Film Title 片名 : 都市煞星 
Art Director 美術指導 : Azai Lui (Simon)

每當有人問我，電影最迷人的地方是什麼？我總會想起那些在現場與硝煙、火藥、生死擦肩而過的瞬間。在冰冷的鏡頭背後，往往是無數人用血肉之軀與實打實的拼勁，在和時間與危險博弈。

九十年代，我為電影《都市煞星》擔任美術指導。那一次張學友飾演一名殺手，有部分戲及場景需要遠赴泰國借景陳設。全靠我們那位「萬能製片」坐鎮打點，憑著其八面玲瓏的協調功力，跨國溝通與每個拍攝過程都進行得非常暢順。

我印象很深的一組鏡頭，是故事提及一組軍人經過窄橋，在暗殺行動中發生的一場槍戰。為了陳設這條橋，我們在兩旁安排了一排排路燈，並由泰國當地負責爆炸的工作人員在玻璃燈罩內預藏了炸藥。槍林彈雨的指令一響，現場真火藥的味道極濃，即便我已經很自覺地站在二十多米開外，依然能感受到強烈的震感——在香港拍戲也經常接觸爆破，但那次的強度確實少見，部分玻璃甚至直接爆到了我的腳邊，差點成了現場「受害者」。

相比之下，二十多米之外的我，不就是隻驚弓之鳥？在那片硝煙和碎玻璃當中，看著他們那份實打實的拼勁，我心裡明白，這就是電影現場最真實、也最讓人敬重的地方。

Whenever people ask me what makes cinema so captivating, my mind instantly drifts back to those raw moments on set, brushing shoulders with smoke, gunpowder, and immediate danger. Behind the cold precision of the lens, it is always the sheer, unadulterated grit of flesh and blood wagering against time and peril.

Back in the 1990s, I stepped in as the Art Director for the action film Point of No Return. This time, Jacky Cheung portrayed an assassin, requiring our team to relocate to Thailand for location scouting and intricate set dressing. Thanks to our "miracle-working" producer holding down the fort with incredible resourcefulness, the international coordination and every step of the process flowed flawlessly.

Etched most vividly into my memory is an intense shootout scene set upon a narrow bridge during an assassination plot. To dress this bridge, we lined both sides with rows of streetlamps, with the local Thai pyrotechnics crew carefully rigging live explosives inside each glass fixture. When the gunfight commenced, the air instantly turned heavy with the sharp, pungent scent of real gunpowder. Even though I had sensibly retreated over twenty meters away, the raw concussive shockwave was incredibly intense. We dealt with explosions all the time in Hong Kong, but the sheer strength of this blast was rare—sending shards of shattered glass flying straight to my feet, nearly turning the Art Director into a collateral casualty.

By comparison, standing over twenty meters away, wasn't I merely like a startled bird jumping at shadows? Amidst that haze of smoke and shattered glass, watching their sheer, unadulterated grit, I understood completely in my heart: this is the rawest, most respectable truth of being on a film set.