Time Editorial Office | Time Lord
For people who love movies.
At the end of March and the beginning of April, many potential works were released in domestic theaters, among which young director Ma Kai's thriller comedy "Great Night" is a relatively scarce genre.
This thriller comedy, a combination of thriller elements and comedy elements, to make the audience both scared and funny, the difficulty of creation is not small, foreign "Scream" series, domestic "Back to the Soul Night" and other excellent works can be referenced.
For the thriller and horror genres, Ma Kai is very experienced, 7 years ago, a "Zhongxie" (2016), which cost only 70,000 yuan, won the 10th FIRST Best Art Exploration Award, and has always been at the forefront of domestic thriller ratings in recent years.
The comedy element is Ma Kai's new attempt and challenge.
"Evil"
The new work "Great Night" involves two story lines, one is the three brothers who want to make a million-like blockbuster video, and the other is the shooting of a small-cost thriller crew.
The intersection of the two lines not only reflects the characteristics of the times under the current popularity of short videos, but also has the creative path of traditional thriller films.
"Never Expected" director Yi Xiaoxing served as the producer, and the starring lineup composed of Fan Chengcheng, Jiang Long, Wang Zixuan, Liang Long, etc., collided with many new chemical reactions.
Recently, Time Jun interviewed the film's director Ma Kai exclusively, let's take a look at the front and back of this thriller comedy.
Time.com: The idea of "The Great Night" came from your experience of drifting ten years ago, can you first share the real story of that year, that is, the source of inspiration?
Makay: It's from some of my real experiences. At that time, I was a group actor, playing a black-clothed killer in a costume drama. One day I was filming a night scene and went to the toilet late at night, the scenic area was particularly large, and the location of that toilet was slightly off.
When I went to the toilet, a martial artist suddenly came, painted the makeup of the female ghost, which startled me, but then I also laughed and said don't be afraid of beautiful women, I am also filming.
Time.com: You were a wanderer for many years, and then you went to film on your own, did you have any fun experience at that time?
Ma Kai: Hengdian is a particularly interesting place, you can meet 360 lines, and people from every industry, such as retired teachers, will come to Hengdian to pursue their dream of being an actor.
For a while, I was an assistant director of actors, responsible for recruiting actors, and I saw a lot of interesting things. I remember a girl came to Hengdian because her family was forced to marry, and she didn't like blind dates, so she ran to Hengdian, which was very interesting.
Time.com: So what was your mood at that time?
Ma Kai: At that time, my life fell into the first trough - failing the college entrance examination. At that time, I wanted to go to art college, but I didn't pass the exam for two years, and it hit me very hard.
The art exam is not like the ordinary college entrance examination, you need to take the exam in every school, I took more than a dozen art schools of two or three categories, but none of them were admitted, and I really didn't know what to do at that time.
The conditions at home were not particularly good, so I was confused and told my family that I was admitted to university, but I actually went to "drift" as a group performer.
After working as an actor for two years, I realized that it was difficult to make money in the profession of an actor, and I was not obsessed with being an actor, so I began to go behind the scenes and become an actor assistant director, in fact, the earliest was because I liked to watch movies.
Time.com: Have you heard that you have watched at least a few thousand movies?
Ma Kai: I haven't counted, there should be six or seven thousand.
Time Network: This new film is much larger than the production scale of the previous "Zhong Evil", what are the new challenges and problems?
Ma Kai: The cost of "Zhongxie" is tens of thousands of yuan, there is no need to communicate with many departments, do not need to think about very complex scenes, relatively speaking, more casual, more need to react on the spot.
This new film is technically an industrial film, which requires sufficient preparation in the early stage and communication with each department, which I lacked before.
Time.com: Yi Xiaoxing, the producer of this cooperation, once said that he himself "got in the rain, so he wanted to lend Ma Kai an umbrella", can you share how you met? How did he help during the shoot?
Ma Kai: We didn't know each other before, but we met because of the recommendation of Matt Culture (company). I have seen Brother Xing's works before, including "Never Expected", I think it is very good, he is also a comedy director, so I think it is good for him to supervise the production.
Brother Xing respects me very much, he thinks about me very much, and I can feel his kind of doting.
Time Network: How exactly is it "doted"?
Ma Kai: For example, he will put in a lot of time and energy, I thought he was too busy to spare time, but he would come and urge us to have a script meeting so that the script could be more complete.
