Shanghai part 3

SHANGHAI, SHANGHAI (part three) : Film festival blues in China’s second city.

There are dozens of films programmed in the festival, but it seems that the only ones relevant to Dragon Dynasty either haven’t yet been released (Painted Skin, Ip Man) or are classic films being re-screened.

Wong Kar-wai’s re-mix of his martial art house film Ashes of Time is screening. At an early stage, we did endeavor to acquire the rights, but it eventually went to another company. The opening couplet, ‘The winds are still, no flag flies / it’s the heart of man that’s tumult’, is read by the film’s star, Leslie Cheung, and has been given further poignancy by his untimely passing. (Cheung stunned the Hong Kong entertainment world when he committed suicide by jumping to his death from the old Mandarin hotel.)

I was happy we got to work with director Wong on his Blueberry Nights (not an action film in any sense, but out now on DVD). My first experience of the maestro came when I shot a cameo role, opposite Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi, for his film ‘2046’. (I ended up on the cutting room floor, and quite right, too!). It was two nights in Macao, and huge fun being shot by my old friend Chris Doyle. The filming was enlivened by the cooler of beer he kept next to his lens cases… I’m sure Wong’s re-imagined Ashes Of Time will find an audience and it will be interesting to see his take on a more conventional kung fu movie when he finally makes his version of ‘Ip Man’.

The festival is holding an event to celebrate the Shaw Bros legacy, but there seems to be some confusion over what is being celebrated, and the nature of the event. Are they showing a Shaw Bros film? Not that evening. Who will be attending? No-one seems to know. Regardless, I trek over to the Hyatt, where a loop of video clips from classic Shaw titles is playing to a largely empty room.

The guests of honour turn out to be Shaw Bros idol Ti Lung and my old friend Gordon Liu. It’s great to meet them again, but these two martial heroes deserve a grander event and a larger audience. I chat with Gordon about his recent appearance in a Bollywood actioner. To my disappointment, he reveals that he neither sings nor dances in it. He and Ti Lung then take to the stage, and each offers some pithy comments about the Shaw Bros cinematic legacy. (To experience that legacy for yourself, check out Come Drink With Me and Heroes Of The East, or some of the earlier Shaw Bros releases available from Dragon Dynasty.)

I’m walking through Xintiandi, a nicely retro Shanghainese restaurant and bar district, when I notice actor/director Frankie Chan coming towards me. I first met Frankie years and years ago, when I visited the set of his film The Good, The Bad and the Beauty. It turns out he is heading off for dinner with director Stanley Tong (Police Story 3 : Supercop, Rumble In The Bronx), Jackie Chan stuntman Wu Gong and sundry others. Doubting that there’s better company to be found in Shanghai this particular evening, I accept their invitation to join them for a raucous repast.

Stanley talks about his inspiration for a scene in his film The Myth, where Jackie Chan fights on a glue covered conveyor belt. Apparently, Canadian homes use a kind of mouse trap where the poor creature’s feet become stuck to a pad covered in adhesive. Venturing into his daughter’s garage one night, Stanley found his foot affixed to such a sheet, along with a large, live rat. He hopped back into the house with one missing shoe and a great idea for an action scene… I tell Stanley that we’re going to be reissuing Supercop on Dragon Dynasty, and he agrees to do an interview covering his memories of the film, and to take part in a commentary with me, time allowing.

Frankie Chan must be Hong Kong cinema’s most eclectic Renaissance man. He’s starred in and directed such comedy kung fu actioners as Outlaw Brothers, played the villain in Sammo Hung’s classic Prodigal Son and composed and/or selected the music for the Jackie Chan films Young Master and Drunken Master 2. Frankie also provided the score for the remixed ‘Ashes Of Time’, mentioned above. He is currently working on various TV series in China, and is set to make a return to big screen movie-making.

After dinner, we head to Racks pool hall. I’m a semi-regular at the original Hong Kong version. I can’t play to save my life, but the place gets a nice crowd and has a good buzz to it. The Shanghai edition is big enough to accommodate soccer fields instead of pool tables. After three days of chaos, meetings and movies, I look out of the lights of Xintiandi and look forward to getting back to see my kids in Hong Kong.