Something Very Meaningful
First of all, I want to say sorry to everyone for not recording my diary in such a long time. I’ve just been so busy doing this thing or that thing, flying all over the place. I can’t explain exactly what I was busy with but I can say that I was busy with something not related to my usual business work. I couldn’t bring someone along to record my diary all the time, and I didn’t have spare time to record what I did, so that is why I haven’t been able to write a new diary for you to read.
If I had to go back and write about the things that I’ve been doing, all I could tell you is that I attended press conferences, recorded songs, participated in public welfare related events, and things like that. I think everyone is already quite familiar with these activities and nothing really special happened that was worth writing about.
The most meaningful thing that happened for me recently was that we started filming the new movie, which also meant that I could resume my usual lifestyle again. Another thing I thought was very meaningful is that I celebrated Chinese New Year with my family, the three of us, for the first time. In fact, we’ve actually never spent time together over New Years before; this was the first.
To Ban or Not to Ban?
A friend of mine told me that he was going to light up some fireworks at his house in the evening and he invited me over to watch. I went to my friend’s house and I saw that the inside of his garage was all stocked up with fireworks. My friend bought several hundred thousand dollars worth of fireworks. I was so surprised when I saw it, I mean, why would you buy so many fireworks? My friend said to me that the government has banned people from lighting fireworks for a very long time, and now they’ve finally allowed people to light them. On top of that, Chinese people have a traditional custom where lighting up fireworks is symbolic to getting rid of bad luck. I couldn’t help but ask my friend, “What century are you in right now? You still believe that lighting up fireworks and firecrackers will blast away bad luck?! I honestly don’t believe that a person’s luck will get better after lighting up some fireworks.”
My friends lit up the fireworks and the display was absolutely spectacular. But in my mind I just kept thinking to myself, what happens to the smoke that is produced when the fireworks burn? Will it become pollution? Also, what happens to the paper that the fireworks were packaged in? I watched as several hundred boxes of fireworks were continuously burnt away. Just in one night, over 800 tons of paper was burnt on the eve of the Lunar New Year! Not only is this a waste, I honestly think that lighting up fireworks is very dangerous. I talked with my friend again and said, “Seriously, doing this can cause some fire related disasters. Also, the remains of burnt paper after lighting up the fireworks is scattered all over the streets and alleyways, don’t you think this isn’t very environmentally friendly? Don’t light up anymore fireworks next year.” My friend then said to me that this only happens once a year so fireworks should be lit during this time, and he also said that they were very cautious so there won’t be any fires.
This actually reminded of the chewing-gum problem that happened in Singapore. After people finished chewing their gum, some inconsiderate people would carelessly throw it away by sticking it on chairs or on the beautiful floor boards of large public halls. As a result, Singapore banned chewing-gum. But if people who ate chewing-gum didn’t spit it out everywhere then it wouldn’t be banned. Let me give you another example. If we enjoy our right of freedom of speech then we should appreciate our freedom of speech, not abuse it. Right now, the government has allowed people to light up fireworks again so we should cherish this opportunity and take safety into consideration. I mean, does something bad have to happen before we are more careful? Sure enough, something did happen and there was a fire at the CCTV building. It’s been confirmed that the cause of the fire was because of someone carelessly lighting up some fireworks. That is why I ask, should some things be banned? It’s really hard to say, but I think that not affecting other people and not affecting public safety should be the priority.
Dabing Xiaojiang Starts Shooting:
This time I’m working in the Yuanmou Earth Forest in Yunnan. Yuanmou is located in the northern part of the Central Dianzhong plateau and it has three of the world’s greatest natural tourist attractions. One of them is the world renowned Yuanmou Man with its historic culture dating back 1.7 million years. Another is a very rare and amazing geological phenomenon covering an area of 47 square kilometers (18 square miles) – the Yuanmou Earth Forest. The Earth Forest is huge and is also known as the world’s strangest natural formation. The third attraction is the world’s largest dinosaur cemetery with the most complete dinosaur species. They discovered over 160 dinosaur fossils within a 30 square kilometer area (11.6 square miles), dating back to a period between 100 million to 60 million years ago which spans over the early, mid, and late Jurassic Period and the early Cretaceous Period. The Yuanmou man is believed to be the earliest human species found in our country and because of this, the first history lesson taught to children in China is about the Yuanmou man.