Executive producer Yi Xiaoxing
Time.com: How did you do it when you collided with thriller and comedy elements?
Ma Kai: First of all, I had feelings when writing the script, and then I needed to collide with everyone and the actors on the set.
Sometimes an actor sees the lines I write, he has his own imagination, that imagination may not be so fun, I need to tell him how I feel.
In addition, everyone thought of some very interesting points together, kept discussing, and the scene collided with comedy elements.
Time Network: Liang Long (the lead singer of the second-hand rose band) played the director of the crew in the film this time, which is particularly joyful, how did you find him to play this role?
Ma Kai: We found a lot of comedians for this role, but they didn't think it was suitable, so we mentioned Brother Long.
Before I only knew that he was a singer, I didn't watch him act, but then I watched a short part of his play, and I thought he must be fine.
Because I have seen many actors' performances and also do tutoring, I can see the energy of the actors, I can feel the sense of humor in Brother Long, and I can feel his cognition of performance.
In life, he is very contrasting, he is so enchanting and charming on stage, but in private he is a very gentleman and knows how to understand etiquette.
Time Network: Did starring Fan Chengcheng give you any surprises?
Ma Kai: Cheng Cheng surprised me quite a lot. I have only watched his "Door Lock" (2021) before, his role in it is not heavy, the mood changes seem to be less, I can't see his humorous side, plus I want to find an image similar to a small-town youth, so I was really a little apprehensive at first.
But after fixing the makeup, I found that the two of us had similar ideas in character shaping, and he didn't have idol baggage, he actually grew more than 20 pounds for the filming of this play, and his belly was several times bigger, but he was not too fat.
What surprised me even more was that his understanding of performance was very accurate, and there was a scarce sense of realism on his body, which was very grounded.
You know, many handsome stars have a hard time performing the feeling of being close to the ground, but Cheng's performance will make you believe. And he was born in 2000, he was so young, I didn't think he was a child in 2000 when I filmed.
Time Network: Many people have been looking forward to seeing "Zhong Evil" on the big screen, but they still haven't waited for it today, do you feel sorry?
Ma Kai: I think there will be a lot of these regrets in life, like my experience in the exam, and then I can't live in that kind of lost emotion.
I think I may have some regrets in the future, I think everyone has regrets at different stages, or move forward positively.
Time.com: Many years have passed since your last movie "Zhongxie", have you had any new thoughts on movies or careers during this period?
Makay: Yes. I really want to make action movies, there may be plans to make action movies in the future, and I also wrote the script for action movies. Because I'm a horror thriller fan and action movie fan.
Time Network: In the past two years of Asian horror films, thriller folk styles are more popular, such as "Curse", "Southern Witch" and "Psychic Medium", what do you think of this trend? Do you have any favorite movies in this?
Ma Kai: A lot of these are pseudo-documentaries, pseudo-documentaries are more popular in Europe and the United States, and relatively few in Asia, I prefer Kunji Rock (South Korea, 2018), which is considered the best in this genre.
"Kunchi Rock"
Time Network: Whether it is "Zhong Evil" or "Great Night", it is all about making movies and talking about the set, do you have a special preference for such a theme?
Ma Kay: Exactly, I think the set is very interesting. (I went to Hengdian) was in 2012, when everyone was relatively new to the set, not as developed as self-media now, and you could see the set through various media such as anchors.
So I wanted to tell this horror and horror story through the set.
Time.com: Will you continue to make such pseudo-documentaries or films with on-set elements in the future?
Makay: It's very likely. If everyone thinks it's particularly fun after watching "Great Night", they may shoot "Great Night 2" and the like.
Time Network: How do you understand the "amazing" in the title "Great Night"?
Ma Kai: This "amazing" refers more to ordinary people who insist on their dreams, and the film actually expresses a kind of respect for such ordinary people.
Time.com: What are your expectations for the film's box office or word of mouth?
Ma Kai: Of course, the more box office, the better. Speaking of word of mouth, I think that a work of 10 people can make six or seven people like it, even if it passes, it is very difficult for 9 people to like it.
At the beginning of talking to a lot of capital, everyone can't imagine how funny this script can be, because while being afraid and wanting to laugh at this thing, it's actually quite screwed, so we are also quite apprehensive.
But I have been on the roadshow for the past two days, I went to many cities, and the effect really exceeded our expectations, and the students covered their eyes, then laughed, and then applauded, and we were very happy.