My feature length documentary on MMA(Mixed Martial Arts) Fight Life has finally launched the official trailer:
Official Website: http://www.fightlife.tv

Synopsis:

Fight Life is a new groundbreaking documentary that gives the audience an intimate look into the real life of the modern day professional fighter. From paying dues starting out at the smaller shows to the championship fight on prime time TV, Fight Life chronicles the daily lives of professional fighters from all different levels over the course of one year. Directed by award-winning indie filmmaker James Z. Feng, this documentary currently stars: Frank Shamrock, Jake Shields, Nick Diaz, Lyle Beerbohm, Ryan Schultz.


What a big relief to finally have my trailer and website come out. We went through a lot of drama and growing pains before everything came together and we got it out. A special thanks to all my people for helping me get through this and finally have everything come out. We released the trailer and website last night publicly at 2:00am.

And boy has it gone CRAZY! Talking about starting out with a bang! It's already all over the internet in forums, MMA websites! Word is traveling fast! Very exciting stuff, I'm happy to finally have it out to the public. Ok, time to get back to work! Peace!

Whenever one of my fighters (from "Fight Life" documentary) get in the ring for a fight, I get quite nervous and imagine what our reaction would be if they win/lose. I imagine the repercussions of the win/loss. Luckily, I've been quite fortunate as Jake, Lyle, Bryan, Nick, Gil have all won their fights in the past year. Being there live at the fights watching them only intensifies my own nerves. For the first time, I've experienced my first loss when Ryan Schultz lost tonight in Sengoku 10. Out of all my guys, Ryan really needed a win at this point in his career coming off 2 consecutive losses.
I spent this past weekend in Portland with Ryan and his family chatting about their lives and shooting for my documentary. I was with Ryan all the way until he was dropped off by his wife to the airport. His son Killian cried in the car for about 15 minutes after Ryan had left us. There isn't a more humble and better human being than Ryan Schultz out of everybody I've met both inside and outside the ring. You can tell by the way his trainers/friends talk about him that this guy is something special. Working full time and training full time on top of being a family man totally devoted to his family. I'd be lying if I said there was someone I wanted more to win than Ryan Schultz. Ryan doesn't try to sell himself and which is why he doesn't have many sponsorships. For someone who was the former IFL champion, I was very surprised that he had no big sponsors especially since his fights are on TV(hdnet). This guy only cares about two things: his family, and fighting. After seeing him get knocked out tonight, I felt a shock. My mind froze and I couldn't believe what I just saw. This whole time we've focused on him winning. Some images suddenly flash before me... I see our time spent together this past weekend and how confident and optimistic he looked(still in a humble way). We talked about getting this win and fighting for the Sengoku belt. We had lunch, played with his son Killian, talked for hours about his future plans and the MMA game. This line Ryan always says just popped in my head just now: "The highest of highs, the lowest of lows", "This sport is about wins".
After my one year with MMA, I'll say this much about the sport: "MMA is a glorious sport when you win. But when you lose... no one sees any of that." You are suddenly forgotten as a fighter; no one wants to be around you. People treat losing like a disease in the fight game. What I find interesting is what happens to fighters after they lose. The problem with this sport is that each fight is such a big investment: 8-12 weeks of training camp, and then the fight, and usually about 3-4 months until your next fight. This isn't basketball or baseball where you take a loss and get to compete again in a day or two. You have 2-4 months to think about your loss AFTER your fight. For Ryan, he had to wait one year for this fight that just happened tonight. Imagine a whole year after a loss and not knowing when you'll get to fight again... Picture that... This was the main reason I started "Fight Life", I wanted to take away the glamor and strip all the hype and show the real life of fighters. I'll pray for Ryan tonight and hope he has a speedy recovery. I know he'll need his time for the next few months to rethink his fighting career being the competitive person that he is. I don't think anyone takes losses harder than a guy like Ryan. If this was recreational, it wouldn't be so bad, but these guys are doing this for a living. What we the audience see as pure entertainment is someone else's way of making a living and supporting his family. I'll admit I'm a little down right now thinking about Ryan and the repercussions of this fight... But all I can do now as a friend is take a step back and pray that he'll stand up again.

