February 21, 2009

Things That Happened Before Resuming Work

It’s been seven days since I’ve come back to work at Yuanmou. Earlier, when I was flying all over the place, my diary writer Fibe didn’t come along with me and there were quite a few things that happened but I didn’t have any spare time to record the events myself. Now that Fibe is here, I can slowly go through the photos that we took, refresh my memory with some of the events that I managed to forget, and tell you all about them.

After filming in Yuanmou for eight days, I had to leave the set and go to Beijing for a day where I attended an Australian charity auction held in the city and also record three songs. The three songs are called Guójiā (Country), Shūyíng (Win or Lose), and one other that I can’t remember. In order to get to Beijing, I left Yuanmou at 4 o’clock in the morning and then traveled by car to Kunming airport. By the time I arrived at the airport, it was already past 8:00 am. I then flew from Kunming to Beijing and arrived at around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. As soon as I arrived, I took a quick shower, changed my clothes, and then went straight to the recording studio.

I think that the lyrics to the song Guójiā (Country) are very well written. They were done by an amazing lyricist named Wáng Pingjiǔ who is still considered an amateur. Previously he wrote the lyrics for Shēngsǐ Bú Lí, Xiāngxìn Zìjǐ  (Believe in Yourself), and Nánshuō Zàijiàn  (Hard to Say Goodbye). I think that the contents of his lyrics are written in sync with the pulse of society. For example, when the earthquake struck Sichuan, he wrote the lyrics for Shēngsǐ Bú Lí; 1.3 billion people have heard this song already. He also wrote the lyrics for Xiāngxìn Zìjǐ  (Believe in Yourself) which is a song that encourages earthquake disaster victims to rebuild their confidence and have strength to continue living their lives. It’s a very heartwarming song. He also wrote the lyrics for Nánshuō Zàijiàn (Hard to Say Goodbye) which was written for the people who voluntarily offered their services for the Olympic Games. Everybody worked hard for the Beijing Olympic Games and it ended very successfully, but it also meant that everyone had to part so Wáng Pingjiǔ wrote the lyrics for this song as a gift to all of them.

And now, the important occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China is about to arrive and a song especially written for the National Day ceremony by prominent figures is in the process of intense preparations. In the afternoon, I went to the recording studio with Liú Yuànyuàn, also known as the singer of the red flag, and we started recording for this song. The plan for Guójiā (Country) was put together by me, Wáng Pingjiǔ, and Lù Wénchān - the planning team behind Běijing Huānyíng Nǐ (Beijing Welcomes You). The initial plan originated from the idea that in the 60 years since the People’s Republic of China was established, the country’s prosperity has continuously increased by the day. After experiencing an extraordinary year in 2008, the fate of the country and its people has never been so close. The will-power of our country and the affections within a family resonate the sound of peace and harmony. Therefore, we wanted to create a song that sings the praises of our mother nation and its people and incorporates the idea within the main melody to gather everyone together, and present this song in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China. After discussing this idea, Wáng Pingjiǔ wrote the lyrics for Guójiā (Country). One of the lines he wrote - “A family is the smallest of nations, a country is made up of thousands of families……” - is an ordinary yet truthful line from the lyrics but it clearly expresses the love that our country has for its people and it has captured the sentimental feelings that the people have towards our country.

After the lyrics took form, the three of us chief planners invited many significant figures to participate in the making of this song. World famous pianist Láng Lǎng played the piano piece; renowned musician Peter Kam who’d previously produced notable songs such as We Are Ready and Nánshuō Zàijiàn (Hard to Say Goodbye) composed it; famed “singer of the red flag” and the representative of China’s New Generation Melody Vocals Liú Yuànyuàn is one of the main singers; talented musician Leehom Wang and well known music producer Yu Binghan took on the responsibility as the producers of the song. All of these people are significant and influential figures in the music industry and they’ve all come together because of this song, Guójiā (Country).

