I was at a checkout counter in the supermarket und…
I was at a checkout counter in the supermarket under Sogo just before closing last night when a middle-aged male employee wearing a red smock ran up and told the checkout lady, “That old woman is still in produce. She won’t leave!”
“Tell her to bring what she has up here first,” the checkout lady said, but the guy in the smock shook his head, his eyes wide.
“I can’t tell her anything! She won’t listen! She’s old!”
I chuckled a bit at this, and the checkout lady turned to me with a suspicious look on her face. “How do you know what we’re talking about?”
I had just come from seeing Bruce Almighty, which despite its many flaws put me in a good mood. Especially the bit with the monkey flying out of the Latino hoodlum’s ass. Sorry if that’s a spoiler, but it’s a Jim Carrey movie, you really should assume that, at some point, a monkey will fly out of someone’s ass. I didn’t, however, expect it to fly back in, but there you go.
It’s been insanely hot and humid lately. According to the weather, it’s cooler down south in Kaohsiung and Taichung than it is here in Taipei. I would say the weather’s probably better all year round down south than it is here. The only places with worse weather are north of Taipei, in places like Keelung on the north coast. Plus Taipei’s in a basin, which keeps all the heat and pollution swirling around this big bowl for our collective consumption. Global warming isn’t exactly helping either. Yet another reason to move out of the city.
And now, due to popular demand, an excerpt from the letter I sent to the cast and crew of our Lady X Episodes:
I’d like to thank everyone who helped us put this thing together, especially Mindcrime for the original story as well as his work on the script, and of course Dean for just about everything, including the special effects as well as his acting in the main role. The acting of Dolly Deng and Maurice Harrington notch everything up several levels, and the wonderful score Darrell Gallant came up with on incredibly short notice is nothing short of amazing. The fight scene simply wouldn’t have happened without the help of Shirzi, who choreographed it.
The car chase was easily the most challenging shoot, and it was hard on everyone. I hope that seeing it in the film makes up for some of the shit I put you all through on that day. Thanks especially to Azuma for letting us not only shoot him on top of a moving car, but toss him on the ground as well. Thanks also to Tony Lee for the use of his UZI machine gun, as well as his acting and his sandwiches.
Vincent Hsiao, who played the driver in the car chase, and his production company Milifilm, graciously let me borrow their equipment to put the files on disc to send off to Japan, something I had to do several times due to various incompatibilities between computer systems. And I have to say that one of the things that made the film so easy on the eyes was the excellent lighting provided by Da Shan.
The next step is going to be cutting the two episodes together, along with an additional scene with veteran actor Rowan Hunter as “The German” and Norman Peltier as The German’s heavy; it’s a scene I think you’ll agree really adds to the story. We couldn’t put the scene in the Internet version since, at four minutes, it put the film way over the time limit imposed by the Lady X executive producers.
Again, thank you all very, very much. I am so pleased with what we were able to come up through our concerted efforts, and I hope to work with all of you again in the future.
-TC
