Speaker 1: Warning, this podcast contains spoilers for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Hello,
Speaker 1: my name is Jason Concepcion and I'm Brinday Night, and
Speaker 1: welcome to x ray Vision, the Crooked Media podcast where
Speaker 1: we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics, and
Speaker 1: pop culture. And welcome to a special bonus episode. We're
Speaker 1: having an epic crossover with our good friends and Keep
Speaker 1: It to celebrate the Oscar run the wonderful film Everything
Speaker 1: Everywhere All at Once, sweeping category after category. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be discussing the film's awards. We'd be discussing our feelings
Speaker 1: about the film. We're gonna be re airing our interview
Speaker 1: with the directing team, the Daniels that we ran in
Speaker 1: a previous episode of X ray Vision, and then you're
Speaker 1: gonna hear our good friends from Keep It, Ira Madison
Speaker 1: and Louis Fortell interview the legend Herself Academy Award win
Speaker 1: a Michelle Yo, one of the greatest living human beings
Speaker 1: of all time currently walking the earth.
Speaker 2: And if you want to jump around, check the show
Speaker 2: notices for times times you're probably gonna need him, and
Speaker 2: go and watch the movie.
Speaker 1: Please watch the movie, Okay, everything, Everywhere, all at once,
Speaker 1: swept the Oscars over the weekend. They won seven Oscars,
Speaker 1: including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress from Michelle Yo.
Speaker 2: Best Original Screenplay.
Speaker 1: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Wonderful k kwon.
Speaker 2: Jamie Lee Kaies in an opposeet.
Speaker 1: Best Actress in a Supporting Role. I will sport, I will,
Speaker 1: I will talk about my feelings. Best at Film Editing
Speaker 1: for the Very Handsome Paul Rodgers my favorite. I was like,
Speaker 1: this is a man, really very dashing, Paul Roger.
Speaker 3: This is somebody I know.
Speaker 2: I'm like, this is how I would give an Oscar speech.
Speaker 2: I would be awkward, hopefully look that good, and just
Speaker 2: kind of be like, well, I think I won this.
Speaker 1: This is co producer Chris also also appreciate I would
Speaker 1: he want to us. It's just like, well, well, Paul, hello, Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is out of They won seven
Speaker 2: out of eleven nominations. They won all the majors. This
Speaker 2: is the third time ever in Oscar history that one
Speaker 2: film has won three acting awards. One of the other
Speaker 2: ones was Network. I'm not actually sure what the first
Speaker 2: film was bad research on my part, but it is
Speaker 2: the third time ever that that happened, and I think
Speaker 2: that is very cool. I mean, there's so many first here,
Speaker 2: but that's far less important than the fact that the
Speaker 2: movie is like fucking amazing. I will never forget when
Speaker 2: we spoke to the Daniels as well. Hear later on
Speaker 2: this episode. We were talking to them and we were
Speaker 2: just such huge fans of this movie. This is everything
Speaker 2: we love. It's multiverse, it's comic book action, it's completely original,
Speaker 2: has Michelle fucking yeah style action gay yeah.
Speaker 1: It's got butt plug jokes, it's a it's a it's
Speaker 1: a sincere and heartfelt story about an immigrant family.
Speaker 2: It's about generational trauma, it's about as It's got James Hong,
Speaker 2: the living legend, legend favorite actors and performers and people
Speaker 2: of all time. And we were just such huge fans
Speaker 2: and at the time it was starting to make a
Speaker 2: little bit of money at the box office. It was
Speaker 2: doing well. It was going to go out of limited
Speaker 2: release and into wide release, I believe, and the Daniels
Speaker 2: were like so confused. They were just like, we thought,
Speaker 2: we made another weird movie like Swiss Army Man that
Speaker 2: no one would like. Yeah, And we were like, well,
Speaker 2: people like it and like, what if it becomes kind
Speaker 2: of the biggest movie in the world. And they were like,
Speaker 2: that would be terrible. I was like, that would be
Speaker 2: really Like this is already scary. So I'm feeling for them.
Speaker 2: I think that this was This has been such an
Speaker 2: incredible Awards season to follow them. This story has been brilliant.
Speaker 2: To see Key get this comeback story, to see Michelle
Speaker 2: get her flowers and also as well. I feel like
Speaker 2: their speeches were.
Speaker 1: So Goody brought me to tear.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I was crying from the moment he wepne.
Speaker 2: I was crying, and it really was like there were
Speaker 2: only really intervals because Michelle got me. I loved Daniel
Speaker 2: Kuan's speech where he was talking about this kind of
Speaker 2: unbelievable journey and how crazy it was to win an Oscar,
Speaker 2: but then he immediately was like to my son, like
Speaker 2: you will never have to live up to this. This
Speaker 2: is not normal, Like he's breaking down generational trauma in
Speaker 2: the Oscar speech about the movie, that's breaking down generational trauma,
Speaker 2: Like it was that's that came at this. I think
Speaker 2: it's maybe a bit over the top now, but Parasite
Speaker 2: was always my best Oscar experience where I watched the
Speaker 2: Oscars and I felt like I couldn't believe that this
Speaker 2: movie I loved was winning. When it won Best International
Speaker 2: Picture and Best Picture was blowing my mind. This gave
Speaker 2: me that same elation. There was so much emotion here,
Speaker 2: so much It was so moving. It was so great
Speaker 2: to see how so many people came together to celebrate
Speaker 2: this weird, original movie that also brought back these kind
Speaker 2: of legends and put them in the spotlight.
Speaker 1: Key's speech about you know, being a being a refugee
Speaker 1: and an immigrant and finding this American dream was amazing.
Speaker 1: He thanked Jeff Cohen chunk from the Goonies, who it
Speaker 1: turns out is a successful entertainment lawyer and helped him
Speaker 1: seal this deal, you know, thanking his mom. I will say,
Speaker 1: he is such a better human being than me in
Speaker 1: the sense that, you know, he'd famously been out of
Speaker 1: the business acting wise for twenty years and had worked
Speaker 1: behind the camera just casually like working with one CALLI,
Speaker 1: but had to because he had to be wrong with
Speaker 1: the roles dried up and you know when he's like
Speaker 1: calling out Steven Spielberg, who gave him his you know,
Speaker 1: they kept cutting to Steve and who, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: famously gave him his break in Temple Indiana Jones and
Speaker 1: Temple of Doom. If it was me, I would have
Speaker 1: been petty and been like, there's Stevensbieller who gave him
Speaker 1: my break and then of course never hired me for
Speaker 1: any of the indie sequels. You know it. It was like,
Speaker 1: I can't. I it was wonderful to see how generous
Speaker 1: and positive he was, because I would have believe here, here,
Speaker 1: I am in this room of people who here's the
Speaker 1: reason why I didn't work for twenty years, because none
Speaker 1: of them hired me, and they're all like, so, it
Speaker 1: was really amazing, and that's incredibly generous. Generous is the right,
Speaker 1: wonderfully generous. And then you know what a triumph for
Speaker 1: Michelle Yo, who is truly one of the greatest who
Speaker 1: has ever done it. I have a legend in a
Speaker 1: million different ways, a pioneer in Hong Kong cinema, one
Speaker 1: of our great actresses. Physicality, the ability to convey emotion,
Speaker 1: just everything.
Speaker 2: She also like if you think about how there's a
Speaker 2: whole generation of people who just knew her from her
Speaker 2: drama work in crazy rich Asians. Like, there's a generation
Speaker 2: of kids. Even my sister I love this stuff. She
Speaker 2: hasn't known Michelle Yo from martial arts. She knows her
Speaker 2: from crazy rich Asians.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I saw a great interview with sam O Huang who
Speaker 2: kind of discovered in Inverted Commas Michelle and was like
Speaker 2: her first director. He's a martial arts legend, a very
Speaker 2: dangerous man to work with, boy, but like absolutely just
Speaker 2: like a genius. He gave a great quote where he
Speaker 2: basically just said everything Michelle has, she did it herself.
Speaker 2: He's like, there's no one else, It's just her. She
Speaker 2: was She's never had any form of martial arts training.
Speaker 2: Believe she is just she was a ballerina who got
Speaker 2: an injury who then went into acting, and they were like,
Speaker 2: let's see if we can make her an action stuff.
Speaker 2: Watch some of those all Hong Kong movies right now.
Speaker 2: The Criterion Collection has a Michelle Watch that collection and
Speaker 2: you can get a two week free trial. I'm not
Speaker 2: even being paid, Criterion Collection, give me something free. They
Speaker 2: have all yes, Madam Heroic Trio, like all these great
Speaker 2: movies that you can enjoy and you can see why
Speaker 2: she is such a legend. I did a post an
Speaker 2: emotion post, I love Michelle Yo, and I was really
Speaker 2: happy to see other people who felt the same way.
Speaker 2: This is someone who's a trailblazer, who's a legend, who
Speaker 2: has never really gotten her flowers from from Hollywood, from
Speaker 2: the people, even though you know she's the first bond
Speaker 2: girl who really wasn't just a y sexual interest like
Speaker 2: she was the first badass. You know, it's I it's
Speaker 2: one of those things where you're like the Oscars, It
Speaker 2: doesn't you don't have to get the movie would have
Speaker 2: been amazing without the Oscars. This doesn't add to whether
Speaker 2: or not the movie was good, but it is nice
Speaker 2: to see that recognition, especially for someone like Key on
Speaker 2: that journey, who's such a generous, kind person who's now
Speaker 2: going to have this incredible comeback career, And for Michelle
Speaker 2: who should have been getting these How did she not
Speaker 2: get nominated for Crashing Tiger, Hit and Dragon, a movie
Speaker 2: that got like so many nominations That just blows my mind.
Speaker 1: On the Jamie Lee Curtis, Yes, I I think there
Speaker 1: was a lot of love out there for Angela Basketball.
Speaker 1: By the way, it should have won for any number
Speaker 1: of yeah's good in everything twenty years plus ago. Absolutely
Speaker 1: should have should have won for that. I I'm fine
Speaker 1: with Jamie Lee winning. I understand that for one, she
Speaker 1: beat out Stephanie Zeo's who is like I am sensitive
Speaker 1: to she should have won. I will say Jamie Lee
Speaker 1: for the This happens in oscars all the time, where
Speaker 1: somebody wins for the history of the things that they've done.
Speaker 1: And I think her resume is really amazing. You know,
Speaker 1: Halloween remade the movie industry, redefine what a slasher could be.
Speaker 1: She's an important part of that lineage. And I also
Speaker 1: think I haven't read anything about this, but it seems
Speaker 1: to me. It seems reasonable to me to assume that
Speaker 1: Jamie Lee signing on is probably a big reason why
Speaker 1: this movie got yeah.
Speaker 2: And I think that that transitioned. I read all of
Speaker 2: those ballots, the anonymous ballots, and a lot of them
Speaker 2: are absolutely horrific. You should read the ewpiece to be
Speaker 2: just disgusted by the fucked up shit people are saying
Speaker 2: about Viola Davis, like the most awful stuff about the
Speaker 2: woman King and White ag Get all, my, they're good
Speaker 2: because then you remember who's behind these awards. But something
Speaker 2: I did see coming up again and again was this
Speaker 2: idea that it wasn't just that Jamie was champion of
Speaker 2: the film, but she never campaigned for herself during the Oscars.
Speaker 2: She only campaigned for everyone else in the movie in
Speaker 2: the collection of actors and directors and stuff, so I
Speaker 2: can totally understand how she ended up there. I would
Speaker 2: love to see Angela get her Oscar. I think it's time.
Speaker 2: I think Ramonda's a great role. I also think that
Speaker 2: arguably Stephanie is the lead.
Speaker 1: In everything ever else.
Speaker 2: I think it's kind of wild that she didn't win.
Speaker 2: But you know what, I'm also like a super Slasher fan,
Speaker 2: so I'm here for it all. I want to see
Speaker 2: Angela get that recognition because she is also another legend,
Speaker 2: like another basically like another trailblazer who's never really been
Speaker 2: recognized so should have been. I would have loved to
Speaker 2: see that happen. But I love that Jamie got to
Speaker 2: win for this role where she's comedic and she is herself,
Speaker 2: and she is weird and she's queer and there's all
Speaker 2: these different kind of layers to it. That to me
Speaker 2: was the biggest upset. So yeah, Stephanie had time will
Speaker 2: come Angela had times should have been come in, but
Speaker 2: I'm sure that we will see it, and Angela's work
Speaker 2: still stands and it is still a queen and a
Speaker 2: win nine our books.
Speaker 1: Anyway, up next, let's revisit our discussion of everything Everywhere,
Speaker 1: All at Once, and our interview with the Daniels when
Speaker 1: we saw the film for the first time last year.
Speaker 1: All Right, we're stepping out of the air lock and
Speaker 1: into the mind bending world of an IRS building. Just
Speaker 1: dis because the eight twenty more Sibi action comedy masterpiece
Speaker 1: that is everything everywhere, all at once. It's opening wide
Speaker 1: today this Friday, April eighth, And if you like the
Speaker 1: movies and you want to have a good time at
Speaker 1: the movies, that is action packed and really heartfelt and
Speaker 1: like uplifting too, like not violent in a way that's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is like really entertaining, but I feel bad, like
Speaker 1: watching fifty A head shots in a row. You will
Speaker 1: not feel that way about. This movie has an incredible cast.
Speaker 1: Michelle the Absolute Legend, Key Hou Kwon as Wayman Wang
Speaker 1: back in the game again in front of the camera,
Speaker 1: Stephanie Sue as Joy, James Hong the Legend, James Hong
Speaker 1: Jamie Curtis and more really fun movie. We'll keep it well,
Speaker 1: this is like a spoiler conversation.
