Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! For this holiday season I have spent the past few days putting together my Acting Reel. Here it is!

My 2011 Acting Reel

(For mainland China)

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

Chen Tai Chi in the Chen Village

Training tai chi in the Chen Village has been something I’ve wanted to do for some time now. Ever since I started getting more into the history and practice of tai chi I knew that I had to make a trip to the Chen village. To give a little background on the Chen village, the Chen village is essentially where Chen style Tai Chi originated. Chen style tai chi is the root of pretty much all known forms of tai chi including Yang, Sun, Wu, etc… so the Chen village or Chen Jia Gou is essentially the birthplace of modern tai chi.

Chen Wang Ting

The picture above is taken inside of temple grounds in the Chen village made to commemorate the different generations of notable Chen tai chi descendants.

Chen Wangting is known as the founder of Chen tai chi. He was a Ming dynasty military general who supposedly combined his martial arts and combat knowledge with Chinese medicine and Taoist philosophies.  Another notable Chen descendant is 14th generation Chen Changxing who taught Yang Luchan whom became the founder of Yang style tai chi.

Below is some art on the walls of the Chen village temple.

Tai Chi in the Chen Village

Tai Chi in the Chen Village

Well that’s enough of the history lesson.. the urge in me to go to the mecca of tai chi kept growing and growing until it couldn’t be contained. Then one day I talked to Wang Zhanhai laoshi who said his father Wang Xi’an was in town in the Chen village and that I could go train there.. and that was that.. no more deciding. I hopped on a train first thing the next day to Henan and got my training started.

Wang Xi'an Chen Style Tai Chi Master

Wang Xi’an is a 19th generation disciple of Chen style tai chi. He is one of the “Four Buddhas” or “Four Tigers” of Chen Tai Chi. After the Cultural Revolution in China during the period of reconstruction the Chinese government made Wang Xi’an, Chen Xiaowang, Chen Zhenlei, and Zhu Tiancai official traveling ambassadors of tai chi chuan. Wang Xi’an laoshi is known for his combat applications of tai chi chuan. While training at his school some of his elder students told him to demonstrate some moves on me… now since he is around 70 I thought he probably would be tired of demonstrating and decline their requests. To my surprise he signaled for me to “come here”. He told me he wouldn’t use full strength at which point I thanked him and prepared for his move. In the blink of an eye he had hit me and launched me flying!… and while flying back he quickly grabbed me back. It seemed lightning quick!

My time there I spent 6 hours a day training tai chi from Wang laoshi and his students. Of course technically one could train anywhere as long as you have a good teacher, but the air and water breathes tai chi in the Chen village so it just puts you in this mentality to focus and take in all the tai chi you can.

View from below in Chen Jia Gou

Tai Chi in Chen Jia Gou

In the picture above I am doing tai chi in the “gou” of Chen Jia Gou. “Gou” literally is like a “ditch” or “ravine” and the Chen village is literally surrounded by some ditches. We walked down the small pathway into the ditch and did tai chi where hundreds of others had all trained before. It was a very peaceful place to train.

Sipping Tea in between Tai Chi Practice

What else can I say about training in the Chen village? Life was more simple. I notice that all the teachers and practitioners of tai chi in the Chen village seemed to have balance in their lives. They seemed to practice more than Tai Chi Chuan; they practiced Tai Chi philosophy which essentially is about yin and yang, black and white, heaven and earth.. and that there is balance in life. Given that I only had to worry about eating, training, and sleeping it was quite relaxing and intense training at the same time. I learned a lot – I learned the Wang Xi’an 42 form which comprises a lot of moves from the Old Frame and New Frame forms. I learned applications and proper instruction on generating the “fa jing” energy. “Fa jing” is that explosive force of energy that is delivered as a push or hit in tai chi. It looks crazy and looks unlike a normal punch that purely uses the muscle in the arm and or movement of the waist.

On my last day I went out for dinner with Wang Laoshi and my other teachers. We had some good food and drink and then they sent me off. I felt great kindness and hospitality from all these tai chi teachers who were all my elders and could kick ass. That is another particular thing I really like about Chen style is how grounded it is in combat application as well as a calming practice that promotes longevity and balance in life. I am truly grateful for the experience and being treated like a family member there. I definitely want to go back again. There is so much to learn.

