ONE JOURNEY, THREE KINGDOMS: Tracking the Resurrection of the Dragon, part one.
I’m skimming like a stone across China: Hong Kong to Wuhan, Wuhan to Xian (home of the terracotta warriors), Xian to Dunhang, or, more precisely, Guazhou. If Dunhuang can be described as the back of beyond (and I think it can), then Guazhou is the back of the back of beyond. At the end of the line is a desert where no birds sing, the filming of a period epic and one of my best friends in the world…
I first heard about the Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon project when I worked with its director, Daniel Lee, on an urban actioner called Dragon Squad. (Coming soon from Dragon Dynasty, under the title Dragon Heat.) As a producer, one of the things I was responsible for on that project was the casting of actress Maggie Q as a Vietnamese sniper. Maggie and I had been friends since we worked together on an earlier Hong Kong cop flick, Gen-Y Cops. After Dragon Heat, it was downhill all
the way for Maggie: off to Hollywood, MI3, Die Hard 4, Balls Of Fury etc. When Daniel began casting his much-delayed dream project, he asked Maggie to play the woman warrior Cao Ying, and, after due consideration, she accepted, and hence my long odyssey across the middle kingdom…
On the last leg, the stewardess welcomes the passengers in Mandarin and stilted English. “Welcome,” she says, “and have a peasant flight.” I glance at the ruddy-faced yokels around me. You can say that again… On landing at Dunhuang airport, it’s another hour by car to Guazhou. I meet Maggie at her hotel, which is at the production’s base of operations. We get dinner at one of the two (vaguely) decent restaurants in town, and catch up on our respective lives and adventures. I’m impressed that she’s so readily made the transition from the relative luxuries of a Hollywood movie set to filming in this remote outpost of an ancient empire.
The next day, I catch a ride with Q to the desert bound locations. Throughout our whole trip, we never see one bird. Have they all been eaten? Maggie’s assistant Dana has no idea. We arrive at a cluster of army tents (the film’s armoured warriors are played by real PLA soldiers), corralled skinny horses and parked coaches. Maggie prepares breakfast in her trailer. (Throughout my time on the shoot, I never see anyone else on the crew eat. They must run on sand.) The day before, the shoot has been disrupted by fierce sandstorms, and Maggie has brought me a black balaclava worthy of Sho Kosugi and lends me a green Chinese army coat. Thankfully, the winds remain calm for the duration of my visit.
The hair and make-up team transform a half-Vietnamese girl from Hawaii into a Chinese lady general. With her black armour and widow’s peak, Maggie is genuinely dressed to kill (though not, thankfully, the idiot who talked her into all this.). You look just like a Vulcan!, I observe. Geek, she mutters in reply. The trailer is then driven to the open desert where two units are shooting. In the background is a ruined temple constructed for the production, but otherwise there is just a vast, magnificent desolation that no amount of CGI could enhance.
The scene being shot sees Maggie’s Cao Ying leading her cavalry in a final charge against her family’s arch-enemy, Zhao Zi-ling (Andy Lau). On horseback, she wields her weapon of choice, a golden kwan dao, a pole with a broad blade on one end. (Both this and Zhao Zi-ling’s trademark spear were personally designed by the director.) I watch, mesmerized, as Maggie simultaneously grapples with handling a recalcitrant steed, an unwieldy weapon and a page of Mandarin dialogue. At one point, she shouts a command, and, contrary to the assistant director’s instructions, a division of cavalry thunders off towards the horizon. Maggie, what did you do?, demands Daniel, smiling.
During a break, I cross a small stream that wends its incongruous way through the sandy terrain. The action unit is shooting in the shadow of the temple, and I want to pay my respects to Sammo Hung. (Sammo both action directs the film, and plays a major role.) His eyes widen when he sees me. What the hell are you doing here? He asks. You owe me 50 bucks from Dragon Heat!, I tell him, jokingly. Pay up. We chat about the relative merits of this Three Kingdoms-based film and the John Woo-directed Red Cliff, currently shooting in Beijing. Sammo’s AD on this unit is Yuen Tak AKA Richard Hung, a fellow protégé of Hong Kong’s famous Chinese Opera School. (A former Shaw Brothers kung fu star, Yuen Tak can be seen in our forthcoming release of the classic My Young Auntie.)
Returning to the main unit, I watch as (fake) snow billows around Maggie as she sends her troops into battle. During a break, her assistant Dana wraps her in an army coat. I observe that it’s quite amazing to see the girl who once laid the floor tiles in my office now leading a Chinese army into battle. All in a day’s work, she quips.
After we wrap, there’s another long ride back down the desert roads. The other drivers have perfected this unique navigation tactic: driving with dipped headlights, then flipping to full beam when they seen another car. We survive the trip, and go straight to the other acceptable restaurant for dumplings and good fellowship. As I stroll back from Maggie’s hotel to mine, the town has one more surprise for me. Everything suddenly goes black. What was in those dumplings?, I mutter. I can still see the stars, so I guess I haven’t gone blind. Turns out they turn off the streetlights at 11.30, because they figure everyone’s already in bed. Sounds like a plan…
Comments
- Robin, Norway | 2007-04-23 14:22:36
- Jeff, Hckuk.co.uk | 2007-04-24 05:52:17