Speaker 2: It's spoilery, but we're not gonna go like full recap. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna kind of talk about it.
Speaker 1: So I just loved. I love this movie. You know,
Speaker 1: for everyone complaining that like there are this too many
Speaker 1: comic when movies everything is a Marvel movie or DC
Speaker 1: tie in or something like that, I guess, you know,
Speaker 1: people would still criticize this movie for you know, depending
Speaker 1: heavily on the multiverse for its plot momentum. That said,
Speaker 1: it is just like so original in the way it
Speaker 1: deals with it and the imagery it uses. It is
Speaker 1: so funny. And then like to have you know, an
Speaker 1: all Asian cast as your you know, as you were
Speaker 1: kind of like the crux of the movie and their
Speaker 1: feelings about each other, their kind of disappointments with each other,
Speaker 1: their miscommunications. It's three generations of a family. It was
Speaker 1: just like felt really good to see. And then the
Speaker 1: crowd that I saw with I saw it here in
Speaker 1: La it was clear that somebody, somebody worked on the
Speaker 1: movie in my theater because like people started cheering when
Speaker 1: the credits rolled like randomly at a random place. So like,
Speaker 1: I love that. It was really really really great energy.
Speaker 1: What did you think of the movie?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I absolutely loved it. Like I went
Speaker 2: to go and see it with a big group of
Speaker 2: friends after we went to this amazing black kind of
Speaker 2: flea market called Black Market Flee. So it was just
Speaker 2: like a very good day and that I saw it
Speaker 2: in La too, and it was in a huge cinema.
Speaker 2: We couldn't go to the Imax, but we saw it
Speaker 2: and the biggest scream we could see it that wasn't Imax,
Speaker 2: and people were reacting like it was a Marvel movie
Speaker 2: like it was. I couldn't have seen it with the
Speaker 2: bad like things happening, and people were like, yeah, just
Speaker 2: like screaming, and I was just like, this is so
Speaker 2: incredible because on the surface, if you describe what this
Speaker 2: movie is in a sentence, it's like Michelle Yoh is
Speaker 2: a kind of late middle aged woman who runs a
Speaker 2: laundromat and she's doing her taxes and Jamie Lee Curtis
Speaker 2: is her irs lady and she's evil and it's kind
Speaker 2: of this like dreary middle age where she's thinking like
Speaker 2: what could I have done in my life, and she's
Speaker 2: pulled into this crazy multiversal kind of war where she
Speaker 2: has to use every version of herself to gain the
Speaker 2: skills she needs to beat this mysterious bad guy Jobu Tabaki.
Speaker 2: And it sounds so outrageous, but like I watched that
Speaker 2: movie and it felt like it was the most accessible
Speaker 2: thing in the world. I think it's that balance, Like
Speaker 2: you've talked about this idea of this intergenerational Asian storytelling.
Speaker 2: This cast just full of absolute legends and it it
Speaker 2: is this bonkers movie where there's fifty versions of Michelle Yo, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, who didn't want that? That's like the
Speaker 2: dream a way. But it's also like this really intimate,
Speaker 2: niche story about like intergenerational misunderstandings and cycles of like
Speaker 2: familial emotional trauma. And KiHa Kwan is just like so incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, He's like I kept thinking that it's like actually
Speaker 1: criminal that this actor could not find work for as
Speaker 1: long as he could not find work in front of
Speaker 1: the camera. He is so engaging. He's just like has
Speaker 1: a lightness and a charm to him that is all
Speaker 1: the more impressive for the fact that he does some
Speaker 1: real like impressive and authentic, like martial arts stuff work
Speaker 1: that is like and he's been high, high level stuff.
Speaker 2: But this is like That's the other thing about this movie,
Speaker 2: which is why I think so far the the screenings
Speaker 2: and the limited release have been really successful, and I
Speaker 2: hope the wide releases too, because I feel like this
Speaker 2: people say this stuff, but this is literally a movie
Speaker 2: that has something for everyone.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, feeling depressed, nihilistic, wishing the world would end. It's
Speaker 2: for you feeling like you wish everyone was kinder to
Speaker 2: each other. Also for you feeling like you just want
Speaker 2: to see loads ofical action sequences that are completely outrageous
Speaker 2: and some of the best big screen Hollywood action that
Speaker 2: we've seen in years. Also for you want to see
Speaker 2: it intergenerational family story. Also for you need more queer
Speaker 2: people on your screen. Also for you like it's got everything.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean those action sequences are just The
Speaker 2: choreography is unreal. It's like Hong Kong cinema. It makes
Speaker 2: you feel like you're watching, you know, a Shaw Brothers
Speaker 2: movie late night on the TV, but you're getting to
Speaker 2: see it beautifully big screen in this really unbelievable sci
Speaker 2: fi context.
Speaker 1: It does something that really hits me on an emotional level,
Speaker 1: which is like and I think the best stories do that,
Speaker 1: which is take some wild you know, sci fi slash
Speaker 1: fantasy asque concept a multiverse, right, a multiple realities existing
Speaker 1: side by side, but like links it to something that
Speaker 1: is like really human, which is like regret about the
Speaker 1: way your life turned out. You know who doesn't who
Speaker 1: hasn't at a certain point in time, been like, man,
Speaker 1: if I had done this, if I had done that,
Speaker 1: I wanted all these things for myself when I was younger,
Speaker 1: earlier on, but then I made a bunch of decisions
Speaker 1: if that were maybe foolhardy or not particularly thought out,
Speaker 1: or I was thinking emotionally with my heart when I
Speaker 1: should have been thinking with my brain. And now here
Speaker 1: I am in middle age, and I'm doing a thing
Speaker 1: that I don't want to do that it doesn't fulfill me,
Speaker 1: like emotionally, and I am in a relationship that maybe
Speaker 1: is not the most fulfilling, and I don't have a
Speaker 1: great relationship with my kids, and maybe I wish I
Speaker 1: had done a bunch of things different. And this movie
Speaker 1: just on top of or underneath rather being like this
Speaker 1: kind of rollicking sci fi multiversal adventure. It's really a
Speaker 1: story about like how people can feel boxed in by
Speaker 1: the life that they have led, and how, you know,
Speaker 1: a core experience, existential experience of just being a person
Speaker 1: is wondering, man, what if I had done things differently? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And this movie lets the characters access all these different
Speaker 1: lives that they could have led, you know, like when
Speaker 1: when Evelyn manages to access the dimension in which she
Speaker 1: is a movie star, an international which her dream, right,
Speaker 1: she comes to this place where she's like, man, I
Speaker 1: guess I shouldn't have run away with with my husband Wyman,
Speaker 1: who I loved at one point in time, but like
Speaker 1: maybe that wasn't for the best. Maybe I should have
Speaker 1: chased my dream and I could have I could have
Speaker 1: been an international movie star. Like that, I want to
Speaker 1: stay there. Maybe I want to stay there. And that
Speaker 1: just felt like universal to me. Yeah, that's a universal dream,
Speaker 1: a universal fantasy that people have.
Speaker 2: There's something like incredibly honest and vulnerable about it too,
Speaker 2: where it's like admitting that there's maybe something you want
Speaker 2: that's more and then kind of the realizations of what
Speaker 2: that really means, like the bit that really like I
Speaker 2: just I mean, there's so many good bits in that world,
Speaker 2: like we were talking about this, but like Wymand in
Speaker 2: that world when she accidentally bumps into him, it's very
Speaker 2: much his one car why in the mood for love
Speaker 2: kind of moment, and k is so brilliant and you
Speaker 2: just think, like why isn't aren't these roles he's been
Speaker 2: getting anyway? But in that world the first thing Everlyn
Speaker 2: asks is you know, where's Joy Where's my daughter? But
Speaker 2: she doesn't exist in that world. And it's those little
Speaker 2: moments where it's just like ah, like these are the things,
Speaker 2: the pieces that come together, the butterfly effect, you know,
Speaker 2: chaos theory, it's the little things that could change everything.
Speaker 2: And something else I love in the terms of that
Speaker 2: in this movie I love in every movie. It's one
Speaker 2: of my favorite things in any movie from any era,
Speaker 2: is like the way that they show technology and they
Speaker 2: have so much fun with this kind of retro futuristic technology.
Speaker 1: I love that it's so great and the visuals are fun.
Speaker 2: And also like I love the way that they literally
Speaker 2: do the chaos theory butfly effect thing, where like you'll
Speaker 2: see the one decision and then you get to see
Speaker 2: this kind of mapped out how everything changed, and I'm
Speaker 2: just like what it's like. It's a really cool visual,
Speaker 2: but it's really.
Speaker 1: Deep, it's really scary. On the one hand, that kind
Speaker 1: of like retro future hardware, like the different kind of
Speaker 1: like Verse jumping hardware that Wayman and the Alpha Verse
Speaker 1: wear is to like in his crew where to keep
Speaker 1: track of what's going on. On the one hand, like
Speaker 1: I remember thinking it's great design, but also like it
Speaker 1: must have been great because like this is cheaper than
Speaker 1: like CG or making it Yeah cool, But the other
Speaker 1: thing I was thinking, did you ever watch The Adventures
Speaker 1: of Bukaroo Bonzai. Of course it felt like that. It
Speaker 1: felt like a super weird like retro future teak on
Speaker 1: a sci fi movie. That felt like, alongside all the
Speaker 1: different references, the Jackie Chan references, the Shaw Brothers references,
Speaker 1: the very wankar why references they're in this movie, it
Speaker 1: also felt like it was pulling on that what I
Speaker 1: think is actually like a super weird not that good
Speaker 1: kind of bad side from the eighties, but that is
Speaker 1: so unique in the way it looks, and that's what
Speaker 1: it reminded me of the buckeru bons There's like so.
Speaker 2: Many unbelievable kind of like draw things here. Like there's
Speaker 2: this old South Korean movie from like two thousand and
Speaker 2: three called Save the Green Planet, and there's like something
Speaker 2: to that of the way his head looks, and there's
Speaker 2: like definitely those old eighties sci fi kind of the
Speaker 2: almost like the serialized like Flash Gordon costumes that you
Speaker 2: just pull on and you have to build, you know,
Speaker 2: the Rob Liefeld many pockets, Like there's a lot of
Speaker 2: pockets in those universes, and like there's something so tangible.
Speaker 2: I am a big proponent. I'm always the person who's like,
Speaker 2: I wish this was practical, you know, on the By
Speaker 2: Southwest episode, I was like, if I could change one
Speaker 2: thing about the MCU, I'm like, fuck it, I'll just
Speaker 2: make it all practical. I'd love to see what it
Speaker 2: would look like. But they do. They utilize practical and
Speaker 2: the effects in this movie in a way that feels
Speaker 2: very tangible and touchable and stylized, but also really slick,
Speaker 2: like it doesn't feel that. There's something very special about
Speaker 2: that balance in this movie that I think also comes
Speaker 2: from the nature of doing like so many in camera
Speaker 2: stunts and so many unbelievable kind of you have to
Speaker 2: have that balance of like what can we how can
Speaker 2: we use THEFX here to elevate what we're doing while
Speaker 2: still making it feel real and being able to feel
Speaker 2: those punches. And I mean the Wayman fight scene that
Speaker 2: where he utilizes his fanny pack.
Speaker 1: That's going it absolutely is going to be. You know,
Speaker 1: I always rate I always rate a movie in action
Speaker 1: movie in part by am I gonna rewatch this scene
Speaker 1: at one am on YouTube randomly because it's like a
Speaker 1: random Wednesday night and I want to take a break
Speaker 1: from work And the answer is one hundred percent. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch that. I'm gonna watch that Fannybac scene.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch the Evelyn fight scene with Deirdre. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna There's gonna be a bunch of stuff that I
Speaker 1: watch in this and I again I can't stress enough
Speaker 1: like how frenetic and energetic the action scenes are. The
Speaker 1: the Daniels came up through music video and like there's
Speaker 1: a level of a d D nois mm hmm.
Speaker 2: It feels very much like it's looking into IDHD brain.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Like their most famous music video is
Speaker 1: the DJ Snake Little John Classic turned down for what
Speaker 1: so the action scenes are in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: like very reminiscent of that. It's like, you know, like uh,
Speaker 1: people being thrown through floors and like, uh, so much
Speaker 1: action and comedy on the screen at the same time,
Speaker 1: an incredible removes just like really really really funny and
Speaker 1: original film in that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think just shout out. I believe they're
Speaker 2: called Marshall Club. There are a group of YouTubers who
Speaker 2: create like martial arts kind of stump pieces in their
Speaker 2: own houses, and that's who they Daniels found and brought
Speaker 2: on to kind of collaborate with them. Just unbelievable stuff.
Speaker 2: When you watch it, you sort of you can't really
Speaker 2: believe it. It definitely is that rewatchable factor. Like afterwards,
Speaker 2: I was like, yes, this is like it's like the
Speaker 2: scene in the Raid where they get halfway up the
Speaker 2: building and Eco uways starts doing still at and uses
Speaker 2: his knife and takes out like ten people in the corridor.
Speaker 2: It's the corridor scene from Old Boy. It's the John
Speaker 2: Wick the first time that he shows his gun fu
Speaker 2: in the house when he's being invaded. The scenes where
Speaker 2: you're just like, oh, have you seen this and you
Speaker 2: don't necessarily have to show the whole movie, but this
Speaker 2: film is like absolutely full of them. But also it's
Speaker 2: like this really sweet. I mean, there's a whole segment
Speaker 2: of this movie that is just two rocks, not gonna
Speaker 2: it is, but it is the most powerful part.
Speaker 1: Part for me. Yeah, it is like really really heartfelt.
