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00:00:00Hi, my name is Emily Ting. I am the writer and director of Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong.
00:00:18Welcome to the director commentary. I love these opening credit shots. These are actually
00:00:26out-of-focus lights of Hong Kong. And these were not planned to be the opening credits.
00:00:34The opening credits were planned to be over several B-roll shots of Hong Kong. And I think
00:00:41it was somewhere on set, I think this was, this ended up being our DP Josh Silfen's idea
00:00:50that we were kind of experimenting with these out-of-focus lights and they just, they were
00:00:54so beautiful. And, um, somewhere on set, he said, you know what, these should just be
00:00:59your opening credits. And I totally agreed with him. Um, but then what ended up happening
00:01:04was we spent too much time shooting these, uh, out-of-focus lights. And it became sort of
00:01:11all the time that we had, uh, allocated for B-roll shots ended up going to shooting these
00:01:19bokeh lights. Um, they were gray. We did end up using them for the opening, uh, sequence.
00:01:25But what ended up happening was we didn't have enough time to shoot the actual B-rolls we
00:01:30wanted. Um, on the B-roll date, this ended up being really the only B-roll of Hong Kong we
00:01:37ended up using, the one that was shot, um, on the peak. All of this stuff you see here from,
00:01:42um, Kowloon and from Hong Kong and this is Causeway Bay. These were actually shot on a separate trip.
00:01:50So I actually went back to Hong Kong a separate time just to shoot these B-roll shots, which cost
00:01:55a lot of money and, uh, time. So this was probably going to be my best advice to anyone who's shooting
00:02:01a film overseas. Get all the B-rolls that you can when you're in the country because it will cost a
00:02:07lot of money for you to go back and reshoot them. So all of this stuff was shot, um, on
00:02:12a separate trip. So this is actually, um, the, the beginning of our story in the opening scene.
00:02:22This was shot in a, um, bar called The Heat, which I, as I understand, it's closed recently.
00:02:29Um, the reason I chose this bar was mainly because of the staircase and I thought it didn't really
00:02:38look like what you would think Hong Kong looks like. In fact, I thought it had a very European
00:02:44feel and I wanted to choose a place that you wouldn't right off the bat realize was in Hong
00:02:51Kong. Um, first I, I wanted to show this other side of Hong Kong, you know, on the Hong Kong Island
00:02:57side. It is very Western and it is very European. And, um, you know, I, I wanted to feature these
00:03:05kind of stairways and alleyways that you don't normally associate with Hong Kong. So I found
00:03:12this little staircase and the, and the heat just happens to be on the staircase. And, um,
00:03:19another reason I chose the staircase is because all of the beautiful trees. And as you can see,
00:03:23there are all these, um, candles, uh, that's hung on the trees. None of that was there. That was all
00:03:30very painstakingly put up by our art departments. Um, I just sort of had this vision of, you know,
00:03:37having these beautifully lit trees, which doesn't actually exist in Hong Kong. Of course, um, one of
00:03:45the first questions that people always ask me, um, in conjunction with this film is always,
00:03:51what was your inspiration for this film? And, you know, I will get into that more throughout the
00:03:58commentary, but one of the biggest reasons I wanted to make this movie was to showcase and highlight
00:04:06Hong Kong in a very romantic light. I just feel like whenever you say Hong Kong cinema, um, people
00:04:12tend to think about, you know, gangster films or Kung Fu films, I think that they're just,
00:04:18there was never really a lot of, or if ever any English language romances, um, set in Hong Kong that
00:04:26really kind of treated it like its third character. Um, you know, I take inspiration from movies like
00:04:33Lost in Translation. I feel like that was a real love letter to Tokyo. And, you know, and of course,
00:04:41everybody always points to the before sunrise films, which was clearly a very big inspiration for me.
00:04:47Um, so before I even figured out what the plot of the movie was, my number one goal in making this
00:04:55movie was to showcase Hong Kong in this very romantic light. And I wanted people to think of it as a very
00:05:01romantic place. So in selecting all of the locations, you know, I made sure to kind of highlight all of my
00:05:10favorite places in Hong Kong and also the places I thought lends itself the best to, um, to being this
00:05:18city of love. And so that's why, you know, you would see these kind of, you know, candle lids, trees and
00:05:26staircases. Um, these were all part of going into highlighting, uh, the, the romance of Hong Kong.
00:05:35So going down the staircase, and once again, you'll see they go down a lot of staircases mainly because
00:05:40I just think it's very romantic. And the scene didn't sort of come out the way we had envisioned
00:05:49it. We were using a new technology and you can see right here, it's very bumpy and it's quite shaky.
00:05:54We were using the movie, um, which came out a couple of years ago. It was new. It was supposed to sort of
00:06:01take, it was supposed to be sort of a cheaper version of the Steadicam and, um, you know,
00:06:09they were supposed to sort of walk down the staircase all covered by the movie. And as you can see, it just
00:06:15didn't really quite work out that way. So this is Elgin Street in Soho, which is one of my favorite
00:06:21streets in Soho. Um, it's filled with restaurants and bars and it's, you know, whenever I have anybody
00:06:28come out of town, I always tell them, go grab a meal in Soho. It doesn't even matter where you go.
00:06:32It's just such a cool little street. And you know, in my mind, I always wanted them to kind of
00:06:39walk down the middle of the street like this. But when we were blocking it, I was like, there's no
00:06:43way they could walk down the middle of the street because you know, that you get, you have cars,
00:06:47you have traffic. It's, it's, um, it's quite a busy street actually for something that is that small.
00:06:53Um, but when we got on sets, you know, my production team was like, you want them to walk
00:06:58down the middle of the street, then we'll just have to stop traffic. And I was like,
00:07:02really? Could we actually do that? They're like, yeah, we do it all the time. So see,
00:07:06they're walking down the middle of the street and you see no cars, no interferences. And that's
00:07:10because I have some really amazing PAs stopping traffic at the end of the road. And they would stop
00:07:17traffic for about five minutes at a time so that our actors could, could do this take uninterrupted.
00:07:23Um, and you know, we've had a lot of cars honking at them and a lot of cars, you know, like cursing
00:07:30at them and it would not face them. So there you just saw a little, um, there's a guy wearing a shirt
00:07:37that says Emily's bitch. And I just want to say that that was not planned at all. It was totally
00:07:42by coincidence. So this is the mid levels escalator. And soon you'll see that that's
00:07:48me making my little Hitchcock cameo. And I was on a date with actually, that's the DP,
00:07:54Josh Silfen. And we were joking on set. It's like, Oh, the director and the DP are in the scene.
00:08:00Who's going to shoot this movie. Um, it was always very important for me to shoot on the
00:08:08mid levels escalators. And I remember when we were location scouting and, and this is,
00:08:14I get a lot of flack from people, um, who clearly knows the geography of Hong Kong, you know, they,
00:08:21the biggest complaint I would get would be that is not the way to get to Long Khoi Fong. And you
00:08:26know, I had every intention of keeping the geography intact. But when we got to the mid levels escalator,
00:08:33like anyone would know that you wouldn't take the escalator up to go to Long Khoi Fong, you would
00:08:38actually go down. But because the escalators at certain hours would not go down, it will only go
00:08:44up. That was the first instance where I just said, you know what, like, I really want them to be on the
00:08:50escalator. And I know the geography doesn't make sense. But let's just go with it. Who's,
00:08:56who's ever really going to know that that's not the way to Long Khoi Fong? But apparently a lot of
00:09:00people, um, cause you know, I've been getting a lot of complaints about it, but you know, I feel
00:09:05like it was important for me to showcase that. And even, you know, the, her outfit, like the reason
00:09:11she's dressed in green was because I wanted to pick up all the, um, the green color around in all the
00:09:20surroundings and, and very specifically that scene when she's riding up the green, uh, escalators.
