Thursday, Oct 9, 2008 2:58PM /
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Wow, things just got really interesting...I was given an offer to play a part in a play in Beijing. I didn't see this coming! Well, I know that on my last night in Beijing a couple weeks ago, I went to meet the director of the play and auditioned for him. It was really difficult as I don't speak perfect Mandarin. This he knew. But as it turned out, they are doing a Chinese adaptation of an off-Broadway hit called "Love Letters" that was seeking a guy who wasn't a China Chinese native. I went in for the read, but I left feeling like there was no way...
Well, 2 days ago I got an email from an unknown person and it was entirely in Chinese, so I couldn't read it and had to get it translated by mom. That took a whole day to hear back and when I finally did, I found out that it was telling me to return to Beijing promptly to start rehearsals for the show!
What the???
Okay folks, I have little time to decide what to do...I got a Chinese contract and scrīpt sent over to me that I have to go get translated now. If I take this, I gotta go back to Beijing next week and will likely be in Asia till the end of the year - 2 months longer than I thought. Woa.
I need to go sit in a corner and think. This is happening too fast.
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Sunday, Oct 5, 2008 3:06PM /
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Okay, I'm just kidding.
Actually, I love it. It's just the hanging out till 6am part that kills me.
Last night, I didn't even know, but I dropped my wallet on the street coming out of a cab. My friend Grace gets a random phone call from someone saying he'd just found it and dialed her number as it was the only HK number in my wallet. We weren't far from each other since he immediately found it after I hopped out. I coulda kissed the man!!! Thank the heavens I had her number randomly in my wallet written on a 1 week gym guest pass to Pure of all things. If it weren't for that, I'd a been toast and cryin' today. And well, 'twas a good man who found it of course and had the decency to call...PHEW.
Well, things got even more interesting later as after a night out, my friends and I got food and went back to an apartment to eat. I conked out on the couch and the next thing I knew, woke up this morning hot and bothered, uncomfortable on what was essentially a love seat made for a small Hong Kong woman, not someone of my size. I somehow notice that my nails have been painted neon pink and my arm has been written on with makeup - something that I will not repeat here. Crap - okay, okay, very funny people...no harm, no foul I think. I get up and go out to head home which isn't too far up the escalator, am groggy, disheveled, and figure I'm getting funny looks for my wrinkled clothes and bed head.
Uh.....Brian....
When I get home, I head to the bathroom and get the first look of myself in the mirror.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAJ|HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
I had a full on facial make up makeover! Blue eyeshadow, black eye-liner, rosy cheeks, I don't know what else...sparkles...there were sparkles. All kinds of crap!!!!!!! I walked out in public like this???? Now I know why the doorman wore this goofy grin. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I'm gonna kill someone.
I hate Hong Kong.
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Saturday, Oct 4, 2008 5:16PM /
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Here and happy in Hong Kong - despite the rain. The last couple weeks in China have been a blur, a good one. I am still absorbing everything and processing it and need to straighten my thoughts out, perhaps in blog form soon. I barely had any downtown in Beijing and then spent 2 quick days in Shanghai running around for meetings before jumping down to what I think is the only city in the world that has an escalator in the middle of it to help people get to and from. Hilarious, the concept.
More business to take care of here next week, but as I arrived into town here at the start of the weekend, meetings friends and having fun was first on the agenda. In my view, Hong Kong is the craziest, most party-centric town in all of Asia. I haven't been to Seoul, but out of Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok, and Tokyo, it's only in HK that it seems I find myself not making it to home till the sun is rising. I think if I lived here, I'd either have to go into hiding, or accept the fact that I would need a liver transplant in about 2 years.
Excited about tonight - I'm going to a Sotheby's Auction and later finally getting to attend an AnD event. HK Live! Maybe see/meet some AnD folks there? It's funny, I've never officially met Terrence Yin until last night at Rack's. We produced a movie he starred in and my friends around always talk about him, so when I finally met him last night, it was as if I already knew him. A fellow Cal alum even - go Bears. Nice to meet you Mr. Emcee...thanks for the shot!
It's stopped raining...time to get out!