Speaker 1: And to your point with the rock scene, there are
Speaker 1: for all the people who are like, oh, man, like
Speaker 1: where's I'm worried about the state of movies today with
Speaker 1: economics being so kind of warped by the success of
Speaker 1: the Marvel movies, here is a movie that does everything
Speaker 1: you want like a summer blockbuster to do, but also
Speaker 1: has like that indie movie heart and audacious, super weird
Speaker 1: choices that are like.
Speaker 2: There is so much weird stuff like the two the rock.
Speaker 1: Scene where you're just like, man, I can't believe that worked,
Speaker 1: and it really works. It lands so hard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think as well, like we've talked a
Speaker 2: lot about the icons, but like nobody was writing a
Speaker 2: script like this for Michelle Yo. You know, she said
Speaker 2: this is the script where she read it, and she
Speaker 2: was like, this is the movie that can see all
Speaker 2: the different things I can be, I can be funny,
Speaker 2: I can be serious, I can be badass, I can
Speaker 2: be sad, I can you know, and we know, like
Speaker 2: we've said, Key, he hadn't been in a major Hollywood
Speaker 2: movie for like twenty years. This was his first audition,
Speaker 2: I think that Daniel said for for twenty years. And
Speaker 2: then obviously James Hong, who's like an icon and has
Speaker 2: over six hundred credits and is just absolutely one of
Speaker 2: my favorite actors of all time. But he gets to
Speaker 2: have this really dynamic, complex, hilarious, action packed character arc
Speaker 2: again that nobody is really writing for him, like probably
Speaker 2: his biggest role in a movie like this since like
Speaker 2: Big Trouble in Little China, where you're getting this really
Speaker 2: layered like character piece and it's just that's like miraculous
Speaker 2: to see. And that's not even shouting out like Jamie
Speaker 2: Lee Curtis, who just plays everything so straight, like you
Speaker 2: can't get the things she does in this movie and
Speaker 2: the sincerity with which she does them, like in my
Speaker 2: dream dreams, like this movie sweeps every Oscar and every
Speaker 2: awards he's in next year, and Michelle Yo is a hundred.
Speaker 1: Just one of our greatest living Yeah, she should be getting.
Speaker 2: A Best Actress Oscar and Jamie Lee Curtis. I'm like
Speaker 2: put her up for the best supporting baby because she
Speaker 2: Stephanie Sue as well. But like, this cost is just unreal.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, what was your Michelle Yo entry point?
Speaker 1: What was your original? What was your original drug? Your
Speaker 1: original into the Michelle Yo version, and mine is like
Speaker 1: super it's the obvious one super cop please story three
Speaker 1: super Cop in which she plays like a police detective
Speaker 1: who then has to link up with Jackie Chan's character
Speaker 1: to take down drug dealers in Malaysia, and it contains
Speaker 1: some of the craziest stunts. Michelle Yo jumps a dirt
Speaker 1: bike onto a moving train in this movie, like just
Speaker 1: fucking insane, and then uh, you know, later on I
Speaker 1: would watch all the rest, you know. Yeah, yes, Madam.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, mine is definitely yes, madam.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolute classic Hong Kong movie. Well, it's so good,
Speaker 1: sin Rock iconic.
Speaker 2: It's like it's so bonkers to think like Michelle Actually
Speaker 2: the really incredible interview recently with my friend Gretchen Smail
Speaker 2: at Bustle, which is just so wonderful and adds a
Speaker 2: lot of really complex layers to the movie, where she
Speaker 2: talks about how she retired from acting in Hong Kong
Speaker 2: cinema at the age of twenty eight with plans to
Speaker 2: start a family, so she'd already done all of that
Speaker 2: by the time she was twenty eight, she'd had a
Speaker 2: whole career. Yes Madam, you know super Cop, like these
Speaker 2: unbelievable iconic movies. Just just put Yes Madam into YouTube.
Speaker 2: Watched some of the scenes with Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Yo.
Speaker 2: I mean, as a kid who grew up watching like
Speaker 2: Kung Fu movies, that movie was like a revelation. And
Speaker 2: then she came back and she has this second wave
Speaker 2: of like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know these I mean, Yes Madam was like
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Just unbelievable stuff. And it's just she's been so iconic
Speaker 2: on so many levels, and I think for a lot
Speaker 2: of us, she has been like a staple of all
Speaker 2: kinds of cinema, whether it was like Hong Kong cinema,
Speaker 2: whether it was the whether it was Wushoe actually coming
Speaker 2: to Hollywood for the first time with Crouching Tiger. You know,
Speaker 2: it's astonishing the impact she's had and I feel like
Speaker 2: this is a celebration of that, but also probably just
Speaker 2: marks like the third wave of her career, while she'll
Speaker 2: just become even more powerful.
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk with the creators of this movie. The
Speaker 1: writer director Duo Knows the Daniels, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Shiner.
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Speaker 1: the Shoes Save the World. That's a little hero's drop
Speaker 1: for everybody paying attention. Welcome to the Hive Mind, where
Speaker 1: we explore topic in more detail with the help of
Speaker 1: expert guests and say we are thrilled to have Daniel
Speaker 1: Kwan and Daniel Siner, known collectively as the Daniels Writer
Speaker 1: directors of Everything Everywhere. All at once, gentlemen, loved the movie?
Speaker 1: How how did it? How did this come together? How
Speaker 1: did this film come together? And I just like, I
Speaker 1: kept thinking, how what does the script look like? Because
Speaker 1: this is so like the level of like absurdist randomness
Speaker 1: action is so off the charts that I was like, man,
Speaker 1: how do you even write this down?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Thank you, Yeah, we By the way, thank you for
Speaker 6: having us. Very excited to talk about the movie. Well,
Speaker 6: I'll start there. The random acts to use as an
Speaker 6: engine for traveling to other universes. That's that is kind
Speaker 6: of one of the initial ideas we we both grew
Speaker 6: up on Douglas Adams and Hetchiger's Guide and Vonnegut and
Speaker 6: just that sort of absurdist sci fi that that's great,
Speaker 6: but there's such a irreverent quality to their sci fi
Speaker 6: that is still very much grounded in science, and like
Speaker 6: there's still something like a like a kernel of truth
Speaker 6: in it all. And you know, that idea came. The
Speaker 6: idea of using improbable actions to build up a momentum,
Speaker 6: a probabilistic momentum, and just to slingshot yourself into other
Speaker 6: universes kind of was like a really silly initial idea
Speaker 6: that I pitched to Shiner and I was like, is
Speaker 6: there something here? Could we do something kind of like
Speaker 6: like like Douglas Adams meets the Matrix?
Speaker 7: And I was like, no, No, I said, I think
Speaker 7: I thought it sounded like an exciting short film like
Speaker 7: which we have a long list of kind of like
Speaker 7: gags you know that interest us, And so we would
Speaker 7: brainstorm it, but it didn't kind of take shape until
Speaker 7: we'd sat with it for a while and started kind
Speaker 7: of thinking about the multiverse and how the multiverse makes
Speaker 7: us feel, and why would we make a whole movie
Speaker 7: about you know that sci fi premise. I really love
Speaker 7: to lean into the premise and not just brush over
Speaker 7: it like some like that's a pet peeve of mind.
Speaker 7: I guess sometimes.
Speaker 6: It's like a convenient device for the story, but don't
Speaker 6: actually get to really sit in the philosophical and existential
Speaker 6: consequences of the premise.
Speaker 8: Yeah. So, uh, it was.
Speaker 7: It wasn't until we decided that we were going to
Speaker 7: go to too many universes until it was existentially terrifying,
Speaker 7: and then it was going to be a Chinese American family,
Speaker 7: and that the kind of immigrant experience and also just
Speaker 7: generational divide would become like the kind of relatable companion
Speaker 7: that we'd be using the multiverse to play with. That
Speaker 7: then we were like, oh, there's enough for a feature
Speaker 7: film here, you.
Speaker 5: Know, it is enough for a free feature film. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're like, and all little take is four years
Speaker 7: of Miracles and then we'll put it out in theaters.
Speaker 7: And somehow that happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so incredible. I mean, the movie was just
Speaker 2: so wonderful. It was like immediately in my favorite movies
Speaker 2: of all time. It's just like I can't wait to
Speaker 2: go and see again. I'm just everything that I love.
Speaker 2: So it's so wonderful. But you said something there that
Speaker 2: I just think is so interesting and I'd love to
Speaker 2: dig into a bit more. What is it about the
Speaker 2: multiverse that spoke to you? What is it about exploring
Speaker 2: that and that being the idea that was worth exploring because,
Speaker 2: like you said, a lot of times, it's a buzzword,
Speaker 2: it's a conventional narrative device. But what was it about
Speaker 2: the multiverse and the idea of multiple different universes kind
Speaker 2: of existing alongside each other that made this story click?
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: One of the fascinating things about the multiverse or just
Speaker 6: the idea of infinity is that it's very interdisciplinary. You know,
Speaker 6: obviously there's like quantum mechanics and quantum fixils. It's has
Speaker 6: its version of it which you know, talks about you know,
Speaker 6: superpositions and and you know whether or not the wave
Speaker 6: function collapses, and you know, parallel universes. That's kind of
Speaker 6: I think that's what most people think of when they.
Speaker 7: Or another way of putting it that I like to
Speaker 7: put it is like like there are a lot of
Speaker 7: scientists who believe there might actually be an infinite number
Speaker 7: of universes. That's a pretty scary thing, you know, physics wise.
Speaker 6: And then and then and then, like you know, when
Speaker 6: we were doing research for this movie, we found that
Speaker 6: one of the first known instant of the word multiverse
Speaker 6: being used in the English language actually had nothing to
Speaker 6: do with science. It was actually a theologist who was
Speaker 6: basically lamenting the fact that how.
Speaker 5: Confusing everything was.
Speaker 6: He was like, from a moral perspective, I know that
Speaker 6: God is the one and only moral center of the universe.
Speaker 5: Right, there's a universe.
Speaker 6: But when I look around me and I see you know,
Speaker 6: the Heathens and whatever, it's like, there's a moral multiverse.
Speaker 6: The the secular world doesn't necessarily have one clean narrative.
Speaker 6: And so he used the word multiverse from a moral standpoint,
Speaker 6: and I'm like, oh, that's fascinating, you know. And then
Speaker 6: linguistics has its own Linguistics has modal realism, which is
Speaker 6: kind of taking the idea of like when you are
Speaker 6: swapping out any word in the sentence, how it drastically
Speaker 6: changes the reality of that sentence, and basically like positives,
Speaker 6: like what happens if each one of those sentences is
Speaker 6: its own reality that has its own in tech or whatever.
Speaker 5: And so we're kind of looking at like, I mean,
Speaker 5: there's so many.
Speaker 6: Different angles into this, this this concept that no one
Speaker 6: else is tackling, you know, like For the most part,
Speaker 6: the multiverse is is kind of used as a way to.
Speaker 5: Combine IP an interesting way.
Speaker 7: You know, Yeah, it's a cultural fracking.
Speaker 5: We call it.
Speaker 7: You're digging in the past of culture. We didn't coin that.
Speaker 7: We found it online and you're like, oh, we like that.
Speaker 6: Word cultural fracking, and there's nothing wrong with that. Like
Speaker 6: I think, yeah, I love no, I love Super Smash Brothers.
Speaker 6: Super Smash Brothers is like incredible. I remember being like,
Speaker 6: I can have Pikachu and d K at the same time.
Speaker 5: How incredible.
Speaker 6: But we wanted to dig into just like DK because
Speaker 6: you're exactly the Pikachu is my main Pikachu with the
Speaker 6: with the wizard hat.
Speaker 5: That's my name, Curve.
Speaker 6: But so for our movie, we're like, oh, the multiverse
Speaker 6: becomes a metaphor for the Internet and what it feels
Speaker 6: like to be alive with the Internet. It also becomes
Speaker 6: a metaphor for the way that we all have these
Speaker 6: like bubbles and we all kind of exist in our
Speaker 6: own versions of our own movies.
Speaker 5: You know, we believe we're the main character of our
Speaker 5: own movie.
Speaker 6: And what happens when those two movies collide and they
Speaker 6: don't mesh, and so the whole film is characters who
Speaker 6: are living in their own stories, not realizing that they're
Speaker 6: talking past each other.
Speaker 5: And so there's so many different.
Speaker 6: Ways you can kind of use this premise to explore
Speaker 6: really real feelings and really real experiences. And you know,
Speaker 6: I feel like our movies just barely begin to tap
Speaker 6: into that.
Speaker 1: The cast is unbelievable, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Yoh the
Speaker 1: Leedged which you know, not enough can possibly be said
Speaker 1: about her, James Hong Icon absolute like Titan legend in it.
Speaker 1: And then k Hu Kwan, who probably most people remember
Speaker 1: from Temple of Doom, which is Indian Jones movie that
Speaker 1: is aged poorly and the Goonies, But like, man, seeing
Speaker 1: him in this movie, I'm just like, why has he
Speaker 1: not been one of our top twenty most compelling actors
Speaker 1: over the last twenty years? You like, when you went
Speaker 1: to the movie Star Universe and he's in the suit,
Speaker 1: I'm like, am I in a one car Wifeil?
Speaker 8: Like, what is it?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: I didn't even know he had this in him to
Speaker 1: talk about this incredible cast. That also, one more thing
Speaker 1: I thought about a lot last night. It was just like,
Speaker 1: how this is the best action movie ever that is
Speaker 1: primarily said in an IRS office, like that is a choice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: talk to us about this cast.
Speaker 7: Yeah for sure.
Speaker 5: I mean it.
