LAUNCHING AN INVISIBLE TARGET: Hong Kong action idols storm Tokyo.
I’m in Japan for the Tokyo International Film Festival, and waiting in the lobby of Shibuya’s Cerulean Hotel. I have no idea why the hotel is so named. It doesn’t look particularly blue… (I didn’t even know that ‘cerulean’ was a colour until I checked on-line). Tonight is Hong Kong Night at the TIFF, and an event is being held to celebrate two outstanding recent releases: Benny Chan’s Invisible Target (which is a forthcoming Dragon Dynasty release) and the Tsui Hark/Ringo Lam/Johnnie To triple-hander Triangle (which is not).
I’m sitting with a friend in the lobby coffee shop when Invisible Target star Jaycee Chan, son of Jackie, bounces in. He’s wearing a jacket that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a 1984 Spandau Ballet video. ‘Who’s Spandau Ballet?’, he asks. (He also has no idea who Elvis Costello is, further evidence that I’m officially ‘the old guy’…) The waitress brings him a pot of tea and an hour-glass egg timer. Apparently, you’re supposed to wait for the sand to run out before you drink the tea. Jaycee dutifully watches the sands of time.
Half an hour (and one pot of tea) later, the titanic trio of Tsui, Lam and To appears in the lobby. Between the three of them lie three dozen of the greatest Asian films ever made. Its great to see their energy and commitment to Hong Kong cinema is undiminished, and the camaraderie between the trio is obvious. (Strangely, Chinese film-makers only seem to hang out together when they’re away from Hong Kong. Tsui is meeting Protégé director Derek Yee for dinner tomorrow night.) A pair of festival runners arrive and notify the Triangle team that its time to depart.
Outside the front of the Cerulean, the three directors ride arrives, and arrives, and keeps on arriving. This white vehicle is the mutant offspring of a limousine and a Hummer, as chunky as it is long. It’s the Godzilla of premiere vehicles. Laughing at this unexpected behemoth, Tsui, To and Lam climb aboard and make their exit.
The second member of the Invisible Target cast, Nicholas Tse, appears, clad in black and with sunglasses so polished they could reflect light all the way to Osaka. Nic and I met when we both worked on the action epic Gen-X Cops. He was the star, and I was (uncredited) scriptwriter, English dialogue coach to Japanese actor Toru Nakamura and bit part player (as a SWAT team commander). That film was produced by Jackie Chan, and Nic, already fascinated by martial arts, had his first real training with the JC Stunt Team. He was already pressuring director Benny Chan to let him do his own stunts, but it wasn’t until Invisible Target (also directed by Benny) that he really got to show his stuff. Like Jaycee, Nic is a second generation star. His father, Patrick Tse Yin, was a huge matinee idol in Hong Kong cinema of the 1960s. He starred in the original black-and-white version of John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow (Story Of A Discharged Prisoner) and, at the age of 70, is still active on local television. Given the privilege that they were born to, it would hardly be surprising if Nic and Jaycee turned out to be a pair of royal brats. Thankfully, they’re hard-working, self-deprecating and fun to be around, unlike a couple of other Hong Kong show business ‘princelings’ I could name.
The Invisible Target Thunderbird rumbles into view. Where the Triangle vehicle was white, this is jet black. We must be the bad guys!, suggests Nic, delighted at the thought. Still no sign of the third member of the cast, Shawn Yue. We fill the time taking goofy photos of the tank and ourselves. This would be one whole block in Mongkok…, marvels Jaycee.
Shawn makes an appearance, dressed in grey to offset his castmates’ black. Shawn made his action debut in Dragon Tiger Gate, but didn’t really get to show his martial arts chops until Invisible Target. (He’s since wrapped a comedy action, Playboy Cops, and his first role in an international film, I Come With The Rain, opposite Hollywood star Josh Hartnett.) I actually worked on Shawn’s first film, Just One Look, when I was at Emperor Group. I can genuinely say I knew him before he knew either kung fu or English. (Now he’s better than me at both…)
We clamber aboard the limo-Hummer and cruise out into the Tokyo night. This being hip-hop crazy Japan, rap music is pounding out from the car stereo. I wonder what was playing in the Triangle car? Outside the theatre, the crowd is screaming as only Japanese girl fans can. The Invisible Target-ers emerge, to a rapturous reception. I follow in their wake, and now know how to say ‘Who the hell is that white guy?’ in colloquial Japanese.
Inside the theatre, the directors and stars are reunited backstage, before each takes his turn to address the packed house. Only Triangle is playing, the Invisible Target premiere is tomorrow night, so I take my leave, slipping out into the night, past the giant Hummersine. Back to reality. “Taxi!”
Comments
- Kev, Boston, MA | 2007-10-31 19:35:30
- Attica Peece, Los Angeles/Huntington Beach, CA | 2007-11-07 17:18:09
- Mr Rocking, UK | 2007-11-09 14:57:37
- May, NJ, USA | 2007-11-10 21:11:03
- Mark Brabham, NY | 2007-11-12 19:14:56
- Jas Choudhury, London, UK | 2007-11-15 10:58:28
- Dave Nelson, St. Paul, Minnesota | 2007-11-20 08:27:17
- Jon V, Palm Desert, CA | 2007-10-30 19:50:34