing that can happen is that I may end up making a crap movie. [Laughs]

Are there any other plans you’re working on?
Mostly it’s to keep being healthy. I try to exercise every week. I really want to finish a couple hundred of books.

You Are the Apple of My Eye 那些年，我們一起追的女孩 opens on Oct 20.