South China Morning Post

Yeoh's Silver Hawk soars over Sars hurdles

by Winnie Chung
June 1, 2003

It is Saturday morning in Pudong, Shanghai, and the streets are quieter than usual. We could be in a ghost town but for the activity of the film crew and the screeching tyres as a Maserati chases down a silver BMW motorcycle.

Actress Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng's new actioner Silver Hawk is one of the few productions that are valiantly filming in China as the country struggles to control the Sars outbreak.

Several projects, including the new Stephen Chiau Sing-chi movie, have delayed production until the situation clears.

But for masked faces on set and the fact that producer Thomas Chung Choi-sze sprays everyone's hands with an anti-bacterial mousse at regular intervals, there is little sign that Sars has affected the shoot of Silver Hawk in Shanghai.

"Shanghai has put in a lot of effort into sanitising the city and our work environment, but there is an underlying caution because you know what the outcome could be," says Yeoh, during a break in filming. "We make sure the crew doesn't take any risks but we each have to be responsible because just one person coming down with the disease could jeopardise the whole production."

It is a relatively easy day for Yeoh, involving mostly close-ups. But for the past two days, she had been dangling on a wire for a scene that has required her to be caught in a stranglehold by a bungee-jumping assailant. Thanks to the scene's continuous dodging and kicking, the actress is nursing a sprained wrist and a painful back which has left her hobbling a little.

In the US$10 million (HK$78 million) Silver Hawk, Yeoh faces a megalomaniac who wants to take over the world through subliminal messages over rigged cell phones.

Directed by Jingle Ma Choh-shing (Tokyo Raiders), the film also stars Luke Goss (Blade 2), Taiwan singer-actor Richie Jen (Marry A Rich Man) and Michael Jai White (Kill Bill), all of whom seem to have settled in Shanghai quite comfortably.

For Goss, who is in China for the first time, the possibility of working with Yeoh overrode any hesitations he had about working in China.

"Everything on a film - producers, insurance and bonding - is primarily about safety. If there was any genuine danger, I wouldn't be asked here. I feel informed and it's quite an adventure," says Goss, who used to be one-half of the 1980s singing duo Bros.

"If the film is going forward, there obviously couldn't be too much of a risk going on. Knowing the media, it sometimes blows things out of proportion," adds White.

Silver Hawk started shooting on March 28 for its opening sequence in Beijing which has Yeoh flying over the Great Wall on a motorcycle and then saving one of China's prized pandas.

"We were very cautious in Beijing," says Yeoh. "We made sure everyone followed the health precautions but we were lucky that we were filming outdoors most of the time."

Silver Hawk marks Yeoh's second outing as a producer (after The Touch) although the Malaysian-born actress must fit in a packed schedule for the rest of the year, with two other productions scheduled to start shooting for her company Mythical Films.

Yeoh does not appear in Jiang Shi, a contemporary Chinese vampire story, which starts shooting in July, but she will don Chinese armour for the much-awaited Hua Mulan which will reunite her with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Chow Yun-fat.

"It's going to be an extremely hectic year but I'm looking forward to the challenge. And, I'm really looking forward to working with Chow again. Hopefully, the Sars epidemic will have died down by August when we start shooting," says Yeoh.

So far, Shanghai's anti-Sars measures have not caused any major disruptions although some quick adjustments had to be made for Silver Hawk, which is being shot in two languages: English and Cantonese.

"Several locations were closed suddenly for health officials to check on the sanitary conditions so we had had to quickly scout for alternatives. You just have to think on your feet which is something we're used to in Hong Kong anyway," says director Ma.

Shanghai's vague health rules have been more of a challenge as the producers try to juggle filming schedules with the possibility that some actors may have to arrive earlier or leave later to meet a 14-day quarantine requirement. They're coping.

"It hasn't been a great problem so far because most of our actors are scheduled to be here for the duration of the shoot. There have just been minor adjustments and you just have to be completely flexible with all plans," says Chung.

As if to demonstrate that flexibility, Ma suddenly suggests that the team finish two days' shooting in one and take the next day off. "It's Mother's Day, let's not work," the director announces.

Within seconds, cast and crew are setting up for the next day's scenes, turning the deserted back streets of Pudong back into a hive of activity.