I am nine minutes into the directors' commentary of #EverythingEverywhere and they have already confirmed several details I've picked up on, including the circles, 42, the microaggressions, I'm going to be galaxy brained by the end of this omg
JAMES HONG WAS 91 YEARS OLD WHEN HE FILMED THIS MOVIE
omg daniel kwan’s adorable mandarin
the way daniel kwan highlights how AsAm audiences react differently and how it aligns with how I reacted too!!!!!
“they couldn’t find a bagel umbrella, but they did find a donut umbrella” omG
“you don’t really get to see michelle yeoh mindblown” I KNOW!!!! I KNOOOOOOOOW
“dan read so many tax books so he could get that one line of dialogue right” MOOD
CHEKHOV’S BUTTPLUG
TED CHIANG. TED CHIANG SAID CHEKHOV’S BUTTPLUG I AM SCREAMINNG
I love so much how they’re talking about sound design, I notice these things but rarely articulate them because I don’t have any experience with the craft of it
omg they ruined the subtitle on one bit?? I don’t know enough canto to know what they’re actually saying
“she’s a minotaur in a labyrinth” LOVE IT
OMG THEY HIT MICHELLE YEOH WITH A PIPE BY VERY SLOWLY FILMING A SHOT OF SMUSHING HER FACE IN OVER LIKE FIVE MINUTES AND THEN SPEEDING IT UP SO SHE WOULDN’T BE INJURED
OMG I KNEW THEY WERE ALMOND COOKIES TOO
“just getting punched by michelle yeoh was a dream of hers and she just wanted to do take after take falling down” JAMIE 李 CURTIS INDEED
OMG THE ASPECT RATIO CHANGE?????
“inspired by the grand master wong kar-wai” INSPIRED
SCREAM THEY REALLY WERE PLAYING WITH THE ASIAN DAD WITH A FANNY PACK STEREOTYPE I TOTALLY PICKED UP ON THAT
“we’re going to poke out all the tricks” THEY THINK THIS RUINS THE MAGIC BUT OMG NO IT MAKES THE MAGIC MORE MAGIC
SCREAM IT’S INSPIRED BY KUNG FU HUSTLE WHICH IS ONE OF MY FAVS TOO, AMAZING
omg they did the stunts safely by hiding padding under the carpet so it’d absorb impact and look seamless with a take??????
PLAID VADER
THE FACE MASKS AND FACE SHIELDS IN THE AESTHETIC BECAUSE IT’S A NOD TO ASIAN COUNTRIES!!!! I NOTICED THAT TOO!!!!!
“JAMES WANTED TO DO MANY TAKES WITH THIS PUDDING BUT WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH SUGAR-FREE PUDDING” SO HE JUST??? SPIT??? PUDDING BACK IN TO REDO THE TAKE SCREAM
they accidentally wrote lyrics into the dialogue sO THEY JUST LICENSED THE SONG AND USED IT LIKE THREE TIMES IN THE MOVIE
“for some reason, jamie was very familiar with horror movie tropes; it was nice to see her be the stalker and not the damsel in distress final girl” I just love jamie lee curtis more with everything else I hear about her
JAMIE LEE CURTIS SUCKING IN HER TUM IS A 100% PRACTICAL EFFECT THAT SHE THOUGHT OF, LOVE IT
THEY PUT SCOTCH TAPE OVER THE EDGE OF THE PAPER SO IT COULDN’T ACTUALLY CUT HIM BUT THEY WERE STILL GETTING NAUSEATED WATCHING WHILE FILMING OMG
“fake slow-mo, when people just act like they’re in slow motion, and if you mix it up the audience just buys it” omg, also I didn’t realize that the exit sign move was to protect his back
YESSSS THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT THE UI TOO
the slingshot visual to make it as simple as possible I love it, also “jamie just did whatever she wanted and we just kept recording” omg
I’M SCREAMING??? THEY SHUT DOWN PRODUCTION FOR COVID AND MICHELLE YEOH?? WAS NOT?? ACTUALLY???? IN THE???? RV???? WHILE KE HUY QUAN IS DOING THAT INCREDIBLY EMOTIONAL SCENE??? MICHELLE YEOH IS ON A GREEN SCREEN???? HE WAS ACTING OPPOSITE NO ONE???
“the emotional whiplash we were excited to play with here” BIG MOOD, “these big moments interrupted by a sci-fi movie, which is what it feels like to be alive right now” MOOOD!!!!!