Speaker 7: Started with Michelle and we knew we wanted to her,
Speaker 7: and we were worried that if she said no, there
Speaker 7: was no one else like that the movie just wouldn't happen.
Speaker 7: And then luckily she believed in It turns out she
Speaker 7: was more right for the role than we even knew,
Speaker 7: you know, and she really responded to the script, and
Speaker 7: then that made it so much easier to attract exciting people,
Speaker 7: you know, and to get the movie greenlit.
Speaker 6: But even with Key, you know, there was no there
Speaker 6: was no question that, like there was something special about him,
Speaker 6: and he even when he read the script he knew,
Speaker 6: like right away, He's like, this role was made for.
Speaker 5: Me, you know.
Speaker 6: He told us that, he told us that after we
Speaker 6: cast him. How how the moment he read it, he
Speaker 6: was like, I think I need to come back into acting,
Speaker 6: and this is going to be my first role and
Speaker 6: how exciting is that going to be? So he his
Speaker 6: audition was the first audition he had done in like
Speaker 6: a couple of decades.
Speaker 1: In the Wow.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so he hasn't been he kind of retired from
Speaker 7: acting and went behind the camera, went to film school,
Speaker 7: did stunt coordination, and first he was a first ad
Speaker 7: for one Car Why for a while.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6: And the funny thing about Key, you know, because you're
Speaker 6: just talking about how we've been missing out on him
Speaker 6: for so long, it is this just kind of tragic
Speaker 6: that this kid that Spielberg found and Spielberg and his
Speaker 6: team found out of like, you know, thousands of other kids.
Speaker 6: They auditioned and auditioned forever, and they almost gave up
Speaker 6: on the character. They almost wrote the character out of
Speaker 6: the movie. And then they find Key, like out of
Speaker 6: all these kids, and he has this special like X factor.
Speaker 6: It's it's a same lame way to put it, but
Speaker 6: he has something special that that you can't put a
Speaker 6: number on.
Speaker 5: You can't you can't like, yeah, there's no.
Speaker 6: Way to evaluate it in that in any other way
Speaker 6: except for when you watch him, you just want to smile,
Speaker 6: and when you watch him so you just you fall
Speaker 6: in love with him.
Speaker 5: And we knew that wayman to the character.
Speaker 6: Women had to be that way because anyone else delivering
Speaker 6: lines about kindness or like, you know, please stop fighting.
Speaker 5: Everyone just let us get along.
Speaker 6: You know, anyone else delivering those kind of lines, I
Speaker 6: think it would have gotten a lot of eye rolls.
Speaker 5: But with with Key Kwan, like he.
Speaker 6: Can say those lines and you believe it and you
Speaker 6: and you want to live in a world where that
Speaker 6: is true. And I think there's Yeah, we're so lucky
Speaker 6: that we got him in this movie, and we're so
Speaker 6: lucky that I think our industry has him back.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm so excited to see what he gets
Speaker 5: to do next.
Speaker 2: For sure, And I would love to talk like he
Speaker 2: was definitely I love I mean, I love Michelle Yeo,
Speaker 2: I love James Holng, I love Jamie Lee Kerr. So
Speaker 2: this was like a movie where everyone in it is
Speaker 2: just incredible. But he is someone who is so core
Speaker 2: to so many of our childhoods. But I never kind
Speaker 2: of saw how I never saw where this his story
Speaker 2: was going in the movie, and it was. It was
Speaker 2: just so powerful and wonderful, and you kind of touched
Speaker 2: on it a little bit of his message of kindness.
Speaker 2: So could you talk a little bit about that aspect,
Speaker 2: the radical empathy and that being kind of the mainline
Speaker 2: message and kind of understanding overarching that comes out of
Speaker 2: the movie.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I mean I think at the start, as we kind
Speaker 7: of told you, it was just like we had this
Speaker 7: first jumping idea and we're like, oh, what if we
Speaker 7: could do some stylized fight scenes. We love action movies
Speaker 7: and like to do our version of the matrix, but
Speaker 7: with like Stephen chow craziness, you know, was so exciting.
Speaker 7: And then, uh, as is usually the case when we're
Speaker 7: like making something funny, we start to feel guilty about like,
Speaker 7: uh but why why this movie? What's it about? Are
Speaker 7: we gonna just culturally frack some more people's time? And
Speaker 7: we started kind of thinking about how we're not violent guys,
Speaker 7: and and and also like I can't. I'm a pacifist
Speaker 7: in fact, and so like there's this like subtext to
Speaker 7: action films, which is violence is an is a good answer.
Speaker 7: And so we just we hit our heads against the
Speaker 7: wall on that a lot, and and it became kind
Speaker 7: of the project of the movie, you know, to be
Speaker 7: like can we can we explore that and lean into
Speaker 7: it and question it and and so this character took
Speaker 7: shape of like the dismissible beta male who is not
Speaker 7: the alpha male action star and unless he's being taken
Speaker 7: over for moments by you know, the more appropriately actioning
Speaker 7: version of himself. But like once we kind of unlocked
Speaker 7: that we got it was like a real aha moment
Speaker 7: for the whole script to be like, oh, this movie's
Speaker 7: going to celebrate that sweet person and the fact that
Speaker 7: being kind is is a way of fighting, Like that's
Speaker 7: the way of changing the world. That's just as valuable,
Speaker 7: if not more so.
Speaker 6: And I mean we specifically wanted to be like, let's
Speaker 6: make someone kinding people to death, and.
Speaker 7: That was that was the last puzzle pieces, Like oh
Speaker 7: my god, at the end, if she just kind, kind, kind.
Speaker 2: People, like, everyone's happy exactly.
Speaker 6: But it's like, what if we made that just as
Speaker 6: satisfying as like kill Bill or just a satisfying as
Speaker 6: a headshot from from John Wick? Because I think those
Speaker 6: things give us such a dopamine hit, which is why
Speaker 6: they're so fun and the way that they're shot and
Speaker 6: the way that but the editing works.
Speaker 5: It is candy.
Speaker 6: And so we wanted to take all of our special
Speaker 6: skills that we have in our back pockets to give
Speaker 6: to deliver that dopamine hit, but like totally you know,
Speaker 6: show it in a completely different radical way.
Speaker 5: So yeah, we call that the empathy fight. It's very silly,
Speaker 5: but it was.
Speaker 6: Really Yeah, that became like one of the north stars
Speaker 6: for the films. Like, if we can pull that off,
Speaker 6: I think this is going to be a very special movie.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we really did. And I'd love to ask
Speaker 1: about some of these action scenes because I mean, the
Speaker 1: Wushoe fanny pack fight is one of the most truly
Speaker 1: like one of the most original fight scenes I've seen
Speaker 1: in a while. How did all of that stuff come
Speaker 1: together and how hard was it to get it to
Speaker 1: get it on film.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we struggle with finding the right collaborators for this.
Speaker 6: We are such Hong Kong action cinema nuts, like we
Speaker 6: grew up on that stuff, all the Shaw Brothers stuff,
Speaker 6: and specific Yun Wu Ping's work. You know, he's worked
Speaker 6: with all the greats. And this guy Jackie.
Speaker 8: Chan is like.
Speaker 7: Anything yea.
Speaker 6: And and you know, we really wanted to make a
Speaker 6: conscious effort to pull away from a lot of the
Speaker 6: modern action trends in the movies that we're watching and
Speaker 6: go back to the basics.
Speaker 5: A because we love that stuff.
Speaker 6: It's in our bones, but B because it's actually if
Speaker 6: done right, it can be just as it can be
Speaker 6: way cheaper to do, you know, because you know, those
Speaker 6: Hong Kong action films didn't have much money.
Speaker 1: And so no money exactly no money.
Speaker 6: Basically no money, a lot of time and like you know,
Speaker 6: maybe maybe a lot of injuries, but you know, we
Speaker 6: realized like this is something that we could do well
Speaker 6: if we found the right people. And one day we
Speaker 6: were on YouTube and we were looking up martial arts
Speaker 6: videos just for references, and we found this short film
Speaker 6: from these guys called The Marshall Club, and we're like,
Speaker 6: are these guys? Are these guys in the US, because like,
Speaker 6: these people are? These guys are amazing. Not only are
Speaker 6: they so like technically incredible, but their camera work is
Speaker 6: really smart and they also infuse humor in a lot
Speaker 6: of their fights, which like most I think most modern
Speaker 6: action films try to do, but it's not really it's
Speaker 6: usually with quippie dialogue and not with visual visual, physical comedy,
Speaker 6: which is what we wanted our movie to have. And
Speaker 6: so we reached out to them. They're they're a bunch
Speaker 6: of friends from OC and they just became instantly just
Speaker 6: like the the the people that we wanted to work
Speaker 6: with because they they're reminded us of ourselves the way
Speaker 6: that they are just a bunch of friends shooting stuff
Speaker 6: in their in their living.
Speaker 5: Room and then putting them online.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and that was the that was exactly the energy
Speaker 6: we needed for our film, for for this movie.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, So it ended up being a huge priority for us,
Speaker 7: but like a successful collaboration between us having strong opinions
Speaker 7: and kind of being like, let's make each fight different
Speaker 7: and writing writing in a way that each one could
Speaker 7: could be an ode to a different kind of style
Speaker 7: of filmmaking that we love. And then the Marshall Club
Speaker 7: bringing their like encyclopedic knowledge of all Kung fu movies
Speaker 7: ever made.
Speaker 6: And it's worth noting that none of them have or
Speaker 6: at least the two brothers, the two main corographers, never
Speaker 6: took any lessons.
Speaker 7: They have a friend who's like, he's like more formally trained,
Speaker 7: but but Andy and Bryan are just like they just
Speaker 7: know what has been in movies.
Speaker 6: They just watch movies at the whole Hong Kong movies
Speaker 6: and that's everything they know.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 7: They So then they helped us pre visit all and
Speaker 7: then we had our stunt coordinator, Tim Yulick, who we've
Speaker 7: worked with a make it so we successfully hurt nobody. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: and so we were able to just kind of like
Speaker 7: move really fast. Michelle was very surprised that we were
Speaker 7: able to shoot it all in the time we had
Speaker 7: and not do what it's called spraying with some people
Speaker 7: called spraying it down, where you're just like, get three cameras,
Speaker 7: now do the fight that you guys are heard. We'll
Speaker 7: figure it out in post move on.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 7: We we tried really hard not to do that.
Speaker 6: We had the opportunity to sit down with Quentin Tarantino
Speaker 6: like years ago, like six seven years ago at the
Speaker 6: Sunday's Institute, at the Sunday's Lap He was one of
Speaker 6: our advisors, and we took the opportunity just like to
Speaker 6: pick his brain to be like, what was it like
Speaker 6: shooting kill Bill's like fight sequences, because those are some
Speaker 6: of my favorite American action scenes I've ever seen. And
Speaker 6: you know, he said something that you know, kind of
Speaker 6: feels obvious now, but like at the time was really interesting.
Speaker 6: He was talking about how Hollywood usually sprays it down,
Speaker 6: or they kind of kind of try to cover it
Speaker 6: conventionally as if it was like a dialogue scene when
Speaker 6: really shooting it like it's like it's a dance sequence
Speaker 6: like its own.
Speaker 5: It's its own version of a narrative, of a visual narrative.
Speaker 6: And so he learned from Muping, who was a consulting
Speaker 6: choreographer on Killbill, that every single shot was perfectly catered
Speaker 6: to the move that they were about to shoot next shot.
Speaker 6: So if like this punch to the face, let's get
Speaker 6: the perfect shot for that punch to the face. And
Speaker 6: then if the shot of him falling down has to
Speaker 6: kind of turn around one A d and break the
Speaker 6: one A line and also force the entire crew to relight,
Speaker 6: then we're going to do that. So they shoot everything
Speaker 6: in order sequentially, just finding the best shot for each moment,
Speaker 6: which is incredibly time consuming, but also it's why those
Speaker 6: fight scenes are so beautifully done and so clear. You know,
Speaker 6: there's a narrative clarity to him.
Speaker 7: And so our ad and our semotographer were like, no
Speaker 7: way we can do that. We tried to like take
Speaker 7: that ethos to heart and find some compromise somewhere in
Speaker 7: there and not yeah, and try to really study that style.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you can tell our movie I think the
Speaker 6: fight scenes are are I'm very proud of them.
Speaker 5: Because they feel so different.
Speaker 6: And you know after when when we go to see
Speaker 6: it in theaters, after every fight scene there's like applause breaks,
Speaker 6: which is like, come on, that's how amazing.
Speaker 3: That's what it's like.
Speaker 2: When in my theor it was people were reacting to
Speaker 2: it just it was it was wonderful to be a
Speaker 2: part of cheering, you know during the fight scenes, especially
Speaker 2: the fanny pack fight scene that was like a big,
Speaker 2: big statement piece.
Speaker 1: The butt plug prop work was.
Speaker 2: That was like being in the theater and like Captain
Speaker 2: America picked upon exactly like.
Speaker 5: That that was what you were trying to go for.
Speaker 2: I was just like, my god, that was really great.
Speaker 2: So like this kind of this. I love this juxtaposition
Speaker 2: between you guys bringing this grassroots collaborative filmmaking, which is
Speaker 2: what you do, and then this being like the first
Speaker 2: A twenty four movie with like an Imax release and
Speaker 2: that kind of juxtaposition. But you also did that with
Speaker 2: the VFX, right, because like I was reading your thread
Speaker 2: about how you didn't go to like a big post
Speaker 2: house and you just hired your friends. So could you
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about that because the VFX in
Speaker 2: this movie and the way this movie looks just astonishing.
