wing chun to eyes

It’s amazing how the universe works. Just as another example of “ask and you shall receive” – this year I had been asking the universe to give me a fight scene in a feature film in Asia before my birthday in November. I kept pursuing my goal and working but it seemed like chances were slim. Suddenly in mid-November I get a call from the director of this film and he asks if I am available to help with fight choreography. After we worked out details — the exact day I officially arrived at the studio was Nov 22nd — 1 day before my birthday. Pretty interesting how everything worked out. =)

wing chun hand to eyes concept

Without giving away too much of the story, it’s essentially about a kid who learns wing chun to help him overcome obstacles. The movie’s storyline is definitely not like Ip Man and is meant for a younger audience… though I think all ages could still check it out.

This particular movie situation was quite interesting. When Antony (the director of “Wushu – The Young Generation”) and I got involved with the project the movie had actually already been partially filmed. In fact a good amount had been shot, but towards the final cut the executive producer realized the action was severely lacking… and since it was a martial arts movie it was supposed to have super action. This is where we came in.

wing chun movie set

Before I continue any further I must highly thank and appreciate Antony for having faith in me as a first time action director for a feature film. Antony has worked as a stuntman in Australia and has directed a movie with Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan as producer so it was a truly a great honor to be working with a professional at his caliber who also gave me a lot of respect and freedom with my ideas. Speaking of Sammo and Jackie.. I also want to mention another of the Seven Little Fortunes – Yuen Wah (the landlord in Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle / villain in Dragon’s Forever) is one of the actors in this film.

wing chun wooden dummy techniques

Since we were re-shooting all the action plus a decent portion of the drama we had a lot to do. On top of that we had a smaller budget than the original crew, less resources, and no time. I didn’t even know this until I arrived in Guangzhou, but apparently I had to design roughly 10 fights to be filmed in about 10 days… because in total we had 14 days to film and 7 days to do pre-production work (including new casting, location scouting, set design, fight choreo, etc). Also we had almost no stunt guys originally and the lead was a 12 year old.

But first…

alf with wing chun sifu

…we had to learn a little wing chun. So fortunately I actually studied a little wing chun here and there, but of course not on the level of 7th generation wing chun master. We had a wing chun master on set as consultant and sifu of the wing chun movie. He was a bodyguard for a prince and also at one point taught in London where Bruce Lee visited when he was in London. The sifu was 67 years old but his arms were as strong as an oak tree.

Now that we had the wing chun training in order we had to bring in the rest of the artillery.

Heavy Artillery on Wing Chun set

Enter Alberto and Kyle.

Both of my friends had been working on feature films in China and I knew they were perfect to help out on this expendables style intense mission which required 10 fights in about 10 days. These guys had so many different fights to do in such a short time that I’m definitely glad they were able to come out.. without them it would have been a totally different experience.

I mean after all we wouldn’t have been able to add in some dope JCVD moves like this!

JCVD Lineup

..or party like rockstars with hardcore rap blasting rollin deep with hunnies to tha left and right.

How we party in Guangzhou

I actually got more than I bargained for (in a good way). I was coming under the expectation that I would be simply designing the fights. Aside from a few shorts I had never directed a feature film, much less operate a Red One camera.

operating the red one camera

Because timing was so tight, we had so much to cover, and I knew all the action… just a few days into production we sort of broke into 1st and 2nd units. I learned to operate the camera to follow the action on fight scenes.. and directed for the action scenes. This made my head start spinning in terms of camera angles and so much more.

directing a fight scene

A few surprises along the way included:

A visit from Mark Moran and Ruhi.

mark moran and the green screen fireball

I was really happy Mark visited in Guangzhou. He happened to be stopping through the area and then was able to drop by set. I showed him the studio, the green screen room, and we had a nice dinner with Ruhi, the actors, and the director.

