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| Philip Keung and Ng Yuen Fai wish that the Hong Kong film industry would make even more science fiction films courtesy of on.cc |
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| Philip Keung and Ng Yuen Fai hope that WARRIORS OF FUTURE will be able to prove that science fiction film productions are no longer beyond the reach of Hong Kong |
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| Louis Koo has to take care of everything great and small on the set, which director Ng Yuen Fai jokes that makes him have personality splits |
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| Philip Keung arrives on the set 3 hours earlier to get dressed courtesy of mingpao.com |
Hong Kong's first science fiction film WARRIORS OF FUTURE (MING YUT JIN GEI) cost HK$ 450 million and starred Louis Koo Tin Lok, Sean Lau Ching Wan, Carina Lau Ka Ling, Philip Keung Ho Man. The film used a lot of special effects, from the preparation to the production to post production completion it took 6 years of time and effort. The film will open in Hong Kong on the 25th. Director Ng Yuen Fai admitted that making such a large production the stress definitely would be enormous, but fortunately boss and producer Koo Tin Lok gave a lot of confidence. "He let me shoot, and told me to shoot as much as my heart desired!"
Speaking of the difficulties of the WARRIORS OF FUTURE production process, Ng Yuen Fai stated that Hong Kong has always had very little contact with science fiction action films, from the general environment to a phone prop, armor would take a very long time to design and produce.
Koo Tin Lok was the boss, the producer and the actor, did he appear to have a lot of pressure? Director Ng said, "Mr. Koo knew his place on the set very well, when he took his marks he knew he was playing the actor role. Actually before the shoot everyone would discuss everything in advance, but during meals we would talk about scenes that we shot or we will need to shoot later. Because the production required a lot of action, often they were performing with green screens. The co-stars weren't there, so we had to have the discussions in advance first." Keung Ho Man said that Goo Jai after work was still very busy. He would stay on the set to take care of other actors' things, or participate in the director team or even the prop discussions. Director Ng joked that he seemed to have suffered a personality split. However Keung Ho Man was the happiest to be able to witness such a awesome Hong Kong film, got his hands dirty in the participation and felt it was a lot of fun. "The director first produced a cartoon to show us, then we would act with the green screen. with the director's guidance, I would shoot on the platform, I could feel the unevenness of the road and being in the vehicle. Because earlier we saw the video we already had a conceptual performance, so it wasn't too difficult. The most difficult was doing some awkward expressions.
With no co-star, Keung Ho Man pointed out the bad take situation was close to normal acting. Instead of most bad takes were because of the environment or equipment issues. The director said that because another team of special effect shots were done simultaneously, sometimes the equipment would overheat and cause data loss. Koo Tin Lok and Lau Ching Wan had to wear over 30 pounds of armor and shoot in over 40 degree high heat, if the data was lost the actors had to start all over so it was pretty tough. Keung Ho Man bitterly chuckled, "The costume material I wore actually wasn't for people to wear, everyday my disfigure look took 3 hours of make up. While shooting in the Mainland in May and June, I had heat stroke twice. However no matter how tough it was it was worth it, this was a great experience! My wife really likes to watch science fiction films. When she learned that I would take part, she was happier than I was -- saying her husband has a part in saving the Earth!"
Koo Tin Lok is a science fiction fan. Director Ng said that he too had a connection to science fiction films. "Because science fiction films in Hong Kong still feel far beyond reach, and I started in the special effect business (visual effect technician), I wanted to cross over. Whether in action films or dramatic films science fiction elements could be added, which would also require people to take the challenge of marching forward." However he mentioned that making a science fiction film was different from making a costume film. Costume films used to be able to have a lot of already made costumes and did not need to be made new. However for bosses to invest in science fiction films, everything had to be made from scratch. It was a huge leap. However Director Ng said that science fiction films absolutely could have development. This time for the first one, he and Goo Jai both had a mission. Their original intention was worrying that if they did not face it they would not be able to start, then the next step would not have a chance to happen. "As trailblazers, we and the group of actors together believed in this. So we made it. Future Hong Kong filmmakers with a suitable subject could also turn it into a science fiction film. What we worried about was whether we would be able to show everyone, and believed that experienced directors in the future would be able to do it too. We were like booster rockets, this time we were able to blast off Earth, in the future we would reach the moon, then Mars!"
Would a sequel be made? Director Ng did not deny this possibility because this time was a great start, but he understood asking the audience to believe something like this would happen in Hong Kong. As early as 6 years ago he started to write that in 2055 the world air pollution required a sky screen to separate mankind. No matter how advanced technology would be, the natural disasters were still very much. Now with the pandemic, this story and the real world felt closer and closer. Keung Ho Man praised Hong Kong's special effects for already having this quality. Actually it was not just pretty good, it has already reached to the step of "wow". Director Ng was also pleased with this time's special effect production, using 1,700 out of over 1,870 shots. Some special effects involved a lot of technology and data, just one frame already required 13 hours. Thus a movie might need 10 years time. However as technology kept elevating, the production process would be able to shrink more and more. Now WARRIORS only has a 90 some minute release version, Director Ng pointed out that the first cut was 119 minutes, but he and Koo Tin Lok talked and wanted the pace to be even faster. In the end he was forced to sacrifice many actors' dramatic scenes. The cut scenes actually were very hard to cut; Keung Ho Man said, "I really liked a lot of my performance, but I held back the pain of being cut. However the result still feels nice and neat!"
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