Part II: Jamie

            I met Benny for dinner in South San Francisco where we went out for some burgers. After burgers we went out to a small dive bar to kick it. He was very excited to see me and bought me a Versace wallet as a present. I was happy to be showing him around the city since I know he’s never seen the city at night. He told me he recently watched one of my favorite movies Suzhou River and really liked it. Even though he’s not too into movies, he would ask me to recommend him a few movies every month so he can learn what’s good out there. Suzhou River was a movie I thought he would really like since it’s about love and intimacy, something I thought he lacked in his life. He said he felt like he really connected with the film and thanked me for recommending it.

            After some chitchatting, Benny started to get tipsy and opening up about his life. He said his business was doing well but he was ready to move on to something new since he’s done all he wanted with that business. He was planning to open up a few nightclubs and bars all over Shanghai with a certain theme and planning on branding it. The surprise of the night came when Benny said he wanted to tell me about this girl. He began to describe to me about this girl. I was obviously shocked since knowing his history and philosophy; I never thought this dude would ever get so whipped about one chick. This is the same dude that told me he would never settle down and get married because he never had any room for intimacy in his heart. He never trusted other people and depended only on himself. I don’t know if age had an effect on Benny or not; maybe that’s what changed his mind. Benny is now 33, and looking over at his life, he maybe was beginning to see that even though he owned everything and anything anyone could possibly want, he also had nothing. No one would miss him if he died and he knew it. When he started talking about Jamie, his expression and demeanor totally changed. It was easy to tell this guy was really into this girl.I took out my voice recorder and started recording everything he was saying so that I may write about it later. 

Jamie

            Jamie Zhao is a girl Benny met through his own company. She worked as a host for Benny’s company on weekends while going to school at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in her senior year. She was majoring in directing while aspiring to be both an actress and musical director. She was quite talented and was very intuitive when it came to people. She has a very different distinct charisma about her that made her stand out. She is full of substance and a calm confidence about her that nothing can touch. She never tried to please people and give them what they expected out of her. Her style in hosting was very direct with a very commanding presence that drew people into what she was saying; she didn’t have to be loud to be heard. Most of the actresses are all about kissing ass and sometimes giving ass to get where they wanted to be, but Jamie wasn’t like that. In her heart, she wanted to be a theatre director, but she knew acting would help get her in the door. She had good taste in the arts; the type to drag her boyfriend to visit museums on weekends. Jamie was cute, but not the type that Benny usually goes for. She had a commanding presence most Chinese guys would find intimidating due to her take-charge attitude. She stood for her beliefs and was never one to back down from talking about them. She got into trouble a lot with the girls at the academy because of those personality traits. The other girls would talk behind her back and be condescending to her since she was from Dong Bei area(an area in China where people are extremely open and blunt). She didn’t have many girlfriends and got along more with boys due to her honest “Dong-bei” nature. She came from the city of Shenyang to study at the Shanghai Theatre Academy with money her mom saved up from a restaurant business. Before she turned 10, Jamie’s father went away to work in Shanghai and never came back. Rumors spread that he got married in Shanghai to a factory owner’s daughter and didn’t want to leave his new comfy life. He would send back money every three months but no one ever seen or heard from him again. One of Jamie’s biggest fears in life was to run into him one day in Shanghai even though she probably wouldn’t recognize him and vice versa.

     She grew up without a father. Her relationships with men included dating men a lot older who made her somehow feel safe. She thought they could fill an empty void in her heart left by her past. Her strong pride and independence eventually manifested into a hard shell portraying an independent girl who feared showing her true vulnerability. I guess you could say Jamie always looked for a father figure in her relationships with men. Jamie’s ex-boyfriends sometimes took advantage of her faith in them and exploited her trust by cheating with other women. When mistreated by bad men, she often lied to herself just to believe the men she was with truly loved her. She took on relationships to escape loneliness. Being alone reminded her of her childhood playing by herself in the corner with toys and making up stories. She dreamt of marriage and family like any girl would. In her mind, having a family would fill that void in her heart left by her childhood and give her security.