Under their careful supervision and great efforts, Guójiā (Country) has been filled with strong implications that illustrate contrast and comparisons. For example, the gathering of a vast range of musicians expresses the great strength of our country, the truthful lyrics express the happiness in a family; the extremes in the two comparisons reflect the deep feelings between country and family, a nation and its people. I feel very touched at how the eight main producers have placed great importance towards the song. They’ve infused the love and affection they have for their mother nation and combined it within their music. They think that the sound of music is a resonance of love, and being able to produce a gift for the country’s 60th anniversary is an honor for any Asian.


We recorded the song until 7:30pm and I was already running late to attend the Australian charity auction so I quickly rushed to get to the event. On the way I thought to myself that yesterday I was still working in the earth forest with dust blowing everywhere and I was so dirty that I actually looked like a mason. Now I’m in a big city, wearing a beautiful Chinese style suit, about to attend a classy dinner reception where people are splendidly dressed and everyone gets to eat nice food and drink red wine. I felt like I was in a dream. While I was in the midst of my daydreams, we arrived at the venue for the event.

The charity auction is held every year and this time there were over 900 people who participated. About 85% of the guests were foreigners and they included people such as the Australian ambassador, American ambassador, British ambassador, and Canadian ambassador. A few of my own items were sold at the auction as well, including a set of music albums, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, and an opportunity to make a cameo appearance in my next film playing a character that walks across the screen and who might even get a punch from me at the end. Ultimately, a Chinese from Thailand bid and won the opportunity to play this character. These few items and the cameo appearance raised a total of RMB$400,000 (USD$58,500). I donated the full amount towards the Australian Bush Fires Disaster Protection Foundation.

I’ve always maintained a good relationship with the Australian government. My dad lived in Australia for over forty years and he was very close with the Australian ambassadors. I guess you can say that Australia has taken good care of my dad for many years. Also, there are hospitals and medical school buildings in Australia that have been named after my mom and dad. I remember when the earthquake struck Sichuan and the area was busy with disaster relief efforts, the Australian government acted immediately by donating money and sending people into the disaster zone to help with rescue efforts. And now Australia has been hit with the devastating bush fires so I thought I should do a little something for Australia. As the Asia Pacific Tourism ambassador and also one of the tourism ambassadors for Australia, I think I should help them raise funds for the cause.

After the evening event ended, I immediately went back to the hotel to rest because I knew that in the morning of the following day, I had to fly back to Yunnan and continue with my filmmaking. As the plane flew in towards the airport, I took some aerial photos of Yunnan’s scenery. It really does have feeling of layers and levels. I really like this kind of scenery.

Actually, there really isn’t much to write about filmmaking. The happiest thing for me was that after finishing work each day, we’d all sit outside in the small garden, chatting with each other and practicing kung fu together. This is the type of lifestyle that I always look forward to. I remember one particular place where I hated working the most and that was in Las Vagas. People finished work at 6:00 p.m. but by 6:05 p.m., I couldn’t find anyone because they’d either gone to play on the poker machines or they’d gone to gamble. All the way through till the next morning, I just couldn’t find anyone. Then the next day at work, I saw them yawning on the set. The only places where I’ve been able to sit down after work, spend time chatting with everyone or working out at the gym together was when I worked at the Sahara and also here. All this gym equipment has traveled with me to many different places around the world. Whereever I go for work, I’d always bring along this equipment with me.


There isn’t much to do in the evenings so we’d usually go to the little garden, make some tea, sit around and talk about the script, discuss what scenes we need to film the next day, or talk about scripts that we might make into a movie. This type of lifestyle is very healthy and very normal. I don’t hear about the rumors or the latest gossip in the news, everything seemed to be easy going and carefree. The only thing I thought about was that I hoped to do a good job with making the movie. I really enjoy this type of lifestyle.

After working on the movie for two days, I had to fly off again. This time, I flew to Japan because I needed to attend the 2009 Japan-Hong Kong Sightseeing Exchange Year Dinner Reception. Once again, I departed an environment that was just like a desert, headed towards a bustling big city in Japan, dressed up in some beautiful clothing, attended a few events and ate nice food. Again, the feeling was quite unbelievable and it felt as though I was dream-walking in two totally different places.

