Lee Hom's " Forever 1st Day " Album Diary

89/07/22~89/07/28 @Part 7

Dear Friends,

I am falling in love with acting. This movie, "China Strike Force" has been so much fun so far, and everyday I am learning new tricks of the trade. It's amazing to see how the cameraman works, or how much difference lighting design can make in an actor's performance. Not to mention, it's also an incredible opportunity to have one of the world's greatest action movie directors, Stanley Tong take time and care to guide me through my first movie! This is truly a great learning environment for a new actor.

Not surprisingly, I have learned a lot about how to become a better record producer, through watching Stanley direct his actors and crew. How do you convey your ideas to the people you're working with in order to let the whole team function together, and on the same wavelength? In my eyes, this is the greatest challenge of all, and always leads to unique and wonderful creative exchange. As a musician, the questions might be include how am I going to write my sheet music so that the players have a clear understanding of what I want? Or how do I communicate with the recording or mixing or mastering engineer so that he gets the "right sound" out of a vocal track? With a movie director, it is a whole other set of questions, like how do I get this actor to deliver his lines convincingly? Or how do I describe to the cameraman how I want this stunt to look? This movie will continue shooting for another few months, and I'm sure that during this time there will be many more opportunities to grow as a musician and actor.

Soon, I will also be starting another movie called, "Tekken", based on the Sony Playstation Kung-fu game of the same name. "Tekken" is being directed by Yuan Kuei, of Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh fame. Although "China Strike Force" and "Tekken" are both hardcore action movies, they are actually quite different in style. To begin with, "Tekken" takes place almost half a century in the future and is science- fiction-action. My character, "Feng Jian Ren" fights with stylized traditional Chinese kung-fu. Since the movie is based on a video game (and has now become a popular comic book and animated television series in Japan), the feel of the movie is very fantasy. For example (without giving away too much of the plot), my character has superhuman power which come in handy when battling evil-doers.

"China Strike Force" is set in the present and is purely an action movie. My character, Alex is a good cop who has just graduated police training at the top of his class. This movie's script is completely in English and has a strong international flavor, especially since its cast includes grammy award-winning rapper Coolio, and Japan's hottest actress, Norika Fujiwara. Like the cast itself, the fighting style in "China Strike Force" is very international. Even the way a simple punch or kick is delivered is very different in these two movies and as a result, I have had to put in so much work to learn these different styles of fighting. With both of these action movies on my plate at the same time, I'm definitely getting my fair share of exercise this summer, and loving every bit of it!

And in case you were wondering about my recent musical endeavors, I have just begun composing for my next album; I have my music staff paper notebook with me at all times! To my pleasant surprise, being on the movie set all day surrounded by creative minds keeps me inspired and in the mood to compose! I hope this letter inspires you as well.

Very truly yours,
Lee-hom