Professionals truly are professionals. The moment any brave monkey dared to enter the crew's shooting range, a tranquilizer gun was trained on it—and in the next instant, it was sent off to dreamland.
The tranquilized monkeys were placed in a cage they had brought along, and in less than half an hour, three had already been stuffed in.
That scared the rest of the troop. They screeched and chattered in the treetops for quite a while, but not a single one dared to come down again.
Laila was finally satisfied. She ignored the monkeys completely and summoned the crew to resume filming the next scenes.
In the afternoon, the monkeys in the cage woke up. With no way to escape, they grew anxious and restless, frightened by the unfamiliar experience. It was their first time in such a situation, and they were rattled.
But after the crew gave them some food, their moods changed instantly. They gobbled everything up, stuffing themselves until their bellies were round. Even though the monkeys in the trees witnessed this, they still didn't dare come down—just the thought of losing their freedom was terrifying enough to keep them away.
Taking advantage of this rare period of peace, Laila compressed three days' worth of scenes into a day and a half, then promptly evacuated the area and moved on to the next location. Only after the full relocation was complete did she allow the island staff to release the monkeys. She was honestly terrified those monkey demons would follow the crew to the next site—if that happened, she might just cry on the spot.
After hearing her concerns and seeing the new filming location, the island staff reassured her: monkeys rarely ventured to that area. First, the trees there were low and lacked their favorite foods; second, the area was home to their only remaining natural predator—a massive bird of prey.
The staff member named the species with a technical term, but Laila had no idea what it was. The difference between English and Eastern terms was huge. Take "bald eagle" for example—at least from the name, you could guess what kind of bird it was. But in English, it became Haliaeetus leucocephalus—don't even ask her what that meant. She couldn't begin to guess.
Still, she understood enough from the explanation to know that this raptor was extremely powerful. It preyed on seabirds and showed great interest in easy-to-catch animals like monkeys.
After hearing all this, Laila felt a wave of regret. Had she known this earlier, she would've chosen this location from the beginning. The terrain was suitable anyway, and at most the script would've needed some minor tweaks.
But of course, there's no such thing as a "regret pill" in this world. Fortunately, after reviewing some of the previous footage, her remorse was replaced by unexpected joy. Roy and Leslie Cheung were both consummate professionals. As long as the director didn't call "cut," they would keep acting—even if the sky fell.
As a result, some of the footage included unscripted moments with monkeys appearing in the background while the actors carried on unfazed. Perhaps knowing those shots wouldn't be usable, the two often improvised extra lines and unexpected interactions. The crew had laughed heartily at the time, treating it like a live comedy show. But when Laila reviewed those supposedly unusable clips, she found some of them surprisingly entertaining.
In one scene, the two leads were searching for food in the rainforest. Two monkeys, curious about their actions, mimicked them—scavenging left and right nearby. When Leslie Cheung pulled a mushroom off a tree trunk, one of the little monkeys also plucked one and triumphantly stuffed it into its mouth as if declaring victory.
Back when this scene was shot, Laila hadn't noticed the monkeys' antics. But watching it now, she realized it was genuinely amusing. If included in the final cut, it might even win unexpected praise from audiences.
With that thought, Laila's gloomy mood from the past two days lifted significantly.
But the upcoming scenes were far more complex. The new location would be the setting for the most critical part of the film—and also the most dangerous. This was where the actors would need to push their performance and physical limits.
Before filming began, Laila repeatedly emphasized to the crew the importance of ensuring the actors' safety. The next sequences would all take place on a cliffside. The actors would be rigged up and suspended from the cliffs, and one misstep could send them plummeting into a rocky sea filled with sharp jagged stones.
"If anything feels even slightly off, shout immediately, got it?" Laila warned them sternly before they descended. "Check your equipment thoroughly. Check it again."
"Don't worry." Roy patted the rope at his waist. "We'll be fine. I've filmed scenes way more dangerous than this before."
Laila frowned and turned to Leslie Cheung. "Are you sure you don't want a stunt double?" Compared to Roy, who had a martial arts background, she was much more concerned about "Gege's" safety. If anything happened to him, she would never forgive herself.
Leslie Cheung smiled gently. "Don't worry. The safety measures are solid."
Laila still wasn't reassured. "You're not like Roy. He's all muscle and thick skin—he could fall and not even feel it. But you…"
"…" Roy wasn't sure whether to feel flattered by her view of his "thick skin," or offended by how blatantly she was showing favoritism. Did she forget they were supposed to be an engaged couple?
Maybe it was time to gently remind her—and ideally drop the "engaged" part altogether.
Leslie Cheung chuckled softly and shook his head. "It's fine. I can handle it. Besides, using a double for this scene wouldn't look good on screen."
Of course, Laila knew that. But she didn't want to witness anything happening to him right in front of her eyes. Still, seeing how firmly he insisted, she had no choice but to give in and let him do it himself. All she could do now was hope everything went smoothly.
In truth, she was overthinking it out of concern. Her crew was seasoned and had been through countless tough shoots. How could they mess up something as basic as safety protocols?
Once everything was ready, the two actors were slowly lowered onto the cliff face.
In the film, they were at this dangerous location for one reason: they needed to retrieve some tools and supplies. Along the way, they accidentally discovered the wreckage of their plane stranded at the base of the cliff. But due to the island's terrain, they couldn't reach it from the side—the only way was to find weapons and clear a path through the snakes and poisonous insects swarming the route to the wreckage.
In the end, they decided to scale the cliff themselves. If they were lucky, they'd find the tools. If not, at least they might discover something useful.
On a deserted and perilous island like this, surviving without proper gear was out of the question.
The wind on the cliffside was fierce. Even though Laila had joked earlier about Roy being thick-skinned, watching him struggle step by step against the violent gusts still made her heart clench tightly.