THAT IS ACTUALLY JAMIE LEE CURTIS JUMPING WITH A WIRE AND BEING BLASTED WITH AIR AND THE STUNT COORDINATOR TEARED UP WHEN MICHELLE YEOH SAID “I LOVE YOU”
the zooming scene has a year of film from all the museums and sets and stuff they did before the movie OMG and then a lot is practical effects with a projector
they filmed so much of this in los angeles, I’m going to cry, like I can actually just drive over to the actual laundromat they got for the set
michelle’s microexpressions I KNOW!!!!
IT’S ANDRE 3000 PLAYING A FLUTE OMG
“we broke that rule and just made every single scene an emotional 10” IT WORKS SO WELL
YESSSSS I NOTICED THE BAGEL
THEY WERE GONNA MAKE A JOKE ABOUT DRINKING BREAST MILK INSTEAD OF COW MILK LIKE “it’s not the same” SCREAM
“and that’s just steph hsu goofin off on set” omg I love her
POSTER OF MOVIE IN A MOVIE HAHAHA
the wong kar-wai frame technique omg I love that they’re going into the craft and breaking it down
apparently this technique was simply cheaper to produce with less film omg but it’s so Aesthetic
I love how much creativity they give to each of their departments and actors, it’s so great
omg they purposely audition stunt actors so they can just have… stunt actors who act and do stunts, instead of needing doubles, I love that, that’s how they cast all the security guards
lmao I love how much step hsu just channels jobu, god I love her elvis(?) getup so much
god yeah steph hsu is so good at the transitions and tonal shifts, it’s great
THERE’S A BUNCH OF DELETED DILDO FIGHTING, and the laugh she does with the dildos isn’t the character but just her laughing after they said cut?? so good???? I’M LOVE???
REPLACED ALL THE LIGHTS IN THE BUILDING SO THEY COULD HAVE FULL CONTROL??? THEY DID THESE LIGHT EFFECTS WITH ACTUAL BULBS THEY CONTROLLED????
“it took us a really long time to figure out the hot dog sounds. there was a lot of squeaking going on; it had to be wetter” THEY USED CAT FOOD, SCREAM
ONE OF THE DIRECTORS WAS ONE OF THE MONKEYS OMG
the hot dog hands arE JUST GLOVES, MOLDED TO THEIR HANDS
I love the bagel so much and how it looks, I like that they’re going into it, they were learning how to do 3d animation while working on the movie omg
to learn how to do 3d animation you make a donut as proof of concept so they… mADE A BAGEL……….. I feel like @1baronjennyson needs to know this part
JAMES HONG DOESN’T LIKE BEING IN THE BACKGROUND AND KEPT SNEAKING INTO THE SHOT
ke huy quan’s character shifts are SO GOOD, he’s so masterful just for those quick tonal changes alone
“this is a little like what michelle is actually like” iN THE SCENE WHERE SHE’S DESCRIBING RACCACCOONIE???? THAT IS.. THE TRUE MICHELLE YEOH
I love how much they’re talking about how actually they had to push themselves to go further, my philosophy with writing too, to Go There
michelle yeoh is a trained dancer “and we’re so proud of her for doing such a bad job of dancing in this scene”
I love that the subtitle was something they purposely played with
ONE OF THE DIRECTORS WAS THE SUB
“into BDSM and also a bit of a doomsday prepper” I LOVE LMAO, PRODUCTION MADE FAKE PORNO MAGS, “BEEFY TWOTIMES” WHICH IS ALSO ON THE PIZZA SIGN??? IT’S A “VERY VERSATILE NAME” I’M DYING
THEY GAVE AWAY THE SEX TOYS AS PARTY FAVORS THAT THEY RAFFLED OFF TO CREW, THERE’S A YOGA BALL WITH A BUTT PLUG AND DILDO THAT EVERYONE WAS FIGHTING OVER I’M DYING
INVENTED THE MOTORIZED SEX TOY FOR THE SHOOT
they shot the musical, opera, and movie scene in the same movie theater!
still don’t know what song evelyn is singing! they just said “folk song”
michelle yeoh doesn’t usually have to rehearse for scenes but she had to for this one because the riot shield/pizza sign was unfamiliar to her omg, but they still modeled it off a bo staff
they added a bark to confirm that the dog isn’t dead omG
HARRY SHUM JR JUST MIMED VEGETABLE CUTTING AND THEN THEY ADDED THE VEGGIES IN THE BENIHANA BY?? PAINTING THEM?? INTO?? THE???? FRAMES??????????????
