Iron Fist knows how to do CNY

So there's been a good buzz about "Man with the Iron Fist".  It's one of those projects that continues to surprise people, and exceed expectations.  If you get a chance to walk around the set and chat up some of the production people, you'll hear a few of the veterans say something they haven't said for years, "I'm actually excited to see this movie".  And for good reason.   Heading into the Chinese New Year break, the production threw a HUGE party and despite everyone being tired, a handful sick, you could feel the joy in the room and let me tell you that the roar of crowd that came when they showed us a teaser reminded me of being in a stadium.So enough about the movie, this post is about the party!  They did all the right things and it was a great night for everyone.  Here are the highlights.First off.  FireworksI realize these people aren't actually fireworks, but fireworks all look the same to me so I don't like to take pictures of them.  This is the crew crowd bathing in a red glow from some of the fireworks.  It was loud, they had a lot going off for about 10 minutes and firecrackers as well.  Pretty impressive show from a big parking lot.This was a HUGE party.  There was 600+ cast/crew here and some of them couldn't make it!  Food was good, people were fun and in a few hours I'm sure most of them, drunk.Dinner and a show!  Started off with a host and comedian.  I wasn't giving him my full attention and my Chinese isn't good enough to understand ambience talking.  The only joke I paid attention to and probably would have understood anyways was the fart joke... he put that in because he said it transcends the language barrier and it would be universal to the Chinese crew, the Hong Kong crew, the Europeans and the North American crew.  He was right.I challenge you to name the dance and the song they were dancing to!  This is getting out of hand, every time I see this, it's a face palm moment for me.  /facepalm.  But dancers were a nice touch, got the crowd going and the guys out of their seats.Then a singer.  She was alright.  Selective hearing once again, I don't remember what song she sang but a lot of guys were wondering why they didn't have Celina Jade singing instead.  She just finished shooting a few days ago, she has an amazing voice and she could sing an English song for us foreign folk as well as the Chinese crew.  Still, a singer after dancers.  That was a nice touch, what's next?Dancers again!  In green this time with a song I didn't know and a dance to go along with it.  More whistling, ogling, more pictures and videos being taken (yes, I took pictures and video for memory, hahaha)RZA giving his thanks to everyone for their hard work and wishing everyone a happy Chinese new year with blessings.  Max translating.Lucky red packets for every single person in the room.  And the favorite, LUCKY DRAW!!!!  They had I think 2 dozen cash prizes that kept going up in value and it got the crowd going.  For other producers reading this, it was a great idea and you could really see the camaraderie of all the departments when one of their peeps won.They had a few of the cast members picking the numbers.  Here's Jamie Chung.Everyone's favorite, Cung Le.  Super nice guy you'd like to hang around with anytime except when he's on the other side of a ring.Fellow Vancouverite, Byron Mann.  He's been very helpful to all us foreigners who have no idea about Shanghai and taking us around.Our executive producer Thomas Komowski who is very pleasant to have around as well.  For some reason I really like this picture.Action director Corey Yuen, happy to pick a number to have a member of the stunt team be a winner.One of the producers Eli Roth.  This guy is funny to have around, showman at heart.Cung actually won one of the draws, so being the guy that he is, he gave it back and drew for another winner.  Class act this guy.And now it's after party time.  A few pictures for you and introducing... the debut of my beard.  This is the first time I've ever attempted to grow a beard, and it's been everything I ever dreamed it would be.  Hairy.  Still a little sparse of course.  But hairy.  Thank you the powers that be.Beard!  With Byron and Tank.  This was at the House of Blues and Jazz.Beard!  Feeling a little less significant beside Ian's beard.  But I have more hair on top.Facial hair on Andrew looks good.  I have a few years of grooming, sunlight and fertilization to my face before I'll pull it off like he does.Cung and Grace are obviously jealous of Yoyao and my own prowess in growing our beards.This requires way too much explanation... but I'll tell you that Dave looks really good in that wig.Happy New Year everyone :)