The name of this new movie is called Dabing Xiaojiang. I actually wanted to make this film over 20 years ago but I never got around to making it. It wasn’t until I started filming Rush Hour 3 that I decided to tidy up the script and asked director Ding Cheng to film it. While I was busy doing my non-business related things, director Ding was busy doing pre-production work such as scouting for locations, casting the actors, and doing some other preparation work.
We officially started shooting at Yuanmou, Yunnan. Apart from director Ding Cheng, other artists involved with the production include me, Leehom Wang, and Korean actor Yoo Seung Jun. Previously I made an announcement that we weren’t going to have a ceremony to mark the start of filming, but honoring the Gods is something unavoidable when making a new movie. I personally don’t believe in any particular religion but if I can do something for the crew so that everybody feels more at ease, then I’d pay my respects to the Gods as well.
After paying our respects, I stood up on a high platform and said to everyone, “I’m so happy to be back in China for the New Year and filming this new movie. I get to see a lot of old friends and also meet some new ones. But before we start working, I want to tell everyone some of the rules that I have. The cast and crew working on this film have come from many different places; there are people from Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Shanghai, Beijing, Mongolia, and other places. Because we all speak different languages, there is a possibility that there will be some misunderstandings when we communicate at work. I hope that everyone will try and make an effort to adapt with one another, be forgiving and understanding. I don’t smoke, so I hope that everybody else will try their best not to smoke while we’re filming on the set. And please don’t throw your cigarette butts everywhere. Also, when you’ve finished with your lunch boxes and plastic drink bottles, please squash them down before putting them in a garbage bag. These can’t be left lying around either. This is all I ask of everyone to do. On the other hand, if you ask me to do something, I will definitely do it as well. For example, I will make sure that you have more food to eat, provide sufficient drinks for everybody, and also make sure that everyone gets enough time to rest.” Afterwards, I handed out some lucky red packets to mark the start of the production. Each person gets $100. I think there were about 300 people at the venue which meant that I gave out $30,000 worth of red packets. Everybody was very happy after receiving their lucky red packet.
Some of you might not believe what I’m about to say. When I first arrived in Yuanmou, I thought the weather here was very nice. But in the evening, the temperature dropped to minus 10°C (14°F). Even the temperature in the morning was around -10°C (about 10°F). But by midday, it was about 33°C (91°F). In order to adapt to this extreme change in temperature, everyone would put on all their seasonal clothes that they’d wear in summer, winter, autumn, and spring. This way, they can keep warm when it’s cold and then take a few layers off when it gets hot. They can keep taking clothes off until they’re only wearing their summer clothes.
Apart from the extreme temperature changes in the Earth Forest, one other thing that is quite hard to get used to how the dust flies everywhere whenever there is wind movement; anyone walking around the set disturbs the dust. Each day after work, we’d go back to the hotel and take a shower. Everybody has said that the color of the water after washing their hair and body became yellow. Any hole on the body had dust in it. And I don’t mean to sound disgusting but even when I go to the bathroom, it actually looks like that there’s sand in it as well. When we’re working on the set, other people can wear masks to cover their mouths from the dust but as actors, we can’t because we’re in the movie and we also need to have make-up on. Wearing a mask would be very inconvenient and we’d also be worried about smudging our make-up, so the only thing we could do was endure it all.