I actually made a promise to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong (SAR) a long time ago that I would attend this Hong Kong-Japan tourism event because not only am I the tourism ambassador for the Asia Pacific region, I’m also the tourism ambassador for Hong Kong. I attended the evening with the two goodwill ambassadors for the 2009 Japan-Hong Kong Sightseeing Exchange Year Reception, Hiroki Nariyima and Yoshino Kimura :


I appeared at the dinner reception as the mysterious special guest. Initially I didn’t think I would be able to participate in this event because I had to film in Yuanmou, Yunnan. But in order to accommodate this occasion, I altered some of my arrangements and quickly filmed my scenes for the movie so that while I’m away from the set for two days, the production team could film the scenes with Leehom Wang.

This trip was actually even more tiring than the previous one. I left Yuanmou at 2:00am and arrived at Kunming airport around 7 o’clock. From Kunming, I caught a flight to Shanghai and then transferred onto another flight from Shanghai to Japan. The flight from Kunming to Shanghai took eight hours, I had to wait at Kunming airport for about an hour and I had to wait another two hours at Shanghai airport before boarding the plane to Japan. The plane arrived at Japan airport around 6 o’clock in the evening. Before the plane landed, I took some aerial photos of the night scenery in Japan.

After the organizers picked me up from the airport, I immediately went to the hotel, took a shower, changed my clothes, and then quickly rushed to attend the dinner reception.
At the banquet, I saw the Chief Executive of Hong Kong (SAR) Mr. Donald Tsang, chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board James Tien, and also many of my old friends. I shook their hands and said hello to every one of them, and then went on stage to give my speech.

I think that these kinds of exchanges are very important. It doesn’t matter if it’s for tourism, cultural, educational, or just an exchange of ideas, as long as we communicate with each other more so that people from different countries will have a better understanding of the unique cultures and traditions of the opposite side, then the chances of having a disagreement would be a lot less. In fact, I think that everybody living on Earth should make an effort to gain a better understanding of each other so that we can all live together in peace and harmony. I’m not just talking about a peaceful country, but peace and harmony for the entire planet. The world doesn’t seem to be very harmonious at the moment. A lot of the time it’s only a handful of people who want to gain some sort of advantage that cause several thousand people to go to war. Seeing this is very heartbreaking. Because of this reason, I’m always more than willing to lend a hand with the China-Japan Exchange or the Hong Kong-Japan Exchange. Over the years, the two parties have had many misunderstandings and I think it’s about time that these things are resolved. History should be written as a reference for us to learn from so that we don’t repeat it. We shouldn’t let history become our heavy burden and we shouldn’t keep talking about the things that happened in the past. We need to forget the unhappy experiences, look forward into the future and do a little something for the whole of Asia, for the world, and for the entire planet. We should work hard towards improving things for our next generation so that they have a better tomorrow.

I’m not the pessimistic type of person but there are just some things that I can’t stop thinking about, like if we continue to fight and have disagreements, and then a satellite falls from out of space, our lives would end just like that. We’ll have nothing. So what’s the point in fighting? Even if the satellite didn’t fall from out of space, we humans are destroying ourselves already. Yesterday while I was watching television, I saw that the Amazon rainforests are no longer rainforests because they’re slowly turning into heated forests. All of this is a result from human destruction and deforestation that has happened over the past few decades. The surface area that was once covered by tropical rainforests is gradually decreasing and it’s creating an environmental problem that is becoming more and more obvious.

Sometimes when I sit down with friends for a chat, someone might ask me, “Jackie, why are you doing these things?” True, by the time a lot of these environmental things happen - for example, the impact of melting snow and heated forests - it won’t be clearly evident, perhaps not even any time this century, I most probably won’t be around so I really don’t have to care about the problem. But to be a responsible person, you just can’t do that. I have a son and in the future I’ll have grandchildren. We should think about them and the next generation.

But anyway, coming back to what I was originally talking about, I hope that in the future even more people will come to Hong Kong for a holiday, and I also hope that Hong Kong people will go to Japan for a holiday too.

