[2022.08.26] WARRIORS OF FUTURE OPENED TO NEARLY HK$ 2.6 MILLION IN HALF A DAY

Director Ng Yuen Fai invited comic creator Lei Chi Tat to create the storyboard, which made the production even smoother

With Louis Koo's encourage, three time Hong Kong Film Award Best Visual Effects winner Ng Yuen Fai fulfilled his director's dream

Louis Koo put on 33 pounds of armor everyday and almost exhausted himself from the shoot

WARRIORS OF FUTURE made HK$ 2.6 million as of 5 PM and earned the top Chinese film opening box office this year

The Ng Yuen Fai directed, Louis Koo Tin Lok produced and starred WARRIORS OF FUTURE (MING YUT JIN GEI) opened yesterday, as of 5 PM the box office was already near HK$ 2.6 million to become the 2022 Chinese film opening box office champion. With the ideal opening box office, Ng Yuen Fai and Koo Tin Lok conceivably would feel encouraged. As for some viewers comparing the film with Hollywood science fiction films, Ng Yuen Fai felt that it was inevitable and said that Hollywood science fiction films had more money and more people. WARRIORS OF FUTURE won with the courage to take the first step. "Domestic special effects have already greatly improved, from being criticized as low quality and unrealistic, to now no one already questioning them."

The HK$ 450 million Hong Kong science fiction production WARRIORS OF FUTURE yesterday opened, in half a day its box office was almost HK$ 2.6 million to become this year's Chinese film opening box office champion. Hong Kong films of the same period also performed decently. The Teresa Mo Shun Kwan and Keung To starred MAMA'S AFFAIR (AH MA YAU JOR DAI YI GOR) after 14 days in release (as for August 24th) made over HK$ 23 million. The Amos Why directed, Kaki Sham and Jennifer Yu Heung Ying starred FAR FAR AWAY (YUEN LO SHAN KA LA) also grew stronger as time went on, with a currently cumulative box office of over HK$ 6.7 million. For a HK$ 2.7 million low budget production, the boss has already broken even.

WARRIORS OF FUTURE's director Ng Yuen Fai was the visual effect director for many films, with THE STORM WARRIORS (FUNG WON II), THE WARLORDS (TAU MING JONG) and RE-CYCLE (GWAI WIK) won the Hong Kong Film Awards Best Visual Effects three times. He has always wanted to direct and make a movie that belonged to him. Then he met Koo Tin Lok, and together they created this science fiction action film. During the process because of a massive amount of computer graphics effects that he excelled at, under Goo Jai's encouragement his director dream was fulfilled.

Although he had HK$ 450 million to spend at will, Ng Yuen Fai said that the pressure was large as well. He was not worried about breaking even, but using almost 600 people at work everyday would create many problems. Everyday he kept resolving problems great and small. At the same time the film involved science fiction elements that rarely appeared in Hong Kong film. How to grasp the level of reaching the ideal was just a big of a challenge. Ng Yuen Fai said, "Actually 'science fiction' is a subject, inside can sci fi action, sci fi suspense, sci fi romance and others. As long as the words sci fi were added, everyone would feel that the matter would become complicated. This was also the reason that kept many directors at bay, feeling that they would die just from contact. The science fiction subject seemed very far from Hong Kong films. How to turn science fiction elements into our elements, as Goo Jai has said, we must take the first step to be able to expand the Hong Kong film's creative space. Thus we had a sense of duty. Actually Hong Kong filmmakers have very strong creativity, only their skill level had a natural ceiling. After passing it they would have infinitive space for imagination."

First time director Ng Yuen Fai felt that the most difficult was how to express what he and Goo Jai discussed for two years and wanted in their hearts, and for the team and the cast to be able to correctly bring to life. In the end in order to make the actors not tow work with green screens just with their imagination, he asked comic creator Li Chi Tat to make the storyboard, then the special effect team produced animation for the actors to study so they would have an idea. Thus the production went very smooth. Li Chi Tat said that this time drawing a science fiction film was rather complicated. The film company wanted to turn the film into animation for release, but just the armor already had many detailed spots. He said that turning it into animation may take even more time than making a movie.

Ng Yuen Fai said that in order to save time built a Central street scene in a very large venue and used many teams to shoot simultaneously. However the actors suffered in 33 pound armors in the scorching heat. After one scene they had to rush to another immediately and were exhausted from the shoot. After each time Goo Jai and Lau Ching Wan wanted to remove their armors for their breaks, but they took a long times. In order to avoid wasting time they could only tough it out and wear it for the whole day.

Ng Yuen Fai in 1996 joined the John Chu Ka Yan founded Centro Digital Pictures and worked on movie special effects until now. He felt that Hong Kong's special effect quality has become much higher, only losing on the lack of personnel and money. He expected the audience would compare WARRIORS OF FUTURE with Hollywood science fiction films, but he still had to take the first step. He said, "The comparison with Hollywood was inevitable, because science fiction films were born in Hollywood. Since childhood, aside from watching Japanese anime we have been watching Hollywood science fiction films. As for how far off Hong Kong special effects are from Hollywood's, I can only say that it isn't as industrialized as Hollywood. Their company has thousands of people, ours only have 100 people. The entire special effect industry has about 500 people. Even together we don't have as many people as one of their company, so the comparison would be very difficult. During conception, Goo Jai asked not to imitate Hollywood films. (Some viewers felt the armor looked like Iron Man?) Actually it doesn't, we thought by logic. Goo Jai and Lau Ching Wan's armors might be future military equipment. (Some viewers felt that the visual was not high definition enough. Was that due to creating the life after death effect, or to cover up the shortcomings?) I am very demanding with visual effects, this is my designs and style."

As for WARRIORS OF FUTURE making over 500 million RMB at the Mainland box office in an average performance, he said that he was not discouraged from it because not everyone would like science fiction film. As long as he gave his all, he gained the experience and then would keep on going forward. Of course he would like the Mainland box office to improve. Goo Jai said that he was made of steel and could not be killed? He joked, "I am at least made of iron, both Goo Jai's and I are people who go against the stream. I expect the journey ahead would be difficult, and some would criticize. The most important would be getting past myself."