In memory of Steve Jobs (1955-2011) and because this speech resonates so much with the way I choose to live life… death makes you appreciate life.. below is his Stanford commencement address. Aside from the speech being amazing and definitely full of truths, I did find it kind of ironic that he talks about dropping out of college at a commencement address.

Steve Jobs on Life

Steve Jobs, who stepped down as CEO of Apple after having been on medical leave, reflected on his life, career and mortality in a well-known commencement address at Stanford University in 2005.

Below is the text of of that address:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

–

Speech text courtesy of: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576520690515394766.html#ixzz1bTPZJa1S

The Life of a Stuntman in China

The life of a stuntman in China… is far from glamorous. Just look at my shitty state of being pictured above. haha… that was after a long morning and nights worth of falls, getting shot, fighting, and weathering the elements. When you wrap at night you go home with the blood and dirt on your face that you’ve had on all morning.

But let’s start at the beginning – I’ll give you the full story before we step into the shoes of a China stuntman. A China friend and talented stunt man referred me to work on a TV show in China. The show would shoot for about 4-5 months. He told me working on a TV series in China as a stuntman wouldn’t be easy, but if I wanted some work, he could refer me over. I also want to make the distinction that in China stunt men are called “wu hang” which kind of means “martial [arts] industry”. I don’t know if that’s the best translation, but basically the distinction between an actor and someone working in stunts is quite different. In my opinion, (aside from A-List actors) working in LA a professional stuntman and an actor get a certain level of respect for their trade. As an actor you must practice your craft and perform on camera and as a stunt man you risk your health and must also give your best performance on camera even if it’s not in dialogue or as the lead character. In China however, there are just so many people that (perhaps) the value of most manual labor is so low that the “wu hang” have a bigger disparity in value from actors compared to that of Hollywood.

With that said, my main focus in China has been to make progress as an actor (in action related projects), but I accepted this offer for a few reasons: 1) I don’t like being idle and it was an opportunity to immediately get on the field and do some work 2) it was a popular tv series and would be good training with top level stuntmen in china since i am focusing on action movies as my niche 3) it would be a rare and unique life experience

Let me expand on the 3rd point. I think as an ABC (American Born Chinese) a tv series or movie would rarely choose to hire an ABC because there is enough skilled labor and we have the same look. Also even if an ABC understands Chinese, local Chinese stuntmen understand the industry rules better, understand the language and culture better, and typically will work for much less. So I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could and to open myself up to another life experience.

Here is what was in store…

Living Accommodations while Filming in China

A Good Nights Rest in Jiao He

So while in Beijing, everything was arranged; I would take the train to Ji Lin and arrive on the weekend. We would have a crew car pick us up at Ji Lin and drive us to Jiao He and then our rooms would be ready at a hotel in Jiao He.

I took a 7 hour train ride. When I got to Ji Lin it turns out that there was no car to pick us (me and this other stunt guy) up. Even though it was night and we were pretty tired from riding in a train all day.. no big deal.. there was a smaller train to take us from Ji Lin to Jiao He. This train was slower so it took about 2-3 hours to get to Jiao He. We arrive at the hotel and bam.. it’s locked! Moreover, it was more of a motel than hotel. It was all dark inside and if it wasn’t for 5 crew cars parked outside I would’ve thought the motel was abandoned. We banged on the doors for about 30 minutes when finally these 2 old ladies woke up from the couch inside and turned on the lights. Then they unlocked the doors and got us registered. I was kinda going “hmmm… what am I in store for at this point”. As we registered they said there were no rooms available so they would have to put us up in the big guest room. As pictured above it was basically a pretty unclean room with 8 beds with a thin dirty bed cloth on a wooden desk feeling bed. Also there was no internet or hot water. When we asked why there wasn’t internet the attendant said in surprise “why do you need internet so badly?”

