RIP Lau Kar Leung Sifu

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Alex Cheung Lau kar Leung Sifu

Hong Kong 25 June 2013 – This morning Hong Kong director Lau Kar Leung sifu passed away at age 76. He is a legendary Martial Artist who influenced the whole film industry in Martial Arts films, where his nickname ‘Kungfu Leung’ came from. He had been battling lymphatic cancer for two decades.


Gordon Liu and Alex CheungLau was the third child of Lau Cham (Lau Jaam, 劉湛), a martial arts master who studied Hung Gar under Lam Sai-wing, a student of Wong Fei-hung.[4] Lau, a fourth-generation direct disciple of martial arts legend Wong Fei-Hung and a lifelong practitioner of the Hung Kuen discipline, was most famous for his directorial efforts The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), starring Kill Bill’s Gordon Liu (Left picture), and Drunken Master II with Jackie Chan, which also won him the Best Action Choreography Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 1994. He has a brother who makes a living in the film industry, actor/choreographer Lau Kar-wing, as does Gordon Liu, Lau’s pupil and godson to Lau’s father, Lau Cham. His nephew Lau Kar-yung (son of his older sister) is also an actor, choreographer and director as seen on the picture right. When he speaks, I can see that they have the same way of talking, the intonation is so similar.

Alex Cheung and Lau Kar Yung 2011

Lau began training students Hung Gar before the age of 5 and was already quite proficient in the style. Bruce Lee treated Lau as an elder uncle and asked him for advice in regards to his film career.

Lau’s directing work was characterized by a strict adherence to the principles of martial arts. He continued his work as action choreographer and director until 1994, when he made Drunken Master IIand III and was diagnosed with lymphoma. He survived the disease and made a directorial comeback in 2003 with Drunken Monkey, which he starred in along with his martial arts protégé Liu. In 2007, at the age of 70, he served as action choreographer and in a supporting role in Tsui Hark’s Seven Swords.

Lau was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2010 for his contribution to the martial arts film genre.

More info about Master Lau

 

Ataraxia Film Premiere

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I was invited to the Film Cast & Crew premiere Sunday 23th of June in Rotterdam. Years gone by, and it was a nice reunion for the crew&cast beside the film premiere. Unfortunately not everyone attended the premiere, as some went abroad or had other duties. And to me I am missing Jenny Hsia who played my partner in Ataraxia. If she attended then perhaps you could see a picture of us two.

About Ataraxia Film

Ataraxia is the debut feature from director Sander Blom. It is an exploration of ‘Life’s Manual’. For instance, on how to survive the boredom of Earth’s paradise.

Our script was in an unknown language called ‘Esperanto’, after 3 years I cannot remember a word Esperanto now. It is created as an easy-to-learn and politically neutral language that transcends nationality and would foster peace and international understanding between people with different regional and/or national languages. It sounds like an European language, a bit of English, French, German and Spanish. In Earth’s paradise, everything is in peace and balance. So we speak Esperanto, an international language where people from different cultures can communicate with each other. This was also the first experience for me to play in front of a green screen and visualising Earth’s paradise. And after watching the film it is the color effects what really surprises me, and the penile part of the beginning is unforgettable.

The film will be released hopefully by the end of this year on TV and DVD.

Sander Blom and Alex Cheung

Photo with the Cast

 

Moonfestival @ Hong Kong and off to China

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Today is my day off at the film set, so that makes some time free to post a blog about my trip to China so far. It is the first time I celebrate the Chinese Moonfestival in Hong Kong. It was a very busy holiday in Hong Kong and the streets are very crowded. Everybody gathers with their family and friends to have dinner. After the dinner with my grandparents, I left Hong Kong to mainland China for the Kung Fu film production where I got the opportunity to experience film making over there.

It is the first time for me to film in China, and the filming culture is really different to the Western. Lots of other things are playing a part and as a person you have to be very flexible. To me the communication was really chaotic at the beginning. There’s more pressure and stress on the set to my early film experience. But I’m getting more use to it now. But one thing I really hate is that 9 out of 10 people smokes cigarettes on the set, and I’m the one who’s not smoking. I don’t like people when they smoke, because it stinks, is bad for your health and it irritates my eyes!
You know, the crazy thing here is when you receive your call sheet that you only know what time your day starts and not what time you’ll be finish filming. Ok, most of the film productions are alike, but here it could be over overtime. You know my eyes popped out when I saw 28 hours on the call sheet, I was like; what does this mean haha! And so I started about 8 in the morning and went back to the hotel like 5 in the morning.. Luckily the studio is just 10 minutes away from the hotel by car. People were sleeping on the chair and on the floor, anywhere to get a nap while waiting.