Speaker 2: So could you talk about like that decision and why
Speaker 2: it was the right one because it's obvious to us,
Speaker 2: but why was it right for you guys?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean the script we wrote, people read it
Speaker 7: and they were like, this is going to be like
Speaker 7: a eighty million dollar movie, right, No, it's not, we promise,
Speaker 7: And then we did in the rewriting process try to
Speaker 7: like really lean into the tricks we were used to
Speaker 7: and the tools we were used to playing with, and
Speaker 7: so coming from music videos, like we we have very
Speaker 7: basic VFX knowledge ourselves, and we leaned on that really
Speaker 7: hea so that we could do a lot of our
Speaker 7: own visual effects in our shorts and music videos, and
Speaker 7: so like the vast majority of the movie is done
Speaker 7: practically or we're just using visual effects for very to
Speaker 7: make things safe or production friendly, where it's like, oh,
Speaker 7: we can remove that light or that wire, but we're not.
Speaker 7: There's no like characters that are computer generated, you know.
Speaker 6: Or sometimes some practical effects. You know, people people I
Speaker 6: think people have like this nostalgic hard on for practical effects,
Speaker 6: but in practicality, it's it's it's actually a pain in
Speaker 6: the ass, you know.
Speaker 7: It's like the setup time is such a pain and
Speaker 7: like every time you break it, you have to reset,
Speaker 7: you know, it takes like half.
Speaker 6: An hour, and it's never quite perfect. And so what
Speaker 6: we do is we take the imperfect take. You know,
Speaker 6: maybe we'll get two takes if we're lucky, and then
Speaker 6: lot of times just one, just one take, and then
Speaker 6: we just like spruce it up and posts because we
Speaker 6: know how to, so like we get the best of
Speaker 6: both worlds, so it doesn't feel fully CG because I.
Speaker 5: Think audiences are aware of it when when it's fully CG.
Speaker 7: So we put tons of dust on them when they
Speaker 7: hit each other because that's how I Kung Fum look.
Speaker 7: And then we added more dust in post because some
Speaker 7: of the hits weren't as dusty as we wanted it.
Speaker 7: But we were always kind of mixing the two. But
Speaker 7: to kind of get to the end of the the headline,
Speaker 7: we had like seven friends do over five hundred visual effects,
Speaker 7: like and there was no post house. And we didn't
Speaker 7: even think when we started that we were going to
Speaker 7: be able to do all of it with our small team,
Speaker 7: but they kind of stepped their game up and we
Speaker 7: weren't sure they'd be able to do all the bagel
Speaker 7: or all the finale stuff, and some of our friends
Speaker 7: were like, I want to learn some new stuff, and
Speaker 7: so they they did.
Speaker 6: So our friends would be watching YouTube tutorials for this
Speaker 6: this movie that we didn't actually know was going to
Speaker 6: be playing in Imax like that basically, But I think
Speaker 6: it was something that we, you know, honed in during
Speaker 6: our music video times. We did a music video for
Speaker 6: TENACIOUSD a long time ago, and we you know, we
Speaker 6: had no time and very small budget, so we just
Speaker 6: brought in our friends who were other directors, and we
Speaker 6: all got in my bedroom and we lined up all
Speaker 6: of our computers and we just it kind of felt like.
Speaker 5: A land party.
Speaker 6: You know, everyone was just We're just passing after effects
Speaker 6: projects back and forth, and you know, it was some
Speaker 6: of it was really frustrating because it was all new
Speaker 6: to us. But then, you know, the final shot of
Speaker 6: that of that Tenacious D video is this really epic
Speaker 6: shot of the band floating in you know, this cosmic
Speaker 6: you know, tapestry that's really beautiful.
Speaker 5: And what that.
Speaker 6: Final shot was was basically, you know, Ben Brewer, one
Speaker 6: of the other directors, created certain elements and then Zach
Speaker 6: Stultz would create certain elements, and Jeff Deson was create
Speaker 6: certain elements, and then it all get funneled to me,
Speaker 6: and I would kind of create the final you know,
Speaker 6: just because I'm so particular, just to save time on
Speaker 6: like all the back and forth in the notes, I
Speaker 6: would I would do the final pass and tie it
Speaker 6: all together. And I was like, why maybe we should
Speaker 6: just do this for this movie. And so for a
Speaker 6: lot of the bagel shots, it was this very collaborative
Speaker 6: exploration where they would keep sending me elements or I'd
Speaker 6: ask for certain things, and then I'd try to stick
Speaker 6: it together into like something that felt stupid and cosmic
Speaker 6: and beautiful sometime and then I would pass it over
Speaker 6: to Ethan, who has like a really good eye for
Speaker 6: like very old school techniques. Like he you know, he
Speaker 6: was the kid in school because we all went to
Speaker 6: Emerson College.
Speaker 5: He was the kid in school who it's the.
Speaker 1: First place I dropped acid.
Speaker 6: Nice connect But he was doing like optical printing, like
Speaker 6: practically with with like sixteen millimeters back in college when
Speaker 6: everyone else was already moved on to digital or whatever.
Speaker 6: So like it was a really fun, weird, organic thing,
Speaker 6: and we are really proud of it, like all of.
Speaker 5: It feels unique to this movie. It doesn't feel like
Speaker 5: we're trying to compete with the big blockbusters.
Speaker 6: It has its own style and its own handmade ethos
Speaker 6: to it.
Speaker 7: And during COVID, we were all just like, uh, we
Speaker 7: were going were everyone was working more hours than we expected,
Speaker 7: but we were just giving money to our friends. So
Speaker 7: it's pretty cool way.
Speaker 2: To get the dream.
Speaker 7: And we weren't going that far over budget. I was like,
Speaker 7: I guess we'll just send some money to our friends.
Speaker 7: It became like a valuable job for you know, all
Speaker 7: of them to be like, right, let's just let's just
Speaker 7: chug away.
Speaker 6: And especially because all of these directors weren't booking jobs
Speaker 6: because there was nothing to do. It ended up being
Speaker 6: a really beautiful, like weird, perfect project for all of us.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the four year journey to get this on
Speaker 1: the screen and the the numerous miracles that were necessary
Speaker 1: to make it happen. Was there ever a moment where
Speaker 1: you're like, Fuck, we're just not going to make We're
Speaker 1: not going to make this movie.
Speaker 6: A couple of lowest lows, Dan, I think that, I mean,
Speaker 6: the biggest one was like we haven't talked. We haven't
Speaker 6: spoken too much about this, but you know, when we
Speaker 6: set out to make this movie, Asian American films hadn't
Speaker 6: been like a proven, like viable business like model, I
Speaker 6: guess for lack of a better words. So we actually
Speaker 6: had a hard time figuring out the casting of it all.
Speaker 6: And at one point, you know, we had Aquafina attached
Speaker 6: and that was going to give us our green light
Speaker 6: because you know, she was one of the few Asian
Speaker 6: American actresses or actress in our whole industry that could
Speaker 6: probably green light something. And when some scheduling conflicts came up,
Speaker 6: like the whole thing almost fell.
Speaker 5: Apart, which was really it was really scary, but also
Speaker 5: just really frustrating.
Speaker 7: It's kind of it's like because they're also likes there
Speaker 7: are a lot of talented people out there, like a
Speaker 7: good movie guys.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And so that that that that was probably my
Speaker 6: lowest low just just realizing how as independent filmmakers, how
Speaker 6: tired we are to the value the imaginary value of
Speaker 6: these actors.
Speaker 5: And it's it's none of them is their fault.
Speaker 6: It's just the way that the machine works, in the
Speaker 6: way that the agents kind of talk to each other and.
Speaker 5: And try to you know, like we're always in like
Speaker 5: this bad.
Speaker 6: Position as in the independent filmmakers where we have very
Speaker 6: little leverage, you know, and it's very good. So that
Speaker 6: that is a very disempowering experience to try to get
Speaker 6: your money funded. Right now, we're we're executive producing another
Speaker 6: movie and we're in that problem right now, and you know,
Speaker 6: even as executive producers, we don't know what to do.
Speaker 5: Sometimes it's like this.
Speaker 6: The whole the whole conundrum of casting a list actors
Speaker 6: for small indie movies is it's like it's a really
Speaker 6: great model because then you know, these movies get to
Speaker 6: be seen by people. But then it's also really frustrating
Speaker 6: because it's so fragile. The whole thing can just fall
Speaker 6: apart any moment. And I more in all the movies
Speaker 6: that basically died close to the finish line, you know,
Speaker 6: because of casting problems, which I know so many of
Speaker 6: my friends have gone through that problem process.
Speaker 5: Yeah, do you have a low point that it was fun?
Speaker 5: The whole thing was fun.
Speaker 1: It was just a blasted yeah, yeah, finish.
Speaker 7: Yeah. We finished it last summer and so we've been
Speaker 7: waiting until theaters were open because we, like everyone really
Speaker 7: believed it was worth seeing in theaters, but uh, you
Speaker 7: know so the last few surges of COVID were pretty demoralizing.
Speaker 7: It was like, Chris never, it's never coming out. It's never.
Speaker 2: I don't know, And what is it like after kind
Speaker 2: of those that that journey, you know, the highs and
Speaker 2: loads and everything. What's it like for the movie to
Speaker 2: come out? And it hasn't even gone wide yet? But
Speaker 2: what's it been like to come out and see this
Speaker 2: story that I'm sure many people told you was like
Speaker 2: not universal enough or war was too ni sure, and
Speaker 2: to have like every single person who see it go,
Speaker 2: oh my god, this is so relatable. I love this movie. Like,
Speaker 2: what has it been like to get to see it
Speaker 2: on the screen and see all the work that you
Speaker 2: and your friends put in and see this story be
Speaker 2: received by so many different kinds of people as something
Speaker 2: that really means something to them?
Speaker 5: Confusing?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I still don't believe it. I genuinely don't. Like
Speaker 7: I still like, well, like someone will be like, oh,
Speaker 7: it's got this score on Rott Tomato and like I
Speaker 7: haven't internalized that. I don't think I believe you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't think I believe you because so much
Speaker 6: for our work is built off the premise of like,
Speaker 6: no one's going to let us make this, Like like
Speaker 6: that's that's such a driving force behind our processes.
Speaker 7: It's like the things we want to see out there
Speaker 7: that aren't getting made, or the things that interest us.
Speaker 7: But then we know we're biting off something unlikely or
Speaker 7: that might be niche, but that'll mean something to the
Speaker 7: people like us.
Speaker 6: And so we thought this would reach you know, a
Speaker 6: bigger audience than so sorry man, obviously, but even still,
Speaker 6: like we knew that there would this movie would be
Speaker 6: too much for people like that. We made this movie
Speaker 6: specifically knowing that we would push some people away because
Speaker 6: we were just you know, it's it's such a loud, long, overstuffed, wild,
Speaker 6: chaotic thing, which is very intentional, and you know, every
Speaker 6: decision we made, we're like, okay, if we keep the
Speaker 6: butt plugs in the percentage of our audience they lose
Speaker 6: and how much do you know it's but also how
Speaker 6: much stronger are the themes.
Speaker 2: Hot dog fingers? What was the percentages on that one?
Speaker 6: Is like exactly, It's like and we're like, okay, but
Speaker 6: if we keep the hot dog fingers and how beautiful
Speaker 6: and romantic can we make that?
Speaker 5: How how cathartic can that be?
Speaker 6: So again, we can just win a couple more people,
Speaker 6: and so the whole thing is a very calculated affair,
Speaker 6: but our.
Speaker 7: Math was off. This is too much.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't believe it.
Speaker 6: I do hope that with the wide release things start
Speaker 6: to like, you know, even out a little bit.
Speaker 7: Pore this SoundBite after the movie flops, the exact dot
Speaker 7: com bubble of a movie.
Speaker 2: It will be the funniest SoundBite when it becomes like
Speaker 2: the biggest movie of all time. And then you do
Speaker 2: it just like crying, like why do people.
Speaker 5: Is that?
Speaker 6: It's like the imposter syndrome in me is just fully
Speaker 6: on fire right now. I'm like, this is it's a
Speaker 6: horrible feeling. But also so on the grand scale, it's
Speaker 6: a horrible horrible feeling.
Speaker 5: On the individual level, yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine.
Speaker 6: But on the individual level, when we get chance to
Speaker 6: talk to people after Q and A's or have people
Speaker 6: d m us these very personal stories, it is just
Speaker 6: the most fulfilling, beautiful experience, Like the fact that we
Speaker 6: can work so hard on something that is very personal
Speaker 6: and very like specific to us and to have so
Speaker 6: many different kinds of people from different walks of life
Speaker 6: just see themselves in it. And it's like, you know,
Speaker 6: we've been doing screens and almost every it feels like
Speaker 6: almost every.
Speaker 5: Night for the past three weeks.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you know, I would say at least half
Speaker 6: of them, if not more, someone will come up to
Speaker 6: us and start crying on one of our shoulders. And
Speaker 6: it's just this very strange thing where we have created
Speaker 6: this space for people to fully express themselves, you know
Speaker 6: now that you know, because the movie kind of just
Speaker 6: destroys logic, destroys any conventions, and just really just leaves
Speaker 6: you in this place of like possibility, or at least
Speaker 6: that's that's our attention. And some people take that as
Speaker 6: an invitation to fully express themselves to us, and and.
Speaker 5: It's it is just it is humbling.
Speaker 6: It's a humbling reminder of the fact that, like, our
Speaker 6: films matter. And I think a lot of people have
Speaker 6: forgotten that. You know, I even forgotten that, like I don't.
Speaker 6: I don't until like, you know, three weeks ago, when
Speaker 6: the movie came out. Don't I was starting to lose
Speaker 6: faith in the idea that movies can change pop lives.