     Growing up in China with a single mom is a lot more difficult than the U.S. since most Chinese families at the time didn’t believe in divorce (even though that has changed now). She always yearned for intimacy in her life and was optimistic in finding love. No matter how many times she was burned by men, she believed in life and one day she would find what she was looking for. She saw the movie Suzhou River and connected with Zhou Xun’s character Mei-Mei instantly. She would watch the way Ma Da chased after his girlfriend and dreamed a man would do that for her. Secretly, she would want to ask her boyfriends the same question Mei Mei asked her bf in the movie “If I disappeared, would you come looking all over the world for me?” Deep inside, she just wanted to be loved, hugged, cuddled, and protected by a man who would treat her like the world. As she got older, she questioned herself whether what she’s been dreaming of her whole life was too much to ask for in life. She then questioned whether love existed at all or was it just in movies and books. But no matter how jaded she became by the horrible men who used her, she still held on to that hope; dreaming one day Prince Charming would come her way.

            Jamie’s mother ran a small breakfast joint that sold Chinese donuts and all sorts of other Chinese buns along with fresh soy milk. Running the small joint by herself, she would get up every morning at 4am and start getting the place ready and getting the steamers ready to steam the buns she made the previous night. The work life of Jamie’s mother prevented her from spending any time with Jamie. In her mind, Jamie’s mom focused on making money to bring security to both her and Jamie. She feared if she did not work, she would be dependent on her husband’s parents for money; her pride wouldn’t allow that to happen. No matter how tough times got, she never gave in, whether she was sick or didn’t get enough sleep, Jamie’s mom got up every day at 4am and worked until 10pm with a 3 hour break from 2pm-5pm. Seeing how hard her mom worked, Jamie grew up respecting her mom’s hard work ethic and never did much to cause any trouble. She was always grateful for how her mom went from being a housewife to running a business so the two of them could survive. When Jamie became a teenager, her protective mother would get on her case about boys and kept her sheltered at home studying.

Being sheltered at home all the way until the end of high school, Jamie went to Shanghai without much exposure to the outside world. She got drunk for the first time in the first week of college at the Shanghai Theatre Academy during a class dinner help by the class leader. It wasn’t long before fellow students courted her. Receiving so much attention from men for the first time in her life, Jamie indulged in their courtships but never gave in to any pressure when men began to press for physical contact. She lost her virginity her 2^nd year in college to a classmate who had been a good friend who took care of her since she came to Shanghai. His actions touched her deeply. Although she did not love him the way he loved her, she felt as if she owed him for everything he’s done for her. He would also be the last kind person she would date. In her heart, she wanted a man who was: artistic, caring, committed, faithful, and most importantly an idealist who wanted to change society as much as she did. She saw the world cold and wanted to somehow bring warmth to give sunshine into people’s hearts. She wrote scrīpts and wrote about characters that are kind who believed in the good of other people. She fantasized about the world being a Utopia filled with happiness and loneliness nonexistent. She yearned for a happiness she’s never felt in her own life. One night she dreamt she met a man who finally made her feel complete. This feeling of someone who shared her world gave her hope that love existed in this world. She woke up in tears in the middle of the night due to this new sensation. She wanted that connection she felt in her dream and desperately looked for it. Any men she felt a slight connection to, she would invest in them and see if there was potential for them to reach that higher level of intimacy. When her efforts deemed useless after all the failures, she did her best to hold onto her hope. For the next few years, she wandered in life hanging onto a thin thread of hope that it would one day be kind to her.

 

To be continued…

Part II: Jamie

            I met Benny for dinner in South San Francisco where we went out for some burgers. After burgers we went out to a small dive bar to kick it. He was very excited to see me and bought me a Versace wallet as a present. I was happy to be showing him around the city since I know he’s never seen the city at night. He told me he recently watched one of my favorite movies Suzhou River and really liked it. Even though he’s not too into movies, he would ask me to recommend him a few movies every month so he can learn what’s good out there. Suzhou River was a movie I thought he would really like since it’s about love and intimacy, something I thought he lacked in his life. He said he felt like he really connected with the film and thanked me for recommending it.