I’m 2 hours away from Hong Kong and the city is totally different. The pace in Hong Kong is real fast and here in Dongguan it is not like that. It is also not that crowded luckily and the weather is fine. But every time when I’m in China, i’m like looking for food which are not spicy at all. When you ask for non spicy food, it is still a bit spicy. At least to me it is. So I’ve to get use to the food here too and the irregular times.

For more follow me on www.facebook.com/alexcheung.nl 

A Special Moment in my Life

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which I will Remember for Always..,

 

 

Each moment of our life is a picture. Each moment of our life is a picture which u had never seen before. And which you will never see again. So enjoy life! Live life & make each moment beautiful…

Appreciate your family friends and relations more when you’re together. Life is short, you will never know if you will meet another once again!

Living at the moment, makes me feel happier. Because of stupidity in the past, makes me realize to appreciate moments even more. Keep your mind open, breath and relax. Realize beauty in every moment.

“The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they’re still alive.”

11 July 2012 – Move On filmset

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I was asked by my casting agency for a small supporting role in the movie ‘Move On’ by Hollywood director Asger Leth. He directed the movie ‘Man on a Ledge’ this year 2012. Move On is an international production, shot in 8 countries. You can find more information about this movie here : https://move-on-film.com/

The funny thing about this is that I read about this project 2 weeks ago on their website and it looked like a crowd sourcing production. So people could apply to involve with the project if they were selected.

After I was selected by the casting director they were still looking for more Chinese people for some supporting roles and extras. So being a Dutch Chinese and speaking both languages, it was dedicated to me to do the communication between the two parties. So I helped out with the casting and it was quite fun to be at the audition from another point of view.

Here I was waiting for the make up artist while reading the script.

I took a picture of this beautiful place, in the middle of the Red Light district in Amsterdam which you wouldn’t expect so. I would love to shoot a scene here. And the eye catching grand piano makes me want to try out.

Now it is time to sit on the chair and get my hair cut for a more Hong Kong street guy look. The German Make up artist really surprised me! He puts on Chinese music from Jackie Chan on his phone! Wow, that was great. Didn’t expect that at all! hahaFinished the new haircut! You like it?

Now i’m getting some new tattoos on my skin by the make up artist. Check out more of his work here www.cisel.de

Now drawing the tattoo very carefully and I was asked to sit very still. But Banny, who also plays a role in this movie was joking all the time doing crazy kung fu moves hahaha, it was so funny to see!

Wow, see, I took this picture for him and it looks good right!

Together with Dutch actress Giam Kwee.

I’m ready for the shoot!

The filmmaking process is very divers and I’d like to meet people, so I really enjoyed my time on the film set.

Especially great actors.. 🙂

It was really nice to work with an actor who played a villain in the James Bond movie ‘Casino Royale’. Above all, he has won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival 2012. Wow, I thought by myself, I must learn some acting skills from this man!

Banny, Mads, Alex.

So as you can see it is already midnight. I’m glad to work with the director Asger Leth and contribute to the project helping the director on the set.

On the set with military marine corps

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Today I went to the harbour and played the role of a captured sailor man. When I arrived on location, there was a Chinese lady from the production who lead me to the set. And you know what, she has the same family name as me! And she’s one of the first Chinese production staff I’ve met so far in Holland film industry. So I was obviously quite excited about that and wanted to talk some Chinese on the set. But I think she wasn’t interested in that at all =P
To summarize this, I tried to have fun, to learn more about film making and acting. I mean I want to get more out of the experience beside the small fee you get. You meet so many people, and that’s what a like about film making. When I was captured along with my companion, I really did felt how devastating it is not able to do anything and just desperately wait for someone to help you, while surrounded by dangerous people and weapons on board. The marine guys where pretty good equipped with these hk’s, and that was cool. I can’t wait to shoot some nice action (shooting) scenes this summer! Today we had so many takes, we were repeating the same thing on and on. It was like never ending..? I thought I did a good job, but in film there’s so many other things to take into account. Everything has to work, camera, light, sound, actors etc.. The food was good today and the production also served some candy’s on the set. I find it quite funny when the ‘tough guys’ were also grabbing some candy’s out of the same plate while still holding there rifle in the other hand.
Sorry I may not post any photos or videos as it is strictly prohibited to do that, since the commercial isn’t aired yet. It is always so sensitive particularly when shooting commercials. While I always want people to take some behind the scenes video and pictures for the publication haha, that’s when I’m filming.

 

Comparison of the Canon EOS 60D and 600D

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Well, I was looking for a dslr for filmmaking purposes. And I found an useful video review of the DSLR Canon 60D and 600D/ti3. I would recommend watching the second video if you do like the British accent, lol. I finally bought a 600D for a special price offer. I think both of them are a good buy, it really depends what you need and of course your budget.

I’m really happy with a new camera. Now it is time for me to get a lens and some camera equipment like tripod, glide track, microphone, etc. and we can go film making!

Any recommendations are welcome!