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Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008 1:07AM /
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Well, I've been here in Beijing for a week now and it's been non-stop. I guess this is what I asked for! I've been to Beijing once before but it was part of a family trip and we did one of those tour things so I've never truly absorbed the city until now. Man, I had no idea China's capital was this BIG. Shanghai truly is New York while Beijing is LA. A massive sprawl of land, spread out, such that people live in rings. I now know that if I need to go to Ring-6, I may as well be taking a plane. I've hit the ground running and I have so many individuals to thank because of it. Meetings upon phone calls upon emails with folks in the business here have happened because of some kind people and some hustle and flow on my part. One thing will lead to another here and I'm quickly getting a feel for the place although there is still so much to learn.
I'm learning that basically, if I want to work out here, I have to move out here. No other way to find out but to try. The thing that worries me - and others - is that my Mandarin is not up to snuff here. I sound like a Taiwan person at best, but probably more so an ABC, which of course, I am. I have been fortunate enough to meet agents, producers, directors, casting directors, and other actors here in my short stay and the response has been pretty universal: you look the part, but will you sound it? China is so exciting in terms of the pace it's growing at with all the productions that are starting to happen here, it's really becoming the wild, wild west. Not many ABCs have moved to China to do this kind of thing - if any have moved East, it's been to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, or Singapore. The market here is opening up as filmmakers from these respective countries are all coming here to shoot, but it seems no one really knows exactly what will happen in the foreseeable future in terms of productions. The US, Korea, and HK are especially setting up shop here to do co-productions with China, but what that means exactly to an ABC actor, I don't know. I don't think anyone really does exactly. Thus, why the only way to find out is to be here.
Aside from floating about meeting/talking to all these folks here, I've been able to do some fun things like go to the 798 art district (mad cool), have good eats, go on a couple of long runs that helped me see the city a little more (and play human Frogger with all the trafffic), hang out with a friend visiting from Hong Kong over last weekend (Suzie Wong anyone?), play ball with some locals I met here (fun, and good to know there is a scene), and also partake in the Beijing Screenings - a film festival that started today showcasing some of China's finest in independent film.
I've met so many film industry folk this past week and it's been incredibly interesting to soak in the scene here. Only by being here have I learned there are Italians who live here covering the China film market for their nation, could I have the opportunity to loan the Asia Editor of Variety my USB cord, meet Malaysian filmmakers, and tonight, hear a Chinese girl speak fluent French.
I'm kinda fallin' in love with this place and yet I very much still feel like a foreigner - well, maybe because I am! As I told the Italians tonight, "I can't believe I'm a stranger in my own mother country." Well, that sort of identity split has been something I've long often thought of, but as I consider coming here for my career, it's something that's coming more and more to the forefront of my mind.
The other night, when I was stranded in the middle of nowhere in heavy rain, looking for the basketball court I was supposed to play in, I felt as lost as one could ever be. I couldn't read any signs. I didn't even know how to ask someone about where I wanted to go since I didn't know where I was going It was in that moment when I sorta felt a little homesick, but when a cell phone call and an understanding cab driver helped me finally find where I wanted to go, I got on the court and all was forgotten again.
I'm still trying to picture it...moving out here...only time will tell I suppose. For now, it's one more night for me to sleep on it.
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Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 11:05AM /
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I've made it to Beijing for the start of my 6 week trip throughout Asia. I still don't know what it will bring, but I've already started forming some meetings, so we'll see! Gonna attempt to blog regularly from the road here...for some reason, before I started this excursion, I'd been feeling like were I actually to make the jump over to Asia, Beijing is where it would be at. They call this city the Hollywood of Asia now and so, with that in mind, I've kinda been preparing for this to be the place where the most action is at. On a personal livability side, in my mind, Beijing is the last city I'd want to live in though of all the places I plan on visiting. I don't know, it's probably a combination of being the "2nd" city to Shanghai (which I see as more exciting obviously), fewer people I actually know here, and the fact that the Beijing accent is so heavy that I feel even more out of place when I speak my American Mandarin here. But last night, and this morning, as I sit inside of a quaint internet cafe at this moment, my mind is slowly changing a little. I already met a film producer last night, had dinner at a really hip outdoors cafe/bar/restaurant area, and went for a run this morning on a major street that sorta kinda helped me feel a little like I could live here. Beijing Brian. Bling bling.
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