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

89/10/07~89/10/13 @ Part 18

Dear Friends,

Today I am writing to you from Heng Dian, where I have been shooting "China Strike Force" for the last week. I have been having enormous fun here, especially because three of my best buddies from college came to visit me all the way from the United States. Seeing them has reminded me that friendship can be like brotherhood, and we'll always stick together like family. Between my group of friends from college, we share a wealth of experiences, laughs, and hardships. These experiences provide for endless conversations and jokes on classes that we had together, music we used to listen to together, or ex-girlfriends that we can still laugh about together. Since college, I must admit that sometimes in Asia, it can be frustrating to meet so many people every day, but none of them gets to know you for who you are. Nobody bothers or has the time to scratch beneath the surface of mundane conversation. I'm lucky and blessed to have people in my life with whom I really do see eye to eye.

Last week I promised to tell you all a little about Heng Dian, so here I go: It is quite a small town, the streets are narrow with an occasional bicycle or tiny covered cars called "du du che". The entire city seems to have been constructed for the purpose of shooting movies and television series, and in one word, the sets here are, amazing. The main place we shot looks like a gigantic castle, a Chinese fortress, complete with twenty foot standing bronze statues of dragons and warriors. However, as this is all part of the set, upon closer inspection it becomes obvious that the statues are made of paper mache. Things like that are the predominant look of the architecture here in Heng Dian, massive structures that look like they were made by the Emperor Qing Shi Huang Di. There are areas of bridges that look like longs stretches of the great wall of China. This place looks like straight out of the history books!-but it was only just built within the last few years. Things here are also quite inexpensive. My friends were blown away when they could get their hair washed and an hour and a half massage for one US dollar! But before you think of coming here for your next vacation, just be warned that you will be a few hours drive from the nearest airport, which is in Hang Zhou.

My buddies and I spent a bit of time this week with Coolio, just hanging out, writing songs and even shooting our own movie with a digital mini-DV camera.Since we were all inspired working on the action movie "China Strike Force", we decided to take advantage of the incredible scenery, set and costumes of Heng Dian and shoot our own little kung-fu movie just for fun. Everyone put their two cents in to come up with a story line and story board from which to base our filming. And today, although only half done with the movie, humorously titled, "Fists of Water", it's turning out to be hilarious. The crux of the story is that I am a kung-fu fighter who becomes powerful every time he takes a sip of "Wa Ha Ha", the number one distributed bottled water in China (I endorse this product in China and the bottle has my picture on it!). The story begins with my "Wa Ha Ha" having been stolen to be used for evil purposes by the evil villain. An epic battle ensued, which is the quest for Lee-hom to retrieve his water, save his sister, and put and end to the evil villain's treachery. On a side note, Coolio plays my kung-fu teacher and dresses in full traditional Chinese garb. It's a real blast! Maybe!-just maybe, I'll let you see it sometime!

Tomorrow I am returning to Hong Kong to finish the shooting of "In the Name of Heroes". I will COMPLETE this movie in one week! Then, at the end of October, I will spend one more week shooting "China Strike Force" and then I'll be done with both movies! I can't believe it's almost over! I've been shooting these movies since the end of June! It's been a tiring but rewarding experience, and I can't wait to go to the theater and watch these movies!

Thank you all for your continued support. I really missed seeing any fans or doing performances this week. Also thank you again to "Xin Bao", for printing my article every week in your newspaper. All the best, and I'll be sure to keep in touch!

Love and good music,
Homeboy