Call Me Shifu

Yuan Jieying stood in the center of the set, brimming with fighting spirit. Poor Qiu Shuzhen had no idea what was about to happen. "Ah Zhen, how's your throat?" "Much better!" "OK, let's try it again. Action!" The two girls began wrestling over the book once more. Qiu Shuzhen knelt to pick it up, and Yuan Jieying, eyes wide, lunged forward. With her left hand she yanked at the ribbon, while her right grabbed a fistful of Qiu Shuzhen's hair and jerked it hard backward. "Ah!" Startled, Qiu Shuzhen felt an immediate flare of sharp pain. Instinctively, she tried to bat the hands away, completely forgetting about acting as she cried, "What are you doing? Let go of me!" "Cut!" Tsui Hark called a halt. Yuan Jieying let go with a cheeky grin, and Qiu Shuzhen protested, "Director, why did she pull my hair?" "You couldn't get into the right frame of mind, so we changed the scene a bit." Without needing any explanation, Tsui Hark had grasped Chen Qi's intention completely. He asked, "Can you handle it? Can you keep going?" "..." Qiu Shuzhen desperately wanted to say no, but she didn't dare—and didn't want to admit defeat, either. All she could do was murmur aggrievedly, "I can do it!" With that, she glared at Yuan Jieying. Yuan Jieying tilted her chin up, entirely unfazed. Chen Qi continued watching from the side, then suddenly called Xiao Mo over to whisper a few instructions. Xiao Mo nodded and hurried off first. "Let's try it again!" "Ow! That hurts, that hurts! Can't you be gentler?" "The director told me to pull hard!" "Again!" "Ah!" "Once more!" Over and over they went. At first, Qiu Shuzhen bore it stoically for the sake of the movie, but after having her hair yanked repeatedly, even the mildest temper would flare. The glare she directed at Yuan Jieying looked ready to kill. Only then did Chen Qi stroll over. "That's about right. Let's roll for real!" "I think so too." Tsui Hark nodded, waved a broad hand, and officially started the take. "Cut!" The first take was still missing a little something. By the second take, Qiu Shuzhen's rage spiked to its peak. When Yuan Jieying's claws reached for her again, she violently knocked the hands aside, whipped her neck around, and erupted in a piercing scream: "Aaaaah—!" More importantly, her face finally contorted into the exact expression Chen Qi and Tsui Hark were looking for—a twisted mask of fury, manic agitation, neurotic madness, and suppressed violence. "Good!" Tsui Hark finally called a pass. Leading the applause, he beamed. "Ah Zhen, that was perfect!" "Yeah, really great!" "That turn of her head just now actually gave me a fright." Faced with everyone's praise, Qiu Shuzhen felt no joy at all—only an overwhelming sense of grievance. She was just a little girl, after all. Once the flood of emotion surged, she could hold it back no longer, and burst out sobbing. Heartbreaking, gut-wrenching sobs. She even bolted right out of the studio, completely abandoning the shoot. Tsui Hark was certainly no good at soothing children; he gave Chen Qi a shrug: *You made her cry, you deal with it.* Chen Qi had no choice but to head outside. He found Qiu Shuzhen huddled in a corner, sobbing uncontrollably. "Waaah... All of you, every single one of you is bullying me... I don't want... I don't want to film anymore... I want to go home..." He said nothing, merely offering her a handkerchief. Qiu Shuzhen shoved the handkerchief away and glared at him. "Did you tell her to pull my hair?" "Yeah." "And I thought you were a good person! Turns out you're worse than all of them... Waaah..." "Acting is complicated. If you can't get into character, it wastes everyone's time. Don't go thinking having your hair pulled is going too far. In filmmaking, people do things far more outrageous than that." Seeing her cry non-stop, utterly deaf to everything like the proverbial turtle ignoring scripture, Chen Qi rubbed his nose. *Good thing I know how a girl's mind works and came prepared!