After the dinner reception, I began to carry out a rather complicated mission. What kind of mission? Well, this all started when I was back in Yuanmou talking with Leehom Wang. While we were talking, I asked if he’d ever been to Japan and he said that he studied there before. So then I asked if he’d ever eaten a Japanese cold crab and he said no. I told him that the Japanese cold crab was delicious and there was one time when I visited Japan for seven days, I spent six of those days eating the crab. It was absolutely delicious. I then told Leehom that I would bring some back for him to try and he immediately thanked me.

To be a responsible person, have to follow though with the promises you make. In the past I used to think that I could do anything, and that everything was possible. I’ve already learned my lesson and I’ve warned myself not to make promises so casually about doing things for other people. I remember one time, there was a female staff member working in my company. She only just started working and she tried to apply for an American visa but was unsuccessful. One time while we were joking around I said, “You couldn’t get an American visa? Why didn’t you try and ask Dai Goh?” The female staff member immediately fell to her knees in a joking manner and begged me to help her. We were all just joking around, she begged a little and kneeled on the floor, and then I was running all over the place trying to get the visa approved for her. First, I had to attend many banquets and events hosted by the American ambassador and also talked with the ambassador. My company had to sponsor her and I had to personally guarantee that she would come back after her trip to America. It took me a whole month and I managed to get her an American visa that was valid for ten years. But now she doesn’t work for my company anymore. Since then, there have been many similar situations but I’ve already learned my lesson and I’ve stop saying that I can do everything. This time while I was talking with Leehom, he actually told me that it might be quite difficult to import the crabs but I said that it should be okay. When I make a promise to do something, I always keep my word. So before I went to Japan, I called to order the crabs. And because the economy isn’t doing very well, the owner of the restaurant didn’t have very many crabs in stock but when he found out that I wanted to order them, he was willing to put them aside and reserve them for me.

In the evening, I went to eat crabs with an old friend, Cai Lan. I guess I can call him my half-teacher. He really knows how to eat. In the restaurant, he personally went to the kitchen and cooked me a few dishes to eat. I really enjoyed the food and ate with great pleasure. After dinner, I got some ice, placed my pre-ordered cold crabs into a box and then put the ice inside the box as well to keep the cold crabs fresh. I had to take the crabs away with me because I was scheduled to leave Japan at 7 o’clock the next morning and the restaurant isn’t open at that time. The restaurant owner actually told me that he couldn’t guarantee that cold crabs won’t go off if they were shipped over long distances and wouldn’t let me take the crabs away. The restaurant felt responsible for the quality of the food that they served. I told them not to worry and insisted that I would take full responsibility. As long as they gave me more ice then it would be fine. I took the cold crabs back to the hotel and placed it in the coldest area of the bathroom with the air conditioner on.

The following day, I went to Japan airport and as soon as I arrived, I immediately made a call to Shanghai and asked the staff who were going to meet me to prepare some ice so that when I arrived in Shanghai, I could refill the box with fresh ice. I hoped that by doing this, I could try to keep the cold crabs fresh and hoped that they wouldn’t go bad. While I was at Shanghai airport, the sniffer dogs picked up on my box of cold crabs. The customs officers then asked me to open the box and put it through the X-ray machine. At that particular moment, my heart just silently screamed within. The only thing I could do was to move the box and prepare to put it through the X-ray machine. But luckily when the customs officers saw me, they knew that I wouldn’t do anything illegal and I also explained that the box only contained some seafood for me to consume. So then they cleared me through customs.

After going through customs, I immediately made another call to the staff at Kunming airport and asked them to prepare some ice for me. I thought that replacing the ice throughout the journey should enable me to safely accomplish my mission without a problem. But little did I expect that because of heavy fog, the aircraft couldn’t land or take off at the airport and the plane that we were supposed to board couldn’t land. Instead, it was diverted to Nanchang. After the fog lifted, we had to wait for our plane to fly back from Nanchang to Shanghai before we could board it and fly to Kunming. By the time it arrived at Shanghai, it was already past 7 o’clock in the evening. Luckily, I recognized the local director of Civil Aviation and he knew that another flight had seats available so he arranged for me to travel on that flight to Kunming.