00:09:28Um, and more about the escalators, it's, it was actually one of the few scenes in this movie where
00:09:37we did not get a permit. We, we were able to get a permit for almost everything in this movie. And
00:09:44getting a permit in Hong Kong is actually quite an easy process. It's just some paperwork and
00:09:49it doesn't cost any money. It's, it's very, very film friendly, but I think the escalators
00:09:55belonged to someone else. So it wasn't part of the government and we kind of just stole that shot.
00:10:00And then here they're walking down. So before that they were walking on Hollywood road and now
00:10:05they're walking down Peel street. So this whole sequence was probably the longest walking and
00:10:11talking sequence in the entire movie. They had to walk down, I think three city blocks. Um, and this
00:10:18also was the only walking and talking sequence where I did cut to coverage. If you look at a lot of the
00:10:23other long walking and talking sequences, I know I'm most of the time, if I could just stayed on them
00:10:30and I did not cut to coverage, but you know, with three city blocks like this, it was very difficult
00:10:36to control. This was also one of the harder scenes for us to shoot because we ended up shooting this,
00:10:44I think on a Saturday night in Hong Kong, or it was a public holiday the next day. So it became a Saturday
00:10:50night and you see all those people in the background. Um, this is a very popular street
00:10:56for expats to be drinking and they made it very, very difficult for us to shoot our scene. So,
00:11:04you know, like where they just walked down, I don't know how many times we did that scene walking,
00:11:10um, walking down that, that street, you know, we would be sort of like four or five minutes into our
00:11:17very, very long take. And then we'll have some drunken expat jump out, um, from some bar and,
00:11:24um, you know, say hi to their mom or purposely ruin our shots. It got so terrible that I had to
00:11:31eventually go up to all of those expats and promise them that I would buy them a round of shots
00:11:37if they could just please stay quiet for five minutes. So that was how we ended up shooting this
00:11:42three city blocks, um, without much problem. Um, and also in editing, you know, like it's,
00:11:49it's just about kind of string together the different takes where we're not getting interrupted
00:11:56as much. And as you can see, you know, they're walking downhill throughout this whole thing,
00:12:04which was not the difficult part. The difficult part was when we had to reset and then they have to run
00:12:10back up the hill and come down all the way again. And then add to that, you know, like drunken expats,
00:12:17like ruin the shot. It was just, it was definitely one of the more difficult days that we had just
00:12:23kind of dealing with the uncontrollable kind of situation. And that's sort of the nature of this
00:12:30film. You know, we have permits for everything, but we didn't really have the budget to close off
00:12:36any streets. So all the people that you saw in the background, they're not extras. They're just
00:12:41real people. And here, once again, we hunt all those lanterns, um, on there. That's not part of
00:12:48Hong Kong. And so again, it's like me trying to present this more romanticized version of Hong Kong.
00:12:55Like here, you're going to see, it's going to cut to their backs soon. And you'll see that like
00:12:58to give us a better life. In real life, this is just like a, you know, like a, these are kiosks
00:13:05that were, um, this like a grocery stand in the morning. And it's definitely not as beautiful as
00:13:12we made it. And here, this is the gas lamp. Um, again, they're always walking down staircases and
00:13:20there's, you know, you would never walk down the staircase in order to get to Long Khoi Fan. But,
00:13:26you know, at some point during the tech scout, I just decided to throw geography out the window
00:13:30and just feature all of my favorite places in Hong Kong.
00:13:36And once again, I just feel like this is a very picturesque and a place that you wouldn't,
00:13:43you know, if you just saw the staircase, you wouldn't think that this would be in Hong Kong.
00:13:48So the tourists here, I actually want to tell you, um, the guy here in the red shirt,
00:13:52his name is Larry. He's actually one of the associate producers of the movie and,
00:13:57you know, is doing his little cameo here. The title of the movie, Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong,
00:14:03actually came from his blog. He wrote a blog while he was living in Hong Kong as an expat,
00:14:09and it was always, and it's called, It's Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong. And I've always loved
00:14:15that title. And I thought it was just the perfect description of what Hong Kong is.
00:14:21So when this movie came about, and I actually played around with some other movie titles,
00:14:25and I just never really loved it as much as that title. So I actually approached him and asked if
00:14:30I could basically use the title of his blog for the movie. And luckily, um, he said yes, and, you know,
00:14:39and came on board as one of the producers. Um, so I wanted to talk a little bit about this sequence.
00:14:47This whole entire sequence after the staircase was supposed to happen after they leave Long Kwaifeng.
00:14:56But we moved it around in post-production because we were getting a lot of notes from test screenings
00:15:05where people were saying, well, you know, it just didn't seem like they were connecting that much
00:15:11before she made the decision to ask him out for a drink. Um, so then like in the post-production,
00:15:18we were trying to figure out, well, how do we kind of amplify their connection?
00:15:24And we decided to kind of move this whole sequence that actually came after Long Kwaifeng
00:15:31up. I just want to speak really quickly about this scene. I love this scene because it was totally
00:15:35spontaneous and these are just real, that was a real, um, engaged couple getting their photos taken
00:15:41and they really photobombed them. It was, you know, it was totally improvised. It was not written
00:15:46the script and they were not hired by us. Um, but back to the earlier point. So this whole series,
00:15:53this is Long Kwaifeng. Um, so this whole part of the movie came right after they went down the staircase
00:16:00and we, we moved everything around, which, which further throughout the geography. And I think like
00:16:08all the stuff that came before it was like little things, but, but to have a walk through central and
00:16:13the financial district in order to get to Long Kwaifeng is a huge, like geographical fupa because you
00:16:21would never go that way because he's, he's taking her on a totally different way. And once again,
00:16:27you know, we threw the geography out the door in service of the story.
00:16:33So here, um, they do get to Long Kwaifeng. This shot over here, like them walking in,
00:16:40this was all shot on a Saturday night at like around 11 PM midnight when it's, when Long Kwaifeng is,
00:16:49you know, at its busiest.
00:16:54And then you'll see very soon they walk into this humongous crowd. This, again, none of them are
00:17:01extras. These are all just real drunken people on a Saturday night in Hong Kong. And we did this whole
00:17:07scene in one take. We were sort of hiding, like up on the hill, like shooting with a long lens,
00:17:15like shooting them. And then this scene over here, when they have their prolonged dialogue,
00:17:22this was all shot on a Tuesday night at I think six or seven PM. And then here we actually, you know,
00:17:31like you have, you see some people in the background, those were extras. They're kind of like walking back and
00:17:36forth. They're, they're acting a little bit more robotic because they're not real people.
00:17:40They're extras. But even those extras, we didn't really hire. We just went to Long Kwaifeng and
00:17:45then went into the bars and asked if anybody wants to be part of this movie. And you know,
00:17:50it's a low budget film. So we were able to get a lot of free extras that way.
00:17:54And this is the part where you would have had that whole sequence where he was taking her
00:18:08to see the HSBC building, the, the financial district. And, you know, we moved it forward
00:18:14so that they go straight to the bar. And this bar is called Ping Pong 129. And I absolutely love this
00:18:22bar. And it was such a great find on our producer's part because originally we were looking for a
00:18:28totally different bar because we're thinking he's a banker. So he's probably going to take her to some
00:18:32kind of like douchey like banker bar, like a rooftop bar that overlooks the harbor, the skyline.
00:18:43And we called up a few and they were all either very, very expensive or they just, you know,
00:18:48said no. And then this bar had just opened, I think maybe a month or six weeks prior. And my
00:18:55producer saw a picture of it, I think in time on Hong Kong or something and showed me the picture.
00:19:01And she's like, look at this. It's like a totally different feel. It's green and it's red. It matches
00:19:07our color scheme. And we went to visit it and I just totally fell in love with it. And I said, you know,
00:19:12this is, this is absolutely right. Like the bar we were looking for before didn't really fit. And I
00:19:18think this really strengthened kind of his character that he would take her to a bar like this.
00:19:26We were actually the first feature film to approach the bar and to also shoot here. So we feel very
00:19:33proud of that. It's almost like we just discovered this really cinematic bar. And after we shot there,
00:19:39I hear that there were tons of like film crews and TV crews that have approached them to shoot
00:19:44there, but every single one of them. So I hear from the owner, they would come in here and completely,
00:19:51you know, change up the bar. So it looks like something completely different. Like they would
00:19:56set it up. So it looks like a music club or whatever, like none of it actually just,
00:20:02you know, kept the bar the way it is. So the owner finally saw the movie recently in Hong Kong
00:20:08and just absolutely loved it. He thought it was such a great representation of his bar and it was
00:20:14just such great marketing. And, you know, and, and we've become really good friends. Like now,
00:20:18whenever I go back to Hong Kong, you know, we go and have a drink here. And this is always the bar that
00:20:24people, um, asked us about the most. Like, Oh, where's that gym bar they went to? And I love sending
00:20:30people there.
00:20:30I would love to, but actually I need to get back to the party.
00:20:36Okay.
00:20:36So this was sort of like the first twist of the movie, the fact that he had a girlfriend. Um,
00:20:46and you know, to talk about the inspiration for the movie, besides just wanting to highlight
00:20:53Hong Kong as a very romantic city, it was also based on a real life encounter that I had. And I,
00:20:59I actually met someone in Hong Kong one night and, you know, had a very lovely night walking around and
00:21:05talking, um, and then at the end realized that he had a girlfriend. So this whole first part of the
00:21:13movie, this whole first act was very much based on that encounter. And we actually shot this scene.
00:21:20This was our final day of shooting. Um, and I just remember watching this scene play out on the
00:21:28monitor and it, it just felt like deja vu all over again. It's like, I feel like I'm watching my life
00:21:34unfold in front of me and, you know, and I hired these very attractive actors to, to play myself
00:21:41and the guy that I met. And I'll talk about, I'll talk a little bit more about sort of what happened
00:21:48in the real life encounter. Cause that's another thing that everybody loves to ask. Um, but I just
00:21:54wanted to say like, in terms of this particular scene, um, it didn't quite unfold like this. I, I wasn't,
00:22:04I wasn't really looking for directions to Long Khaifan. Um, you know, I know how to get to Long Khaifan.
00:22:10So the, the plot point was all kind of made up, but this whole kind of situation of spending a night
00:22:16with someone thinking you have a connection, but then realizing that you kind of made it all up in
00:22:22your head. That was all very much inspired by that encounter. Like I, I absolutely relate to Ruby's
00:22:29characters here. I'm definitely on her side in this scene and in this whole situation,
00:22:34because I feel like, you know, if you spend a night with someone where you talk about everything
00:22:40and you don't even mention that you have a girlfriend, I think, I think there's something
00:22:44a little fishy about that. Um, and I know different people have different viewpoints, but
00:22:50yeah, I'm definitely on Ruby's side in, in this argument. I think he could have at least
00:22:59worked her into conversation somehow at some point throughout the night. Um, so yeah, I mean,
00:23:06the encounter kind of inspired me so much that I ended up making a whole movie about it. And I think
00:23:13it's a very universal experience because so many people have watched a movie and have either come
00:23:20up to me during Q and A or emailed me and told me that they've gone through the exact same thing.
00:23:26And it was so relatable. And I, I just think, yeah, it's just one of those universal experiences that's
00:23:33that you go through at least once in your life. So a lot of this time lapse, I actually can't,
00:23:39we can't take credit for. We, we actually ended up buying a lot of these time lapses from Shutterstock.
00:23:45Um, I'm embarrassed, but this is, we actually shot this time lapse and it took a really,
00:23:50really long time. So that's why we just didn't have time to shoot all those time lapses.
00:23:57So this is the ferry terminal. And once again, all of this was reshot or not reshot, but shot for the
00:24:04first time when I went back on a second trip just to get the B-rolls. And you know, I, I often kick
00:24:10myself because the ferry day was actually one of the shortest days that we had. And I'll explain why
00:24:18later, but you know, while we were kind of just sitting around or we wrapped early, we could have
00:24:23shot all those B-rolls, but, but we didn't, we went back a separate trip just to shoot it.
00:24:27So this is the star ferry, um, where the two of them kind of meet again.
00:24:37We actually rented this ferry. Um, again, you know, if you ever shoot movies in Hong Kong,
00:24:44like this is, this is one of the most picturesque sites, like every movie ever shot in Hong Kong
00:24:49shoots something on the ferry. And a lot of the low budget films kind of just steal the ferry
00:24:57shot. It's like, they go on the ferry and they ride the ferry and they shoot. And I mean,
00:25:03this is a low budget film, but it was very important for me to pay for this ferry because
00:25:10this isn't just, you know, if this was just kind of Josh, like reading a book on a ferry,
00:25:14I probably would have stolen it. But this I think was a seven, a six or seven page dialogue scene.
00:25:23And that's a lot of pages that you can't just steal. And these ferry rides are pretty short. I think
00:25:31they're probably less than 10 minutes. So even just one trip, I think, I think we timed it so we could
00:25:40do each take in just one trip. And after each take, we got a reset and then take the ferry back. So
00:25:46there's just, there was no way we could have done this in an uncontrolled environment. So even though
00:25:52we had a very tiny budget, you know, I splurged whenever I thought it was necessary. And the ferry
00:25:59was definitely one of them. So I've had a lot of people, you know, like low budget filmmakers who
00:26:04shot in Hong Kong will watch a scene and be like, Oh my God, like, how are you able to get,
00:26:09to get so much coverage? And it's so controlled. And I said, well, I just paid for it. I,
00:26:13I ended up paying for the ferry and the ferry, you know, and this is where I'm going to divulge
00:26:19certain sort of production secrets. Um, everybody always asks me how much the ferry is and it costs
00:26:26a hundred us dollars an hour to shoot on the ferry. So it's not cheap and you have to rent it for a
00:26:34minimum of three hours. And this is why this was the shortest production day we had because we have
00:26:42to rent it for a minimum of three hours. I told my crew, we have to shoot this seven page scene
00:26:49in three hours because it's the minimum, but we're not going to go over it because I can't afford to
00:26:54rent it for four or five or six hours. I mean, most motion pictures shoot a 12 hour day and they
00:27:01would cover maybe like five or six pages. We did seven pages on a ferry in three hours. So it became
00:27:10a really, really short day. Um, and I remember this was the second day of production and we actually had
00:27:18our, um, pig sacrificing ceremony, uh, right before because we knew it was going to be a short day. So
00:27:24we had time to kind of sacrifice a pig and I always call it sacrificing a pig, but we didn't actually kill
00:27:30the pig. The pig was already dead. And it was just sort of this blessing ceremony that everybody goes
00:27:34through in Hong Kong to kind of pray, um, you know, for a very smooth, uh, production. And,
00:27:43and I think it worked out.
00:27:49I really love this sort of ambiguous look on Jamie's face here. And that was something that we totally
00:27:55discovered in the edit room. And we thought it was a very interesting way to end the scene because
00:28:01you know, like there's something going on that she's not quite kind of coming clear about.
00:28:08So this is shot, um, right outside of the ferry terminal. And this was, we actually shot this on
00:28:14the first day. It was the last thing we shot on the first day of production. And, um, you know,
00:28:20I wish I had my DP here to kind of explain the scene. Cause I think it was, it was a really good
00:28:25representation of how we shot the scene. If you saw sort of like the behind the scenes,
00:28:30like everything was very kind of well lit here. And, but this was all available light.
00:28:35Not only was it available light, if you saw behind the scenes photos of this scene, you'll see how dark
00:28:42it actually was. Um, but you know, it's all part of kind of the look and, you know, we had an amazing
00:28:48camera and DP and we actually cut down lights whenever we could. So once again, more kind of
00:28:56b-roll stuff. And this time we're, we're in Kowloom. Um, and the structure of the film was very much,
00:29:02you know, the part one took place on Hong Kong Island and part two took place on Kowloom.
00:29:11So here you see, they're walking towards Chunky Mansion, but we kind of just used the outside of
00:29:16Chunky Mansion. We didn't actually shoot inside Chunky Mansion. We shot inside Mirador Mansion.
00:29:22And this again was the first day of shooting. And we, we, we shot this just from standing across
00:29:28the street and shooting with a long lens and having them kind of walk into Chunky Mansion.
00:29:33So this, the inside is actually Mirador Mansion. And the reason why we decided to shoot here was
00:29:39because it was a little easier to, to, I mean, you can't really get permits to shoot in here because
00:29:46it's, it's not really allowed, but somehow a production team was, you know, able to,
00:29:51to get us in there, but it's just easier to shoot in Mirador than it is in Chunky.
00:29:56This is Dave, the tailor. And this was actually the first location that we locked. And I met Dave,
00:30:03the tailor when I was location scouting with my DP. So I flew my DP, Josh Silfen out to Hong Kong.
00:30:11I don't know. I think six months prior to production so that he could get a feel of
00:30:19the city. And, and we were location scouting and we were location scouting outside of Chunky Mansion.
00:30:25And Dave, the tailor was standing outside, you know, kind of soliciting for business. And he was
00:30:31kind of soliciting Josh and asking him if he wanted to get a suit made. And Josh, of course,
00:30:36was like, no, no, no, I don't need a suit made. And I immediately thought, wait, we need a tailor shop.
00:30:42Maybe we could do a trade. So I totally pimped out my DP. I made him get a suit with this guy so
00:30:49that he could give us his tailor shop to use for free. And, you know, before we locked any locations,
00:30:54this was the first one that came through. And Dave ended up being, you know, a really good friend
00:30:59to the production. You know, so that's, that's him here. And, you know, he gave us the shop to use
00:31:05for free. But, you know, I also held the Maya in the bargain. I had every single crew I had, you know,
00:31:12get a suit from him. So I think he earned maybe six or seven suits out of giving us this location for free.
00:31:18So once again, this whole scene outside of Chunky Mansion, this was the first thing that we shot
00:31:26during production. And it's, you know, it was a little daunting to kind of throw my actors into this
00:31:34busy intersection on the first day of shooting. And I don't think they were quite used to it yet. But, you
00:31:40know, like towards the end, they're kind of used to the hustle and bustle. Both of them had just arrived
00:31:44in Hong Kong, you know, like three or four days prior. And then we start production. And it's in
00:31:50this like massive, like Nathan wrote is kind of like a little bit like the Times Square of Hong
00:31:57Kong and feel, you know, it's very, very busy. It's very, very crowded. And you see all those people,
00:32:04like the Indian guys kind of just like standing beside them, like, they had no idea that we were
00:32:10shooting the movie because we were across the street at this time kind of shooting on. So they're
00:32:14kind of just like standing in our frame. And we couldn't really tell them to move. And, you know,
00:32:20we kind of we kind of just kept them missing because we feel like it really added to the environment.
00:32:29So yeah, like all these people, like, they had no idea that this was kind of we were shooting a movie.
00:32:34And I really love this long shot over here, which was just taken as a b-roll and my editor
00:32:45kind of inserted in here. This is another location I get asked about all the time. This is the rooftop
00:32:52bar on top of the Madeira Hotel in Jordan. And I found this location because I was actually looking
00:32:59for a place for the actors to live. And I was scouting the hotel. The hotel didn't end up working
00:33:05out. But I went to the rooftop and saw this like rooftop bar. And, you know, it has an amazing view.
00:33:12But the reason why I loved it was because there was nobody there. I think no one really knows about
00:33:16it. It's kind of like a hotel bar. And unless you stay there, you don't really know about it. So I knew
00:33:21that it would be easy to kind of close down and to rent out. So while I didn't place the actors in the
00:33:27hotel, I ended up shooting this scene. And once again, you know, this is like all the candles and
00:33:33everything. I think our art department did a really good job in kind of, you know, making the bar look
00:33:38even nicer than it really does. You know, like this is one of those locations where, you know,
00:33:45I'll send people there, but I'll tell them it actually doesn't really look anything like,
00:33:50like it did in the movie. It's kind of like an empty hotel bar of such. So this rooftop bar,
00:33:56this exchange between them, this is, this is definitely one of my favorite scenes in the
00:34:01movie. I think, you know, like they're, I think by this point in the movie, they're very comfortable
00:34:08with each other. And I think their real life chemistry is really coming out. And this is where
00:34:14I want to talk a little bit about the actors, you know, like so much of the movie success rides on
00:34:21their onscreen chemistry. And I think a lot of people knew this going, a lot of people did not
00:34:26know this going in, but they're actually a real life couple, which, you know, a lot of people were
00:34:31surprised to find out. But then once they found out, they're like, Oh, it actually makes so much
00:34:35sense because they have such great chemistry on screen. I got really lucky with the casting of my
00:34:41first film. Jamie Chun was always someone that I like dreamed of having
00:34:46to play the role of Ruby. But I had no connection to her. I don't know how to get the script to her.
00:34:54Brian was someone that I had worked with before. I had produced this little movie called The Kitchen,
00:35:00which he was in. And it was at the LA premiere of The Kitchen that we got to talking. And Brian was
00:35:06asking me what I was working on next. And I told him that I had the script that I wrote about a Chinese
00:35:11American girl who goes to Hong Kong and, and such and meets an American expat. And he's like, Oh,
00:35:18wow, that sounds like a really cool movie. It sounds like something that like would be perfect for my
00:35:23girlfriend. Did you know I was dating Jamie Chun? And from there, the stars kind of just aligned. And
00:35:28I told Brian, you know, actually, she's my first choice that played the movie. And I can't believe
00:35:33you started dating her. This just, you know, this just feels kind of like fate. And I sent him the
00:35:39script. I emailed him the script. And I asked him if he would pass it along to Jamie. And I said,
00:35:44well, clearly, there is a male role. And if you like the script, maybe you could both do it together.
00:35:52And about two weeks later, which I have to say is super fast by Hollywood standards, because you can't,
00:35:58you know, actors will take months to read your script, especially a really low budget one like this.
00:36:03Two weeks after I sent him the script, he emailed me and said, you know, Jamie and I read it out loud to
00:36:08each other. And we love the film, we love the script, we love the characters, and we really
00:36:13want to be a part of it. And just like that, they only took two weeks, and then they became attached.
00:36:18And, you know, I will forever kind of be grateful to them, because they're the reasons that this movie
00:36:25got made, because I wrote the scripts. But, you know, until you have real actors attached, it's just,
00:36:32you know, a bunch of words, a word document on your, your laptop, you know, when they became
00:36:38attached, the movie became real. And then that was when we moved forward with pre production,
00:36:44and getting the money together, getting the crew together, and such. And, you know, for,
00:36:50for established actors, like Brian, Jamie, to take a chance on a first time director like me,
00:36:57is huge. And not only that, they, they got on the airplane and flew halfway around the world
00:37:04to be in this movie. I mean, they could have gotten to Hong Kong, and the whole thing was
00:37:08a real shit show. And they're kind of just stuck there. There's nothing they really could have done.
00:37:13So it took incredible faith on their part to believe in me and in this project. And, you know,
00:37:19I think they're really happy with the way it turned out. At the alley premiere of this movie,
00:37:25of R.A. Tomorrow in Hong Kong, Brian came up to me and said, you know, this is, you know, we're really
00:37:30happy with the way the movie turned out. And it's a movie that we're probably going to be able to show
00:37:35our grandkids someday, which I think is really sweet that, you know, this movie was very much
00:37:40intertwined with their real life love story. When they were attached to the movie, they were just
00:37:47dating. And actually, a lot of people were, I don't know, trying to get into my head or something.
00:37:52They were saying, well, they're dating now, but you have six months to go until you go into production.
00:37:57What if they break up? Then wouldn't that be really awkward? Would you just keep one actor and not the
00:38:02other? And I will always say like, ah, you know, I have enough to worry about besides whether my lead
00:38:09actors are going to stay together or not. Luckily, that didn't happen. And in fact, right before we
00:38:14went to Hong Kong, they got engaged. I was like, ah, great. You know, it's going to be their first film
00:38:21as an engaged couple. And I think it would mean a lot to them. Um, and so they were engaged when
00:38:28they were shooting the movie. And by the time the movie came out, they got married. So they just got
00:38:34married recently last October. So I just feel like we kind of hit this, the making of this movie kind
00:38:40of hit every stage of their relationship from dating to getting engaged to now being married.
00:38:46And I just couldn't be happier for them. So this whole promenade scene, um, you know,
00:38:53if anybody's ever been like, have ever worked with Steadicam would know that it's, it's an incredibly
00:38:59heavy gear. So you really have to be, you know, in really good shape to do it. And, you know,
00:39:05in our Steadicam operator, he's young. I think he was only 22 at the time and just really gained for
00:39:10anything. So not only will we have these really long, like five to eight minute uninterrupted
00:39:15Steadicam shots, we would do multiple takes over and over again. And he was always really game for it.
00:39:22So, you know, he was really one of the MVPs of this film and really kind of contributed to the
00:39:28look of the movie.
00:39:36So here's the infamous bus scene. And it was sort of controversial for a few different reasons,
00:39:42which I will get into. But the first kind of funny tidbit I want to tell you
00:39:49was, so right here, you see, you're about to see sort of this older white man and this younger
00:39:56Asian girl get on the bus. And originally, um, Christopher Doyle, who is just one of my favorite
00:40:03DPs of all time. He shot In the Move for Love, Chunkin Express, all of Wonka Weiss films.
00:40:08He was actually supposed to play this older guy. And he agreed to do this cameo for me,
00:40:15which would have been amazing. And everybody on my production team was telling me, oh, you know,
00:40:20like, just don't bet on it. Because, you know, Christopher could be kind of flaky. But I held
00:40:25out hope. And, and, but, you know, lo and behold, three days before we were to shoot the scene,
00:40:30he came back and, you know, said that he couldn't do it. So for most of the scene,
00:40:36we kind of held on these two actors for a very long time without cutting away. And a lot of
00:40:43people always wonder if this was sort of my artistic choice. And I could kind of come up with something
00:40:48grandiose, or I could just tell you the truth that we didn't shoot any coverage for that scene. And
00:40:54that is why we ended up ending the scene the way it is. We were actually writing down that day. And,
00:41:01you know, because they're sitting right in front of the window, once it started pouring,
00:41:04it wouldn't have matched. So we didn't end up getting any of the over the shoulder shots and
00:41:10any of the close subs that we wanted to get. So we ended up just saying, you know what, screw it,
00:41:15let's just stay on them for the whole time. And, you know, hopefully people will like it.
00:41:20And people either really, really love the scene or they thought it was way too long.
00:41:25And we like that the scene kind of created this dialogue. It's kind of like a love head relationship.
00:41:33And another reason why this scene was controversial, because it does address the whole
00:41:38Asian girl dating a white guy's relationship. And I know that I was making a movie about an Asian
00:41:46girl with a white guy. But I didn't want that to be the focus of the film. I wanted to be, you know,
00:41:51just a film about two people connecting regardless of their race. The reason he is a white guy is
00:41:58because the guy I met in Hong Kong was white. And it's reflective of my real life relationship.
00:42:08But I felt like it was very important for me to address it at some point in this movie,
00:42:12because it's kind of the elephant in the room. And I've had sort of friends warn me before I went
00:42:18into production saying that, you know, just be careful, you might get some backlash. There's,
00:42:24there's going to be people who's not going to be supportive of a film that features an Asian
00:42:30girl and a white guy. And I kind of knew that going in, and I kind of expected to guess get some
00:42:35backlash. And lo and behold, you know, when the movie was released, and not even when the movie was
00:42:40released, when the trailer was released, the sort of internet's reaction and the kind of hate mail
00:42:49that I would get, I was honestly a little shocked by it. I mean, I was kind of prepared because my
00:42:55friends have warned me. But it's just a hatred in people. And you know, all they could see is a
00:43:01trailer with an Asian girl and a white guy. And they would say things like, I'm a traitor to my own
00:43:06race. And I'm trying to propagate this stereotype, which I do address in the scene, you know, it comes
00:43:13straight out of Ruby's mouth. And you know, people kind of saying, Oh, not just another Hollywood movie
00:43:20about an Asian hooker with, you know, the white savior. And that is not at all what this movie is
00:43:25about. And I think if anybody had watched this movie, they would know that. And I think it's very
00:43:32sort of stereotypical on their end to just presume by seeing an Asian girl and a white guy that he's
00:43:38here to save her. And she's, you know, this sort of damsel in distress, which is not at all the case.
00:43:43I think the only thing she was asking for was directions. And that's it. So I could go on and
00:43:50on about the internet reaction. But you know, I'll kind of just leave it at that. This is the Temple
00:43:58Street. I love this shot. This was taken by our second unit. And I really hope that you guys love
00:44:05this montage because this is by far our most expensive location, this Temple Street and this
00:44:13Jordan area. And it's because it is not controlled by the government, but it's actually controlled by
00:44:18the triads. And, you know, when my producer first told me, I was like, are you kidding? Like, this is
00:44:24the triad. That's a real thing. She's like, oh, yeah, absolutely. Like this whole area in Jordan,
00:44:31where you see the fortune teller later, and then like this whole like montage, like Temple Street,
00:44:37that is like prime triad territory. So our producer had to go and talk to this fixer guy,
00:44:46who is the liaison between the triad and the film industry. And Michael Mann had just
00:44:52recently shot a movie in Hong Kong in Temple Street. It was this Chris Hemsworth film called
00:45:01Black Hat. And they were the last production to kind of like go through this process. So the fixer
00:45:07guy quoted us what he quoted Michael Mann. And we had to go and explain to him how different we are
00:45:14from, you know, a Michael Mann film and the difference between Michael Mann and Emily team,
00:45:20basically. So, you know, I went and I had dinner with the fixer and, you know, our production manager
00:45:26went and negotiated him with him many times. And we finally got it down to a price that we could afford.
00:45:33And even then, this is more than twice a cost to rent the ferry. So, you know, I hope you enjoyed it
00:45:42because he came at a very high price. So here, the toy booth, that's Moose Light Jagger and Justin
00:45:50Beaver. So for those of you who don't know, I am actually a toy designer in real life. And those are
00:45:56all of the toys that my family's company makes. And that toy vendor over there, that is the fixer.
00:46:02That is the triad liaison. So we gave him a small role to kind of thank him for making all of this happen.
00:46:10And the funny story is his kind of real job is to sell knockoff toys on Temple Street. And that's
00:46:23his actual, that's his actual booth. But we went in there and replaced it with all of our own toys.
00:46:29That's spicy crap. Over there, all those buckets that you just saw, the grain buckets, we actually
00:46:34made them grain in post-production. They were all blue before. It's just, you know, a great use of our
00:46:39post-budget. So fresh live crab, spicy crab. I just thought, you know, because I'm always seeing
00:46:46misspellings in, in Chinese signs, and they were just kind of a little wink to that.
00:46:52So this is spicy crab. And again, a lot of people asked me where this was. And this is right on Temple
00:46:59Street. It's actually a pretty touristy place. So, you know, a lot of people complain, well, that's not
00:47:04really where the locals go eat. And I understand that. I just, I chose this restaurant because,
00:47:11you know, geographically, it's right by Temple Street, by where they are right now. And also,
00:47:19you know, I wanted to show these kind of hole in the wall places where you kind of just sit on a stool
00:47:24and, you know, like you're kind of like on the side of the street. And I just really want to feature
00:47:31one of these in the film. And that is really the actors eating the crab. There's, you know,
00:47:38I think they did a really, really good job in selling this crab because every time, you know,
00:47:43we will work on this scene in post-production, we will always call for like Chinese delivery because
00:47:48we just, we can't sit through this scene without getting hungry. And, you know, I don't know,
00:47:54I don't remember how many crabs they ate that night, but, but, you know, I think they,
00:48:00they really sold it well. I think on the first take, they were genuinely enjoying the crab. But I think
00:48:05by the, you know, the eighth or ninth take, you've got to be really sick of those crabs, but they did a
00:48:10really good job with it. And also, I really love the way this scene is shot because originally
00:48:25when we got this restaurant, I was like, oh, you know, we'll just shoot them eating inside the
00:48:30restaurant. And inside the restaurant, it's white walls, like bare minimum, really ugly. But I thought,
00:48:37eh, you know, like it shows what these kind of hole in the walls look like. But my DP was like,
00:48:43no, we're going to put the table out on the sidewalk and we're going to shoot out. And now all of a
00:48:48sudden you see all those really beautiful lights and, and background features and, and, you know,
00:48:53that just, these sort of little things that you could do on set and during production to kind of bump up
00:49:01the production value. So even though we were shooting at this really cheap and frankly, ugly
00:49:08looking restaurant, my DP somehow, you know, made it look like a really picturesque place.
00:49:16All right. I've had a couple of beers. I'm going to say something I usually probably wouldn't have.
00:49:20So please don't be offended. Okay.
00:49:24I just think it's a little weird that, you know, during the test screening process,
00:49:27this is one of those scenes that people, I mean, everybody always really loved this spicy crap
00:49:34scene, but then some people felt like they don't like her as much because of this scene,
00:49:41because they felt like she was kind of, you know, poking into Josh's relationship. But I felt like
00:49:48that's what made her really human. And it's natural for her to want to kind of raise these issues in
00:49:55Josh's relationship because maybe he doesn't really see it.
00:50:02And if anybody's who's ever lived in Asia or have visited know that this happens all the time,
00:50:08like this sort of just having strangers come and join your table, it was something that I could never
00:50:14get used to because I thought it was just such an invasion of your privacy. And I think it's very
00:50:19indicative of living in Hong Kong. You're always kind of crowded. And even when you go into a
00:50:27restaurant, you can't have your own space because space is so limited. And, you know,
00:50:31proprietors, they don't care. They'll just sit strangers down on your table. They, you know, want to make money.
00:50:37So this is Ashley Road. This scene was originally written so that they would be walking around Temple
00:50:52Street in Jordan. And the reason we had to move it to this road is once again, because it's under
00:50:58triad territory and we just couldn't afford it. And when we screened the film in Hong Kong, you know,
00:51:03a lot of people were complaining again. It's like, oh, they were just in Jordan. And then all of a
00:51:07sudden they're walking down Tsim Sha Tsui. And it's like, well, we're sorry. Go talk to the triads
00:51:12about it. We had every intention of keeping all of this walking and talking within that Temple Street
00:51:19area, which is in the Jordan district. But, you know, we just couldn't afford it. But for anyone who's
00:51:24never been to Hong Kong before, I don't think this is a huge deal to, you know, it's another neon light
00:51:30street. I don't think they really know the difference. I kind of really love this, that
00:51:36crowd in the background that's standing under a hungry Korean and they're kind of taking pictures.
00:51:44Like we did this scene so many times. I think it was, we went with the performance and kind of looked
00:51:50the other way when you have people sort of taking pictures or looking at you in the background. I think
00:51:56we did the best we could to cut around it. But because of the nature of this film, there was
00:52:01just really no way around it.
00:52:0260 year old guys chasing around 20 year olds.
00:52:05Yeah, not yet. But how do you think it all starts?
00:52:08Okay, what is the right age that I should be dating then?
00:52:10Let's see. I would say if you're 35, late 20s, early 30s.
00:52:18How old are you again?
00:52:19That has nothing to do with this conversation.
00:52:21Just curious. How old?
00:52:22I'm 30.
00:52:24How age appropriate.
00:52:27So coming up here is the Chinese karaoke scene.
00:52:31Once again, our art department did a really beautiful job of sort of dressing up this
00:52:38location. All that lanterns, that signage, and everything that was all put in.
00:52:45You know, if you've ever been to this area, it's literally, you know,
00:52:49amateur singers on the side of the street with a really like rundown tent over them singing.
00:52:56And this is just like always one of those scenes that's all was very mind-boggling to me.
00:53:02Because they don't sound very good to me, but they perform there every night of the week.
00:53:09So I figured, you know, they must be really good.
00:53:14Even though I really can't tell if they're good or not.
00:53:16So it's just one of those like funny little tidbits that I wanted to add in.
00:53:24Poor guy never really got to sing on screen.
00:53:29So this is Fortune Teller Row, and this was another location that I wrote into the film
00:53:35because I really, really wanted to showcase it.
00:53:38And, you know, when I first moved to Hong Kong, I actually did get my fortunes read at
00:53:43one of these places. And I know it's touristy, and I don't know if it's to be trusted.
00:53:47But, you know, to me, as a tourist, going to Kowloon is always one of those places that,
00:53:53you know, I think was very important to show.
00:53:55And that was something that actually happened to me once at Walgreens, so I wrote it into the script.
00:54:23So here we have the fortune teller scene, the bird fortune teller.
00:54:28And this is Richard M, and he, we were really, really lucky to get him.
00:54:34He's actually a huge veteran actor in Hong Kong cinema.
00:54:39He's acted in probably hundreds of films, have worked with people like Chao Yong-fat.
00:54:43And like, if you live in Hong Kong, you recognize his face.
00:54:47He's just one of those veteran character actors who's been in everything.
00:54:50And originally, I thought, you know, like, we'll just, we're going to rent the booth from
00:54:57a fortune teller, and let's just use the fortune teller.
00:55:00But it was my producer who said, you know, the fortune teller probably can't act,
00:55:05and you really should get a good actor in the role.
00:55:09And she actually knows Alex, who is Richard's daughter.
00:55:14They, they are friends.
00:55:16And she said, you know, why don't you meet with my friend's dad, Richard?
00:55:19You probably don't know who he is, but he's, you know, a huge veteran actor here in Hong
00:55:23Kong.
00:55:24And he, she showed me a picture.
00:55:26And I said, oh yeah, I absolutely know who that is, even though I couldn't quite place
00:55:30his name.
00:55:31But I definitely have seen him in lots of movies.
00:55:33And we ended up, you know, grabbing lunch and seeing Se Choi and sort of talking about
00:55:37the project and the character.
00:55:40And we ended up having one of those like three hour lunches where we talked about his career,
00:55:45his craft and everything.
00:55:47You know, that lunch took longer than it took to actually shoot this movie.
00:55:51But we, I was very grateful to my producer for, for recommending Richard and for getting
00:55:57him.
00:55:59And originally this scene was not really a very comedic scene on the page.
00:56:07In fact, Brian hated the scene so much that he asked me on multiple times, so please cut
00:56:13it.
00:56:14And I said, you know, we already have a very short movie at this rate.
00:56:17I don't even know if we're going to have a feature length film.
00:56:19So I can't cut any scenes.
00:56:22Let's just, let's just do the scene.
00:56:24And if it really doesn't work, then we'll cut it in post.
00:56:28And plus, you know, we got this great Hong Kong actor and such.
00:56:33So they actually ended up improvising a lot of the scene.
00:56:38So as I said, you know, the scene as it was written was not really funny, but the actors,
00:56:43the improvisation made it into such a comedic scene.
00:56:46And this became pretty much everybody's favorite scene.
00:56:50At every test screening, at every like festival screening we've had, people always laugh the
00:56:56most in the scene.
00:56:57And I think, you know, this is a true testament to the skills of our actors.
00:57:03And, you know, when something is improvised and just so kind of off the cuff like that,
00:57:07it really shows on screen.
00:57:09And I remember, you know, the first time I saw this scene, I think this is one of the few scenes
00:57:16in the, in the editor's cut where I said, don't change a thing because it was just so perfect.
00:57:21And I know that we had missed the little bird section, but I just want to say that for a professional
00:57:29bird fortune teller, the bird was pretty bad at his job.
00:57:34I think we had to do like 10 or 15 takes of the bird just for him to pick up the fortune.
00:57:40So that was a fun little tidbit.
00:57:50So here's another walk and talk scene.
00:57:52This is on Hancock Road in Tsim Se Tsui.
00:57:55So Trendyland in the background over there with all those toys and tchotchkes.
00:57:59It's actually now closed, which was very sad because I was in Hong Kong recently and I saw that it closed.
00:58:06And this is another really long walking and talking sequence.
00:58:09I think this is probably the longest one in the film that's uninterrupted.
00:58:13I think it goes on for like six or seven minutes.
00:58:17This is the only scene in the entire movie that we reshot.
00:58:21We actually shot this entire scene on a different street on a different night.
00:58:27And we got there too late so that all of the streets,
00:58:33all of the shops were closed and all the neon signs were kind of turned off.
00:58:36I think we started shooting at 1130 and by midnight everything was kind of shut off.
00:58:42And it just, you know, without the lights, without, it just looked really bad.
00:58:46And I remember, I think we did like eight or 10 takes and that was a good half of our production day.
00:58:54And, you know, Josh, our DP came to me and said, I think we need to reshoot.
00:58:58And I said, are you crazy? We're not going to, we just spent, you know, four hours shooting the scene.
00:59:03Where am I going to find another four hours for you to reshoot the scene?
00:59:07And I said, most of the movie looks gorgeous.
00:59:10So let's just, who cares if we have one scene that doesn't look good?
00:59:14And he's just like, you know, find the time if you can.
00:59:17But I just really don't think we should go out with the scene looking like this.
00:59:21And Brian also came to me and said, oh, you know, I just don't really love my performance in that scene.
00:59:28It was like everybody coming to me saying that they want to redo something.
00:59:33And when it's your cast and crew coming up to you, like you should really listen to them.
00:59:38And you know that you have a very professional cast and crew because whoever really wants to redo something, you know, me from a budgetary restraint.
00:59:46I just didn't think we would have the time. But, you know, when your DP and your main actor come to you and say they want to redo something, you know, you make it work.
00:59:56And we ended up making it work. We, you know, found some time and shot the scene, I think, at 7 p.m.
01:00:01So we could still get all the hustle and bustle in the background.
01:00:05And, you know, and now both, you know, Brian and Josh really, really love the scene and it's, and it looks beautiful.
01:00:12She's not going to be there.
01:00:13I wasn't thinking that.
01:00:14Okay, then. I forget I said it.
01:00:16It'll be a good opportunity for you to meet some new people.
01:00:21Come on.
01:00:21No, I don't know. I just, it'd be weird.
01:00:25You're being weird. It's practically on your way home. Come on.
01:00:29Let's put a cab.
01:00:31I'm not being weird.
01:00:32You're being weird. Let's just go. They're a good band.
01:00:37Fine. Only if you can find a cab.
01:00:39All right.
01:00:39So for this taxi hailing scene, we actually rented two taxi cabs to, you know, first to hail.
01:00:48But, you know, because of the traffic in Hong Kong and the congestion, like this scene ended up taking so much longer to shoot for such a quick, short scene.
01:00:58But it was just, you know, resetting the taxis and everything.
01:01:02And just with crowd control that day.
01:01:05And originally this scene was written on the MTR.
01:01:09They were supposed to take the MTR to the Hong Kong side.
01:01:12But I nixed it because I thought it would be too much trouble and too uncontrolled to try to shoot the MTR.
01:01:17But knowing how hard that scene was, we probably should have just shot the MTR.
01:01:23So here are all the neon signs.
01:01:25Again, was shot on my second trip to Hong Kong when we did all the B-roll.
01:01:29And we did not have the budget at that time to rent the steadicam.
01:01:32So that's why everything's very shaky here.
01:01:34So here you can see the difference between this, you know, just handheld versus all the very smooth steadicam shots that we had before.
01:01:43So the two of them in a taxi right now.
01:01:45This was after our company move, meaning we were literally, you know, like transporting the actors and the crew to the Hong Kong side to our next location.
01:01:55And we used that company move as we just filmed our company move basically to save time.
01:02:02And we're like, okay, we're in this 20 minute taxi ride.
01:02:05We're just going to turn the camera on and, you know, just improvise and goof off.
01:02:09So this is Sense 99, which I wrote into the script because it has a very sentimental value to the story.
01:02:22So, you know, once again, it goes back to the real life encounter.
01:02:25I had met this guy at Hong Kong Film Mart and we sort of spent a night walking and talking.
01:02:31And he actually brought me to this bar.
01:02:35And he was actually performing.
01:02:37You know, it was sort of like a freestyle kind of thing.
01:02:41It wasn't like a real performance.
01:02:42And while he was on stage, like playing the guitar and just kind of goofing off with friends, I looked over to my friend who we were all hanging out with that night.
01:02:54And I said, just look at this place.
01:02:56I had no idea that like such a cool little underground music club even existed in Hong Kong.
01:03:02And wouldn't it be really cool if we like came to Hong Kong and made a movie and showcased places like this?
01:03:10And she was like, yeah, absolutely.
01:03:12It would be so much fun.
01:03:13So that was the night.
01:03:15And it was in this particular bar that I first came up with the idea of, yeah, let's just come to Hong Kong and shoot a movie.
01:03:24I didn't have a plot.
01:03:26I didn't know at the time that I would end up making a movie about that night.
01:03:30But just something about sitting in that bar that night made me really, you know, want to come to Hong Kong and shoot a movie.
01:03:39And earlier in the commentary, I talked about, you know, Christopher Doyle and how he was supposed to have a cameo in the movie.
01:03:48And this was also where I met Christopher Doyle.
01:03:51So we were doing a location scout to this bar and in comes Christopher Doyle, who's shot, you know, all of my favorite movies.
01:04:01And he literally really, and I'm not just saying that, but he really is my favorite DP of all time.
01:04:06And my producer at the time was like, Emily, just be cool, you know, like don't embarrass me.
01:04:11And I said, no, I just I have to go up and talk to him.
01:04:14And so I went up to Christopher Doyle and I asked if I could, you know, take a picture with him.
01:04:20And he was so gracious.
01:04:21He sat down with us and talked for 20 minutes and gave me his email address and said, if you ever need anything, you know, just just come talk to me.
01:04:29So I just feel like, you know, they're just I took it as a sign to, you know, like being this bar and then meeting my favorite DP of all time.
01:04:38So this the band playing here is Knots and Exes, and I love this song.
01:04:47This is called Hearts.
01:04:49I didn't know who they were before, but again, I was looking for a real life band that could, you know, supply us with the songs for the soundtrack and also perform on camera.
01:05:00And again, you know, my producer, Sophia knows Joshua, who's the who who's the lead singer.
01:05:08There's lots of Josh's related to this movie.
01:05:12They were friends and she asked him and they were very game and they came and, you know, played all night.
01:05:21And, you know, this particular song, Hearts, everybody always keeps asking me, what is this?
01:05:26Like, where can I get this?
01:05:27And and unfortunately, the band Knots and Exes have broken up since I think they all have solo solo careers and other things.
01:05:37Joshua is also a filmmaker and he's kind of concentrating on that right now.
01:05:42And they've kind of just broken up.
01:05:44And this was, I think, their final, you know, their final onscreen performance and appearance for sure.
01:05:51But also, I think this is the last album that they've ever put out.
01:05:56I love this shot.
01:05:56This is what we call in the editing room, the red shot.
01:06:01And it kind of something that we sort of just discovered in the edit room.
01:06:04Sarah, so Sarah is a pretty famous actress and model based in Malaysia.
01:06:19And, you know, this is a tiny, tiny role.
01:06:23And she was so gracious to take on this role and to fly herself to Hong Kong and do this little cameo.
01:06:30I had actually seen her in another friend's film called Jasmine.
01:06:33I thought she did an amazing job.
01:06:34And without even auditioning her, I just reached out and I said, I have this really, really tiny role.
01:06:39And I think you'd be perfect for it.
01:06:41But, yeah, and again, she flew herself out and did this for us.
01:06:48So these cameos here, once again, so the guy in the glasses, his name is Zach.
01:06:52He was actually the editor of Hong Kong Magazine.
01:06:55So we kind of just grabbed all of our friends from around Hong Kong to come in here and do cameos.
01:07:02So this is the balcony scene where the story and the tone of the movie just kind of takes a sudden turn.
01:07:14You know, like everything has been kind of light and happy-go-lucky.
01:07:17But I think this is the first time that they really have to, you know, think about the consequences of what this night means.
01:07:29Can I get one of these?
01:07:32I think that is such a guy lying and you could just see Ruby seething underneath.
01:08:02But, you know, it's like, yeah, it's like she is ready to kind of confront, like, what does this whole night mean?
01:08:11I mean, what we're doing is not really normal considering our circumstances.
01:08:15And he's still trying to kind of play off, like, whoa, we're just smoking a cigarette.
01:08:19There's, you know, it's like he's still lying to himself.
01:08:22And, yeah, you know, what we're doing is completely fine.
01:08:25I mean, because they haven't actually really crossed the line physically.
01:08:29But, you know, I think it's clear.
01:08:32I just feel, you know, even the first night and now the second night, I think an emotional line has definitely been crossed.
01:08:39And I think Ruby is ready to confront that.
01:08:42But Josh at this point is still kind of in denial.
01:08:44Should we split a cap?
01:08:49Yeah, it's fine.
01:08:50This shot here is my homage to In the Mood for Love.
01:09:03And it's funny because we were just talking about Christopher Doyle and Wong Kar-wai.
01:09:07And both of them, you know, are, like, such great influences on my work.
01:09:12And, like, this just holding on them, this really long shot and with the taxi coming down is very much an homage to the tone and, you know, the mood in In the Mood for Love.
01:09:26And we actually didn't shoot this scene with any sound.
01:09:28We shot at MOS.
01:09:29And all of this is kind of added on in post later, which is really stupid.
01:09:35There's no reason you should ever shoot anything MOS on set.
01:09:37So, originally, I had a totally different taxi driver for this scene.
01:09:43We actually just used the taxi driver that came with the taxi cab.
01:09:49So, he's an actual taxi driver.
01:09:50And I figured, you know, it's literally four lines.
01:09:53I mean, how hard could it be for a taxi driver to play a taxi driver?
01:09:57But apparently, it was very difficult.
01:09:59And, you know, he completely froze and was very nervous and couldn't say his lines.
01:10:05Because even when we said, you know, just say in Cantonese, you don't have to say in English.
01:10:09And, you know, this is the big climax of the movie.
01:10:11And everything kind of hinged upon, like, this taxi driver.
01:10:16So, we shot the scene and it was terrible.
01:10:20And on our off day, I was having coffee with Po Chi, who ended up playing the taxi driver.
01:10:27And, you know, he's another sort of veteran director in Hong Kong cinema, directed so many movies.
01:10:33And, you know, we were kind of just talking and he was giving me production advice.
01:10:37And I was telling him about this terrible taxi driver that's ruining the climax of my movie.
01:10:42And he kind of just volunteered and said, hey, you know, like, I could come and play the taxi driver.
01:10:49So, he kind of came in and saved the day and we shot him, you know, separately from the actors.
01:10:55And we shot him on a totally different day and, you know, just kind of edited it together seamlessly.
01:11:01This final cab sequence, it's a really beautifully shot sequence.
01:11:07We sort of, we rented two taxi cabs and then we had the cart mounds on each of them.
01:11:15Oh, no, I think we only had one cart mounds.
01:11:17So, we only shot one cart mounds for each take.
01:11:21What you didn't, what you don't end up seeing in the final film is the two shots.
01:11:25So, we spent a lot of time, like, sitting in the front of the taxi cab and shooting the two of them.
01:11:33And I think we did seven or eight takes until we got the emotions right and everything.
01:11:37And then once we got into the edit room, we didn't end up using any of it because this shot through the window and with the lights kind of streaming out, which is so gorgeous.
01:11:49And every time we would cut to this shot, like, we can't take our eyes off of it.
01:11:55And then every time we would cut back to the two shot, it kind of distracted us.
01:11:58So, we just, we threw out, you know, all that work we did for, you know, eight or nine takes and just decided to stay entirely on this coverage.
01:12:09But then what ended up happening was that was the only day we ran out of time.
01:12:14You know, we would start shooting at 6 p.m.
01:12:16And on most nights, we're done by, like, midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m., the latest.
01:12:20That is the only day we shot until the sun came up.
01:12:22And because of that, you know, poor Jamie only had one take to do this very emotional scene because by the time we reset, the sun has already come up and it wouldn't match.
01:12:36And she was very distraught on set because she felt like this was such a big emotional scene and she only got to do it once.
01:12:41But she knocked it out of the park.
01:12:43And, you know, like, we were able to get that all we needed.
01:12:47So, you know, just one of those scenes that you can't really plan for.
01:12:50We spent all that time shooting the two-shot and we didn't end up using any of it.
01:12:54And we only had, you know, this very limited amount of time to shoot, you know, only one take of the coverage we did end up using.
01:13:08So, as most of you know who have seen this movie and hopefully you saw the movie first before listening to this commentary,
01:13:14you know that there is an ambiguous ending.
01:13:18And I just want to address that in that the ambiguous ending was always written into the script.
01:13:24It wasn't something that we discovered in the edit room to kind of screw with all of you guys.
01:13:29It wasn't like we had a very, like, neatly wrapped up ending and say, hey, wouldn't it be fun to cut to black?
01:13:35Like, this was always written in.
01:13:38The first draft of the script that the actors received actually had a, not so much a third act, but it did have a coda where they meet up again a year later and you kind of, you know, like, fill in the blank on what happened.
01:13:53The actors never really loved the coda.
01:13:55And it was something that they always struggled against.
01:13:58And then, you know, through multiple kind of rewrites and script discussions, you know, we keep coming back to, well, this is a love letter to Hong Kong.
01:14:11Why don't we just end it in Hong Kong?
01:14:13Like, why do they have to go off another year later?
01:14:16And, you know, it's like you kind of know what's going to happen.
01:14:20And we were going for more of an emotional punch because now that we ended this way, it gets a big reaction at every single screening we've ever had.
01:14:32Sometimes it's a great reaction when people, you know, like gasp and then they clap.
01:14:38Sometimes I've gotten really terrible reactions where people have cursed at me or, you know, called me evil.
01:14:45I've had people write me emails telling me, you know, I had a really crappy day and I want to relax and watch your movie.
01:14:53And then you end the movie that way.
01:14:55Like, I've gotten all kinds of responses.
01:14:57But I will tell you what, like, every single response has been a big response.
01:15:02And the fact that you would react that way means that you are very emotionally connected to the characters.
01:15:10Like, you are very invested in their relationship and you want to know what happens.
01:15:15The worst thing that could happen is, you know, you end on, oh, you know, they kiss and everything is great.
01:15:21And then you leave the theater feeling like, eh, that was okay.
01:15:24You know, like, I think it's great to elicit this big response from the audience.
01:15:33And, you know, in the end, that's why we decided to go with this more ambiguous ending.
01:15:40So, yeah, that is pretty much it for the commentary.
01:15:47Thank you so much for watching the film in the first place and for sitting through the commentary.
01:15:53Hopefully you learned something new through the commentary.
01:15:57And if you enjoyed the film, please do tell people about it.
01:16:01You're most likely watching this on the DVD.
01:16:03You know, the DVD's out.
01:16:04But it's also available on iTunes and Amazon.
01:16:07You know, for a tiny independent film like this, we really need to rely on word of mouth to get the word out.
01:16:13So I hope that you, you know, if you like the movie, please let your friends know.
01:16:18And who knows, maybe I'll see you next time in a sequel.
01:16:21Not that I'm saying there is one or there isn't one.
01:16:24But just stay tuned.
01:16:27Thanks again for listening.
01:16:28Bye.
01:16:34Bye.
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01:16:36Bye.
01:16:37Bye.
01:16:38Bye.
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01:18:04Bye.
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01:18:06Bye.