We were on the 4th floor so naturally we got in the elevator and were going to push “(4)” but the attendant quickly alerted us “do not push the 4 button!” Apparently it was broken and the elevator could only stop on the 3rd or 5th floor. From there you could walk to the 4th floor. So that’s a quick summary of the living situation on the first day. I went to sleep around 2am and got ready for the first day of work tomorrow.

Beginning Filming Ceremony

The next day we got up and went to the beginning filming ceremony. In China they unveil the cameras, burn incense, and set off firecrackers. It’s just a celebration and gesture to wish that everyone has a successful, safe, and smooth time on the project. I burnt some incense with the stunt coordinator. I met the stunt team that day and everyone was very nice to me. They knew I was from abroad and had different training and experiences so we chatted a lot… also there was not much work on the first day because we mainly had the opening celebration and would have a cast and crew dinner at night. A nice hearty dinner was followed by drinks and karaoke! Okay! Not bad!

Enough celebration. Let’s get to work!

After the first day there was no such thing as downtime. We were shooting a war time tv show so there would be many battles and armies fighting. That’s one pro or con (depending how you look at it) of shooting a tv series.. a tv show films 10x faster than movies. Movies take hours for lighting, getting the right camera placement, set design, etc that a movie might shoot 5-6 scenes on average per day… but a tv show is way different. They just keep shooting takes all day because they have to crank out so much in such a short time with a lower budget as well. Therefore you get to do more and learn more, but you are also constantly working and hardly resting.

Do I look like a Russian Soldier?

Here I am as a Russian soldier. We would switch back and forth between Chinese local army, Russian army, double a lead hero, or put on a mustache and double the enemy. You might think it’s weird but they had a mix of actual Russians for the front line in the battles, but for the stunts they would just wig us up and in wide shots we would get shot, fall off horses, fire guns, dodge explosives, etc.

Now speaking about dodging explosives, here’s where I will go back to discussing health and safety. In the US there is risk in being a stuntman for sure, but at least there are certain rules and precautions in place to ensure the safety of the props and environment around the stuntman so that he can use his physical prowess to his fullest. In China we had to run and get blown up by explosives, but we had no idea how large the blast would be and weren’t even comfortable knowing whether there would be real explosives detonations that could burn you. Fortunately we got through them okay, but I did see a few flames come out of the explosives that were supposed to just shoot dirt in the air.

Battle Field of Stunt Casualties

After getting blown up and shot a few times and running through both sides of the battle field it was about time for lunch. Our meals would consist of a combination of rice, tofu, potato, and cabbage with an occasional piece of pork that seemed like it was accidentally left in the lunch box. Breakfast was always congee and a hard boiled egg. I wasn’t getting enough fiber or protein for sure and wasn’t feeling in tip top shape after a week of white rice and tofu. It was a good day when we got fish or someone from the team decided to bring some pickled radishes or hot sauce.

Lunch Time!

Shortly upon working on set, something totally stupid happened. Since there was no hot water at our motel, we got vouchers to go shower at a public bathhouse type place down the street. We didn’t always get to shower because sometimes we would get back from shooting past midnight and the showers were closed.. also we would just be too tired to shower because we would have to be up around 6-7am the next day. On one fortunate day I finally got to shower. I took my shower accessories and my motel slippers to shower. The shower didn’t smell that great so I quickly showered I dried myself. After my shower despite a long day.. I felt pretty good. It was nice to take a hot shower. It was night time no doubt and I had to walk back to the motel. I stepped out of the bathhouse, breathed in the fresh night air, strolled a few relaxed steps towards my motel… and BAM! Someone decided to place a cement block in the middle of the street. I didn’t see it since I didn’t expect a huge cement block placed where people walk and it was night… and in my shower slippers my toe was in for a surprise!

