Chapter 8 The Studio Lot
The Studio Lot
The studio was a city in and of itself.
Narrow lanes ran between high corrugated buildings.
Open loading bays showed half-built rooms, fake staircases, stacks of windows that looked real until you noticed none of them opened onto anything.
People called to one another in Cantonese, English, Mandarin, and the universal language of production delays.
The streets weren't really streets, just lanes between warehouses the size of aircraft hangars, painted numbers on their rolling doors.
Natalie walked with confidence next to Danny, proud to be his new cute, sexy girlfriend.
A golf cart rolled past. The man in the passenger seat lifted two fingers in greeting.
Natalie stopped walking.
“Was that Donnie Yen?” she said in awe.
Danny looked over his shoulder. “Yeah.”
“He waved at you.”
Danny shrugged but his smile betrayed that he was proud.
They kept walking.
A moment later, an older man in sunglasses came out of a production office with three assistants trailing him. He saw Danny, said something quick, then glanced at Natalie and gave her a warm nod.
Natalie waited until they passed. “Was that Chow Yun-fat?”
“Yeah. Fat Gor.”
Natalie turned and stared after Chow Yun-fat and stamped her foot. “I can’t believe that he walks around like a normal person.”
Danny laughed, clearly loving to see this side of Natalie.
As if summoned by the universe’s sense of comedy, Jackie Chan came out of a door twenty feet ahead, laughing at something a crew member said.
Danny lifted a hand. Jackie lifted one back, looked Natalie up and down, then looked at Danny and gave him a thumbs-up so broad it belonged in a silent movie.
“Jackie Chan!” Natalie accidentally bit the inside of her cheek in surprise.
Danny laughed. “He is not subtle.”
“I like him.”
“Everyone does. That’s his schtick.”
They arrived at Stage Four.
Stage Four was huge.
The sound stage doors opened onto a recreated rooftop set under a grid of lights. The fake rooftop filled the center: concrete parapets, metal vents, water tanks, laundry lines strung between poles, a rusted access door, a low wall overlooking a painted Hong Kong skyline.
Natalie turned to Danny, her eyes gleaming. “Oh my God, it looks exactly like the real thing!”
The room smelled like sawdust, stale coffee, warm cables, and sweat.
Three men near the set turned as Danny escorted Natalie in.
They spotted her across the cavern at once and began walking over, smiling. They were staring, too.
Danny guided Natalie to a director’s chair off to the side.
She sat.
As Jason Li, Kai Yuen and Cal Mok approached, Cal nudged Kai and said, “Wow, it’s Danny’s cute new girlfriend.” He laughed. “She’s so hot.”
Natalie giggled.
Jason Li leered at Natalie but in a friendly way. “Hey, Natalie, it’s great to finally meet you!” He laughed.
“You know my name?”
“Of course! Danny talks about you, like, every day!”
Danny smiled, slightly embarrassed.
Cal said to Kai: “Hey, let me show Natalie the kick. Set me up!”
Kai waved him away. “What? Just to make you look good?”
Kai called to Natalie. “You’re American?”
Natalie smiled, giddy. “Yes.”
“You got any cute American friends who want to be girlfriends for us?”
She laughed, smiling. “Maybe.”
Cal called to Natalie. “Hey, Natalie, watch this.”
Cal checked to make sure that he had the space, then suddenly did a standing backflip, perfectly landing in the same place.
Natalie clapped her hands gleefully.
Cal bowed.
Then a stern middle-aged man with a frown, the stunt coordinator, arrived.
“Warm-up,” he said flatly to Danny and the others. “Now.”
The word cracked like a whip.
“Oh, damn,” said Kai.
Reluctantly, Danny and the others were pulled away. Kai and Cal looked back, Cal whispering to Kai and pointing at Natalie.
Oh, Natalie thought, they are all so handsome. So young… muscular… really sexy.
Then Natalie’s hand shot to her mouth, shocked.
No. Stop.
A fantasy started to play in her mind, unbidden and unwanted.
Natalie. Naked. Her pussy, warm and wet. Danny, Jason, Kai and Cal circled around her. Naked. Their bodies toned. Their cocks erect.
She was smiling. They were smiling. They were all excited.
“No, Natalie,” she whispered to herself, “Please. Don’t think of it.”
Cal bent her over first, his rough cock entering her pussy.
Oh, it felt so strange, so good, so hot. Cal was grunting, Natalie was screaming because it felt so good and then Cal cummed, leaving Natalie excited and shaking uncontrollably.
But, before she could recover Kai had her, sliding his cock where Cal had just been. Kai was totally different: quick and smooth. Natalie cummed as Kai was inside her and that made Kai quicken his pace even faster. Kai cummed inside her and she gasped.