Speaker 6: You know, like I've forgotten that, I've forgotten that that's
Speaker 6: what happened to me, Like I forgot that movie has
Speaker 6: changed my life and that's why my bad became a filmmaker.
Speaker 6: And so to have this response remind me of the
Speaker 6: power of what we're doing is like really humbling and
Speaker 6: also just putting it puts a fire under my ass.
Speaker 6: And because like I'm realizing ship the next thing I do,
Speaker 6: like I can't, I can't go easy. This is this
Speaker 6: is so important. It's too important for me to to
Speaker 6: get lazy.
Speaker 5: In fact, there's so much more work to be done
Speaker 5: in the world.
Speaker 6: And you know, if this is the only tool I
Speaker 6: have to save the world, I want to use it,
Speaker 6: you know, and how how thrilling, how exciting and so
Speaker 6: like you know, when our next movie comes out and
Speaker 6: it saves the world, you.
Speaker 5: Can this sound exactly exactly.
Speaker 7: Slash when Dan starts a cult, when I started.
Speaker 2: Exactly the Bagel cult.
Speaker 9: But part of part of the the credit will go
Speaker 9: to all the wonderful people who have reached out to
Speaker 9: us and remind us of the fact that stories matter,
Speaker 9: or the blame matter exactly, or the blame when when
Speaker 9: the when the movie backfires.
Speaker 6: And does the opposite somehow right, the opposite. Yeah, it
Speaker 6: ends the world. That's actually what our next movie should be.
Speaker 7: Just suicide cult of a movie.
Speaker 6: No, it's about two directors trying to make a movie
Speaker 6: to save the world and accidentally they end.
Speaker 10: The world in the World's good.
Speaker 5: You guys are too scoop us.
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations on really just a really super mind melty,
Speaker 1: heartfelt movie that it was a blast to watch. Congratulations
Speaker 1: on it coming out. Congratulations on the accolades you all
Speaker 1: deserve it. Here's hoping it's the biggest hit in the
Speaker 1: world very soon. And we just we loved it.
Speaker 2: So thank you, Thank you so much for coming and
Speaker 2: thank you so much.
Speaker 7: Nice to meet you. Also, such a great conversation. Thank
Speaker 7: you guys, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker 7: Bye.
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Speaker 8: And we're back for an all new episode of Keep It.
Speaker 8: I'm Iron Madison, a third I'm Lewis Bertell. This week's
Speaker 8: episode is about vibes, okay, and if there is any
Speaker 8: movie out right now that more encapsulates vibes than anything,
Speaker 8: it is everything everywhere, all at once.
Speaker 11: Yes, and we are very lucky to have the legendary
Speaker 11: and to say delightful is a complete understatement. I was
Speaker 11: sitting in this interview just overjoyed with our Michelle yo.
Speaker 10: Is with us.
Speaker 8: The Bond girl.
Speaker 11: I was gonna say, you know what, I feel like
Speaker 11: she rarely comes up in like a list of like
Speaker 11: the best Bond girls ever, and it's like, I mean,
Speaker 11: who is more formidable than Michelle Yo.
Speaker 8: I know, I feel like because she was part of
Speaker 8: that era that took the Bond girl too like Bond woman.
Speaker 8: You know, that was when we started to have the
Speaker 8: conversation should we be calling them Bond girls?
Speaker 10: As long as you call them, that's my route.
Speaker 8: Paul, We're not cutting that joke, Lois. I want people
Speaker 8: to hear it. I want Danielle Perez to hear it
Speaker 8: and say, you know what, He's not as good as me.
Speaker 11: But Michelle Yo is clearly better than like what other
Speaker 11: bob like Maude Adams, Barbara Back.
Speaker 10: Come on, Michelle Yo is top tier anyway.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean Michelle Yo. Halle Berry. I always yeah,
Speaker 8: I always forget that Grace Jones, I guess wasn't a
Speaker 8: Bond girl. She was like a villain.
Speaker 11: Correct, Yes, And and she got to stare angrily and
Speaker 11: have trapezoidal facial features all over that movie.
Speaker 8: Yeah. But getting back to everything everywhere, all at once, which,
Speaker 8: by the way, I fucking loved. And it's wild that
Speaker 8: it's from two directors who they're collectively known as the Daniels,
Speaker 8: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who got their start directing
Speaker 8: music videos. As I feel most John rabbending movies that
Speaker 8: feel like a cult movie from the moment you watch it.
Speaker 8: I feel like those directors always come from like music videos,
Speaker 8: like a Spike Jones, you know, yeah, they did DJ
Speaker 8: Snake's Turned Down for What.
Speaker 10: Which?
Speaker 11: If you have ever I heard that song even once,
Speaker 11: it's still resonating in your skull.
Speaker 8: So and a couple Foster the people on songs that
Speaker 8: aren't pumped up kicks, so you probably never heard them before.
Speaker 10: I was gonna say they are not ringing about.
Speaker 8: But you know, their last film was their debut Swiss
Speaker 8: Army Man, which I still have not seen.
Speaker 11: I have friends who stands it doesn't seem like my
Speaker 11: sort of thing, but that doesn't mean it's not good.
Speaker 8: I just remember hearing farting Corpse and I was like,
Speaker 8: you know what, it's not for.
Speaker 10: Me, right, some things just aren't for us.
Speaker 8: Also, I'm weirdly not a Daniel Radcliffe stand to the
Speaker 8: point where I need to see everything that he's in,
Speaker 8: even though I do appreciate him, you know as a
Speaker 8: elder statesman.
Speaker 11: Oh yeah, no, I would even just say a grown
Speaker 11: up yeah, Like when you ask him for a quote
Speaker 11: and he's like here, comes someone with a head on
Speaker 11: their shoulders appreciate it enough if you just provide that
Speaker 11: we love it.
Speaker 8: Do you want to talk about what happened at the Oscars?
Speaker 8: Daniel Radcliffe Absolutely not.
Speaker 10: He's like, I'm five to two and I gotta get
Speaker 10: out of here.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 8: But the thing about this film is that it's one
Speaker 8: of those films that I feel like you're like the Matrix,
Speaker 8: you know, like when it comes out, like everyone is
Speaker 8: talking about it and everyone is sort of telling you
Speaker 8: to go and see it. I truly have not had
Speaker 8: a film, at least within the past few years, maybe
Speaker 8: thanks of the pandemic, but even right before the pandemic
Speaker 8: where people are texting me asking if I've seen it,
Speaker 8: or friends are like, hey, do you want to go
Speaker 8: see this movie? You know, it feels like everyone has
Speaker 8: it on their radar. Yeah.
Speaker 11: Well, I would actually compare it to the does not
Speaker 11: seem intuitive Hereditary in that it is putting together genres
Speaker 11: that seemingly don't belong together, namely, like in Hereditary's case,
Speaker 11: you get like very visceral horror, and then you get
Speaker 11: a family drama like rabbit Hole or something, whereas in
Speaker 11: this movie you get a very sensitive observed family situation,
Speaker 11: a queer story, and that's looped together with this sort of.
Speaker 10: Comic book thing.
Speaker 8: This.
Speaker 11: I don't think I'm giving much away by saying a
Speaker 11: multiverse thing. And so there's it's one of those something
Speaker 11: for everyone type movies.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean A twenty four sort of does that well,
Speaker 8: you know. In addition, in addition, I guess that's what
Speaker 8: they do. Yeah, in addition to being an urban outfitters,
Speaker 8: they are also very good at sort of genre films
Speaker 8: that are multiple genres. All right, when we are back,
Speaker 8: we sit down with the icon Michelle Yo to discuss
Speaker 8: everything everywhere, all at once, and and all of her
Speaker 8: other classic films. I mean, she's been in so many
Speaker 8: I think our guest today truly needs no introduction. She
Speaker 8: is a legend, the star of the Action Pact, hilarious,
Speaker 8: so much going on film that I can't wait to
Speaker 8: talk with her about everything everywhere, all at once. The
Speaker 8: Michelle Yeo, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3: Very happy to be here. Ira and Lewis.
Speaker 8: I first want to say this movie is amazing and
Speaker 8: you are amazing in it, and it is so exciting
Speaker 8: to see you in a role like this. And I
Speaker 8: want to ask you. Before this interview, I revisited Yes Madam.
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
Speaker 8: And what's so interesting about that is that you immediately
Speaker 8: have this amazing screen presence. You are so funny in
Speaker 8: that film, and you were just sort of like really
Speaker 8: command the screen with your skill at like martial arts.
Speaker 8: And you just sort of like really commandeer that film.
Speaker 8: And I want to know, were you always a funny person? Like,
Speaker 8: I know you started out in pageants, but like you're
Speaker 8: you're so you're you're so funny in Yes Bata, You're
Speaker 8: so great at martial arts. It's like, where did this
Speaker 8: all come from?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, definitely not from a pageant.
Speaker 8: Right, miscongeniality? Okay, you were.
Speaker 4: Probably right, good friend, Okay.
Speaker 3: No, When I first started, there was nothing funny.
Speaker 4: I never saw myself. My producers never really saw me
Speaker 4: as funny. They were very focused on It's true. The
Speaker 4: movie that I was in, Yes Madam, is one of my.
Speaker 3: First action films.
Speaker 4: In fact, the first movie I was in is a
Speaker 4: action comedy movie. But the comedy and the action were
Speaker 4: all done by Samo Hook and the legendary Samo Hoo
Speaker 4: and George Lamb. The amazing singer actor, And when I
Speaker 4: was watching them, I'm thinking, like, I can do this,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 3: Because this very much is all choreography.
Speaker 4: It's all about precision and timing.
Speaker 3: It's like dance.
Speaker 4: It's like the world of ballet and dance that I've
Speaker 4: been involved in for the last blah blah blah of
Speaker 4: my life. So when I was so grateful when the
Speaker 4: producers are well, okay, you know, she's a little bit crazy.
Speaker 4: She must be crazy to even try, because that world
Speaker 4: of martial arts and is physical. I mean, if you
Speaker 4: asked the Jackie Chance and the Jet Lee and the
Speaker 4: Master You and Mall Pain and the Samu Home, there
Speaker 4: was nothing funny. It looked funny. There was physical comedy,
Speaker 4: but the stunts and the action that they did was
Speaker 4: very physical and dangerous because at that time, remember in
Speaker 4: the heydays of the amazing times of Hong Kong Cinema
Speaker 4: where that was where I started, we didn't have CGI,
Speaker 4: we didn't have the budgets to have cables.
Speaker 3: We have these like scrawny little.
Speaker 4: Thin wires that held the whole body weight and you
Speaker 4: we over like wizen around in the air and when
Speaker 4: it snapped, you literally the stunt guys just fall from
Speaker 4: wherever they are. So at that point when I actually
Speaker 4: turn around and say I would like to try this,
Speaker 4: they looked at me like I was insane.
Speaker 3: But then you know she studied abroad. Maybe that's screwed
Speaker 3: with it.
Speaker 4: But okay, so they yes, Madam. I was surrounded by
Speaker 4: comedians like the John Sham, the Choy Hawk.
Speaker 3: They were like the.
Speaker 4: High powered comedy artists. I mean they walked into the
Speaker 4: set and people laugh. So I was tasked with, Okay,
Speaker 4: now I have to convince the audience that I belong here.
Speaker 4: I deserve to have a place next to the guys
Speaker 4: doing this martial arts. So I trained very hard and
Speaker 4: it was It was not not an easy task because
Speaker 4: they have been they paid their dues to be where
Speaker 4: they are. They it didn't come on a silver platter
Speaker 4: for them. So to join the boys club, which it
Speaker 4: was a boys club, you know, they will tell you because.
Speaker 3: They did it in that way in the in the mindset.
Speaker 4: We protect our women, we don't let them get hurt
Speaker 4: and this and except you know, Jackie says that I
Speaker 4: were like, no, bro, don't go there. And you know,
Speaker 4: because we have to learn to protect ourselves and if
Speaker 4: you keep doing that, then we will never grow to
Speaker 4: be who we are right, which which is prevalent all
Speaker 4: the time. So that was the beginning of my days,
Speaker 4: my start of doing martial arts. I was well protected,
Speaker 4: I was well loved, I was well taught and well
Speaker 4: protected in the sense that when you do a stunt,
Speaker 4: when you do the action sequences, you must learn to
Speaker 4: respect each other. You know, you have to have the stamina,
Speaker 4: you have to have the precision. If I say I
Speaker 4: punch you in here, I'm not going to punch you here, right,
Speaker 4: And the only way to do that is if you
Speaker 4: are in training and that you are you have the
Speaker 4: capabilities and not just say like yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. No.
Speaker 4: There is disciplin it, there is hard work, and there
Speaker 4: is like you you sweat blood.
Speaker 3: That's how it is.
Speaker 4: So but I loved it. I love the physical aspect
Speaker 4: of it. I love the challenge of it. I love
Speaker 4: to meet part of the boys gang and go like, yeah,
Speaker 4: let's go out and have fun. Man. You know, you
Speaker 4: get to do things that you would never get I
Speaker 4: would never do in real life.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 10: I was so pleased to see this clip of you
Speaker 10: that's going around viral.
Speaker 11: I believe you're talking to GQ and you talk about
Speaker 11: how oh my god.
Speaker 8: That's such a beautiful interview.
Speaker 11: Yeah, right after you say you love hanging with the boys,
Speaker 11: I bring up a moment in which you cry, this
Speaker 11: is not to be crossed.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I'm never going to live this, dun.
