A Visitor From The Milky Way

23-7-08 A VISITOR FROM THE MILKY WAY: Johnnie To drops by the ‘Shanghai’ set.

I’m back in Bangkok for the shooting of TWC’s period thriller ‘Shanghai’. Just a few weeks ago, our back-lot was open land where the water buffalo roamed. Now 1940s Shanghai streets lead off in all directions, and suitably attired extras bustle down them. The sun pounds down and I emerge blinking from the shade of our base camp, situated in the faux Shanghai Customs House. To my happy surprise, we have an unexpected visitor in the person of legendary Hong Kong film-maker Johnnie To.

To and his Milky Way film-making factory are a true phenomenon of the Hong Kong film industry. Johnnie began his directing career at TVB and went on to helm local films of all genres, including the Stephen Chiau comedy Justice My Foot, the martial arts actioner The Barefooted Kid and the HK super heroine double bill of Heroic Trio and Executioners. In recent years, he has focused on directing and producing a string of films for his own company. Milky Way projects share a definite house style, at least in terms of casting and themes. His stock company of players includes the prolific Simon Yam, whose career he revived, Francis Ng, Lam Suet, Lam Kar-tung and, on occasion, Andy Lau, who has, arguably, delivered his best performances in To’s films.

I first met To when I visited Michelle Yeoh on the set of Heroic Trio, which was shot at the old Coca Cola Factory studio (so called because it had once housed a factory bottling… well, you get the idea.) The John Woo epic Hard-Boiled (available now from Dragon Dynasty) was also shot there, and the star of that movie, Chow Yun-fat, also plays a leading role in ‘Shanghai’. It was on the grungy, retro sets of Heroic Trio that I first saw Anthony Wong, another key player in the Milky Way troupe. His head was shaved and his face so covered with prosthetic make-up, I didn’t realize it was him until years later. To can be famously fierce while filming, but he took time to greet me, and give me a brief tour of the Heroic Trio set. All these years later, I get a kick out of returning the favour and showing off our ‘Shanghai’ streets to Johnnie and his lovely wife.

By the time I relocated to Hong Kong, Milky Way was coming into the height of it powers. I remember how the unique pace and shading of To’s PTU impressed me. For most of its length, it’s an in-action film, a dark mirror to the bright, loud John Woo films. (I love those, too, but it’s great to have a choice.) We have PTU available on Dragon Dynasty, and I drove the Milky Way staff mad researching my commentary, trying to establish who was who among the supporting players. One of To’s great strengths is that his side characters never do look like ‘players’, but rather resemble the real thing, denizen of the mean streets who somehow wandered into shot.  If you’re unfamiliar with Johnnie’s style of auteurship, PTU makes a good primer, especially in terms of the palette of the gritty Milky Way urban thrillers.

I’ve yet to appear in a Milky Way production. (Tsui Hark threatened to cast me as ‘a genius’ in the To-Tsui-Ringo Lam three-hander Triangle, but it never came to pass.) I did shoot my scene for a film called Rave Fever in Johnnie’s old office in Kwun Tong. This was before he moved to his new film-making campus, which rather resembles a high end gentleman’s club.   I played a police commander who’s an old friend of the lead, Terence Yin, and To’s office stood in for my own.

A Japanese friend of mine, Keiji Sato, was briefly a Johnnie To player, appearing in The Odd One Dies and Expect The Unexpected. He plays an assassin in The Mission, and I visited him when he shot scenes for the film at an abandoned factory in Lam Tin (just downhill from where I was living at the time.) The factory was still there, the last time I passed.  I guess it was because of the Keiji connection that I was invited to the Hong Kong premiere of The Mission, at which the cast drove up in hired sports cars. It was held in a now long gone movie theatre opposite the Furama Hotel. The Mission was once acquired for remake, but no Hollywood version was forthcoming.

As we walk the ‘Shanghai’ back lot, Johnnie peppers me with questions about how much the sets cost to build, how long they took to construct… He has only shot in Thailand once, for the rural scenes at the start of The Odd One Dies.  The impromptu set visit over, To heads off for lunch with Chow Yun-fat, and I get back to work.

prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /