FILM TALK- with MC Jin 歐陽靖 Part 1

Welcome to the first installment of the new feature FILM TALK on Adventures.TV, a bi-weekly conversation with prominent entertainers and artists about their work, life, and philosophy, published every second and fourth Tuesday of the month.

In this inaugural two-part chat (Part 2 here), Adventures.TV Director of Development and film guru Eugene Suen sits down with legendary musician and rapper Jin 歐陽靖 about film, acting, living in Hong Kong, and his awesome new film, the martial arts throwback GALLANTS (now playing everywhere in Hong Kong)! You’ve heard Jin talk lots about music, but we bet you haven’t heard him talk about movies and his acting career like this before. Check out this unique, exclusive conversation about a new era in Jin’s creative life.

PART 1 (See Part 2 Here)

ON FILM AND FAVORITE ACTORS

Eugene Suen: What up Jin! Let’s get on with this- film! Give me something to work with.

Jin: I love film. I love movies even more so now than when I was younger. Because when you’re young, you watch movies and you appreciate it from a different perspective. As you get older, the way you watch a movie changes.

Eugene: Suen: How so?

J: When you’re younger, you may not be too focused on the plot or even the acting. I’m definitely at an age where I love a good plot.

After so many years of watching movies, you are trained to pick up stuff like “I know what’s going to happen next. This guy, he’s going to save the day and he’s going to come back and it looks like he died, but the girl kisses him and he wakes up.” So nowadays for me the really awesome movies are the ones when I’m sitting there watching, and just when I thought I had everything figured out, it’s not what I thought. That’s a beautiful thing.

ES: A person’s viewing habit definitely changes over the years. The films that you tend to like- do you see those changing?

J: Somewhat. Overall, I have a pretty wide range of films that I like. Some people are very extreme-  “I love action and adventure” and anything that’s not action or adventure doesn’t appeal to them. I’m one of those that don’t fall into any of those categories. I just love everything. It boils down to if the movie is good or not.

ES: For sure- a good movie is a good movie! What are some of your all-time favorites?

J: All time, oh man…that’s tough! I love a lot of Will Smith flicks. He has the longest list of Blockbuster hits, but the one that I really love is BAD BOYS.

ES: Yeah, the man is probably the biggest movie star in the world right now. With a couple of exceptions, all of Will Smith’s films in the last ten years have been major blockbusters. BAD BOYS in the 90s started it all. You like both Part One and Part Two?

J: Yeah, both of them! One has more of a classic feel to it, and Two feels more like a intentional blockbuster hit. But I think it’s because they came out in different eras. One came out in the 90s, and it has more of a nostalgic, classic feel to it, whereas Two was just straight up, more blockbuster, the cars flipping over the bridge, etc. And the trailer was crazy!

ES: Michael Bay (Director of the BAD BOYS series) certainly knows how to take things over the top! Who else do you like?

J: Another awesome actor: Denzel! I mean, these are really cliché answers, but I just think about when he played Malcolm X in the Spike Lee film, which is an awesome movie.

When I think of MALCOLM X and Denzel, right away I also think of Will Smith as Ali.  Dope. Amazing.  In that movie there was also a character- the trainer for Ali, played by Jamie Fox. This leads me to think of Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles.

ES: With Jamie Foxx, it was one of those cases in which, like with Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, and Jim Carrey, people at first simply saw him as a comedian and therefore totally underestimated his dramatic acting ability. ALI was when people started thinking, “Dude, this guy can act!”

J: Yeah, and then he did RAY – amazing! He was Ray Charles. You watch a movie like that and if you say to yourself, “I want to be an actor.” It’s so inspiring!

ON GALLANTS, ACTING AND WORKING IN HONG KONG

ES: It’s interesting you mentioned Will Smith and Jamie Fox. Other than acting, both of them also have very notable musical careers, and both started out doing comedic parts in movies. People like you guys have very natural charisma, which really helps with acting, even with serious parts. Do you see yourself taking a similar trajectory with your career- going from music to relatively comedic stuff and eventually to dramatic acting roles?

