2 - 11 - 09 : The Blood Bond Saga (part 27)

Rumble in the jungle (part one)

As regular readers of the 'Blood Bond' blog will know (have you nothing better to do?), we were prevented, by bureauracy, from beginning our 'Rambo'-esque jungle action sequence on the appointed day. Undeterred, we badgered the relevant division of the Nanhai forestry division, and were finally given permission to shoot on our preferred stretch of woodland.

The local park rangers imposed very strict restrictions: no smoking anyway around the set, only ten crew members at a time in the woods, limitations on the pyrotechnics we could use...

Regardless, our director, Michael Biehn, mapped out and executed a terrific sequence where his character, Tremayne, must engage in some jungle action alongside Deva (Phoenix Chou) and Ding (Kong Kwok-keung).

A veteran of the Hong Kong martial arts movie scene, Kong Sifu hadn't appeared in a film for several years, and his enthusiasm at getting back into the fray was infectious. He stayed on the forest set every minute of the day, even when he wasn't needed. MB suggested that we shoot 'Ding : The Movie' as our next project, to fully exploit the potential of the character.

Though the land itself was untamed, it had paths running through it that allowed us to set up a command centre, including a video monitor so we could check playback.

The only building in the region was an electricity sub-station that we had to hide with camouflage sheets and netting.

This sequence marked the first time we really let our leading lady loose with a cannon. Hmmm. There's just something about girls and guns!

She totally took to the 'gun fu' as she has to the gung fu, though her character has to be coaxed into action by Tremayne.

In this scene, four of our 'bad guys', a quarter PLM rebels, are hunting down our heroes, when Tremayne manages to out manoeuvre them.

Three of them were played by our stuntmen, and the fourth by Francis Chan, a wonderful actor we had cast out of Hong Kong. Francis was called on to perform more of an 'acting' scene, besides the gunplay action, and acquitted himself really well. I look forward to working with him again.

Between takes, Kong Sifu, concerned about lingering effects of Michael's fall down a hole (see earlier blog!) applied some chi gung treatments to our overworked helmer and leading man. Michael gamely went with the flow, but he's by no means a true believer in the chi!

I had anticipated that this first day in the woods would be extremely challenging, but, working in sync, Michael and DP Ross Clarkson got off shots at a rapid clip. It was a huge plus that the weather had cooled, meaning less bugs and humidity for the cast and crew to contend with.

Next : Rumble in the jungle (part two)