            After some chitchatting, Benny started to get tipsy and opening up about his life. He said his business was doing well but he was ready to move on to something new since he’s done all he wanted with that business. He was planning to open up a few nightclubs and bars all over Shanghai with a certain theme and planning on branding it. The surprise of the night came when Benny said he wanted to tell me about this girl. He began to describe to me about this girl. I was obviously shocked since knowing his history and philosophy; I never thought this dude would ever get so whipped about one chick. This is the same dude that told me he would never settle down and get married because he never had any room for intimacy in his heart. He never trusted other people and depended only on himself. I don’t know if age had an effect on Benny or not; maybe that’s what changed his mind. Benny is now 33, and looking over at his life, he maybe was beginning to see that even though he owned everything and anything anyone could possibly want, he also had nothing. No one would miss him if he died and he knew it. When he started talking about Jamie, his expression and demeanor totally changed. It was easy to tell this guy was really into this girl.I took out my voice recorder and started recording everything he was saying so that I may write about it later. 

Jamie

            Jamie Zhao is a girl Benny met through his own company. She worked as a host for Benny’s company on weekends while going to school at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in her senior year. She was majoring in directing while aspiring to be both an actress and musical director. She was quite talented and was very intuitive when it came to people. She has a very different distinct charisma about her that made her stand out. She is full of substance and a calm confidence about her that nothing can touch. She never tried to please people and give them what they expected out of her. Her style in hosting was very direct with a very commanding presence that drew people into what she was saying; she didn’t have to be loud to be heard. Most of the actresses are all about kissing ass and sometimes giving ass to get where they wanted to be, but Jamie wasn’t like that. In her heart, she wanted to be a theatre director, but she knew acting would help get her in the door. She had good taste in the arts; the type to drag her boyfriend to visit museums on weekends. Jamie was cute, but not the type that Benny usually goes for. She had a commanding presence most Chinese guys would find intimidating due to her take-charge attitude. She stood for her beliefs and was never one to back down from talking about them. She got into trouble a lot with the girls at the academy because of those personality traits. The other girls would talk behind her back and be condescending to her since she was from Dong Bei area(an area in China where people are extremely open and blunt). She didn’t have many girlfriends and got along more with boys due to her honest “Dong-bei” nature. She came from the city of Shenyang to study at the Shanghai Theatre Academy with money her mom saved up from a restaurant business. Before she turned 10, Jamie’s father went away to work in Shanghai and never came back. Rumors spread that he got married in Shanghai to a factory owner’s daughter and didn’t want to leave his new comfy life. He would send back money every three months but no one ever seen or heard from him again. One of Jamie’s biggest fears in life was to run into him one day in Shanghai even though she probably wouldn’t recognize him and vice versa.

     She grew up without a father. Her relationships with men included dating men a lot older who made her somehow feel safe. She thought they could fill an empty void in her heart left by her past. Her strong pride and independence eventually manifested into a hard shell portraying an independent girl who feared showing her true vulnerability. I guess you could say Jamie always looked for a father figure in her relationships with men. Jamie’s ex-boyfriends sometimes took advantage of her faith in them and exploited her trust by cheating with other women. When mistreated by bad men, she often lied to herself just to believe the men she was with truly loved her. She took on relationships to escape loneliness. Being alone reminded her of her childhood playing by herself in the corner with toys and making up stories. She dreamt of marriage and family like any girl would. In her mind, having a family would fill that void in her heart left by her childhood and give her security.

     Growing up in China with a single mom is a lot more difficult than the U.S. since most Chinese families at the time didn’t believe in divorce (even though that has changed now). She always yearned for intimacy in her life and was optimistic in finding love. No matter how many times she was burned by men, she believed in life and one day she would find what she was looking for. She saw the movie Suzhou River and connected with Zhou Xun’s character Mei-Mei instantly. She would watch the way Ma Da chased after his girlfriend and dreamed a man would do that for her. Secretly, she would want to ask her boyfriends the same question Mei Mei asked her bf in the movie “If I disappeared, would you come looking all over the world for me?” Deep inside, she just wanted to be loved, hugged, cuddled, and protected by a man who would treat her like the world. As she got older, she questioned herself whether what she’s been dreaming of her whole life was too much to ask for in life. She then questioned whether love existed at all or was it just in movies and books. But no matter how jaded she became by the horrible men who used her, she still held on to that hope; dreaming one day Prince Charming would come her way.

