So I'm leaning up against the bar at the 24 Herbs video shoot, and who should I (literally) rub elbows with? It's Roy Cheung Yiu-Yeung, who has been in dozens of classic films, including two of Jonnie To's greatest, The Mission and Exiled. Although Roy has a reputaion for playing triads, assasins, and other assorted baddies, he couldn't have been nicer, and his English was much better than he said it was when we first started talking.
Then I step outside for a breath of fresh air (it was almost as smoky as Wong Tai Sin temple inside the bar!), and naturally I run into Bey Logan, a noted Hong Kong film expert and historian. Bey lives just around the corner, and of course knows everyone involved in the shoot, so he popped by to say hi. His 1996 book, Hong Kong Action Cinema, had a huge impact on me and helped me discover more about the films I already loved. Bey now works for the Weinstein Company, and with the introduction of the Dragon Dynasty label, is doing a terrific job of getting some classic films finally released on domestic DVD, with the respect and treatment they deserve. He just got back from a tour of various film sets around China, and shared some photos from the set of Jackie Chan and Jet Li's new film Forbidden Kingdom (their first collaboration), and the Korean Spaghetti Western "The Good, the Bad and the Weird." Good times!
4 comments:
Wow. Looks like your adventure to HK pays off well that you're able to meet up with quite a few celebrities! Wonder if you were aware that the 12th Golden Bauhinia Awards were held at HK Polytechnic Univ just on Saturday night Sep 1. Roy Cheung were one of the attendees too. So COOL that you're able to make friends with HK celebs too! Totally MAJOR!
BTW, you can see Roy in this clip if interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaVlmmmKWVY
Yes, I actually watched part of the broadcast live on ATV! Did you see the clip with Michael Wong nd Lam Suet? I totally thought of you, haha! They did a comedy bit about how Lam doesn't speak any English and Wong (still) doesn't speak any Cantonese. Very funny stuff.
Please do take my reference of Michael Wong M.T. as a compliment to you. No, I only saw a couple clips on Youtube, but did know that Wong was at the event. I don't get his English sometimes [perhaps, ESL for me], sign language lessons for Wong recommended. Haha you should try to hit the small screen first at ATV against the rival TVB's gweilo Ho Kwok-Wing!
You have a safe trip back to DC with lots of HK memories!!!
And at last, the geek gloves come off!!! Wow, Sakura, I have to say you just took me to school on that one. I have never heard of Ho Kwok-Wing before now, but a quick google/wiki search proves very interesting! I saw a commercial for a TVB show where there is a gweilo married to a Chinese woman, but I think it might have been a different Caucasian. (Like a lot of whites in Asian productions, this guy of course had a perm, haha!) We'll see what happens, but my Cantonese is barely good enough to dis Michael Wong.
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