Woke up early as usual, around 8am! They say as one grows older, the less sleep one needs - Ha! Now I'm not admitting I'm old, in fact we Entertainment People in Hong Kong pride ourselves in being able to look younger than our counterparts in other fields because in the Movie business, one has to keep on feeling young - otherwise, our thoughts will be out of tune with the young people who make up the major part of the audience now! How many successful mature business or professional people in HK go to the Movies now? How many busy housewives do (unless it's a kids' movie that requires parental escort)? Very few, I'm afraid. We'll be happy if they even have time to spare to watch our DVD or Video at home! We'll be happy if they're not watching pirated copies.

Where's this article leading me? I don't really know! It's just that Katharine Mysak, the latest staff addition to the JC Family, (you guys must have noticed how much our website has improved since Katharine joined us, how up-to-date our 'Latest News' has been - thanks, Kath, Jackie and I really appreciate your excellent work) reminded me that I'd hadn't written anything for the Scrapbook for a long time and it just suddenly felt like this is the best time to do it!

Looking out from the balcony of my small weekend retreat at Repulse Bay, the Bay looks unusually quiet this morning! It's cool and breezy and you can almost hear the sound of the waves! Now this is really something unusual because we are experiencing a real hot summer this year, temperatures in the low 30s almost daily! Perhaps it's because tropical storm Sanvu just made landfall at Shantou city in Guangdong noon yesterday, just missing Hong Kong. It was severe enough to generate a rare waterspout (a tornado that occurs over water, a rare occurrence for HK, the last one probably in 2003!) which whipped up heavy rain and strong winds for hours across the City! Well, this morning is the calm after the storm, although the weather forecast is that the wet weather will continue for the weekend!

Well, when someone is feeling a little guilty, one often tries to find an excuse! Mine is straight and simple - just two reasons! One is that Jackie is in town and whenever he is, the Office routine gets entirely upset! He simply has the knack to do it, dropping in anytime he likes with one of his millions of new ideas. The trouble is he does so with so much enthusiasm that you just don't have the heart not to listen. Second reason is there is indeed a lot to do. As Jackie's popularity increases all over the world, Movie business is not just the only thing we do now! Just last week, we had people coming in from different parts of the world: someone from Utah to talk about an amazing water purification scheme that would make stream water potable (this touches Jackie's heart not so much as a commercial concern but as an environmental gadget as he sees the potential it has all over S.E. Asia and China to help humankind), another from the States with a proposal for an Aviation joint venture (the necessity for private jets is becoming more pressing as the China market opens up and commercial flights are time-restricted, plus certain areas are inaccessible). Yet another party wants to talk about a Jackie Chan Coffee venture - much along the lines of Starbucks - while a Japanese party comes to finalize plans to launch an Interactive TV game series. (This is called JCXavix Boxercise and will be launching all over Japan this September! It should be hitting the American markets soon too! Look out for it!) Although we have a lot of business proposals, we do not and obviously cannot accept them all but our principle is to LISTEN to all of them before we decide! We will not give up any opportunity that may be good for the JC Group!

Besides, there's a lot of traveling! In fact, Jackie will be flying off today to California to do ADR (dubbing) work for New Police Story as the Film has been picked up for American distribution (you guys will be happy to hear this, won't you?). After that, he will need to rush back to HK to tape the Opening Ceremony of Disneyland HK (Official Opening Sep. 12, 2005), then do two more Charity concerts in China before the end of August.

Come September, the schedule becomes more hectic and unbelievable! It's time for the Annual all-Actress Charity Rally again, except plans are more ambitious this time! It won't just be a one day affair this time, it will extend to a whole weekend! It starts with a "Jackie Chan and Friends Concert" at the 80,000 capacity Shanghai Auditorium, followed by a Charity Gala dinner at the Grand Hyatt, ending with the Charity Rally at the brand new Formula One Race Course in Shanghai. For each event, we hope to raise at least six (6) million RMB, 2 for Beijing Charities, 2 for Shanghai, and 2 for the remote areas of China such as Xinjiang to build the much needed schools for children.

On September 5, Jackie will be off to Tokyo, Japan to launch the Interactive Xavix series I talked about above. He rushes back to Beijing on Sept. 10th because we promised to open the Australian Film Festival in Beijing! From the 11th. the MYTH promotion tour begins and it's then that Jackie and I go our separate ways too! We are very fortunate this year that two of our productions have been selected for two renowned Film Festivals this year. THE MYTH, starring Jackie and directed by Stanley Tong, has been selected for its World Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival while EVERLASTING REGRET, produced by Jackie and directed by Stanley Kwan has been chosen for competition at the Venice Film Festival. Hence, Jackie will go alone on the 1st lap of the MYTH Asian promotion tour while Solon and I will head the delegation to Venice, meeting up with Jackie in Toronto for THE MYTH's World Premiere on Sep. 15, 2005!

Wow, I've certainly rambled on, haven't I? Guess it's time to stop my random thoughts now! The sun is trying to break out of the rain clouds but with difficulty! Repulse Bay is a bit more crowded now with our visiting neighbors from across the border! The Authorities have made it easier for our Mainland neighbors to visit HK on a special "Freedom Walk" scheme when they can visit with a special visa for a few days and this has certainly done a lot to boost the Tourism Industry in Hong Kong. Hope they can enjoy for a few more hours before the rain falls again!

And until my next letter, take care, keep smiling and as Jackie always say, "Love, Peace and Unity"!

Warmest Aloha,
Willie Chan
Sunday August 14, 2005

Photo ©2005 Willie Chan

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