Also, speaking from my previous experiences, there is some equipment that is totally indispensible when it comes to filming in an Earth Forest, for example an umbrella. The umbrella isn’t used to block the wind and dust but it is used to block the sun. If wearing a down jacket can help fend off the chill in the morning and during evening, then an umbrella can be used like a big shady tree when it gets really hot during the day and there is nothing around you to help shade the sun. Don’t underestimate an umbrella. There are times when shooting a scene where actors have to stand around under the sun, waiting for the director or the cameraman to make the call for the real take. The actors can’t go anywhere and they can’t take off their thick layered costumes if they want a break. All they can do is stand around and wait. At these times, I’d ask crew members on the set to open up an umbrella for them. It doesn’t matter if it’s for an actor, a martial artist, or a stand-in, I’d still ask the crew to open an umbrella for them. Today while we were filming, there was a young stand-in actor who worked under very hot conditions. He couldn’t stand the heat and fainted twice. It was just too hot and he couldn’t handle the heat so in the end, I asked someone to take him back to the hotel for a rest.
Apart from the umbrella, I also brought many of my personal products made by my company to share on the set. For example, the Segways, tents, foldable chairs, multi-purpose waist bags, hats, gloves, face clothes and others. These products may not seem like anything special but when we’re filming out on location, especially when we have to film in an unpredictable environment, these things actually become very useful.
Although the environment at the shooting isn’t that great, the place where we stay at is not bad at all because this is actually a scenic area and the hotel where we live in very beautiful and comfortable.
I think that if you’ve been reading my diaries, you would know that whenever I’m making a film in mainland China, at each place I go to, I’d always make arrangements so that one room is used for the kitchen and one room is for the gym.
All the rooms in this hotel have been fully occupied by the cast and crew of the movie. Everyone in the production lives here. There are rooms for two people, rooms for three people, and even rooms for four people. This is the style that I like; I like to be with the people I work with. I think this is very convenient because I can easily have meetings with people, see everyone, have meals together, and chat. There is a small garden outside the room. This is where I have meetings with the actors and director whenever I have spare time or when I come back from work in the evening. Sometimes we all just sit out there and talk together. We like to talk about a wide range of things such as film and movies, the future development of film, the economy, and even about the universe.
I also brought along the Disciple members (now called the “New Seven Little Fortunes”) to play some characters in the film. Although you may not recognize them or the characters they play in the film because their parts aren’t very big and their roles aren’t very important, they can still absorb a lot of experience from making a movie and working on the set. I also know that they trying very hard with acting and learning, everyone is involved. When they don’t need to work on the set, they practice martial arts or even practice dancing. As their sifu (master), I am very impressed to see how they’re working so hard and trying to do well.
Making a movie is totally different from doing any other kind of work. Most of the time with other jobs, you have to work in a set environment and you have work with a fixed group of people all the time. But with film making, the environment changes according to whatever requirements are needed for the script and the people you cooperate with are also different. While filming this movie I met up with some old friends and I also became acquainted some new friends.
Previously in my diaries, I remember mentioning Leehom Wang. Even though we’ve known each other for quite a while, this is actually the first time we’ve worked together in a movie. Usually I’d teach him how to practice kung fu and he would teach me how to sing.
It’s already been two weeks since we first started filming and I think this production crew is the cleanest I’ve had. Maybe it’s because before the camera started rolling, I asked everybody to be clean and environmentally friendly. I’m also a man of my word. I made a promise that I’d ensure everybody has more food to eat and that everyone gets enough time to rest and I didn’t forget. I remember one time, we didn’t finish work until three in the morning and the producer said that we had to start work again at 7:00. I said no and changed the time to 9:00am. They said to me that crew members from China can handle the workload and they’re not afraid of hard work. But I think it’s not right to do that. We need to respect every single crew member in the production team. They’re just made of flesh and blood, and we need to respect them as human beings. Just because they can manage the workload doesn’t mean that we should let them carry the heavy load.
Fortunately, the weather has started to warm up these days and the mornings and evenings are not as cold as they used to be. But mid and late afternoon are still extremely hot. That doesn’t matter. When you’re in the film industry, you get to experience many things that a lot of other people don’t get to experience and you go to places where a lot people may never consider going to. This is what makes film-making so fascinating.
