by Katharine Schroeder

I felt like The Little Engine That Could. You remember the children's story about a little steam engine who is faced with the task of climbing a steep hill and manages to succeed by repeating over and over to herself that she thinks she can. So as I climbed flight after flight of stairs heading towards the 9th floor where the film crew was readying for a shoot on Jackie's new movie, I kept telling myself "I think I can, I think I can."

Fibe and I had met up with Jackie and his friends from New Zealand in the parking lot of an abandoned government building in Kowloon Tong. The building used to be a housing unit but was scheduled for demolition to make way for a tall residential tower. Since it was unoccupied, the elevator was not in service. Not a problem, I thought. A couple of flights of stairs - no big deal.

No one had mentioned the word "rooftop."

As we began our climb, Jackie chattered away happily while he set the pace. The rest of us kept up pretty well until we reached about the fourth floor, when some of our little group began going noticeably slower. "Bah!" Jackie teased. "This is nothing." We valiantly tried to keep up with him and by the time we approached the 9th floor, a few of us were lagging behind him as he bounced up the final flight of stairs.

After recovering my breath and silently congratulating myself for keeping up with Jackie for all nine flights without collapsing, I entered a large apartment which was obviously not occupied but was full of lots of things anyway. Fibe and I took a look around; it was a large (huge by Hong Kong standards) apartment which had beautiful wood flooring and spacious rooms - lots of rooms. Most of the house was empty save for bits of this and that and cables running up the hallway. We entered a living room which was, to my surprise, furnished. Being a newcomer to movie sets, I expressed my confusion to a tolerant Fibe, asking, "If no one lives here, then whose fish tank is this? And whose fish? And who are these people in these photographs? And whose couch? And whose…" Suddenly it dawned on me. I was on a movie set. Yes, this was real but not real. The large studio lights set up in the corners of the room should have been a dead giveaway, so I blamed my ignorance on lack of oxygen from the climb up the stairs.

One of the rooms was set up as a dressing room. There was a rack of clothes, a table covered with all kinds of make-up, boxes of shoes, big studio lights, and lots more cables. Jackie sat down in a chair and the make-up artist began her work.

He continued to talk while she dabbed and brushed on his face. "I hate make-up," mumbled Jackie. Lucky for me, Jackie was speaking English since there were the three girls from New Zealand visiting the set also.

They are the daughters of Jackie's friend and they are just about the nicest girls you could ever meet - Kathy, Sylvia and JoJo. Jackie called them Do, Mi, and Fa since he said he could never sort out their names. Re, the second sister, wasn't there. (You might remember the "Do Re Mi" song from The Sound of Music, a movie Jackie ranks as one of his all-time favorites.) The girls were born in Hong Kong but moved to New Zealand when they were children. Jackie had no end of fun imitating their accents. We spent quite a while trying out different voices: British, New Zealand, New York. Jackie was funny and charming as usual, and we all laughed at each other's feeble attempts to sound like we were from New Zealand or New York or England.

Jackie disappeared for a while and the rest of us moved into the living room and sat around the table talking. Soon he was back and dressed in a harness vest. One of his stunt men began fitting him with padding and securing the straps. Jackie joined us at the table and we talked and told stories about all kinds of different things. Jackie's shoulder was still bothering him - the doctor told him that the only way it would heal properly was if he did nothing with it for six months. You can imagine Jackie's reaction to that. "Anyway," he said, "if it didn't hurt then I couldn't ask for massages. Wink wink."

And then it was time to go out onto the roof for filming. There were so many people out there and so many cables, lights, boxes, and monitors! Walking was treacherous and there was no one running around warning you to watch your head or mind the cables. Everyone was busy doing a job. Jackie and the rest of our little group sat down on some boxes along the roof edge and waited while the crew filmed some test shots. Then Jackie went over and was hooked up to some wires for the jump. "The jump?" I asked Fibe. She nodded and explained that Jackie would be jumping from the rooftop of this building to the rooftop of the building next door. "You can't be serious," I said. "We're ten stories above the ground."

She was serious.

Now I have to say that although I'm not afraid of heights, I was more than a little nervous for Jackie when I thought of him jumping from one building to the next, the only thing coming between him and certain death being some thin cables held by his crew. Of course Jackie was not afraid at all and he repeated the jump over and over again until Benny Chan, the director, was satisfied.

While Jackie played Peter Pan at the edge of the rooftop, the rest of us sat quietly and watched. The wind had picked up and it was almost cold. I wrapped my scarf more securely around my neck and looked out to the building across the street. People were crowded around their windows watching Jackie Chan jump from building to building right there in their own neighborhood. Earlier when we were sitting at the table in the living room, Jackie had looked out at this same building and smiled, saying how nice it was to see all the families together in their houses, talking and eating.

Once the scene was completed we went back into the dressing room and waited while they set up the next shot. This is something that never occurred to me - how much time would be spent waiting. It was easy to see how strong friendships could be forged during all those hours spent sitting and talking while the crew set up shots. Jackie was obviously a master at the art of passing the time and entertained all of us with stories about the differences between Hong Kong filmmaking and Hollywood filmmaking. Surely you've heard him talk about what he considers the excesses in Hollywood - the private trailers and catered lunches. In Hong Kong, everyone rides together and the tea lady brings people hot drinks. At mealtime, box lunches are brought in. Filming in Hong Kong is certainly more casual and definitely cheaper.

Once Kathy, JoJo, and Sylvia left, everyone launched into Cantonese, so Fibe translated for me and then we decided that we'd head home since it was very late at night. Jackie and the rest of the crew would be there until early the next morning, but Fibe and I were still on a regular schedule and decided it would be best to try to keep it that way. Everyone else who was working on the film had switched their nights and days since so much shooting was going on in the middle of the night.

We said goodbye to everyone and then began our trek down the nine flights of stairs. It was a lot easier leaving than it was arriving, but still I crossed my fingers and hoped that the next set visit would be on level ground.

Photos: The JC Group

Back to top