Recently, the fantasy movie "Instantaneous Whole Universe" starring Yang Ziqiong has been widely discussed on various social platforms and has attracted a lot of attention. The film, produced by the American independent production company A24, cost only $25 million to produce, was released for two months, and currently grossed $52 million at the North American box office, making it the highest-grossing film in North America for A24. In terms of word-of-mouth, the film temporarily achieved a good score of 8.5 points on IMDb and is currently ranked 64th in the IMDb list of 250.
The story of the film tells the story of Xiulian (Yang Ziqiong), a middle-aged Chinese woman who runs a laundromat, who lives in a mess, and once accidentally discovers that there are parallel universes in the world, the evil forces have spread in multiple universes, the world is about to be destroyed, and she is considered by her husband (Guan Jiwei) in another universe to be the only person who can save the world.
Yang Ziqiong played Xiulian in "Instantaneous Whole Universe".
The story of "Instantaneous Universe" is imaginative and imaginative, which continues the usual style of directors and screenwriters, Kwan Ka Yong and Daniel Schnatter. In 2016, the two wrote and directed "Swiss Army Knife Man", which tells the story of a man trapped on a desert island, who finds a corpse that can fart, spit, act as a compass, and finally leaves the desert island with the help of corpses. The script for "Instantaneous Universe" was written after the release of "Swiss Army Knife Man" and was written for about three years. In the beginning, the Chinese director Guan Jiayong was ready to either fail the film completely or make something he was proud of. In the end, the directors completed the complex, multi-meaning and emotional film on the least budget, which was full of larger themes: midlife crisis, intergenerational trauma, self-sacrifice, and a whimsical exploration of parallel reality.
The budget was low, and the director wanted to let his own mother play
Kwan and Daniel Schnatter have been working together for more than a decade since they made short films together. The two bought an office building that went bankrupt when the economic crisis erupted in 2008 in Simi Valley, California, as a film studio. They want to put their money to the cutting edge, and the same is true for making movies, and they are good at creating efficient ways to shoot at low cost.
Kwan Ka Yong and Daniel Schnart were on location in the filming of Instant Universe.
The two often wondered: Why did they write the movie "Swiss Army Knife Man", why did they make a movie with only two people on a desert island? Part of their logic at the time was that if the film didn't get the investment, it might only raise a few thousand dollars, "in the worst case, we'll star ourselves." ”
In fact, after writing the script of "Instantaneous Universe", Guan Jiayong, one of the directors, also prepared for the worst - to implement Plan B and cut the budget to the original 10%, which was really unsuccessful, and let his own mother play the heroine.
Fortunately, the film received investment from the production company A24, and also invited Yang Ziqiong to star, but the film budget is still limited, and during the shooting process, the director can only tighten his clothes and food to maximize cost savings. There is a scene in the film that pays tribute to "2001: A Space Odyssey", in which the hot dog intestinal finger man extincts the normal hand ape man in the hot dog gut finger man universe. There were a lot of apes in that scene, but the crew limited the cost, only made two ape costumes, and director Daniel Schnart played multiple apes alone, ran in the mountains for a day, and finally synthesized the shots in the film through post-production.
Some shots of apes in The Instantaneous Universe pay homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey (above).
The two directors had done a lot of music videos, but they were often rejected by Party A, so that they had a lot of wild ideas that were not recognized, and they wanted to put these ideas into the movie, "so that they could use everything Rihanna rejected", including hot dog gut fingers, cooking the raccoon king, using a deadly weapon belt bag, perceptual stone, etc., all of which were loved by the audience, and they stood up to applaud the film after watching the movie.
The day before the film was about to be released, it was forced to stop filming due to the new crown epidemic. Some of the shots where different characters appear together are actually done by post-processing after the actors make up for it in different places. The directors are not on the spot, but direct by video conference.
"If Yang Ziqiong refuses, the movie will die"
In the earliest scripts, the two directors wrote characters based on Jackie Chan, but later because of the bottleneck in creation and casting, they turned to their wives as the protagonists of the story. "We have very strong moms and grandmothers, and we ourselves are very gentle and gentle men, and as soon as we switch roles, the story opens in a completely different way, and the relationship between husband and wife becomes more relevant," director Kwan Ka Yong said.
With the completion of the revised script, the two directors realized that except for Yang Ziqiong, no one on the earth could play the role of wife. "If she rejects the script, the movie is dead." Guan Jiayong said that the choice of Yang Ziqiong, the action is only an important factor, but this role is a lot of facets, there are drama, comedy, physical humor, etc., except for her, no one can do all these things, her appearance will completely change the film.
After Yang Ziqiong read the script, she was deeply moved. She saw that the superhero in the film turned out to be an ordinary Asian immigrant woman, "We passed them every day, these moms, aunts, grandmothers went to the supermarket or Chinatown, we never paid attention to them, because they just wanted to go home and cook for their families and do things for their children or husbands, so I had this opportunity to play them and give women like this a voice, which is great." After that, she watched the "Swiss Army Knife Man" made by the two directors and was completely fascinated.
Xiulian, played by Yang Ziqiong, has different identities in the multiverse in the film.
In the movie, Xiulian, played by Yang Ziqiong, has disheveled hair in the real universe and has several strands of white hair. In other multiverses, she is based on Yang Ziqiong's own movie star, Peking Opera actor, martial arts master, chef, hot dog intestine finger man, etc., from traditional Chinese opera headdresses, to ancient costumes, to pill heads, in the whole film, costume stylists made more than 40 sets of hairstyles for Yang Ziqiong.