Then, Jason. He was delicious, wicked. He was fucking her confidently, arrogantly. His cock just kept going in and out, harder and harder. When he came, a warmth spread through her pussy and abdomen.
With the cum of three men in her pussy, Natalie was panting, horrified but thrilled.
“No, no, no,” she begged, pressing her lips together with her fingers.
Don’t think of it!
In the chair, she squeezed her legs tightly together, trying to suppress her desire.
But her pussy was warm and wet. Her body was shaking, excited, wanting more.
Because she wanted more, the movie in her head refused to stop.
Cal’s cock in her pussy, Danny and Jason holding her up, Kai’s cock in her mouth. Her sucking Kai’s cock, enjoying doing something erotic that no other girl would dare to do.
All three of them being excited and cumming at nearly the same time, Natalie screaming in delight. Her body shaking from dopamine overload. Horrifying but delicious.
Scrumptious.
Then, Danny, Jason and her. Her sucking Jason’s cock. Natalie being a bad girl, her orgasming…
Then: “Natalie?”
Natalie opened her eyes.
He was small, old, bald, his eyes narrow but kind, and he was smiling at Natalie. He reminded her of her grandfather.
“I’m John,” he said softly. “I’m the director.”
Natalie got up. “Hi. John.”
Natalie was breathing hard. She tried to slow down her racing heart.
She shook his outstretched hand. His grip was weak and his hand felt frail.
In a kindly tone, John said, “We are honored to have you on our set today. I would like to invite you to come over to the monitors and sit with me… if you’d like.”
“Yes, okay,” Natalie said smiling.
She liked John. He seemed nice.
John and Natalie walked over to the monitors. John walked slowly so Natalie took small slow steps so he could keep up. A crew member walked after them, carrying Natalie’s chair.
Natalie’s chair was installed next to John’s in front of the monitors and they sat.
John said, “The shoot isn’t ready yet, Natalie, so we can chat for a few minutes.”
John asked about Natalie’s family and she told him and, then, Natalie asked about John’s family, and he told her.
What a sweet old man, she thought.
A man walked briskly up.
“Mr. Woo,” he said. He handed John an envelope and walked away.
Natalie leaned out of her chair, her eyes narrowed and she looked at John.
“Woo?” she asked incredulously. “Your name is John Woo? Hard Boiled, The Killer, Face/Off John Woo?”
John clapped his hands, delighted. “Oh, you know my work! That makes me so happy, Natalie! Tell me, do you have a favorite? What’s your favorite?”
Natalie said, “I like the others but… Face/Off is the best.”
John laughed. “Of course! I knew it! You’re American and Americans always choose Face/Off!”
Natalie laughed. John was John Woo.
John Woo just asked what her favorite John Woo movie was and he was eager to hear her answer.
Then, the stunt coordinator called out from across the set.
John and Natalie looked up and John exchanged a hand signal across the set with the man.
“Oh,” John said, “they’re almost ready.”
Then to Natalie: “Natalie, watch the monitors.”
John and Natalie watched the monitors.
The monitors showed three angles of the rooftop: wide shot, low angle near the access door, tight shot on the water tank. The fake rooftop looked more real on-screen than it did in person. That unsettled her.
“It’s strange,” Natalie whispered.
“What is?”
“The set looks fake when I look at it, but real on the monitor.”
John nodded, pleased. “That is cinema.”
She smiled. “It’s a trick.”
“It is a beautiful trick.”
“I work in art. We have those too.”
John laughed softly.
Natalie looked toward the rooftop, where Jason was doing stretches.
The stunt coordinator clapped his hands. “Places.”
The stage changed.
People who had been wandering suddenly had exact destinations. The actors took positions across the fake rooftop.
Danny stood near the access door, shoulders loose, head slightly lowered.
Jason waited by the water tank with a metal pipe.
Kai crouched near a vent, light on his feet.
Cal leaned against the parapet with the air of someone about to do something irresponsible and enjoy it.
John put on his headset. He motioned Natalie to do the same.
“Ready,” someone called.
A pause.
Then John said, “Action.”
The scene began with dialogue, but Natalie barely heard the words.
Danny came through the rooftop door. Jason blocked him. Kai moved behind him. Cal pushed off the parapet, slow and smiling.
When the negotiation between the hero and bad guys failed, Jason swung the pipe.
Danny ducked. The pipe hit the metal door with a crash that made Natalie flinch.