Toenail Memories

I smashed my toenail on to the concrete slab (you should see what happened to the concrete slab! haha jk). I felt pain as I kicked the slab and in the dark grabbed my foot as a normal reaction. When I grabbed my foot, I felt my entire nail flipped upwards.. and blood. I hopped into the light and saw my toenail ripped off from my toe! I hopped back to the motel and immediately showed and told the motel attendants “my toe is bleeding, help, what should I do?” They meandered over and took a glimpse at it and slowly looked around and said “you should go see a doctor”.. then they aimlessly looked around the room as if they were pretty sure about their response. Fortunately one of my stunt teammates was in the lobby looking for a lost sweater. He saw my foot and took me to the hospital. The hospital was not much better than those 2 attendants. I knew this would not be good.. and this also made me think how bad it would be if anything more severe happened while in this rural part of town. Even though it was empty, the hospital workers didn’t care much about my state of emergency. They told me to fill out some forms and pay first. After that, I had to hop up three flights of stairs.. they were those slanted ramps and not staircase type stairs… either way I wasn’t feeling great about this facility.

When I got to the doctor, he was explaining some x-rays to another family. I asked him if I could disinfect my foot or something and he just glanced at me as if “how do you interrupt while I’m talking about X-Ray 5″. He took his time and I waited for about 20 minutes while my foot was dripping blood. Then he took me to this room next door where he wiped some swabs over a pair of scissors. I was kinda skeptical but really had no choice. I just wanted to get the nail cut off and bandaged up. He proceeded to cut and halfway through he pinched part of my meat! I clenched down for a bit and he finally finished. He bandaged it up and said I would have to come back for shots tomorrow and some other treatment. No thanks! I had my tetanus shots and I’m probably better off outside of the clinic.

Stuntwork in China

The next day it was back to work as usual. Running through the battlefields. Falls, getting shot, trudging through dirt, grass, etc. I probably could have spoken up and taken it easy. I don’t think that anyone would have had any problems with it… but for me.. I was here for the experience and journey and I wasn’t about to compromise it by sitting out for a week while everyone else worked. Also I started with everyone together so unless I couldn’t physically walk or perform what was required I was just going to suck it up and work like everyone else. I’m not going to lie.. the foot was really tender and on a few falls I tapped my toe and it hurt like a mofo.. but at the same time I used my judgment that I wouldn’t do something beyond my capabilities.. so in that sense I still stayed safe and took others safety into account.

The one thing I was concerned about was an infection. We were trudging through dirt all day, the wardrobe we wore was pretty dirty, and we would eat while squatting in dirt. I cleaned my feet and re-dressed the bandages at night so I guess I was okay. If this was a movie this would be where I would re-direct you back to the opening scene.. where I am worn out after a day of stunt work and leaning against the window in the bus ready to go home.

Dinner on Set

Despite what might seem like unfavorable situations compared to what many might be used to.. I took it for what it was. I’m not saying it was luxury, but when I focus on living in the present everything is simply what it is. In other words, when you are hungry on set and you get rice and pickled radishes.. you get excited and it tastes good. We ate by car headlight in the dark while sitting in the cold and dusty road.. but you know what? It was a great experience. Everyone was talking, making jokes, passing the hot sauce around.. and it was more about the bond and no one griped about the food not being 5 star hotel quality. So I guess one other thing I realized on this experience was to always be grateful.. many people complain about work or living situations, but I think where we stayed was pretty low quality but all the stunt people I was with were living there with no complaints and accepted it as a lifestyle and they were able to enjoy each day. Also my luck turned around because a few days later I moved from the 8 person room to a 3 person room with a tv.

Room for Three

After a couple weeks in, I had some urgent business come up in Beijing (life happens like that). I had given the action director a heads up before accepting the work so they knew I would have to be back in Beijing, but it happened quite suddenly – more suddenly than I had even expected and within 2 days notice I was back on a train to Beijing.

Here is a shot with the guys on my last day on set.

The Team

Almost as soon as I had gotten into the flow of things, I had to head back to Beijing. Though it was work, it was more of a learning experience. I learned a lot about the lives of stunt men in China, fellow martial artists, about myself, and about the skills required to work in this industry in China. After all of the situations that passed I felt it was a great experience. Would I want to do it again? Given that I am in a fortunate enough situation where I don’t have to live without hot water and internet for a living, I don’t think I will go out of my way for that… however I think it simply is what it is. When living ‘in the now’ I think there were many fond memories and great experiences in Jiao He… and I hope I’ve shared some interesting insights on stunts in China.