Speaker 11: But something I loved about that clip was you talk
Speaker 11: about how, even just reading the script, all of these
Speaker 11: kind of genres are a parent Like there's comedy in it,
Speaker 11: there's tragedy, there's martial arts, et cetera. What's crazy to
Speaker 11: me is I cannot picture this as a script. So
Speaker 11: much is going on on screen that I can't picture
Speaker 11: that translated to the page. So how much of what
Speaker 11: you see in this movie are you surprised to see?
Speaker 11: Because I can't picture it all just existing in the script.
Speaker 3: I'm not supposed it's all in the script.
Speaker 4: Wow, if you see a picture of my script, Because
Speaker 4: how I work is like I tag any scene that
Speaker 4: I'm in and on the side. Normally you know when
Speaker 4: you have a script. I was tagg it on the side.
Speaker 4: So I look at the script and I know, okay,
Speaker 4: I am in like thirty of the whatever pages or whatever.
Speaker 4: I'm in fifty or something like this. So that's my process.
Speaker 4: And if it's an action movie, it has like Okay,
Speaker 4: this is a dramatic scene, it will be tagged in yellow.
Speaker 3: It is an action scene, it will be tagged in red.
Speaker 4: By that time I finished tagging my script, I first
Speaker 4: started off with you know, the big stickers, and I found, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'm not going to have enough space for this because
Speaker 4: in one page there are ten multi.
Speaker 3: Universe versus going on.
Speaker 4: So I went onto the really it tybt skinny ones
Speaker 4: and by the time I finished one day, I'm going
Speaker 4: to post that on my Instagram and you guys will
Speaker 4: see what I mean. My script was tagged all the
Speaker 4: way around with all the colors of the rainbow because
Speaker 4: it's each universe get their own color.
Speaker 3: And by the end, I was like, what the hell
Speaker 3: am I dealing with?
Speaker 4: It was I am in every single scene, every single team.
Speaker 4: There is like just no, like okay, I can take
Speaker 4: the next few days off and wander around and see
Speaker 4: what's going to happen. It was like no, but it
Speaker 4: was written like that. The Daniels did not stray. They
Speaker 4: had a This was like their bible. And remember we
Speaker 4: are an independent film. Well like, yes, we're in independent
Speaker 4: felt mon steroids and probably a.
Speaker 3: Lot of it. I don't know what they were feeding them,
Speaker 3: but the facts.
Speaker 4: We had eight weeks but thirty seven shooting days. And
Speaker 4: you cannot go and do this with all the crazy
Speaker 4: things happening, you know, by saying, well, let's see what
Speaker 4: happens today.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 4: They are their team lacking our DP. You know, the
Speaker 4: stunt coordinator Tim, you know, with the set designer, the
Speaker 4: Jason everyone, they all they've been together, they work together.
Speaker 4: And Paul our editor. I mean I met his wife
Speaker 4: and he says, you've been living with us for two years.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh, dear, I don't know what to
Speaker 3: say to that.
Speaker 4: But they know each other so well, so they know
Speaker 4: their editing as they like the martial arts sequences.
Speaker 3: It's not by accident.
Speaker 4: They know how to pull back when they want you
Speaker 4: to see and then give you the most intense close ups.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 4: This is not by accident. This is understanding their craft,
Speaker 4: understanding the different techniques that they can put into this.
Speaker 4: When we don't have the money to do special effects,
Speaker 4: to do the confetti, blah blah blah, they have confetti
Speaker 4: coming out of the guy. So it is done with precision,
Speaker 4: It is done with like great thought and so everything.
Speaker 4: I was surprised to see something, you know what, because
Speaker 4: there are so many multiverses going on you when you
Speaker 4: see it, you go, oh, oh the link, you know,
Speaker 4: like the opera singer. It's like, okay, why am I
Speaker 4: suddenly an operas an? You know he was blinded as
Speaker 4: a kid. But you only see because when you.
Speaker 3: Read it it is at.
Speaker 4: Different times of the shot, so you don't see it
Speaker 4: as a scene and only comes together right at the
Speaker 4: end when she needs that skill and you see why,
Speaker 4: Oh she became blind because she fell on that and
Speaker 4: she blinded herself as a kid. So but then the
Speaker 4: father taught her another skill, another gift that she had, which.
Speaker 3: Was her voice.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm like, what, it's an opera single got
Speaker 4: to do with a skill, Oh, because she can hold
Speaker 4: her breath. So then you know, all these like imagery
Speaker 4: that you shoot ties in and gives you that, Yes,
Speaker 4: you are not surprised, but the realization how it is
Speaker 4: tied together, that's the beauty of that journey.
Speaker 8: I mean, well, speaking of even that moment that Lewis
Speaker 8: brought up too. You know, I love how you talk
Speaker 8: about how you know this was sort of like a script,
Speaker 8: like a role that you'd been waiting for and you
Speaker 8: were it was almost like a gift to you. And
Speaker 8: you've had such a long career with so many different roles.
Speaker 8: What would you say you felt like you have been
Speaker 8: missing in your roles before this film came along, and
Speaker 8: sort of like what do you still feel like you
Speaker 8: want to do one screen that people maybe haven't given
Speaker 8: you the opportunity to because you you know, you you're
Speaker 8: Michelle Yell like you beat people up, you can fly
Speaker 8: through the sky.
Speaker 4: You know, No, I think in this particular one why
Speaker 4: I think where I know that Gqua interview you are
Speaker 4: talking about it was suddenly that moment, you know when
Speaker 4: you feel that the Daniels they saw me people.
Speaker 3: You know, you want people to see you and give you.
Speaker 4: The opportunity to show you what I am capable of,
Speaker 4: And that's what they gave me. It was a very
Speaker 4: precious gift. And then not just them, they had the
Speaker 4: guts to ride it. And then we had a twenty
Speaker 4: four who believed that their gods were right and Michelle
Speaker 4: yo Is crazy enough to want to do this and
Speaker 4: then to hold out for.
Speaker 3: A cinema release in these times. You know, we've been
Speaker 3: we've had a real.
Speaker 4: It's been hot the last two years, and I think
Speaker 4: on many different levels, each person, for families, that disconnection
Speaker 4: and finally to be able to it was such a
Speaker 4: moment of everything, everything just coming together, like the stars aligned,
Speaker 4: and you can't even begin to know who to thank,
Speaker 4: but somebody is, like in the universe is looking after
Speaker 4: this little movie that we pourt so much love into
Speaker 4: the theater.
Speaker 8: I want to tell you, you know, like people are
Speaker 8: going out, how you need.
Speaker 3: To watch the movie right? You had shared experience.
Speaker 4: It's like going back to our primal days when our
Speaker 4: ancestors like were under the stars and they were storytelling
Speaker 4: around the campfire.
Speaker 3: And things like this.
Speaker 4: And for us, this is our safe place, you know,
Speaker 4: in the cinema where we are with strangers, we are
Speaker 4: with people that we don't know, all.
Speaker 3: Were with our family and people that we love.
Speaker 4: But the experience, the shared experience of joy, of pain,
Speaker 4: of laughter is so real.
Speaker 3: That we feel it with each other. And I think
Speaker 3: this was what this movie.
Speaker 4: Has come out at an opportune time.
Speaker 3: Then we can have that what the let's just wah.
Speaker 4: And they you sit and have a great time. And
Speaker 4: you're right, you have to see it in the cinemas
Speaker 4: and not just once. I think it's I find that
Speaker 4: with the first time when you watch it, the intellect
Speaker 4: kicks in, the cerebral pot kicks and you.
Speaker 3: Go like, Okay, I am going to know who and what.
Speaker 4: And then after like fifteen minutes, you're like, that's when
Speaker 4: you become like Evelyn Walng And that's what the second
Speaker 4: time when you watch it, you're not so like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I am prepared to put on the safety belts, be
Speaker 4: in for this roller coaster, right, and just go.
Speaker 3: Aw because now you have an inkling.
Speaker 4: Oh, they have to do crazy things or ridiculous things
Speaker 4: before they can multiverse jump, right, That's all you need
Speaker 4: to know. And then when they go to that universe,
Speaker 4: Evelyn Wong is going to learn a skill that she
Speaker 4: has never thought that she would possess, and she'll come
Speaker 4: back here and do all these like crazy things that
Speaker 4: fight for humanity and fight for the people that she loves.
Speaker 3: Let's see, and the core of the story.
Speaker 4: Is that it is the familiar connections that we all
Speaker 4: find so relatable.
Speaker 11: With speaking of skills, you mentioned something in your interview
Speaker 11: magazine feature with Paul Giamatti where you talk about who
Speaker 11: I mean, that's so rad that you talk to him
Speaker 11: for that, But you mentioned how you mastered a calm,
Speaker 11: serene look for when you do martial arts, and in
Speaker 11: this movie you have to merge the martial arts with comedy,
Speaker 11: with you know, confusion, since this character is perpetually confused
Speaker 11: for the movie. And to me, that sounds almost like
Speaker 11: the hardest part, like having to mesh like a comic
Speaker 11: sensibility with like how hard the martial arts is. And
Speaker 11: I was wondering, like did that take five hundred to
Speaker 11: get right? To get all of that right lined up?
Speaker 11: Because you just said you had no time to make
Speaker 11: this movie either.
Speaker 3: No, you remember this is.
Speaker 4: And you don't have the luxury of so many takes.
Speaker 4: You know, you have to get it right. And I
Speaker 4: think because we and all it takes is the Daniels,
Speaker 4: and this is what I say to them every day.
Speaker 3: At the beginning, I'm going to be confused because you're
Speaker 3: going to be like multi jumping me.
Speaker 4: I know the gist of it, but you have you're
Speaker 4: like my, my my anchors.
Speaker 3: Right, you too are going to hold my hand and
Speaker 3: you're going to bring me back when I need to
Speaker 3: come back, and you this is what you do.
Speaker 4: You are the directors, remember that, right, you are very
Speaker 4: simply the directors. Don't play mess with my head. It's
Speaker 4: already messed up enough. So when that happens, you know,
Speaker 4: when you jump into the universe. When I fight, I automatically,
Speaker 4: it's very because that's what we've been trained to do
Speaker 4: all this time. It's like when you fight, you maintain
Speaker 4: because you are the mentor, you are the teacher. You
Speaker 4: are the number one martial artists, So you don't.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you don't.
Speaker 4: You don't flinch when a punch comes at you.
Speaker 3: You you learn to do it with the zen like quality. Right.
Speaker 4: So, and I'm fighting with Jamie and she's the best.
Speaker 4: She's fun, she's like gung host, She's like willing to
Speaker 4: do this, and then the Daniels come up to me
Speaker 4: and she's like, uh, But Evelyn Wong doesn't know how
Speaker 4: to fight. So you know, when she gets the skill,
Speaker 4: her face is registering the confusion of why the hell
Speaker 4: are my hands doing these like incredible things? And I
Speaker 4: have no control. You know, it's like the whole story
Speaker 4: when she's talking about Rakacuni and all those kind of things.
Speaker 3: Like so when you get into your head and then
Speaker 3: they make you do all these things.
Speaker 4: And you don't realize what you're doing, and every really like,
Speaker 4: what the hell are you talking about? So I have
Speaker 4: to register the what frig is going on here?
Speaker 3: And then you so wow, I could do all this.
Speaker 4: You know from the change of expression, you are suddenly
Speaker 4: Evelyn Wong who have got this new skills and then
Speaker 4: able to do all these physical things. Yes, you learn
Speaker 4: to fracture your mind, you learn to like split it.
Speaker 4: It's like body does this, face does this, and that
Speaker 4: is going to how it is worked. So that was
Speaker 4: the great challenge. But that's why I signed up for
Speaker 4: the movie, was the challenge of doing things that I
Speaker 4: had not done before.
Speaker 8: I want to talk a bit about you run the
Speaker 8: gambut on people you've worked with, you know, like you
Speaker 8: started out, you know, you said working with like you know,
Speaker 8: like Sabo Kang, you know, like as like a director
Speaker 8: and also like doing stunts early on, and then you
Speaker 8: I feel like you got to work with so many
Speaker 8: icons and like the Hong Kong cinema world when you
Speaker 8: did Crouching Tiger, what was that experience, like, you know,
Speaker 8: working with Angley and also you know, just having him
Speaker 8: bring together so many people who done films, you know,
Speaker 8: Hong Kong like cinema for for years now, all sort
Speaker 8: of in one movie. Being able to work together.
Speaker 3: Working in with Angli is like poetry in motion.
Speaker 4: You know, he is he the way he loves cinema,
Speaker 4: the way he loves the humanity and the storytelling him
Speaker 4: you look at it is a very intimate movie. It's
Speaker 4: about literally three people. For Jade Fox being the antagonist, right,
Speaker 4: It's about me moved by Yusilia and that I play,
Speaker 4: and junk Ki and her young lover. So it's about
Speaker 4: what is important and the martial arts world. And that
Speaker 4: was what Angli was trying to do. He was trying
Speaker 4: to present to the world something that he knew as
Speaker 4: a child. The martial arts world is not something that
Speaker 4: the West would know. But when I first spoke with him,
Speaker 4: he said to me, I wanted to do sense and.
Speaker 3: Sensibility with martial arts.
Speaker 4: That was when I was I was doing the press
Speaker 4: for Tomorrow and Ever Dies, one of the most incredible
Speaker 4: movie that any actress would want to be part of.
Speaker 3: And I waited two years. I didn't do another movie
Speaker 3: after that, waiting for Angry because we.
Speaker 4: All believed in him. We all believed in his vision,
Speaker 4: and we all wanted to make it happen. Show your
Speaker 4: fat myself, Peter Howe will calm. We all came together
Speaker 4: to say we want the rest of the world to
Speaker 4: embrace our culture.
