6-5-09: SHANGHAI EXPRESS (part two)

On location for Teddy Chen's Bodyguards and Assassins, and my turn to play the Queen's Road Ripper.

Still recovering from the M1NT party of the night before, I checked out of the hotel and headed over to the studios where my old friend Teddy Chen is shooting his film Bodyguards and Assassins (formerly known as Dark October).  Its being shot at the same studios where they shot Ip Man and Fearless, and where I'd previously visited the set of Warlords.

I first worked with Teddy Chen when we produced his thriller Purple Storm at Media Asia. That was an early film starring Daniel Wu, and may still be his best!

Dark October has had a long, hard journey to the screen. About six years ago, I helped Teddy with the English translation of the script, which tells the tale of a group of brave Hong Kongers keeping Sun Yat-sen (father of modern China) alive for 24 hours in the Hong Kong of 1906. It was a great screenplay. It reminded me, in structure, of '3:10 to Yuma' (but with kung fu, which is always a good thing...) Teddy had the project mounted and ready to shoot when, the day before production was supposed to commence, his producer and main investor committed suicide, and the film was sent back to development hell.

During the intervening years, I would run in to Teddy at various events, and always ask when he was going to make this film. I always felt it was too good of a concept and script to waste. I was delighted to hear that producer Peter Chan's new Cinema Popular company was making Dark October, now called Bodyguards and Assassins, its first production. To accomodate the film, Teddy and his team have built a massive replica of early 1900s Hong Kong that stretches as far as the eye can see.

I actually live just above the area recreated for the film, and walking the backlot was like stepping into an old black and white photograph of Hong Kong. (I'm also just along from the Sun Yat-sen museum, which is on Caine Road.)

Down at the far end of the Queen's Road set, action director Tung Wai was shooting a sequence involving rickshaw pullers.

Soon after I arrived, I met Peter Chan, who expressed his delight at seeing me. "Do you mind playing Jack The Ripper?", he asked me. Wow, I thought, The Ripper and kung fu? This movie has everything. He patiently explained that they would be using the same sets to shoot several more films, and one of them, tentatively entitled Queen's Road Ripper, would see the Victorian era serial killer unleashed on the streets of Hong Kong. Or rather, in the Cannes poster, at least, myself dressed as the Ripper...

Who can say 'no' to Peter Chan? I donned the costume, which consisted of Victorian gentleman's wear, and a hat two sizes to small for my (admittedly) big head. Anything for art! Though the actual poster image shows the Ripper on a Hong Kong street at night, we shot on the studio's amazingly faithful Pottinger Street in broad daylight. The legendary and irascible Hong Kong stills guy Jupiter set the shot up, and I burned holes in my retina staring up into the sun, while trying to think evil thoughts.

Donnie Yen, who stars in Bodyguards and Assassins, came by to chat, and didn't seem the least bit surprised to see me dressed like Jack The Ripper...

We strolled down the main street, where I encountered Nicholas Tse. Even with a shaved head and scars, that bastard still looks handsome. He, at least, registers surprise at my attire. Nic and I go back to the days of Gen-X Cops, which was his big break in front of the camera, and mine behind (where I belong!). After I explain that I'm not, in fact, playing Dracula, he's off to shoot his next shot, and I'm heading back to wardrobe to get my head unwedged from the hat so I can go catch my flight back to Hong Kong.

From what I could see, Bodyguards and Assassins looks like its going to be great, and, given the years of effort Teddy put into it, I'm so happy and proud to see this incredible story brought to life.

And I'm also available for Queen's Road Ripper if Kevin Spacey proves unavailable...