[2023.08.13] EVERYPHONE EVERYWHERE TARGETS HK$ 7 MILLION TO BREAK EVEN

Director Amos Why reveals that EVERYPHONE EVERYWHERE's production cost HK$ 2.5 million, but he is not confident that its box office would surpass his previous film FAR FAR AWAY

Wai Law Sa's acting receives strong praises from the director

EVERYPHONE EVERYWHERE tells a story about mobile phones with Endy Chow, Peter Chan Charm Man and Wai Law Sa

Amos Why in June founded a "preview screening+concert" and ended up losing hundreds of thousands.  Endy Chow, Lai Ying and Henick Chou also participated
courtesy of mingpao.com

Director Amos Why(Wong Ho Yin)'s new film EVERYPHONE EVERYWHERE (CHUEN GOR SAI GAI DOH YAU DIN WA) would open on the 17th. He was not confident that it would pass HK$ 10 million at the box office like his previous film FAR FAR AWAY (YUEN LO SHAN KA LA), because the latter was deliberately made for everyone to understand while this one would be more in depth; it might not be suitable for everyone's taste. The goal was to make HK$ 7 million to break even and answer to the investors. Aside from bringing out some messages with his new film, he also brought a new trend to the film industry. Earlier he tried a "preview screening + concert", which made him lose several hundreds of thousands. However he won the word of mouth, and felt that was very meaningful.

Wong Ho Yin has always wanted to make a movie about smart phones, because he felt that the appearance of smart phones occupied and controlled everyone's lives. He joked that he even had to use money to buy and pay the monthly fees. "Smart phones have made me devolve. In the past we could easily remember several dozen family members', friends' and co-workers' phone numbers, but now we can't. I can only remember my wife's and photographer and 30 year classmate Richard's phone numbers; meeting time and places we used to also remember crystal clear, but now everyone rely too much on their mobile phones. When we don't bring our mobile phones we would even be absent to meetings, like in the film Endy forgets to bring his phone and almost misses the meeting." He dared not say that through the film he would remind everyone not to be on the phone all the time, because mobile phone has already become the norm. Even he would have a hard time to wake himself, so let the audience think for themselves.

EVERYPHONE EVERYWHERE's subject might be alternative, but he had no difficulty with finding an investor because he has always received crowd funding support from a group of friends. "People have difficulty with getting a movie made because they have to sell the script to the film company bosses. I don't have this need, the most important is to have the production budget ready. This movie costs HK$ 2.5 million, because the production days would be few and the scenes were more focused. Aside from the supper club and the industrial building requiring rental, the homes of the 3 leads in the film were all my and my friends' homes. However I got the number of days wrong, originally we would shoot for 6 days but in the end we didn't finish until 8 days. We went a little over the budget."

Wong Ho Yin said that in the film many actors' performance exceeded his expectation; like first time collaboration Wai Law Sa whose acting skills were without limits. In many scenes she used her voice to go off key to express extreme emotions and loss of control, which greatly opened his eyes. Lai Ying and "Papa" Peter Chan Charm Man's argument scene also surprised him. "When they argued, I heard people next door closing their door and a child screaming; just like hearing the people next door playing mahjong during Kaki Sham and Jennifer Yu Heung Ying's FAR FAR AWAY argument scene. It's deliberately manufactured, Hong Kong is a very noisy city. Filmmaking should reflect reality; I feel Hong Kong's film environment is too quiet, pursuing a very clean feeling and wanting the audience to clearly hear the lines. However I don't mind the noises, sometimes I would even add some sounds in post production."

EVERYPHONE EVERYWHERE earlier had a "preview screening + concert", most viewers' responses were great and praised the film as entertaining. The concert featured the film score and song performers, including Endy, Manson Cheung Chun Kiu, Henick Chou Hon Ning, Lai Ying, Shandy Ngai Pui Shan, KINKI Lo Chi Wan, the band GDJYB, and Taiwan musicians WiFi Chun Yuk Cheung, Night Keepers, SoulFa and Easy Weeds, they performed many film songs live. This show made Wong Ho Yin lose several hundreds of thousands, because just one show was very expensive. It would need multiple shows to be able to break even. He helpless said, "Blazing the trail led to the loss!" Wong Ho Yin liked to use independent music, because their songs were great but only had several hundred views. For example Sheldon Lo (Law Hau Yung) is tall and nice, he can sing, write songs but is not popular. Many mainstream songs were not good but were popular, because they had the money to promote. He said, "I don't dare to say I am helping them, actually they are helping me. They charged very little, which reduced the film music cost. I too hope through the film even more people would be able to hear these singers' music."