            Jamie’s mother ran a small breakfast joint that sold Chinese donuts and all sorts of other Chinese buns along with fresh soy milk. Running the small joint by herself, she would get up every morning at 4am and start getting the place ready and getting the steamers ready to steam the buns she made the previous night. The work life of Jamie’s mother prevented her from spending any time with Jamie. In her mind, Jamie’s mom focused on making money to bring security to both her and Jamie. She feared if she did not work, she would be dependent on her husband’s parents for money; her pride wouldn’t allow that to happen. No matter how tough times got, she never gave in, whether she was sick or didn’t get enough sleep, Jamie’s mom got up every day at 4am and worked until 10pm with a 3 hour break from 2pm-5pm. Seeing how hard her mom worked, Jamie grew up respecting her mom’s hard work ethic and never did much to cause any trouble. She was always grateful for how her mom went from being a housewife to running a business so the two of them could survive. When Jamie became a teenager, her protective mother would get on her case about boys and kept her sheltered at home studying.

Being sheltered at home all the way until the end of high school, Jamie went to Shanghai without much exposure to the outside world. She got drunk for the first time in the first week of college at the Shanghai Theatre Academy during a class dinner help by the class leader. It wasn’t long before fellow students courted her. Receiving so much attention from men for the first time in her life, Jamie indulged in their courtships but never gave in to any pressure when men began to press for physical contact. She lost her virginity her 2^nd year in college to a classmate who had been a good friend who took care of her since she came to Shanghai. His actions touched her deeply. Although she did not love him the way he loved her, she felt as if she owed him for everything he’s done for her. He would also be the last kind person she would date. In her heart, she wanted a man who was: artistic, caring, committed, faithful, and most importantly an idealist who wanted to change society as much as she did. She saw the world cold and wanted to somehow bring warmth to give sunshine into people’s hearts. She wrote scrīpts and wrote about characters that are kind who believed in the good of other people. She fantasized about the world being a Utopia filled with happiness and loneliness nonexistent. She yearned for a happiness she’s never felt in her own life. One night she dreamt she met a man who finally made her feel complete. This feeling of someone who shared her world gave her hope that love existed in this world. She woke up in tears in the middle of the night due to this new sensation. She wanted that connection she felt in her dream and desperately looked for it. Any men she felt a slight connection to, she would invest in them and see if there was potential for them to reach that higher level of intimacy. When her efforts deemed useless after all the failures, she did her best to hold onto her hope. For the next few years, she wandered in life hanging onto a thin thread of hope that it would one day be kind to her.

 

To be continued…

Bittersweet

 

This is dedicated to: Benny “The Bull” Ling, thanks for sharing your life experiences with me.

 

This is a story based on conversations with my friend Benny Ling.

Part I: Benny the Bull

     Last week while I was filming Fight Life at the Strikeforce event around 11pm when I suddenly get a call from a blocked number, I was like wtf? Only time I ever get a blocked # is from my agent, and she never calls me this late. So I pick up the phone and I hear this dude screaming my name "JIMBOOOO". For the record, only two dudes in this world have ever called me Jimbo: my tennis coach Steve and an old friend Benny from Shanghai. It turns out it actually was Benny and he was calling me from San Francisco. I was excited since I haven't seen this dude for like 2 years. Benny is a huge Michael Jordan fan, so I penned him "Benny the Bull". He said that he was in town working an event in San Francisco as a guest host and wanted to see if we could hangout. I set a day for the week after to meet up for drinks in the Mission.

     Before we go any further, let me give you a little(or a lot) background to this guy Benny. This dude is CRAZY! He is someone I consider to be one of the most interesting people I've ever met. The main reason I say that is due to his philosophy on life and our purpose in living(which I'll get into later) and the crazy stories he tells us when he's drunk. We became good buddies in China when he hired me to host live company events in Shanghai. He liked my style when I did the gigs and always invited me out to the clubs and bars. He owns an event company that is doing very well in Shanghai. I rejected his offers to hangout the first few times because I thought he looked arrogant and was definitely full of himself. I had no idea at the time he owned the company and thought he was just a small producer for the event company who paid the hosts. I thought he was a jackass since he acted like he owned everybody and didn’t treat people very well(I later found out he did). It was only a few events later did I start talking to him and finding out he’s a real chill guy. He even helped me get hooked up with some extra gigs in a few small commercials. He said he liked my straight shooter no BS style and wanted to do everything to help me and support my career. I really took that to heart and never rejected his offer to hangout again after that. Unlike most Chinese businessmen, he never forced me to drink or peer pressured me into doing anything. After the first time we hung out, I realized I had more in common with this guy than I thought. We quickly became buddies and would even ball it up on Saturday afternoons in Rucker Park(yes, there is an indoor gym in Shanghai called that).