J: Oh man, I would love to! Right now it’s slowly happening. First and foremost I totally put it in God’s hands. I put it in God’s hands because I think that’s really all you can do.  I put it in God’s hands, not with the mentality of “I’m going to give it to You and hope that You bless me.”  But it’s more like “I’m going to give it all to You and then trust that whatever You want me to be doing, You’ll arrange it.”

With that said, even since I’ve moved to Hong Kong, I’ve gotten more chances to participate in the filmmaking aspect than I have in my whole life. In one year’s time, I was able to experience the filmmaking process in Hong Kong, which is kind of a double whammy. Because, one, I don’t really have that much experience in filmmaking, and then on top of that, it was in Hong Kong, all in Cantonese. It was breaking new ground from all angles.

ES: How is your Cantonese, by the way?

J: Well, self-assessment, I would say on a scale of one to 100, before I moved to Hong Kong, it was at about 65. After living there for about a year and a half now, I would say it’s jumped 20, to about 85.

ES: So it’s a solid B. Not bad…

J: Now, we’re talking about just speaking. Reading and writing- it’s a slow, slow process. I’m starting to recognize characters, but I can’t write a letter or write a sentence yet.

ES: Let’s talk about your new movie. The word on the street is that it’s awesome.

J: It’s called GALLANTS. In Cantonese it’s called Da Lui Toi (打擂台). The premise is about two young guys: As children, one is a bully and one is the guy getting bullied. I play the one that’s getting bullied as a child.

Fast forward to present day: we parted ways, but as adults, by chance meeting, we bump into each other again. However, the tables have turned. The guy that used to be the bully, his life has fallen into pieces. He’s scrawny, got a dead-end job, etc.

Whereas the guy I’m playing- he went and studied martial arts.  So now, at least in his mind, he’s a super martial artist, he’s Bruce Lee.  And his father passed away and left him a bunch of real estate and businesses, so he’s the tycoon.

They bump into each other and basically the story starts from there, where the one that got bullied – me – is like, “Oh, it’s payback time! I’m going to ruin you in whatever way I can.”

So I fight him, I kick his butt, and it’s funny because he’s working for me now.  I’m this young rich kid that has all this property, and there’s actually one property that I’m trying to get back from a bunch of old folks. He works for a real estate collection agency, so he happens to come to me for a job. Then he finds out that I’m the boss; I’m the one collecting the land. So I send him, like, “Yeah, you go do it.”

Long story short, it’s a story about redemption, about letting go of the past. I don’t want to give out too much!

ES: GALLANTS is a martial arts comedy throwback. Do you do any martial arts in it?

J: Yeah. I have a couple fight scenes. Nothing monumental, nothing epic, but I do have to fight one of the other lead characters.

ES: Did you know martial arts before this movie?

J: No, never studied. We trained and did choreography for about two months prior to actually filming.

ES: How was that whole experience?

J: It was intense. The main thing that I’ve learned is that learning actual martial arts and learning fight choreography sequencing are two different things. The key thing about a fight choreography sequence is that you’re doing it for the camera, so it’s really just about angling and then about how believable it is. It’s not so much about it being the fundamentals.

If you make it look like it’s believable … Let me tell you the difference between me acting like I’m punching you and then, in post-production, when they add the smack sound – that right there is a world of difference.

So I do a couple of fight scenes in the movie. I’m also really interested in seeing the final product and how it’s cut.  Because, obviously, I know the scenes that I’m in.  I know what I did and I know what happens, and I even know, for the most part, the whole storyline. But, it’s a whole different thing when it’s finally cut and you’re watching it as a whole piece. More importantly, I’m interested to see what ended up on the editing room floor.

ES: Our readers need to check out the BADASS, MUST-SEE trailer for GALLANTS. It’s one of the best trailers of its kind ever:

ES: You’ve done two movies in Hong Kong now. Beside GALLANTS, you also played a part in last year’s SPLIT SECOND MURDER 死神傻了. How did these parts come to you?