Also a visit and cameo by AliveNotDead’s very own JuJu Chan. Speaking of cameo’s.. the director, fight coordinator, and 3rd AD all make a little cameo as well. =P

Alfred and JuJu

Another fun fact: During the period of the shoot 3 birthdays passed – mine, the director’s, and the main star Xiao Long’s birthday. Happy birthday Xiao Long!

Xiao Long's birthday

As I write this, we are a few hours away from being completely wrapped. The past 3 weeks have been intense and non-stop. We all worked over 12 hour days and everyone is starting to feel the wear and tear… but I think for the time we had to work with we got some good results. I hope people will enjoy the action.

takedown caught on camera

There were some ups and downs with the producer side with last minute changes with story, plot, characters, etc.. but it can’t be completely unexpected. Overall I had a great experience working with the Ace Studio team and learned a great deal. I developed fun and lasting memories with my kung fu bros Alberto and Kyle. It was also really interesting to go from all this tai chi training to learning wing chun – both happen to be the top 2 on my list of traditional Chinese martial arts styles that I  wanted to learn… so of course it’s AMAZING when your job is to learn those martial arts styles. I am going to end with an awesome quote that Antony said on set today.. sometimes I get so excited about what I’m doing and think to myself.. so I’m learning all this cool stuff “…AND I get paid for this??!”

Guangzhou wing chun xiao long team

Well.. Taiji to be exact. The Chinese pin yin for tai chi is “tai ji” and recently a large focus of my time and work has been revolving around this taiji company and the research and practice of tai chi. Here are some my tai chi related activities lately -

Visit to Handan

Jet and I visited Han Dan in Hebei province to pay our respects to Yang Lu Chan the founder of Yang style tai chi. They have strong roots in the practice of tai chi there and when we went there were hundreds of tai chi practitioners showcasing the art. Yang Lu Chan is not the creator of tai chi itself but is supposedly the one who helped spread it to the world and there is a lot of interesting history behind it.

Adidas All In Campaign

We also went to an Adidas pr event which showcased the WuJi training program. This program is in many gyms in China. It is a blend of aerobic and martial elements.

Adidas Event with Olympic Gold Medalists

There we met Adidas sponsored athletes. They were China olympic gold medalists for taekwondo, boxing, and soccer. They also tried out the martial arts aerobic program with the fitness instructors. The taekwondo olympic athlete adapted quickest (for apparent reasons).

Getting ready for tai chi training

I have been immersed in the history, culture, and techniques of tai chi this past year so of course I have also been doing tai chi training. I started learned tai chi before, but since I started focusing on my training for the world games in 2009 I paused all other training. This year however I have been privileged to learn with 19th generation direct descendants of the Chen village for Chen style tai chi. The way they can feel your generation of power and use your force against you is almost superhuman. I’ll have to continue this discussion later as my practice progresses. In summary, I have been learning both the compulsory tai chi sets from China wushu team world games gold medalist as well as the traditional chen style forms and applications from the descendants of the Chen village.

Eating Dinner with Wang Zhan Hai (my right)

One of the people I have been honored to interact with is Chen style tai chi master – Wang Zhan Hai. He is the eldest son of acclaimed Chen style descendant Wang Xi An. Wang Zhan Hai’s entire childhood and early adult life was dedicated to learning Chen style tai chi. He competed in tai chi push hand competitions and various mixed martial art style competitions and has fought with top masters in other traditional styles. He could basically knock someone across an entire room using what would seem to be little to no strength.

In the midst of tai chi philosophy and business talk, we went to meet some friends of his to further some tai chi projects. We had dinner at an interesting restaurant… that served “exotic” food. Let’s take a look.

Fried ants and scorpions

Some people will say it’s not a big deal and they’ve tried crazier things and some will say they would never touch it. I say… hey! I’m thankful for food on the table and… I’m having what the tai chi master is having. Bon appetit!

Mmmh Chips!

