After spending a very busy day filming action scenes in the middle of a sandstorm, I had a meeting with the director and Leehom Wang. When the meeting ended, I was afraid to go to sleep because I knew that I had to leave Yuanmou at 3.30 in the morning and drive to Kunming airport. So I started sorting out my things and packing my bags instead. I really had a lot of things to pack. Today was my last day in Yuanmou because after I finish doing promotional activities for Shinjuku Incident, the next time I come back to China I’ll be in Kunming. Therefore, I needed to take my time and sort out my belongings into different categories such as things I need to take back to Hong Kong, things I need to bring with me to Kunming, and things I need to send back to Beijing. By the time I finished, it was already 2:12 a.m. and I wondered if I should sleep for a little while or not sleep at all. In the end, I really didn’t have anything else to pack so I decided to lie down in bed and rest my eyes for a while. Of course I fell asleep.
I don’t know how much time had passed before I was awakened by my assistant. When I opened my eyes it was already three o’clock in the morning. I don’t know if I slept for 20 minutes or maybe half an hour.
When we left Yuanmou, we had to drive two cars because we had to return one of the cars to someone else, so I was in charge of driving one of them. Initially I had planned to drive just half of the journey and then let the other driver take over the other half but the driver was from Beijing and he wasn’t very familiar with the directions; even I was more familiar than he was. So for safety reasons, I decided to drive the whole way.
Throughout the journey I saw so many stars. I don’t usually get to see this in the big city. While I was at the gas station filling up the car, I looked up towards the sky and wow! An infinite blanket of stars covered the sky. It was so beautiful.
After filling the car with gas, I continued driving to the airport. On the way, I saw some small vehicles that had fallen into the ditches on the sides of the village roads. The roads were quite bumpy and uneven and I noticed that the highway department was doing some reconstruction, although some sections of the road hadn’t been completed yet. I drove on a completed section of the highway that was flat and smooth for one and a half hours. Afterwards, the road became a little rough and bumpy again, and there weren’t even any street lights on the side of the road. Even so, I saw that they were in the process of fixing and improving the roads. I believe that over the next couple of years, this road will definitely be a good road to travel on. But for the meantime, everyone will just have to endure the bumps for a little while longer. We started driving in the early hours of the morning and I think because it was really early and drivers on the road were tired so they couldn’t concentrate. I saw three separate car accidents throughout the journey.
When I starting driving in an area that I wasn’t too familiar with, I let the other car lead the way and I followed behind them. As we were driving inside a tunnel, I suddenly saw a truck hit the side of the wall, rebound, then swerve back onto the middle of the road. The truck nearly hit the car in front of us. I think the driver of the truck must have fallen asleep at the wheel otherwise this wouldn’t have happened. He nearly caused a car accident.
I was driving behind the cars and I saw everything happen in front of me. The incident gave me such a fright that it instantly woke me up. In my mind I kept telling myself that I was driving a car, I had to stay alert. I was very relieved that staff members in the other car were okay because if that truck really did collided with the car traveling in front of us, I don’t think I’d be able to make it back to Hong Kong. Not only that, all the passengers in the other car would have to be admitted into the hospital.
After driving a rather dangerous journey, we managed to arrive at the airport ahead of schedule. The check-in counters at the airport weren’t even open yet. Fortunately, it was still early in the morning and there weren’t many cars around so the police officer allowed me to park my car on the side of the road. I was so tired that I fell asleep inside the car.
In the end, the group of us traveling together boarded the plane. After sitting down in our seats, I immediately went to sleep. The flight took less than two hours and I was back in Hong Kong.
Arriving into Hong Kong marked the start of my nonstop schedule. I didn’t go home, I went straight to the hotel, washed up, changed my clothes, and then started doing the thing that I dislike doing the most - promotional work. But doing this is all part of making a film. As actors and crew members of the production team, when a movie is complete, we have to make an effort and assist with promoting the film. The main actors and the director were going to attend the event so how could I not go! I was told that several female actresses had only just gotten off the plane and were rushing to get from the airport to the venue of the promotional event as well.