Speaker 3: In that way.
Speaker 4: It was one of the best, one of the most poignant,
Speaker 4: one of the most beautiful, but one of the most
Speaker 4: painful experiences because I tore my acl after the first
Speaker 4: action sequence when I was, you know, around.
Speaker 3: The wall, and I run up the wall and down.
Speaker 4: The wall, and then I think, when you're on the wire,
Speaker 4: off the wire, on the wire, off the wire, your
Speaker 4: body gets so confused.
Speaker 3: Your mind is like where the hell is it going?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: One time I jump and I'm soaring in the sky.
Speaker 4: Next time I jump, my land thud, and like, like
Speaker 4: what happened to you? How come I can't fly? And
Speaker 4: it was the last day of the shoot. My it
Speaker 4: felt like someone clubbed my knee. I fell to the
Speaker 4: ground and I was fighting with the stun double and
Speaker 4: I was like, why did you kill me.
Speaker 3: And the poor guy was so horrified. He was like,
Speaker 3: I didn't touch you.
Speaker 4: I did it, and I thought, sorry, I'm sorry, I'm
Speaker 4: sorry you didn't There was no way because we were
Speaker 4: both doing it at a distance. But upon master Union
Speaker 4: Pain was our stunned choreographer's co ordinature at that time,
Speaker 4: and Angie, who was the editor, they went frame were
Speaker 4: framed to understand how was that possible that you know
Speaker 4: a simple thing that, But that's always the case.
Speaker 3: The simplest motions are the ones that you get into
Speaker 3: trouble with.
Speaker 4: And in one of the shots, they saw that my
Speaker 4: leg when I was doing the front jump kick had
Speaker 4: just touched his leg, which probably that split second which
Speaker 4: I really didn't even know or notice, right and when
Speaker 4: I landed, it just wiped me out. And it was
Speaker 4: most also painful but beautiful because ang could have changed
Speaker 4: to me because I had only done that action sequence
Speaker 4: and action sequences with the artistry of master Uni Oppin,
Speaker 4: he could double it. You know, they could take all
Speaker 4: the shots and then make another person look like it
Speaker 4: was them who was fighting, and they could have done
Speaker 4: that easily. But I will never forget when I was
Speaker 4: in in Johns Hopkins with the specialists who said, I
Speaker 4: can wrap your leg up, your knee up because your
Speaker 4: acl is gone. It's not just like torn it's like
Speaker 4: you basically you can run, you can't jump, you can't
Speaker 4: do sudden stops. You can walk gently, and that's about it.
Speaker 4: And you're like, I'm doing a martial arts movie. That's
Speaker 4: not possible, right, So Ang and Bill Kong, our producer
Speaker 4: at that time, just turn around and say, do what
Speaker 4: you need to do, get them fixed you up, and
Speaker 4: we will wait for you.
Speaker 10: Thank god they did. My god, God, what a movie.
Speaker 10: Uh yeah, incredible.
Speaker 11: No, as far as I'm concerned, there's also no second
Speaker 11: one of that movie. I just remember that was a
Speaker 11: movie that you came out and everybody I know had
Speaker 11: to see it, and it was like, wait, now I
Speaker 11: have to research every movie that's ever been like this
Speaker 11: in history. It was such an education for everybody. So
Speaker 11: you really ushered in something for a lot of film viewers.
Speaker 11: I said, I'm looking through your filmography, truly, most of
Speaker 11: the things you have done of your career seem like
Speaker 11: the most time consuming and bodily harmful things ever. Like
Speaker 11: there are a couple of movies here like you were
Speaker 11: in last Christmas a couple of years ago or whatever,
Speaker 11: or like, okay, maybe that was only a couple of weeks.
Speaker 11: But I just want to remind you movies don't have
Speaker 11: to be like the most stressful situation of your life.
Speaker 11: I just want to say that. And I was wondering,
Speaker 11: are you craving just kind of like, I don't know,
Speaker 11: a rom com something that.
Speaker 10: Like you know, is just in an earthly normal realm.
Speaker 12: Ever, absolutely I would love to do that, you know, Yes,
Speaker 12: I was sounding yes, mean that I have to.
Speaker 3: Choose one over the other.
Speaker 4: I hope not good, right, because you know, I love
Speaker 4: the challenges of being of doing things and it's nice.
Speaker 4: I would love to do a rom com in a
Speaker 4: musical or something like that.
Speaker 3: It would be so fun. And you're right, it doesn't
Speaker 3: always have to be physical.
Speaker 4: And you know, maybe a threat of being injured or
Speaker 4: things like that, and it would be so nice just
Speaker 4: to do something that's like intimate and fun and loving.
Speaker 3: Yes, And I'm glad.
Speaker 11: I'm glad to hear that because even looking at crazy
Speaker 11: Rich Asians, I'm like, that's like the most gigantic production ever,
Speaker 11: Like even that movie, which could be you know, just
Speaker 11: a thought. A quote unquote fun movie seems incredibly demanding
Speaker 11: based on how much time it must have taken the.
Speaker 8: Place, the scene alone, you know, place like the choreography
Speaker 8: that I feel like I have to go into that.
Speaker 4: Yah. No, you know, it's the thought that goes behind,
Speaker 4: is the respect that you give that culture, what is
Speaker 4: important to that culture. Majong is very important to the
Speaker 4: Chinese culture. And it's not just a game. There's much
Speaker 4: that goes on behind that game. It's like bridge, you know,
Speaker 4: it's like backgammon, It's like all these kind of things, Chess,
Speaker 4: Why do you play? This is a battle of wits
Speaker 4: and it's you know, it's like very reminiscent a bit
Speaker 4: of memoirs of a geisha when I was negotiating with
Speaker 4: the mama son about Sayuri and you know, bringing her
Speaker 4: in and we were just like tossing the tea cups
Speaker 4: around you, like pushing to you and coming back to me.
Speaker 4: And it is a battle where there is no physical fighting,
Speaker 4: but the battle is there in how you handle the
Speaker 4: cards and things like that, and what are the innuendos
Speaker 4: of the dialogue? No, so in that you know, it's
Speaker 4: interesting because in this movie.
Speaker 3: I get to be funny. I get to do physical
Speaker 3: comedy in everything everywhere, all at once.
Speaker 4: Like in Crazy Richass, everybody is having a wild time
Speaker 4: and I get to play the most serious, like you know,
Speaker 4: scary part.
Speaker 3: Them to the beach party.
Speaker 1: Man, come on.
Speaker 8: I would be interested to know, like what kind of
Speaker 8: like films do you consume. You know, you're you're you're
Speaker 8: known for, you know, you know, the martial arts films
Speaker 8: that are you know, the very involved in technical but
Speaker 8: like when Michelle Yo is at home, like what are
Speaker 8: you watching? Like what interests you?
Speaker 3: Haha?
Speaker 4: Actually I watch anything. I'm such a movie boff. I mean,
Speaker 4: I would go to the cinemas by myself and I
Speaker 4: constantly do. Maybe one thing that was surprised to you
Speaker 4: is that I love horror films.
Speaker 8: Hmmm.
Speaker 3: I would go and watch a.
Speaker 4: Horror film by myself, wondering. I sit close to the door,
Speaker 4: I sit right at the back when there's no one who.
Speaker 11: I love.
Speaker 4: I love druma, I love mysteries, I love thrillers. I
Speaker 4: just basically love the thrill of being in the cinema.
Speaker 4: I just love that experience because it's a way of escapism,
Speaker 4: you know, the magic of not having to just enjoying
Speaker 4: something a story. I love musicals, I love everything, so
Speaker 4: I watch anything now I'm even watching you know, baking shows.
Speaker 4: It's like, what the hell happened to me?
Speaker 8: Well, I mean, like you're this is a twenty four film,
Speaker 8: and you've just announ said you love horror films. So
Speaker 8: I feel like in two years we will see you
Speaker 8: in some a twenty four horror film where you're torturing
Speaker 8: your family or something.
Speaker 4: I am, I am a little bit. I don't want
Speaker 4: to dwell in the realm of others, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. I love Mutch them, but I don't want
Speaker 4: to be invited into.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 11: I just I just want to say, your enthusiasm for
Speaker 11: all these different types of movies totally comes across in
Speaker 11: this movie, and like, only I think only somebody who
Speaker 11: has that that fervor and that zeal for movies could
Speaker 11: give a performance like so, I thank you so much
Speaker 11: for that.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I just but it's true.
Speaker 4: I think with this movie, we all just literally looked
Speaker 4: at each other, Yes, like with Key with Jamie, with
Speaker 4: Stephanie and James Hong, and we looked and.
Speaker 3: Harry Shan as well.
Speaker 4: Right, we just looked at each other and go like, yes,
Speaker 4: we are unapologetic with the silliness, the wranchiness or whatever
Speaker 4: it is, and let's just have a great time.
Speaker 3: Let's believe in this.
Speaker 4: And we literally held hands to say dance the way,
Speaker 4: go let's jump in, and we all grabbed the Daniels.
Speaker 4: Why the like, ah, that was the only thing you
Speaker 4: could do it. It's like to be fearless, right, and
Speaker 4: in that way we empower each other.
Speaker 3: We just go for it, and we did.
Speaker 10: We went for it absolutely.
Speaker 8: Lastly, I just feel like, you know, you've done so much.
Speaker 8: Are there things? Are there things that like are there
Speaker 8: films that you're known so much for, you know, like
Speaker 8: Crouching Tiger, you know, and like now this film, like
Speaker 8: you know, it's like genre bending films that are you know,
Speaker 8: like introducing people to like a whole new way of
Speaker 8: seeing the cinema. Is there like a film that you've
Speaker 8: done in your career that you feel like, you know,
Speaker 8: sort of like you wish more it gotten more attention,
Speaker 8: or something that you really look fondly back on and
Speaker 8: you're like, I had, you know, I had a really
Speaker 8: great time making this film, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, you know that.
Speaker 4: When we've set out to do a film, obviously you
Speaker 4: want the best for it to happen. And the best
Speaker 4: for a movie is like to get the best box office, right.
Speaker 4: I mean it is show business. I mean that's the
Speaker 4: reality of it. It's like we we do it because
Speaker 4: we want people to be able to embrace it and say, yes,
Speaker 4: this is And sometimes you do movies where maybe it's
Speaker 4: a little bit ahead of time and people are like,
Speaker 4: oh what you know, maybe like the Heroic Trio. I
Speaker 4: had the best time making that. One particular favorite of
Speaker 4: mine is Reign of Assassins that I did with the
Speaker 4: Jungusung and John John Wu and Damu was the director,
Speaker 4: and I felt that there was so much part in
Speaker 4: that film and I really wished more people saw it.
Speaker 3: And another one is The Lady that was directed by the.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's such a that's such a It's I feel
Speaker 8: like it's such an outliers like a LUs On film, because.
Speaker 4: If you think about it, as artists, you have to explore,
Speaker 4: you have to do things out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 3: He can't just do Taxi Driver the whole time, right,
Speaker 3: I mean for Alment, the whole time. Yes he could,
Speaker 3: and he's great at it.
Speaker 4: But then you know, sometimes you have to do something
Speaker 4: that's so but he did that with love and heart.
Speaker 4: There was a story that he really really wanted to tell,
Speaker 4: and so did I and that's how we came together
Speaker 4: to do The Lady, which was about the Burmese desident
Speaker 4: dos Bansan Succi.
Speaker 8: Mhm.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Fabulous performance by the way.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's it's it's a it's a gorgeous film. I mean,
Speaker 8: and we can say that about so many things you've done.
Speaker 8: I mean, I just want to reiterate that, like, this
Speaker 8: movie is mind blowing. I am definitely going to have
Speaker 8: to see it again. Uh, and I you know, I've
Speaker 8: just been everyone. It's it's been a while since a
Speaker 8: film has like been released that I feel like I
Speaker 8: am constantly getting text from friends being like do you
Speaker 8: want to go see this movie? Or have you seen
Speaker 8: this movie? Or they're like if you haven't seen it,
Speaker 8: I'll see it again.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 8: It's I think it's just a really really beautiful.
Speaker 3: Film that is amazing, because that is what we hope
Speaker 3: we see.
Speaker 4: You know, what we need now is more convers between people,
Speaker 4: you know, like good wonderful shared ideas and you know, like,
Speaker 4: how did you see that part?
Speaker 3: Did you realize this?
Speaker 4: And you know, and not to be left out, what
Speaker 4: do you mean you didn't see you better go watch
Speaker 4: it before you can join.
Speaker 3: And that's so great and that's what I love about
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 4: Yes, there's so many different reasons, the Internet, the word
Speaker 4: of mouth, and it's so important because we have real
Speaker 4: conversations with each other, with family, with friends, and sometimes
Speaker 4: even with strangers because we are having a shared experience.
Speaker 3: So this is that's fantastic. I'm so glad to hear it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, well, thank you so much being here with us.
Speaker 8: I mean, there's truly an honor to talk to you today.
Speaker 3: Nice talking to you guys.
Speaker 8: Yes, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: That's it for this special bonus episode of X ray Vision.
Speaker 1: Catch the next episode on Wednesday, March fifteenth for the
Speaker 1: last of US finale. And remember we're bringing you two
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Speaker 1: X ray Vision is a Crooked Media production. The show
Speaker 1: is produced by Chris Lord and Sol Rubin. The show
Speaker 1: is executive produced by myself and Sandy Rohard are editing
Speaker 1: and sound designers by Vacillis Photopoulos. Dellan Villanueva and Matt
Speaker 1: de Group provide video production support and Alex Rella Ford
Speaker 1: handle social media. Thank you Brian Vasquez for the music.
Speaker 1: Bye