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yitian
Joined: 06 Jul 2011 Posts: 2173 Location: United States
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:01 pm Post subject: Precisely One Month Ago - My Very Happy Day with Tony |
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I promised myself to share my experience of this most incredible gathering with fellow fans, and show everyone how lovable our best actor is. Sorry for my tardiness, but it is always better late than never.
I have been in this happy, unbelievable hyper mode since I woke up in bed on June 30th 2018. Tony’s message “wants to meet me in NYC ?” posted here in the Forum made my jaw immediately dropped. I felt my heart skipped a beat!!! Who can believe your idol would be so kindly send out an invitation like this?!? All those usual mode of “let me sleep for another 10 minutes” on Saturday morning was instantly gone. About half an hour after, Tony messaged again: “between 18th to 21st of July”.
OK, the next 2+ weeks became very excited with loaded up activities - making connections with fellow fans, thinking of and searching for possible gifts, etc. My sore thumbs from clumsy texting had been constantly reminding me how happy I was. Nonetheless, time seemed moving very slowly. Fortunately there was a little problem needed to be solved or a little extra planning needed to be done during this long waiting period with high anticipation. I could see the days of Tony in NYC got closer and closer.
Finally, July 20th 2018 arrived. Believe it or not, this was the day our dear sweetest and the most considerate idol asked us, the extremely happy and lucky fans, to choose. He understood some fans came from faraway places and he wanted to make sure their travel plans were well in place. If you think this couldn't get any better from receiving such a special treatment from your idol, you're totally wrong. Tony actually invited us to have dinner with him.
I hoped that I wouldn't be as nervous as I met Tony for the first time 5 years ago, but I misjudged myself. After a more or less sleepless night, when I got up and found myself having zero appetite, I knew I had returned to the same old person on August 11th 2013. On that day, Tony came to NYC to promote The Grandmaster and Info arranged us to meet with him before a screen at the SVA in NYC.
July 20th moved quickly, soon it was time for me to meet the ultimate moment. Following the previous example arranged by Info 5 years ago, we super lucky and excited fans got together at a Starbucks near Tony’s hotel first. We greeted, chit-chatted and left our best wishes on 2 cards I bought. One card was particularly welcomed by all fans because it featured a cute tiger. The second one was much less than ideal but we all agreed that it was the best one available. Shortly after we met, we headed to the hotel lobby / bar area.
We arrived 5-10 minutes before our meeting time and quietly sat in a corner. All eyes were eagerly staring at the direction where the hotel elevator is located. Suddenly, I heard a voice voice: "there he is"!!! HERE CAME TONY!!! He walked towards us with a warm smile. I believe any Tony fan would recognize him at this point, in part because he wore this all so familiar and nice looking army yellow/green color pants with an eye-catching red string. We have seen this in many photos. This is absolutely unreal! I am in close distance with Tony AGAIN!
We greeted and Tony started by asking each of us who's who kind of question. I guess all of us were nervous at that moment because later no one seemed to remember well how we introduced ourselves. Since there were 10-15 minutes to spare before dinner time, Tony sat down, ordered some water for us and a martini for himself. We clinked glasses for our happy gathering. As Tony always says “Happy time always passes fast”, I felt the next 10 minutes passed like a flash. Very quickly, Tony asked for the bill and started to run the little computer in his head to calculate the amounts for the tip. I am sure this is a headache for anyone who is not used to the American tip system.
As we headed out and started walking towards to the restaurant, we started to worry some pedestrians could recognize Tony and make fuss. To avoid being obviously noticed, we all walked behind him at the beginning. Seeing nothing unusual happened, we quickly moved up and took turns to walk with him side by side. At any given moment, the rest of us who walked behind really looked like a special group of bodyguards. While I was walking with him, he told me that he would go back to Hong Kong soon because he needed to go promoting Europe Raiders, as well as attend the debut of Carina’s stage show.
Arriving at the restaurant, we sat down around a rather small table, in the middle of the restaurant. Friday night restaurant was so crowded and noisy. I sat in front of him, leaning forward most of the time trying to remember and understand every gentle syllable coming from the other side of the table. When I wasn’t paying 200% attention in the conversation because I was struggling with some Cantonese dialogue, I was spending most of my time and effort looking at him. He was so expressive when he was talking. Quite few times he moved his gaze into mine. I felt a pulse of electrical shock each time. All I could do was to smile at him and then automatically moved my gaze away.
About food, Tony suggested that each one of us order an item to share at the beginning. He also immediately said that he was going to order a salad - he chose the most simple and easiest one from the menu haha. Seeing us struggling with the menu, he took care majority of the order.
There was an episode to show how nervous I was. At some point, I picked some salad Tony ordered. After finishing all leafy parts, I started to struggle with an olive in my plate. Many times I tried to pick it up with my fork and failed, so I just picked it with my two fingers. Looking up while putting the olive in my mouth, I saw Tony was looking at me with a big smile. I guess he was observing me at all this time and thinking “how funny my fan can be so nervous and become a barbarian” haha.