Danny drove an elbow into Jason’s middle, turned, caught Kai’s kick on his forearm, and shoved him into Cal’s path. Cal vaulted over a low vent instead of stopping, landed behind Danny, and hooked an arm around his throat.
It was not like watching a fight in a movie.
It was like watching the real thing.
Everything looked real. Pipe against metal. Foot against concrete. A grunt when someone landed wrong enough to sound real and right enough to be controlled.
Danny dropped his weight, rolled Cal over his shoulder, and used the motion to avoid Jason’s second swing. Kai came in fast from the side.
Danny caught him too late—or seemed to—and Kai’s foot skimmed so close to Danny’s face Natalie’s fingers tightened around the edge of her chair.
John watched the monitors without moving.
On-screen, the fight was cleaner than reality. Reality was sweat, noise, bodies narrowly missing equipment, the tiny half-steps that kept danger close at hand. The monitor made it idealized. A ballet.
Cal hit the rooftop hard and rolled. Jason advanced. Kai climbed the water tank ladder, kicked off halfway up, and came down toward Danny from above.
Natalie forgot to breathe.
Danny caught Kai midair.
Not fully. Enough.
He turned with him, momentum dragging them both, and slammed Kai onto a crash mat disguised as rooftop debris. Kai bounced once and lay still for half a second too long.
Then Jason came through, his pipe up menacingly.
Danny turned.
Cal rose behind him.
Three against one.
Danny’s body changed. Defense came forward. He slipped Jason’s swing, drove Jason back with two fast strikes, pivoted into Cal, used Cal’s shoulder as leverage, and kicked Kai back down before Kai could fully stand.
It should have been too much.
It was too much.
That was why it worked.
Jason swung again. Danny caught the pipe under his arm, twisted, stripped it away, and sent it skidding across the rooftop. It hit the parapet and stopped.
Danny stood in the center of the three men, breathing hard.
“Cut,” John said.
The room relaxed.
Crew moved. Makeup rushed in. Kai sat up laughing. Cal slapped Danny on the back. Jason retrieved the pipe and spun it once for no reason except that Natalie was watching.
The stunt coordinator’s voice cracked across the stage.
“Jason.”
Jason stopped spinning the pipe.
He pointed two fingers at his own eyes, then at the camera. “Lens. Not audience.”
A few crew members laughed.
Jason looked innocent. “I was checking my sightline.”
“You were checking the girl.” He motioned towards Natalie.
More laughter.
Natalie blushed.
John, beside her, said mildly, “It begins.”
Second take.
This time Kai was the problem.
His kick was higher, sharper, more beautiful than the first time. It also turned his face toward the monitors for a fraction of a second, just long enough for the stunt coordinator to bark, “Kai.”
He landed, grinning despite himself.
“Sorry,” he called.
“Be sorry for John,” the coordinator said.
Third take.
Cal added a little flourish going over the vent. It was spectacular and absolutely not necessary. John let the take run until Danny stripped the pipe, then called cut and leaned back.
The stunt coordinator walked over and John stood up and met him.
They conferred quietly, out of earshot of Natalie.
John listened, nodded, then turned to Natalie with profound courtesy.
“Natalie,” he said. “I must apologize.”
Natalie sat straighter. “For what?”
“The boys,” John said with a sigh, “can’t seem to focus with you on set.”
The stunt coordinator did not smile.
Natalie blushed.
I’m a distraction. To hot young movie stars.
“Oh,” Natalie said, smiling wide. “I see.”
“The boys are becoming peacocks,” John continued. “Beautiful, but out of control.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, no.” He patted the air gently. “Never apologize for attracting attention. But I need the boys’ attention somewhere else for an hour or so.”
“Sachi,” John called out. A young woman came over. “Please show Natalie over to the commissary and come right back.”
John clasped both of Natalie’s hands in his own, looked her directly in the eye and smiled.
“Thank you for honoring us with your presence on our set today, Natalie. I hope that you will come again soon. Danny and the boys will join you when we are done. Just give us an hour or so.”
Natalie smiled. “Thank you, John.”
John smiled again and turned away.
Natalie looked toward the set.
Danny, Jason, Kai and Cal were watching her from the set. Jason gave her a nod. Kai waved. Cal gave Natalie a small, solemn salute.
Danny met her eyes and smiled.
Natalie smiled back and turned.
Sachi waited by the taped cable line.
As they crossed toward the stage door, Cal called, “Natalie, if you come back, I promise not to look at you.”
Natalie looked back and shot Cal a smile.
The stunt coordinator called out, “Marks.”
Then Sachi opened the stage door, and the ordinary daylight of the studio lot spilled in.
Natalie and Sachi stepped out together and went down the short stairs to the studio street.