* He brought his right hand around from behind his back, holding a bag. First, he took out a cup of cola, slurping loudly through the straw, then produced a takeout box. He sighed, "If you keep crying, I'm eating all of this steak rice. I hear this place makes the most authentic steak rice in all Hong Kong!" Steak rice? Qiu Shuzhen caught the key words. She looked up and saw the takeout container. A contradictory battle of physiological reactions played out across her face—tears were still running down her cheeks, yet her mouth twitched with the urge to smile. "Crying like that takes a lot out of you. Have something to eat, take a break, and you can get back to crying when you're done." "Are you going to eat it or not? If not, I really will." Chen Qi was still teasing her, making as if to pop open the lid, when a little hand suddenly snatched it away. "Don't think I've forgiven you! Some of my hair came out! It still hurts right now!" "..." Chen Qi chuckled, only now explaining, "Actually, you kids don't have experience, so the best approach is imitation. But some scenes can't be done on imitation alone. Take that scene just now—there has to be that sudden flash of transformation across your face to really blow people away. "If I tried to explain the theory behind the acting, you probably wouldn't understand, so I had to use other means to trigger the reaction. Making movies isn't playing around; it's far more complicated than you imagine. There'll be similar situations down the line. If you feel you can't take it, you'd better quit early." "I won't quit! Not even if I die!" Qiu Shuzhen said loudly. "Hey, that's the spirit. When we shoot the scene where you hammer the nun to death, you've got to bring this exact same energy." Seeing that her emotional meltdown had settled, Chen Qi smiled. "So, holding that steak rice—are you eating it now, or taking it home?" "Huh?" Qiu Shuzhen looked down at the box, suddenly turning sheepish. She murmured, "I... I'll eat it at home. I can heat it up and share it with my family." "That works too. Come on, head back inside with me. Everyone's waiting for you." Chen Qi ruffled her hair and led her back. ... Sure enough, there was night shooting that day, and they didn't wrap until very late. Zhu Yin's scenes were already finished—yep, wrapped completely. Yuan Jieying still had one scene where she gets pushed down the stairs, and then she would wrap too. Filmmaking in Hong Kong in this era wasn't quite as wild as it would become in the nineties, but it still astonished the two Americans, Ed and Amy. It looked haphazard, yet you couldn't find a flaw; it looked rough-and-ready, yet remained remarkably meticulous. Chen Qi drove Qiu Shuzhen home. A cheap Škoda drove through the nocturnal streets of Hong Kong. On both sides, brilliant lights blazed amidst bustling traffic, and all manner of nightclubs glowed vibrantly. Chen Qi stared with unblinking eyes, regret in his heart. *Alas, if not for the state security personnel keeping an eye on me, I would've loved to experience the taste of it all long ago.* Hong Kong's adult entertainment industry was second to none, after all; to this day, certain pictures and articles from *Lung Fu Pao* remained vivid in his memory. As the car rolled forward and approached her home, Qiu Shuzhen seemed to summon up her courage. "Teacher, could I ask a favor?" she blurted out. "What is it?" "Can I call you Shifu?" "Huh? Isn't that the same thing?" "It's not the same! Can I call you Shifu?" she repeated. "Sure." Chen Qi didn't mind either way, but Qiu Shuzhen instantly lit up with joy, as if receiving some sort of official validation. In Hong Kong, master-disciple bonds and adoptive godkin relations were immensely popular, particularly in the entertainment circle, which overflowed with masters, disciples, godfathers, godmothers, and god-sisters. For example, Wong Jing was Chor Yuen's disciple, Gordon Chan was Tsui Hark's disciple, Dante Lam was Gordon Chan's disciple, Leonard Ho was godfather to Jackie Chan and Anita Mui, Lydia Shum was godmother to Jacky Cheung, Dicky Cheung's godmother was Deborah Lee (which made him god-brothers with Nicholas Tse), while Nicholas Tse's godmother was Liza Wang and his godfather was Eric Tsang... They reached her destination and the car pulled over. Her little bag still slung over her shoulder—only now with a box of steak rice tucked inside—Qiu Shuzhen hopped out and waved cheerfully. "Shifu, see you tomorrow!" "Yeah, see you tomorrow!" The car started up again. Chen Qi yawned, while Xiao Mo hesitated, looking like he wanted to say something before finally stammering, "President Chen, what does that steak rice taste like?" "What's this? Have you been corrupted by capitalism?" "No, not at all! I was just curious—since that girl loved it so much, it must be really delicious." Xiao Mo shook his head hurriedly. "If you want to eat it, just say so! It's only a box of steak rice; what, do you have to report it to the higher-ups?" Chen Qi perked up. He had been looking for a chance to win the two of them over and corrupt them a little, so he could get away with more. Might as well start with steak rice! "Turn around, turn around," he said. "We're going to get some steak rice!"