Stunt team friends

Last but not least, I’ve made some cool friends who are working on action and stunts in an upcoming martial arts movie in China. Since I have been involved in everything tai chi.. a couple of the people I was learning with told me to drop by some stunt rehearsals.. so I got some good work outs in, tai chi practice, as well as helping out here and there with some of the choreography.

These guys are super skilled, professional, and have awesome personalities. It’s definitely a different lifestyle doing stunt work in China. You are required to be able to help out with everything with no such things as bumps and bonuses and little more than a boxed lunch. On the plus side you learn a lot in a short amount of time.

Chuan Ge Stuntman Extraordinaire

Here I am kicking it with one of the stunt guys who’s frequently worked with JC stunts and was on Ip Man stunts. He has been in the game for over a decade. Super cool guy and loves what’s app! haha!

Here’s the back of his shirt. Looks cool!

Ip Man Stunt Team

So that’s my summary on tai chi developments for this year so far. I will continue training tai chi and researching its market interest and basically keep being involved with the growth of tai ji as a martial art and a social enterprise. Stay posted for further developments! =)

Chris Yen and I

I had a lunch meeting with Chris Yen, Donnie Yen’s sister, last week… and it was a very productive meeting! Read on!

Chris Yen Inside Kung-Fu

For those of you who don’t know – Chris Yen is an awesome martial artist and entrepreneur. Early in her martial arts film career she worked with acclaimed action director Yuen Wo-Ping in 1986 on a project shot in Taiwan. Later in her career she went on to work with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson helping her brother out on the set of Shanghai Knights. Soon after she went to Hong Kong to film a stylish female assassin role in “Black Rose.” Chris Yen’s performance in Black Rose led to a profile in the South China Morning Post, which in turn led to a featured appearance with Matt Lauer on NBC’s The Today Show, broadcast live from Hong Kong to millions of viewers. Invited to LA for auditions by a top casting director from Columbia Pictures, she has been featured in several commercials and was cast as the lead in the youth market action film Adventures of Johnny Tao, as well as in a supporting role in A Good Day to be Black and Sexy, an official 2008 Sundance Selection. She continues to work hard and develop projects with her writing partners.

Her brother Donnie Yen has appeared in more than 40 films and TV shows, including: “Ip Man”(2008), “Flash Point” (2007), “Saat Po Long aka SPL” (2005), “Shanghai Knights” (2003), “Hero” (2002), “Blade II” (2002), “Highlander: Endgame” (2000), and “Iron Monkey ” (1993).

Interestingly enough in March 2009 I posted an article on Chris Yen on the WushuKicks.com Wushu News blog – http://www.wushukicks.com/chinese-martial-arts/tag/chris-yen/ It’s amazing that a year later we got to sit down to chat over lunch.

Enough with the talk. If you haven’t seen her demo reel… check it out. I particularly like the wheel kick at 1:12.

We got in touch through a mutual friend and originally met up to get some feedback on her thoughts on Martial Arts Complete and some sponsorship. If you’ll notice in the picture at the top that pink and white “M” is a Mooto hoodie courtesy of MOOTO USA. Much thanks Mooto! and of course we got love for WushuKicks.com up in there as well.

Chris Yen and Martial Arts Complete

This ad isn’t the FINAL version yet, but it’s pretty close. I must say I’m pretty proud of this because I took this picture on my Nikon D60 at a boba cafe, edited it, and did the design as well. And to do Chris justice I must say that it was not a planned out photo shoot or anything and she just came in her casual attire, but she came out looking great. After clearing out the background and putting in our martial arts complete background I think the whole thing looks pretty cool!

Business aside, we had a lot to talk about regarding wushu, martial arts training, movies, productions, refinancing, and the tasty ham and corn on french bread appetizers. Chris mentioned that she will be back and forth between Asia and the states and we talked a lot about her personal project Kore8Films and what it takes to get things off the ground. It was a really great meeting and I am honored to be able to sit down with such an accomplished yet humble martial artist. Definitely look out for her in some big projects ahead!

ham and corn on french bread