J: SPLIT SECOND MURDER was more of a cameo role, but it’s still interesting because the character that I play ties the whole storyline together. With both of these movies, people just reached out. They had certain characters that were like “Hey, we could explore the possibility of having Jin as this character.” So then they’ll reach out, we’ll sit down, we’ll meet, share thoughts. Totally organic.

Right now I’m praying hard about GALLANTS. I’m not praying for superstardom, but what I’m praying for is that, through that performance, it just opens more doors. In the sense of [creating] more awareness, like, “Oh, wow, this guy Jin, he has a little something.” Or even if it’s just people giving me critique- “I watched it, and hey, you did okay, but here’s just a little input, or a little bit of insight. You know, maybe you can try this…” Even stuff like that is what I’m looking forward to. Because the interesting thing about the character that I portray in that movie is that it’s relatively different, to a certain degree, from who Jin really is, and I think that’s crucial in acting.

ES: The character you play in GALLANTS allows you to flex your acting muscle, to stretch yourself.

J: For example, I had a role in “2 Fast 2 Furious,” which was about five years ago. I wouldn’t say it was a crucial role in the storyline, but I had a lot of opportunity to showcase myself in that movie. The thing though is that the character that I’m portraying is a mechanic that raps. So it’s not too far-fetched from me, other than the fact that I know nothing about cars in real life.  Personality-wise, it was just like, “Hey, we just want you to be you. You’re a mechanic and then, you’ll be playing cards with Ludacris, and then you start rapping.”

So, the thing that I always forward to is when I get an opportunity to portray something that’s really far from me. To me, that’s what the challenge in acting is – convincing someone that you’re someone else.

ES: Let’s talk about SPLIT SECOND MURDER 死神傻了 and your involvement in that project.

J: It came out last year on Halloween and is now out on DVD. It was one of those ensemble-cast type films where they just got a whole bunch of different actors in it.

ES: If GALLANTS was a role that was further removed from your personality,  did you feel like you were playing a version of yourself in SPLIT SECOND MURDERS?

J: Oh no, both of them are very different from who I am.  So that’s a plus. Check it out-

The storyline is, this kid with the glasses, he is a comic book artist. He wants to publish his comic book and I am the publisher. But, I’m not your standard, “Hey! Come to my office!” publisher. This is him coming to meet me for the first time.

The way the film is structured, he starts telling the story and it goes to the scene of the story. They have this story in the comic book.

ES: A story within a story….

J: A story within a story! The reason why I say it’s interesting how editing plays a role in a film is that I shot all the stuff that has me, and it was like a day or two. My call sheets were only two days. So I was already expecting, “Oh well, how much can I expect to be in this movie? I know how much I shot, right?” I didn’t realize that the way they were going to edit it in … Let’s say the movie is an hour and a half. I kind of pop up every ten, fifteen minutes. I pop up for a scene like this and then psychologically, it makes it seem like I was in the whole movie. But technically if you add it all up, it’s only about a total of three to five minutes that I’m actually in it. That taught me that editing plays a big role.

ES: Are there other upcoming film projects that you’re considering?

J: These two films that I’ve been able to be a part of opened my mind to the whole concept of filmmaking. For the longest time I’ve just been a person who loved watching films, but now I’ve discovered that I actually have a very intense passion for filmmaking, be it acting, behind the scenes, even coming up with visions, stories, from filming, to editing…. the whole thing!  I love it all!  I love it and it’s actually only within the last year or two that I’ve discovered that I have this passion.

In Part 2 of the conversation, to be published this Thursday (June 10th), Jin talks about his Hong Kong television show BIG BOYS CLUB, a stage play he wrote, and his aspirations as an actor. Don’t miss it!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Film, Hong Kong Cinema, Interviews, News and tagged with 2 Fast 2 Furious, Acting, Bad Boys, Bad Boys 2, Cantonese, Danzel Washington, Film, Gallants, Hong Kong, Interview, Jamie Foxx, Jin, Jin the MC, Kung Fu, Malcolm X, Martial Arts, MC Jin, Movie, Spike Lee, Split Second Murder, Will Smith, 打擂台, 歐陽靖, 死神傻了. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.