I’ve just come from a place with sandstorm conditions and smooth flowing traffic to a city with tall buildings and lots of traffic congestion, and I’m walking into a venue where everyone is elegantly dressed and looking glamorous. It was only yesterday that I was in the wilderness wearing antique period clothing. Now I’m in a modern city wearing a beautiful outfit. It’s surreal; I feel as though I’m dreaming.
After bustling around for an entire day, I had dinner with an actor whom I like a lot, Jiang Wen, and we discussed some plans to work together in the near future. I only drank two glasses of red wine with him but it affected me as though I’d taken some medication; I had that complacent drifting sensation. I must have been exhausted so I quickly said my goodbyes and then went straight home.
When I got back home, I fed my two cats and dogs and then went to sleep. By the time I opened my eyes again, I looked at the clock and it gave me such a fright because I had to work again today and I was nearly running late. So I quickly got out of bed, washed up, and then set out to attend another event for the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival.
I am very lucky and extremely happy that my new movie, Shinjuku Incident, was selected to be the opening movie for the Hong Kong Film Festival. After several screenings of the movie, there have been a lot of comments and criticisms that have come to light. Some people said that the movie was shocking; they never imagined that I would make this type of movie, and they raised the question about whether the film was too violent and graphic. I think real the problem for me is that when a lot of people watch my films, they still think of me as “Jackie Chan.” I hope that when other people watch my films, they don’t see me as Jackie Chan. I want them to see me as the character in the movie, as an actor. I truly hope that one day I will become the Robert De Niro of Asia or the Dustin Hoffman of Asia, being flexible with acting in any different kind of character and performing the role well. I’m not the young Jackie Chan kid that I used to be anymore. I need to change. Over the years I’ve been continuously changing, starting from when I made Gorgeous, then later with New Police Story, The Myth, and Rob-B-Hood. I recently finished The Spy Next Door. I’ve been changing during this time. The theme for Shinjuku Incident is actually quite serious; I play a small role in Big Soldier, the film that I’m making at the moment; in Karate Kid, the role I’m going to play is a teacher; after that, I’m going to play a character called Emperor Chu the Conqueror. I want to try various roles in different areas because I want people to know and identify me as an actor. I want you to see a different me, the different sides there are to me.
A lot of people have been asking me when I plan on retiring. Well, the thing about retiring is that it seems so far away for me yet it also seems so close. The reason why I say it seems close is because I can pretty much retire whenever I feel like it. But it also seems far away because I honestly don’t know when. Why do I say this? Mainly because I just recently set up a new company in China and I hope to nurture some new artists as well as produce more films and television series. As for my own plans with filming, my schedule is full of work up until 2015. The planning has never stopped. Every script is still in the process of being produced.
The film Shinjuku Incident is about people from different countries around the world. There are people from Africa, Sudan, Vietnam, China, and many other nations. Their greatest desire is to live in other developed countries and they are willing to do anything to achieve this – even if it means that they become illegal immigrants. There are a lot of untold tragic stories here, some of which I already know about because after traveling the world for so many years, especially in Japan, I was told a few. About twenty or thirty years ago, there were a lot of Chinese people who went to Japan illegally and worked there illegally in the black market. I know there are a lot of people from different countries around the world working illegally in Japan. Now I’m only taking one part of the story from a Chinese person’s perspective, making it into a film, showing the viewers what it’s like to be an illegal immigrant and the consequences of working illegally in the black market. I honestly think that living and working in one’s own country is always the best option. If you’re living in your own country, you will always be top priority citizen. If you’re in another country, you will only ever be treated as a second-class, third-class, or even a forth-class citizen. How I think of it is that there is no other country like your own home country.
Shinjuku Incident is directed by Derek Yee and the story took over three years to write. They researched and found a true story about a person, and then re-wrote the account into a script based on this story. When I decided to cooperate with Derek Yee, I never actually asked him about the script and I didn’t ask him about what character I’d play in the movie. I was willing to do whatever he wanted me to do because Derek is a director I respect very highly. When other directors come to me wanting to cooperate, the first thing I ask them is can they pay me my asking price; the second thing I’d ask is that they let me read the script. I have to ask these things before I even consider making a film with them. However, when making a film with Derek Yee, I don’t need to contemplate about the money issue and I didn’t even think about whether or not the script would be good. I totally trust him because he is a director worth trusting.