     Benny turned out to be a real loyal dude who I became quiet close with on a few drunken occasions when he really opened himself up to me. I can’t ever say I really know the guy because I think he’s so elusive and doesn’t like people figuring him out. He’ll act all crazy one day, and be all different the next time you see him, it’s kind of weird to see him at work and when he’s out socializing, like a chameleon, he’s a totally different  person depending on the situation. He’s also a dude you could look in the face and know he’s been through a lot in life even though he isn’t that old. He’s got that young looking face with quite a few emotional scars  and a pair of sad eyes filled with feigned confidence.   

     For starters, Benny is 1/2 French and 1/2 Chinese. He speaks fluent French, English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish. Very smart (both intelligence and street). He lives with his Shanghainese mom in Shanghai where she runs a very successful real estate business. He also has a bedroom in his event company where he sometimes stays when working late. His parents divorced when Benny was 3 years old due to some infidelity issues his dad had. During his childhood, Benny lived with his dad in the U.S. in New York City until he turned 11. His mom and dad had a deal where he can have Benny until he turned 11 and then he's suppose to be handed over to her until he turns 18 and goes off to college back in NYC(they swapped him during the summers). The reason for this arrangement was so that Benny could learn English and be fluent by the time he came back to Shanghai.

     I really think the whole growing up from age 1-11 with his dad, and 11-18 with mom thing really messed him up. Being a half white/half Chinese person who can understand what everyone is saying about you sucks since people are always talking smack believing he doesn't understand. Locals didn't really accept him since he's not full Chinese. Only reason people were nice to him on the surface was because of his riches. He’s a good looking guy and all, but I know the girls he get are always after the money. He doesn’t care either because his family is so filthy rich that he’ll never run out of money no matter how much he spends. He reminds me of one of those dudes from those Taiwanese idol shows with long hair and get all emotional, lol. One Christmas when I came back to the states, I bought Benny a MJ North Carolina jersey. He was so excited that day that he treated me out to Japanese all you can eat. I think what Benny wanted was a real friend who could level with him instead of all these phonies wanting to hangout because he had the money and power to do things. I don’t ever think I became that close of a friend to Benny since I didn’t see him much, maybe once a month. When we did see each other or hanging out, it would be as we were best friends as he’d treat me a lot different than the rest of his crew.

     People kissed his ass because they knew he was a high roller and wanted to tag along when he was going out flipping the bill. Cool thing about Benny is that he sees through people and their motivations very quick, he just doesn’t care. He knows people are using him, but he doesn’t give a damn since he’s also using them to make himself look cool and having face(huge in Chinese culture). Talking to him, you can tell he's got a hard shell with a smart mind knowing exactly what’s going on in every situation. One time he fired our sound guy because he mixed up one of the speakers at an event and he fixed them himself. He later told me he’s studied everything part of event planning(including the technical equipment) in case something went wrong and needed to be fixed. He said saving the show even if he’s losing money was more important because having the clients happy was his #1 priority.

     With all his confidence, he definitely got a lot of hidden layers covering up his insecurities. One time I remember we were at a club and this girl he was with that night at was being hit on by some random guys. The next thing you know, Benny talked to the security guys and had those guys thrown the hell out of the club. I was shocked and thought "who the hell has just throws people out of a club when they want to? WTF?" It was then that I realized how powerful his family was. When I asked him what happened, he said “They didn’t know my name, that’s what happened”. I thought it was rather bizarre until I got to know him better later as he would do stuff like this to show off in front of people. I never liked that part about him, but I guess his childhood and lack of attention from his folks had a lot to do with that. He always felt like he needed to prove something to everybody.