I love how much they coordinate the music to the fight scene tempos
“this scene was 3 pages in the script and 10 minutes in the final movie” lmfao
“just a 100% badass sound effect when he lands” iT’S A PITCHED DOWN SWORD SHEATH SOUND WITH A BASS THUMP I AM D Y I N G
“‘you’re two guys who fight michelle yeoh while you have butt plugs in,’ and they seemed to get visibly less excited” LMFAO
THE BUTT PLUG FIGHT SCENE WASN’T DONE WITH ANY WIRES, IT WAS JUST. THEM. FIGHTING.
HE BUILT A GIANT VEINY HAND THAT COULD INFLATE AND FLEX FOR THAT EFFECT OMG I LOVE HOW MUCH PRACTICAL EFFECTS THEY DID
they just… launched the guy 25 feet in the air with a wire and he landed on a big airbag OMG
they were worried they couldn’t do action scenes without hollywood’s budget or hong kong’s timelines but omg they nailed it, I think it’s critical actually that it’s because they cast stunt actors on purpose
“but the movie’s over now, thank god.” lmao omg
they were so proud of pranking the audience to applaud halfway through LMFAO, “to me this is where the movie really begins” I AGREE
THERE ARE NO VISUAL EFFECTS. THE RACCOON IS ENTIRELY A PRACTICAL EFFECT WITH STRETCHY HAIR
“I want everything to be hot dog colors in the hot dog apartment” the set design I’m dying
“we actually went into a dryer for that shot” omg
I wish I knew more about movies so I knew all the film references!!
ughhh this tv app keeps freezing the director’s commentary and I’ve had to restart it several times across multiple devices over trying to watch it, it’s incredibly annoying
okay restarting my phone and turning off wifi seems to have helped, returning to this!!
the bagel hairdo is so good lmao
omg they shot in the same place as beyonce
I love that they talk about how the slow moments emphasize and underscore the emotions/pace
omg there’s a lot of sweetness and tenderness improvised in the hot dog universe that they ended up having to cut, wish I could see that
the fact that they used the dialogue in the alley as like, signposts for the rest of the movie, really underscores my read of waymond as the way
oh it’s cool how they avoided night shoots because they kinda fuck with people’s circadian rhythms
UGH it’s doing the freezing thing again, SO annoying, I am losing steam
michelle yeoh is so good at controlling her physicality
I loooove their explanation of all the different shots in that one montage scene, they just put michelle on green screen and told the effects team to go wild, and then there’s a reflection of the rock they added to the laundry machine, it’s so great
I love that they knew the audience would be tired by the time the rock scene got there, and it was michelle yeoh’s idea to do subtitles only with no voiceover so it could have a zen garden feeling
I love how they’re talking about craft and how to arrive tonally to resolve criticism/people’s expectations
“an action movie all about empathy” EXACTLY!!!!!
“we love action movies, but are pacifists” DUDE SAME OMG ME IT ME THAT’S WHY I’M WAYMOND I CRY
I love how much they talk about keeping morale up with the crew, they did guided meditations, how cool
stephanie hsu felt so bad about playing a character who ruins the movie constantly because she loves the movie so much 😂
I too am crying while watching this, how could you not 😭 it is such a gift to watch their performances
I love the simplicity of the love and taxes line, and watching him walk away is such a 目送 vibe
omg the way the run-in shot on the hug was actually from the camera person being like “oh shit I gotta capture this”
I love that they say the movie is about people not seeing each other, and how I was thinking about how my entire essay I plan to write is about microaggressions and how this movie is about fighting them with compassion
omg director dan kwan is the one who gets absorbed into the bagel
he’s cute.
omg they had so much paper that they would have to pick up again if they were redoing the shot, it takes so much effort to make a movie
I love that mindfulness is an actual touchstone behind the storytelling and the entire production structure
THE FEET ARE PROSTHETICS AND THEY PLAY THE ACTUAL NOTES ON THE PIANO, A MUSICIAN NOTICED AND CONFIRMED
they have the matrix a lot as a touchstone and the gunshot to googly eye scene is definitely a homage to it
“empathy fight” I LOVE IT SO MUCH I’M GONNA CRY AGAIN, the third eye is so good
the rocks aren’t stop motion, they just shoved them with sticks and removed the sticks
“there’s always something to love in everyone” YES I’M CRY
“bizarre sound design” I love it so much
“someone who has all the power in the world uses it not to destroy but to understand you” I’m gonna cry, that’s also #InTheWatchfulCity
“what’s the balance of professionalism and trying to get my character right, michelle got a kick out of whipping me and being the boss for once” “I think she was always the boss all along” “she was”
apparently harry shum jr’s monologue about raccaccoonie got so much that michelle yeoh broke character and laughed
they put michelle yeoh and harry shum jr on wires and the rest was just practical, and omg andre 3000 plays the flute for this scene too
unfortunately I was interrupted and will have to finish this tomorrow!! tired 😴
OKAY BACK LET ME NOT GET DISTRACTED, I need to finish this today and write a review!!