I arrived at Kunming and it was already past 11:00 p.m. I didn’t care about anything else and the first thing I did was open the box that was carrying the crabs. The ice inside had already melted so I immediately refilled it with large amounts of ice. My initial intention was to rush back to the set as soon as possible and have a cold crab meal with everyone. However, by the time I got back it was already 3:30 a.m. and everybody was already sleeping so the best I could do was to put the cold crabs in the refrigerator for us to eat later. I took a shower, got ready for bed and when I looked at the clock, it was already past 4:00 a.m.

The following day, I knew I was scheduled to start work at 7:30 a.m. but it was already 9 o’clock when I awoke and I was wondering, why no one had come to wake me up. I went out of my room to ask what was going on and apparently my assistant knew that I got back very late the night before so she had a discussion with the production team and asked if they could delay the call-time to a little later. I wasn’t please and immediately said, “You can’t let this happen again in the future. Keeping to the schedule is the most important. How much sleep I get doesn’t matter; if we delay filming for one day, who will be responsible for it?”

Fortunately, the shots we had to do in the morning were all melodramatic scenes. They were all completed very quickly and very smoothly. But after lunch we had to shoot a fairly dangerous action scene. I sat down after doing the shot and then I suddenly had a thought. I told my JC stunt team that I forgot to ask Leehom if he would be okay to shoot this dangerous scene. In my mind, I already had the idea that he would be able to do it. But this particular scene was actually very dangerous. If anything went wrong, it could result in falling down a cliff. It actually never crossed my mind to ask if he was okay with shooting the scene because I keep thinking in my mind that if I was able to do it then he would definitely be able to do it as well. It’s just like the time when I filmed a scene in Rob B Hood. I jumped from the roof top of one building to the roof top of another building and I thought that if I could do it then Louis Koo could do it as well. Just as we were about to film this action sequence, I praised Louis and said that he was very brave. Right at that moment, Louis said to me, “I’m not. It’s because you’re doing it so I’m just following you. Right now I’m very scared!”

Sometimes when time is tight, I’ll start neglecting other people and will naturally assume that if I can do it then other people can do it as well. I admire Leehom Wang because he has absolutely no complaints at all. Afterwards, I asked him how he felt with the shot and he said that he’d never done an action sequence that was so comfortable to execute. He said that because of the wire outfit that I specifically designed myself, it was very comfortable. And compared to the dangerous action sequences that he’d previously done with the wires, the difference was huge like the distance between Heaven and Earth. The thing is, I only used the experiences I gathered over many years of executing dangerous action sequences and applied to the outfits. I knew how difficult and painful it was to work with the wire. If you’re lucky, you’ll get away with a bit of bruising and maybe some sore muscles. In some severe cases, you might lose your appetite, vomit, feel nauseas, or even faint. I started my career with a background in martial arts so of course I knew what it was like in the olden days. Working with the old style wire outfits was actually like torture for the actors and martial artists. So, learning from my personal experiences with the wire, I designed some equipment and materials for the user, mainly to ensure that the three main areas of safety, protection, and comfort were improved.

When I started work in the morning, I made arrangements with the managers of each department and the director to meet up after work and eat cold crabs together. To sum it all up, I just made a casual comment and I ended up bringing back some cold crabs for Leehom. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed eating the delicious cold crabs but they didn’t know the full story behind the crabs and how much effort I put into getting them here. Seeing how happy everyone was while eating the crabs made me very happy as well. And seeing how the JC stunt team and the new seven little fortunes had to share one crab among several members, I felt that everything I did was well worth it.

In the evening, Leehom was working very hard at exercising. He’s an extremely industrious and hardworking person. When everyone is already in bed sleeping, I see him outside my room practicing kung fu, so I usually join him and practice together and teach him a few things as well. When he goes back to his room, he is busy composing music. Let’s just say that whenever he has spare time, he’d either come to discuss the script with me, practice kung fu, or compose music. He’s a very hardworking guy. I think that there is a reason why a person is successful, and there is also a reason why a person is a failure. That is why I believe that in the future, Leehom will become even more successful than he is right now. If, in the future, he doesn’t work on the performance side of things, he will definitely become a very outstanding and notable music producer.


