| SAMMO HUNG |
A thought on celebrities, or famous people in general. (well it always varies heavily depending on your field of interest, for instance most of the 'famous' people I meet are only known to people who are in the same profession as I am i.e. members of Alpha Stunts, Corey Yuen or Yuji Shimomura) Being in Los Angeles and tripping across more or less famous people (by definition often times: 'been on TV') you come to realize that they're all just normal people that have uncommon jobs and there's no need to freak out or treat them differently. It's just the level of exposure that their talent has had, normal folk in a different industry. All you can do is give them the appropriate level of respect they deserve (or what you think they deserve)
So when I met Sammo the first time, there wasn't any shock or freaking out. It was just an interesting feeling of "Hey, that guy's one of the most important men to ever affect action cinema. And he's sitting in his SUV in front of me. Fancy that."
Here's a fuzzy pic of Kerry, Mario, Aaron, Ken, Zoli, Aki and Mami in front of the gate to the house the day we met Sammo. Think it was Wednesday or something.
Actually I met Joyce first, Reuben and I came earlier in the week to help set up for Sammo's garage sale. I also met Sammo's youngest son and his daughter. Reuben has lived in Sammo's house for about 3 years. Well, he lived in a small building right next to the house actually. And Sammo was moving out to another house 15 minutes away, so Reuben called in as many of us as he could to help move. They hired movers for the big stuff, but all the little things were what we tackled. And man was there a lot of it. Three days work back and forth in a U-Haul, anywhere up to 12 of us at a time from ZG and ACT. The first day I missed because I was the P.A. at some auditions we were holding for an overseas project.
The second day we cleared out most of the lower floors and the kitchen. Had to take out some shelves and dismantle some things to get them into the truck. The kitchen itself took all afternoon, every shelf and drawer was jam packed. How many boxes did we have just for herbs and spices? Must've been 5 or 6.
Reuben eating sushi in Sammo's old house for the last time
Clearing said kitchen.
Sammo took all of us out to Chinese barbecue for lunch. During lunch he asked what we all do. Reuben said, "They're all training to be stuntmen." Sammo replied, "Me too."
Kerry, Chad, Mario, Aaron and Mike on the third day
The third day we cleared out the bottom floor and the remaining top floors. We had to take out a lot of heavy plants and framed art. There was a huge picture of Sammo's class picture when he was a kid in the opera school, I recognized Sammo, Yuen Wah, Yuen Biao, Jackie and Corey Yuen. Some of the things we moved were just strange to be around. Zoli helped carry a Chinese statuette of a woman, Sammo later told him that it's worth $500,000 US (upon hearing this, Zoli nearly shit himself). We also carried this giant seven foot by three foot framed Chinese calligraphy piece that was over 300 years old. And then there was the Martial Law inflatable bop bag, which was less impressive but interesting nonetheless.
He took us out to Vietnamese for lunch. I asked him what his favorite movies were that he directed, he said Prodigal Son, Pedicab Driver and Eastern Condors. He also went on this incredibly long rant about how times change, and told us the stories behind the next two films that he wants to make. And hearing Sammo swear, oh man that's golden. "Sammo English" as he put it himself. The man is so animated and a total riot. You haven't lived until you've heard Sammo say "Shit, motherfucker"
After we finished the last load, nobody wanted to stop. We all wanted to go back and get more stuff to move, even though there wasn't anything. Sammo jokingly said we could take it all back and do it again. Which we would've done, except probably getting that damn sofa up the stairs. (Excerpt from the sofa/stairs moment: "Hey Larry, you wanna be on top or on bottom?" "Kerry, don't you ever ask me that ever again.")
Oh yes, the best thing about helping Sammo move was the free stuff. Everything that was left over from the garage sale we basically got to take, except the larger pieces of furniture.
Remnants of said garage sale
And some of the bigger things we had to pay for earlier, we ended up getting for free. Kerry got Sammo's mahjong table, a box with about 50 or 60 plates and bowls and spoons all for free. I had my eye on this big 25" TV, at first a woman at the garage sale had offered $230 for it (the stand was an extra $50), but she ended up not picking it up so Joyce let me have it for $100 and the stand for free.
Me and Sammo's TV. This thing is on ALL THE TIME. I love this TV. And since my room is fairly small, it looks a whole lot bigger in person.
What else. Oh yeah, got a Highbinders crew jacket. Everybody got free shirts and autographed hats. We would've done all the moving for free just to be around Sammo, but he's just an awesome guy like that.
I totally blinked.
Suffice to say, that was certainly an interesting weekend...