“this speech, we knew we needed to start in cantonese, switch to mandarin when she talked to her husband, switch to english when she talked to her daughter” YES I love that they talk about an “internal logic” to their language system in the movie, it’s exactly what I sensed
james hong was apparently really embodying gonggong during that speech, like really letting himself feel the emotion, and the directors talk about how great that was
“the yin versus the yang, the closed fist versus the open palm” MOOOOOOOD I’M SAYIN, this is a taoist film!!!!!
trying to decide which direction I want my review to go in, there’s taoism and compassion and actually I think I can synthesize them if I just draw from how I understand taoism and guanyin together
“this is the I am neo moment, when she goes I! AM! YOUR! MOTHER!!!!!” lmao they reference the matrix a lot during this commentary
the staircase scene wasn’t written as a staircase, they just figured it out when they got to the set!
when joy goes “I’M SO TIRED” they’re like “that’s how the audience feels” and this is the actual emotional climax of the story
the rock looking down omg it’s one of my favorite shots too lmao
“you don’t want to cut guys. I’m not breaking character” omg the tear was after cut
“you neg them, and then you pull them in, our romcom moment” LMAO
“how profound it is to allow our parents an image of themselves fully expressing themselves, because that’s not normally what the family dynamic actually is, these characters had to go through hell and back to get a traditional hollywood emotionfest that we don’t see irl” MOOD
they just did two takes on michelle, two takes on stephanie, a few pickups, and then wrapped hours early, “oh god, let’s all just go home and call our parents” at the parking lot scene
the vaping moment wasn’t even in the script, it just happened to happen????? LMFAO
the “what did he say” line is so wonderful lmao I love it, “but you’re still feeling something” that is exactly what I built with “mother tongues,” that you can feel the emotional resonance of the story even if you can’t read a word of chinese
“when they saw the final cut, they were like WHAT THE HELL GUYS, YOU MADE US DO ALL THAT” they had so much ketchup and mustard in the mouth LMAO
I love how they talk about things unlocking things for them as they write, that’s how my process works as well, discovering and unlocking things
“for our third part. only one more hour guys! just kidding. there’s only four more shots left.”
“I’m a bald man and one time dan’s mom told me I needed to grow more hair, so that made it into the movie” LMFAO
“and this kiss, it’s so unnatural for immigrant parents to just have the hollywood kiss, and it feels so nice to have a movie where they earned it” IT’S! SO! TRUE!!!!!!!
“she’s still splintered, and life is still overwhelming” god what an ADHD mood
WALL OF SOUNDDDD
ok credits!!
david byrne and mitski original song for closing credits!
“it was fun to reach out to people and get their chinese names” ke huy quan and daniel kwan have the same last name, just romanized differently!
“we’ve told you all our tricks, now we have to find new ones” YESSSS I’M READY
it was dan’s partner stephanie(sp?) who said to put all the assistants first in the credits, because they were always there first!
oh cool, they had a sustainability supervisor! they tried to keep the set as green as possible and they want to get better in each production
the thing I actually love the most about the director’s commentary is hearing how much they structure the production of the movie to be sustainable in terms of emotional, physical, and mental health, to keep the vibes good and not push people unhealthily
they talk a lot about safety concerns and how they filmed things to ensure safety, it’s so good to hear when usually you’re hearing of the quentin tarantinos of the world
they stayed up all night on a zoom call while michelle acted against a green screen in paris to complete the movie bc by then covid had started
“I think he didn’t want full credit for, you know, ‘life can be so delicious'”
“next to the humane society note I’ve always wanted to add, ‘thousands of animals were harmed in the production of this movie because we had meat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; the dog was fine, and the pig was fine, but maybe not all the pigs were fine'” AMAZING
everything they say just jives so well with all my philosophies too, it’s seriously like we share at least one brain cell
AND NOW
BLOOPERS
EIGHT MINUTES OF BLOOPERS
MICHELLE “I’M LYING NEXT TO A MAN WHO JUST SAID THE F WORD… OH MY GAH”
“oh it’s a WOO-cha” jamie lee curtis, amazing
oh my god I can’t even describe some of these because you just have to see them for context
OMG the director miming the shield fight and michelle taking video of it
THE INFLATED FINGER… THE STICKS MOVING THE ROCKS… THEY SHOW THEM
holy shit the wheelchair is a physical prop that actually zooms
THEY SHOW OPERATING THE FOOT PROPS
THEY SHOW OPERATING RACCACCONIE!!!!!!!!!
