Shooting Red Dawn Rising#4

Shaw Bros Revisited

My old friend Peter Poon recently took over operations at Celestial, the company that owns the classic Shaw Bros library. I've had the pleasure of releasing a number of their titles in North America and the UK. He called  today and asked what I was up to; I told him it felt like we were shooting a Shaw Bros movie!

Our leading lady, Phoenix Valen, is facing off against a chamberful of weapon wielding monks, chains are flying, there are fast exchanges of kung fu moves... It seems like I stepped inside one of the kung fu flicks of my misspent youth.

Its hard enough doing basic one-on-one fight choreography; multiple opponents, blades and flexible weapons make for some world class complexity.

Fortunately, our action ace Ken Ip keeps a cool head throughout, methodically ticking off shots on his list, which, I'm interested to see, is written in English and Chinese. He refuses to accept a take until its absolutely, positively perfect.

Ken is a big bear of a man, though his gentle demeanour belies his steely determination to get things right. He's also not afraid to give his producer the bad news: "No, I don't know how much longer, this is action we're shooting here... Yes, I need the full crew for one more day..."

Our director, Antony Szeto, has a great camaraderie with his burly confrere, and smiles at every new challenge presented to us. And we've had a few!

I also can't say enough good stuff about our stunt team, most of whom are Guangzhou-based. You couldn't ask for a braver, more gung ho team of fall guys (and the occasional girl!). When you ask for 10, the they try to give you 12. I wish all my actors had the same mindset!

Ken's second in command, German Cheung, really keeps things light on the set. Also, his abs are useful when you need a washboard or to grate cheese...

Towards the end of the day, I really feel we've pushed poor Phoenix to the edge of exhaustion, and then a few steps beyond that. This really is the toughest game in town, and she's more than up for it. Countless are the times I've thanked whatever lucky star delivered us a tailor-made Deva (rather than another diva!).

When we finally wrap, Phoe looks like she's been pulled through a  mangle backwards. I realise that too far is never a good place to go, however worthy your ambitions...