Hair design director Anissa Sarace said some of her inspiration came from Yang Ziqiong's real-life filming experience. In one of the universes, Xiulian is a movie star, and there are many shots of her walking the red carpet to attend, which is actually the image of Yang Ziqiong participating in the premiere of "Picking Gold".
Pay tribute to "Red Fan District", "Kung Fu" and "Fancy Years"
Directors, Kwan Ka-yong and Daniel Schnatter, invited stunt director Timothy Yurizi to control the film's action, and they have been working together for 11 years, including Swiss Army Knife Man. Timothy Yurizi was familiar with the filming styles of the two directors, spending weeks visualizing the scenes with the directors, designing some fight scenes based on the actions performed by the two directors themselves, and then building the action sequences based on this reference, adding stunts and reactions.
The two directors tried to find an action guide that would bring the Hong Kong style to the film, but the search process was difficult, and finally found a pair of brothers on the video website, and their short film surprised the director. They're from Orange County, California, and while they're not formally trained, they're physically gifted and creative enough to memorize all the classic shots of kung fu movies.
Brian Lee and Andy Lee present a lot of wonderful fight scenes in the film.
The brothers are the two people in the film who fight with Yang Ziqiong for the trophy of tax auditor, named Andy Lee and Brian Lee, respectively. The former played the Death Merchant in the Marvel movie Legend of Shangqi and the Ten Rings, while the latter served as an action stunt in Shangqi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
The two brothers especially adore Yang Ziqiong, and every day they go to the set like a dream. In order to maintain their physical condition, the two had never dipped in wine before, until Yang Ziqiong poured them a glass of champagne. Since then, the two have begun to show off: "Yang Ziqiong is the first person to pour us wine." ”
The husband played by Guan Jiwei pays tribute to Jackie Chan with a wonderful juggling fight scene in the film.
Stunt director Timothy Yurizi teamed up with the brothers to design the film's action scenes. Many action scenes are homages to Hong Kong movies and Jackie Chan. For example, guan Jiwei, who plays her husband, in the juggling fight scene between the IRS and the security guard, is a tribute to Jackie Chan's classic action film "Red Fan District", but the clothes are changed into a belt bag; the wife Xiulian has a "golden rooster independence" action, which is a tribute to Yang Ziqiong's classic action in "Police Story 3" 30 years ago; the staircase fight paragraph pays tribute to Zhou Xingchi's "Kung Fu"; the passage where the master teaches Xiulian Kung Fu with biscuits pays tribute to "A Generation of Grandmasters"; Xiulian becomes a star in the universe. Her and Wei Meng's shot in the alley completely reproduces "Fancy Years"; even the name of the heroine Xiulian is a tribute to Yu Xiulian, played by Yang Ziqiong in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
Stills from "Instantaneous Universe" and "Fancy Years".
For example, the fight scene will last for 60 seconds, but the action team will do a four-minute non-stop action rehearsal. Director Guan Jiayong said that this combination is really great, and the whole crew has done incredible things under the condition of limited budget, "If you give them more money, imagine what kind of effect they can achieve." Yang Ziqiong even said that it reminded her of her early experience of shooting action movies in Hong Kong.
The team of 5 taught themselves to complete 500 visual effects shots
Although "Instantaneous Universe" is an independent film with a low budget, during the filming process, the two directors can continue to play a good creative role. The film has nearly 500 visual effects shots, almost all of which are completed by a team of 5 people as the core, none of the special effects team members are from the class, they are almost all self-taught free tutorials on the Internet while making, which is how they were made in the bedroom during the epidemic, and the final visual effects were more in line with the film's cult style.
In the film, Xiulian has a high-speed passage through many universes, and finally reaches the section of the kung fu universe she wants to go to. The two directors knew early on that this passage must appear in the movie, and director Guan Jiayong found a small pocket 4K camera and would shoot it wherever he went. During the crossing, the New York Street View shot, which he shot while walking on the streets of New York, adjusted the shutter angle and shutter speed, and set it to a super blur mode.
Guan Jiayong took a large number of similar stock images, cut all the material together, and put it on the LED screen that looked like he had bought it in a hundred-dollar store. Then, let Yang Ziqiong sit in front of the LED screen, the director first demonstrated to Yang Ziqiong himself, and then performed by her, pretending to be shuttling through the past. Finally, all the images are connected together and handed over to the visual effects department for post-production.
Yang Ziqiong has a variety of imaginative shapes in the film.
There is also a scene in the film where Yang Ziqiong makes a connection with herself in another universe when she first jumps in the universe, sits in an office chair and gallops backwards, and passes through a cabinet door. What's interesting about this shot is that it's 100% actual shot by camera, without any special effects. The real-life shooting process is that the director opens the camera shutter to the maximum, creating a beautiful light, and then pushes Yang Ziqiong, slowly through the office, she must perform a frightened look in slow motion, the crew also hid a hair dryer behind her, she was pushed on the cart in slow motion, and finally accelerated the camera, which became the feeling of really flying backwards in this space.
The core idea of the directors for special effects is that all visual effects must be based on the development of the story, and visual effects must not override the story. The special effects in the film are not particularly perfect, but they are very much in line with the style of this film.
Beijing News reporter Teng Chao
Edited by Huang Jialing
Proofreading Janin