On the Set of a Cambodian Action Movie

I

Spent yesterday on the set of a Cambodian action movie. The movie is being produced by, and is also starring, a layyer friend of mine, a Cambodian American named David.

David is a rich and powerful guy. He drives around in a black Mercedes and has a couple automitic weapons in the trunk. He's also got a bodyguard or two, as I found out when we went to meet at the coffee shop before heading over to the set, on location about two hours outside of Phnom Penh.

A clean cut, youngish wiry looking guy with a smile sat a few tables in back of David; he seemed to be sussing me out, so I gave him a nod and smiled back at him.

"Who is that dork", I thought, "giving me the evil eye?"

Later, when the dork escorted me and David and David's young daughter to the Mercedes, I saw the tail of his shirt fall away to reveal a dull, mean pistol wedged in a holster.

"The dork...muct be...David's body guard""

So the bodyguard guy ushered David, myself, and David's wife and daughter in to the Mercedes and drove us to the location.

I sat in the front seat, riding in style with an AK-47 with collapsable butt-stock lying casually in the crevice between my left knee and the stick shift--and not far from the quick right Shootin'hand of David's bodyguard.

Anyway, on we went, across the bridge and the Tonle Sap river, twards the distant location: a lumbermill, where a drug sale-gone-bad (movie version of course) was about to take place.

II

More to come soon, including: the shooting scene...using LIVE BULLETS!

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