JAMIE LEE CURTIS
oh it’s so cool to see the actual editing room and how they do audio pickups
OMG THEY WERE DOING AUDIO PICKUPS WITH JAMIE LEE CURTIS OVER ZOOM
THE PIG IS EATING DRYWALL
they do the couch shot by them just slowly sinking into it and then they sped it up lmao
HOT DOG IN MOUTH OUTTAKES
JAMES HONG DOING THE OLD MAN COUGHS INTERRUPTING THE TAKE LMFAO AND MICHELLE LIKE “YOU GUYS ARE SO BAD” BECAUSE THEY BROKE “NOBODY IS A SERIOUS ACTOR HERE” LMFAO
STICKING UP HOT DOG MIDDLE FINGERS
OMG THE RACCACCOONIE SPEECH THEY’RE SHOWING IT ARE THEY GONNA SHOW THE WHOLE THING IT’S LIKE OVER A MINUTE LEFT
“really nice body and a pretty face but I don’t know what to do with it” LMFAO
“I’M NOT EVEN JAPANESE, I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT I’M DOING” AND MICHELLE FUCKING LOSING IT LMFAO, that was still just a portion of it oh my GOD
AND NEXT
FEATURETTES
ensemble, 3 minutes! lots of interview clips it seems on creating an ensemble film
they wrote the entire movie to cast michelle yeoh omg it would’ve been rewritten if she’d said no
“the first thing [jamie lee curtis] said was let’s ditch our directors and run away together, and I’m [michelle yeoh] like, I found my girl”
omg ke huy quan talking about opportunities for asian actors in the past and then coming back
jamie lee curtis not realizing exactly who ke huy quan was until she was acting across a desk from him and realized “OMG IT’S YOU”
totally agree stephanie hsu’s performance was absolutely outstanding
“when he’s on, he just becomes 25 again” aND HE WAS 91 WHEN HE FILMED THIS… “he’s been in this business for almost 70 years” holy SHIT (james hong)
they did warmups first thing every day of the shoot and it’s such a morale builder and michelle yeoh talks about how she felt empowered, it’s so good that the making of this film was, well, ethical!
NEXT FEATURETTE: stunts, 3 minutes!
the martial arts took her back to when she first started her career in hong kong omg
“something that can get lost is that it’s an action movie, with a lot of kung fu” they wanted to deconstruct the hero’s journey and subvert the concept of the chosen one, SO cool
they wanted to make sure the fights were precise and funny, because hong kong cinema is playful about the action
everyone talking about michelle yeoh with such respect and awe, it’s so wonderful to be able to hear this kind of gushing about an older asian woman actor
omg the buttplug actors are two brothers with an actual martial arts studio
“I’m so happy to fight with you and get punched by you!” and michelle being like “oh god okay so much pressure” LMFAO, so many people want to be punched by her
“everyone contains multitudes” *nods in the dedication for #InTheWatchfulCity is “for the multitudes in each of us”*
they talk about wanting to provide a new template for action movies, one that centers fighting with empathy and compassion, and I love that so much
last featurette: THE DANIELS, also 3 minutes!
“when I met them, they looked quite harmless, then before you know it, these two turn into some kind of crazy genius, and so I said yes” michelle yeoh is so great
I love that they specifically are addressing themes and philosophy as well
“write a protagonist inspired by our parents and a villain inspired by us” omg I love it
I love how much everyone loves working with the directors and how much they’re intentional with kindness and compassion, it’s so important that it’s a movie founded on joy (heh)
it’s so true, it’s the intensity of emotion that creates a story, not the surface details, and it’s very much a story about immigrants and immigration
omg ke huy quan saying it’s one of the best ventures of his life 😭
aaaand that’s it for all the extras! weh!!!! now I have to like, make actual coherent words!!!