During dinner time, Tony talked about his movie projects first. He will start shooting a spin-off of the Monster Hunt series in winter. Theory of Ambition might be released at some point next year as it was still in editing rooms. The best movie he watched recently and highly recommended was the reigning Palme d’Or, Shoplifters. Too bad this film is not going to be released in US until the award season - late November. It was kind of funny to hear Tony say that the first time he watched the movie was in Japan. “There was no subtitles” he said. However, as a professional, he still appreciated very much of all aspects of the film, except the dialogue of course.
Afterwards we (mostly him) talked about his lifestyle when he is not working on a movie set. He talked about boat sailing at the European Championship, talked about snowboarding, surfing and mountain biking. He still remembered vividly about the sound of meteor that he experienced almost 20 years ago. Our best actor is so much in love with nature. If he isn’t immersed himself in nature, he plays piano and reads.
Just as I felt like we sat down not long ago, two hours had already gone. When we heard Tony saying "happy time is always passing fast", we knew the end of this gathering was near. After we walked out of the extremely crowded restaurant, each of us had a picture taken with Tony on a busy street in midtown Manhattan. Furthermore, Tony took a nice looking selfie with all of us in a single frame.
Walking with Tony back to his hotel, we repeated the way we went to the restaurant. This was the end of “New York Raiders” with Tony in it. To me, this happy day is everlasting. Today, a month later, I still get a bit emotional when I am thinking of this incredible and utterly unforgettable period of time. The special treatments and the most thoughtful kind blessings we received are beyond any words one can describe. There is a saying that the best thing occurs in one’s dreams. This is much better than dreams are made of. |
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Safran
Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 2612 Location: Austria
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 4:36 am Post subject: |
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Dear yitian !
Many many thanks for sharing this extraordinary and great
experience with us. Your detailed, humourous and vivid report of this very special day brings back wonderful and unforgettable Hongkong-Memories to me.
When reading your lovable lines, I can sense the emotional tension, the excitement for joy ....the wild beating hearts and speechlessness also...and I clearly remember Tony's extremely likable personality, the soft and warm brown eyes and his gentle(bit shy?) smile, you described. (I'll always keep deep in my mind ! )
Me old aunty should better stop now, before getting tooo ambarrassingly emotional. haha
Dear friend, I'm very happy to see you happy....and highly enjoyed reading your charming "NY-Raiders-Report" VERY VERY MUCH !
Most thankfully ~
Helga |
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Tin-Yau
Joined: 19 Aug 2012 Posts: 1165 Location: Germany
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 6:44 am Post subject: |
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Yitian, thank you so so so much for sharing these very special moments!
In some of your words and descripions I can find myself again. ... sweet, sweet memories ... long ago. _________________ Water which is too pure has no fish. |
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yitian
Joined: 06 Jul 2011 Posts: 2173 Location: United States
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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I am so glad that My report made your found memories to resurface. Too bad my writing skills are so poor, otherwise this will definitely be a much more interesting and moving piece .
I put this together from an initial 8 page draft memo - left out many details that I will only keep them close to my heart . Anyway, I still can't believe everything happened in the past 53 days. Tony is an . |
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Safran
Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 2612 Location: Austria
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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In my view it is PERFECT - just the way it is !
I highly appreciate your enormous effort, my dear busy friend ! ![Very Happy](images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif) |
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yitian
Joined: 06 Jul 2011 Posts: 2173 Location: United States
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2018 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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54 days and counting . |
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sparkles_n15
Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 276 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2018 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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Love this! I'm sad I couldn't make it to NYC for this gathering, but I'm glad you had such a great time! |
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yitian
Joined: 06 Jul 2011 Posts: 2173 Location: United States
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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Nice to see you here Jenny .
I am so sorry you missed this once in a life time, oh no once in several life times (as far as how I feel), event. Hopefully we will be lucky enough to meet Tony again . Fingers crossed . |
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Eri
Joined: 28 May 2004 Posts: 876 Location: Japan
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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Dear yitian,
Thanks for writing about very happy and a little nervous time with Tony.
By reading your report, I can feel how you felt at the time and it made me very happy too.
Tony makes not only people who met him, but also other people who heard about how he treated his fans.
![In Love](images/smiles/060.gif) |
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Safran
Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 2612 Location: Austria
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 7:13 am Post subject: |
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Hello dear Eri
Your friendly visit is bringing back beautiful memories ![In Love](images/smiles/060.gif) |
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yitian
Joined: 06 Jul 2011 Posts: 2173 Location: United States
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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Dear Eri
How are you? So great to see you again. Glad to know my report made you happy .
Tony is really such an unique idol who makes many people happy in so many different ways. I am internally grateful for everything Tony has been giving to his fans . |
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francisc4
Joined: 12 Jun 2008 Posts: 305 Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
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Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Yitian,
Thank u for sharing your experience with us here.
Hope to see u again next time in NYC, fingers cross 🙏🏻 |
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yitian
Joined: 06 Jul 2011 Posts: 2173 Location: United States
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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Hello Cisca
Good to see your here, and hope to see you again in NYC . |
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