Everyone already knows that I’m a very clean person and I like cleanliness. At the hotel where I’m staying, there are some bugs that fly around any area that has bright lights; they seem to be attracted to it. You can see them as soon as the light is turned on. Also, because this area is a forest, there is a lot of dust and dirt around. So whenever I have spare time, I like to clean the place and get rid of the little bugs.


We can do a lot of things that can cause an impact on other people. For example, my actions have managed to affect Leehom because he has also started cleaning the place himself. Leehom is the superstar of the music industry. I’ve always thought of him as someone charming and innocent sent from heaven, weak and defenseless and lacking the strength to even kill a chicken. But he’s actually an extremely hardworking person. He can even do his own cleaning. I truly admire and appreciate him.


In the next few days, I have to leave Yuanmou again. This time I’ll be going to Hong Kong to do promotional work for Shinjuku Incident. Each time I have to leave the location of the set, I do some preparation work and first shoot the scenes that I’m in, and then shoot the scenes with Leehom and the other actors.

Today I started working again. In fact, the shots I had to film today were all melodramatic scenes but this particular scene was set for a large occasion so the shot involved several hundred temporary actors. In terms of controlling the people on the set, the production crew knew exactly what they had to do; it was like a stroll in the park for them. The only problem was the wind and dust. It was hard work for me, hard work for the temporary actors, and hard work for the production crew as well. But everyone just wanted to complete the shot quickly and get a good take for the scene, so we all did our best and tolerated the dust. After shooting one scene, I had to wait for the cameraman to change the camera lenses and re-set his equipment. I sat to one side waiting for the call, and then I suddenly sneezed. When I looked at my tissue, all I saw on it was dirt and sand. You can just imagine how dirty this place was!

Apart from enduring the windy and dusty conditions, the most frustrating thing that caused a big headache for the production crew was that the temporary workers would quietly take photos of us on the set. Actually, it’s not that I don’t want to let them take photos. If they took photos as souvenirs for themselves, of course I have no objections. But there are a handful of people who take photos on the set and then sell them to the media or even upload them onto the internet. The movie is still being made and it hasn’t been released yet. Of course I don’t want to see images of the set or costumes from the movie exposed so soon, so it’s only natural for me to hope that people won’t take photos on the set and then sell them to the media or post them on the internet. I have no way of knowing whether or not these people are actually taking photos as a souvenir or if they’re taking photos to sell to the media. The best thing for me to do is to strictly forbid anyone from taking photos on the set. This excludes cinematographers and crew members specifically assigned to take photos for the production.


This year is the year of the Ox. Earlier before I was just so busy and I never officially had the chance to say my New Year greetings to everyone. Although it might be a little late now but I still want to say my Lunar New Year greetings to everybody. Among the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, the Ox represents fortitude and persevering with hard work. The ox is loyal, straightforward and good-natured. While making this film, I had to ride on an ox. I have to say that he was very well-behaved but he was also very strong and stubborn. If he didn’t want to do something, no matter what you did, you he just wouldn’t budge. As the Chinese proverb says, “If an ox doesn’t want to drink water, you cannot push down his head.” I’d like to take this opportunity to express my New Year well wishes; I hope that everyone has good health in the year of the Ox, every country in the world has favorable weather, and I also wish for world peace, and I hope that the world doesn’t have any more strange or rare diseases that suddenly appear.

Also, I saw all the lovely creations made by the little friends and adults from different countries around the world who participated in the Year of the Ox Drawing Competition. Your ideas were very thoughtful. I’m always envious of other people who have endless creative ideas and unlimited artistic abilities. All the drawings were very good and it was really difficult for me to choose. But no matter how hard it was, I still had to select three pictures for the prize winners. After a long and tough decision, I managed to pick out three winners. I didn’t select the other pictures but it doesn’t mean that your creation wasn’t good. It’s just that I like these three pictures a little more than the others.

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