People who have already seen this film have said that it was a shocking movie. They never imagined that I would make that kind of film. This is the type of reaction that I’m looking for, the type of change that I want. I want to give people a different and refreshing feeling that surprises them. When you watch Shinjuku Incident, you will see a different Jackie Chan. I am an actor.
A lot of people have asked me why I gave up the market for this movie in China. I know there are a lot of young viewers who enjoy watching my movies and while I was making this film, I knew there were going to be some scenes that might be too violent or gruesome for the audience to watch. I already chose to shoot some scenes from two different angles; one as a long shot from a distance, the other a close up shot. I even thought about some other things after we finished the film. I might think that the final cut is good but how were we going to release it in the cinemas around China? What about the young kids? So, we decided to edit a gentle version of the movie that was more suitable for the general audience and then tested it on some viewers. But after they watched it, they came out shaking their heads saying that they didn’t know what the story was talking about. For example, the movement of the hand by someone holding a knife was cut out; someone saying, “You better leave…” was also cut out. So a lot of the times throughout the movie, viewers got the feeling that something was missing and it didn’t make sense. If we really edited the movie into this version and it was released in cinemas around China, I’m pretty sure that the audience watching the movie would definitely have no idea what the story was about. They would question our ability, asking why we even bothered making such a terrible and incomplete movie. If this version were released in the European markets, they definitely wouldn’t accept it there either. So, after making some serious considerations, I decided to sacrifice one of the cinema markets and not release the film there. I might end up having to give up several cinema markets because different countries have their own film standards. The film might seem violent and graphic in Southeast Asia, but it might not seem as bad for the European countries. Ultimately, I had to make a decision and I decided to retain the completeness of the film. The movie will be available for everyone to watch very soon so I’ll let you be the judge of it. I hope you will give me your honest feedback; did you like or dislike the movie? Should I continue to make this kind of film in the future? Do you like my changes?
Apart from being surrounded by this news over the past couple of days, a lot of headlines and stories in the newspaper have been discussing and criticizing my antique historical houses. The actual story behind my antique houses is that I first wanted to buy a house for my dad but I ended up buying seven antique houses and a pavilion. I initially had plans to look for a piece of land somewhere in China so I could put all these houses together in one place. I looked around for quite a while and I wasn’t able to find a suitable location. On top of that, I’ve been very busy with work, and my dad has already passed away, so I thought about maybe constructing a museum in Hong Kong and allowing everyone to view these antique Chinese houses there. However, I’ve been having discussions with the Hong Kong government for ten years already, requesting them to allocate some land for me so I can construct an area where I can put all the houses in one place. The government gave me many reasons and a lot of excuses that dragged the matter up until this day. Recently, the Singaporean government found out that I had some antique historic houses and they got in contact with me. Seven days later, they replied with an offer, promising to allocate me land, cover the shipping costs of relocating the houses, provide people to renovate and restore the houses, and cover the maintenance and operating costs. They’ve given me a lot of freedom and flexibility. I took one breath and then accepted the offer from the Singaporean government, entrusting them with the antique historic houses.
When newspapers announced the news that I gave the historic houses to the Singaporean government, the Hong Kong government became anxious and continuously questioned me about it. I never blamed the Hong Kong government for anything. I did have meetings with two successive governor generals and I know that if they gave me land for my museum, people would disagree and the government would be criticized. But if I give the antique historic houses to the Singaporean government, they would also be criticized. A lot of people have said to me, “Jackie, why don’t you be the governor general?” My instant reaction was an unmistakable no. But if I did become the governor general, I know I would definitely become a strong and powerful governor because I am willing to do anything as long as it doesn’t harm the country, it doesn’t harm Hong Kong, it doesn’t harm Chinese people or people from Hong Kong, and it’s beneficial for Hong Kong.
۱۳۸۸ خرداد ۳, یکشنبه
Things That Happened Before Resuming Work, Part 3:
Filming a New Movie in China (January 26 - February 16)February 20, 2009
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.
Jackie Continues Charity Work in Thongyeong, South Korea
On May 22, 2009 Jackie spent a second day with disadvantaged children in Thongyeong, South Korea, enjoying breathtaking views of Mt. Mireuksan from a cable car and then surprising them with brand new bicycles. After taking a ride with the children on their new bikes, Jackie participated in a beach clean-up.