     Being the generous guy he is, Benny's the kind of dude that’ll get you in the nicest clubs and bars without paying a dime due to his status! I always enjoyed working for him too since he always paid me a stack of cash after each event. He'd always say to me "If you get sick of doing movies, come be my partner in my company, I produce, you host, I'll give you 25%." Most business people (esp. in the entertainment industry) talk a big game in Shanghai but ain’t got squat to back up their talk. The way Benny looked at me when he made me that offer assured me this dude was serious(I should've taken it! jk). He told me he started as a host himself and liked the event planning business for its fast pace and eventually had his mom buy out the company a year later. They spent a fortune on the buyout since it was a solid company that he worked for with an established list of clientele(Lumix, VW, Coke, Nike, etc...), but everything has a price tag and is sold when the price is right. His clientele were all big time companies that spent a fortune on their events and trusted Benny's company due to their track record. 

    Growing up, Benny's mom was always focused on her work and never cared much for him. His alternative included: a driver, a cook, a maid, and a LOT of money. Whatever he wanted, this dude pretty much could get it. He said he spent money like water since his family had so much of it and never gave a damn. He had like this entourage following him everywhere he went and would scrub off him like TLC. Being the adrenaline junkie he is, this cat did EVERYTHING: skydiving, snorkling, mountain climbing. In his mind, he believed that he was the man and had no regard for anyone else in the world. He was a pretty selfish SOB and you could tell by the way this dude walks around. He's always got like Air Jordans on and this special cell phone case across his waist to show people he's got the latest phone(in china, cell phones are a big deal if you got the latest one).

    He was living the fly life until the one day when he got JACKED! Apparently, his act butted heads with some strangers in the club Guandii. He pissed off the wrong people while drunk and got stabbed 3 times by this Taiwanese dude that was a gang member. Luckily, the wounds weren't serious and he lived. After the stabbing incident, he said he stayed in more and didn't go out as much. He didn’t feel invincible anymore after that incident and definitely wised up.

    He finished high school in Shanghai at an international academy before heading to NYU for college. He majored in English and came right back to Shanghai after he finished his 4 years there. Since Benny's a pretty good looking guy and also spoke all these languages, event companies coveted him to host their events and paid him a lot of money. He said he was quite famous in the event hosting business and made a lot of contacts with company heads, other event companies, etc. He would later use all that to his advantage after he bought out the event company he worked for. Benny played hard during the weekends but worked his ass off on weekdays to make sure all his events were going smooth.

     The few serious conversations we had while partying covered some really cool topics and I have to admit he really influenced and challenged my way of thinking by questioning mine and explaining his philosophies in life and how he came to formulate them. The most memorable conversation we had was over women. With all the women he's been with in his life, he said he didn't believe in marriage or any of that because he said he could never love one girl. I argued that it's because he hasn't met the one worthy. He said ever since he was 15 he's been sexually active but never had a serious relationship. I think he got mad or upset when I asked him if he thought any of this thinking had anything to do with his family background with his dad cheating on his mom(yeah, I felt ballsy that night). He felt really uncomfortable after I said that and made an excuse saying he needed to get back inside the bar. I stood outside that that night thinking about how complex this guy's mind must be with all the crazy ass stuff he's experienced. I could tell he’s hiding a lot of pain through everything he’s gone through but never had anyone to talk to about his stuff.

      I told him the next time I saw him that I thought he should write a book about his life and he said he’s considered it. Between all his sexual conquests and getting stabbed and being a ½ French ½ Chinese boy with divorced parents living in Shanghai, he could write a novel about his experiences and put that NYU English degree to work. He showed me a few drafts of some stories he wrote in college and said I could possibly use them in my future films. I really liked one which was practically a conversation between a son and his father’s ghost (not Hamlet). The conversation revolved around the boy’s frustration that the father was never there for him and how could he make up for anything now that he’s dead. I asked him if he got inspirations from his own relationship, he shrugged it off and went out for a smoke. I was beginning to see a pattern with this guy.

     The last time I saw Benny was at club MBox where he threw a small going away party for me. I told him it was no big deal and I’d be back in a few years, he said he’ll miss me hosting his events. Before I left the club that night, I gave him my USA phone # and told him to call me if he ever came to Cali to visit. Well, I never thought he’d actually come through.     

 

To be continued…