BONUS: Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscars Crossover with Keep It

Warning, this podcast contains spoilers for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Hello, my name is Jason Concepcion and I'm Brinday Night, and welcome to x ray Vision, the Crooked Media podcast where we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture. And welcome to a special bonus episode. We're having an epic crossover with our good friends and Keep It to celebrate the Oscar run the wonderful film Everything

And if you want to jump around, check the show notices for times times you're probably gonna need him, and go and watch the movie.

Please watch the movie, Okay, everything, Everywhere, all at once, swept the Oscars over the weekend. They won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress from Michelle Yo.

Best Original Screenplay.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Wonderful k kwon.

Jamie Lee Kaies in an opposeet.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role. I will sport, I will, I will talk about my feelings. Best at Film Editing for the Very Handsome Paul Rodgers my favorite. I was like, this is a man, really very dashing, Paul Roger.

This is somebody I know.

I'm like, this is how I would give an Oscar speech. I would be awkward, hopefully look that good, and just kind of be like, well, I think I won this.

This is co producer Chris also also appreciate I would he want to us. It's just like, well, well, Paul, hello, Okay.

Yeah, I mean this is out of They won seven out of eleven nominations. They won all the majors. This is the third time ever in Oscar history that one film has won three acting awards. One of the other ones was Network. I'm not actually sure what the first film was bad research on my part, but it is the third time ever that that happened, and I think that is very cool. I mean, there's so many first here, but that's far less important than the fact that the

It's got butt plug jokes, it's a it's a it's a sincere and heartfelt story about an immigrant family.

It's about generational trauma, it's about as It's got James Hong, the living legend, legend favorite actors and performers and people of all time. And we were just such huge fans and at the time it was starting to make a little bit of money at the box office. It was doing well. It was going to go out of limited release and into wide release, I believe, and the Daniels were like so confused. They were just like, we thought, we made another weird movie like Swiss Army Man that

So Goody brought me to tear.

Oh my god, I was crying from the moment he wepne. I was crying, and it really was like there were only really intervals because Michelle got me. I loved Daniel Kuan's speech where he was talking about this kind of unbelievable journey and how crazy it was to win an Oscar, but then he immediately was like to my son, like

Key's speech about you know, being a being a refugee and an immigrant and finding this American dream was amazing. He thanked Jeff Cohen chunk from the Goonies, who it turns out is a successful entertainment lawyer and helped him

She also like if you think about how there's a whole generation of people who just knew her from her drama work in crazy rich Asians. Like, there's a generation of kids. Even my sister I love this stuff. She hasn't known Michelle Yo from martial arts. She knows her from crazy rich Asians.

You know.

I saw a great interview with sam O Huang who kind of discovered in Inverted Commas Michelle and was like her first director. He's a martial arts legend, a very dangerous man to work with, boy, but like absolutely just like a genius. He gave a great quote where he basically just said everything Michelle has, she did it herself. He's like, there's no one else, It's just her. She was She's never had any form of martial arts training.

On the Jamie Lee Curtis, Yes, I I think there was a lot of love out there for Angela Basketball. By the way, it should have won for any number of yeah's good in everything twenty years plus ago. Absolutely should have should have won for that. I I'm fine with Jamie Lee winning. I understand that for one, she beat out Stephanie Zeo's who is like I am sensitive

And I think that that transitioned. I read all of those ballots, the anonymous ballots, and a lot of them are absolutely horrific. You should read the ewpiece to be just disgusted by the fucked up shit people are saying about Viola Davis, like the most awful stuff about the woman King and White ag Get all, my, they're good

In everything ever else.

I think it's kind of wild that she didn't win. But you know what, I'm also like a super Slasher fan, so I'm here for it all. I want to see Angela get that recognition because she is also another legend, like another basically like another trailblazer who's never really been recognized so should have been. I would have loved to see that happen. But I love that Jamie got to win for this role where she's comedic and she is herself, and she is weird and she's queer and there's all

Anyway, up next, let's revisit our discussion of everything Everywhere, All at Once, and our interview with the Daniels when we saw the film for the first time last year. All Right, we're stepping out of the air lock and into the mind bending world of an IRS building. Just dis because the eight twenty more Sibi action comedy masterpiece

It's spoilery, but we're not gonna go like full recap. Yeah, I'm just gonna kind of talk about it.

So I just loved. I love this movie. You know, for everyone complaining that like there are this too many comic when movies everything is a Marvel movie or DC tie in or something like that, I guess, you know, people would still criticize this movie for you know, depending heavily on the multiverse for its plot momentum. That said, it is just like so original in the way it deals with it and the imagery it uses. It is

Yeah, I mean I absolutely loved it. Like I went to go and see it with a big group of friends after we went to this amazing black kind of flea market called Black Market Flee. So it was just like a very good day and that I saw it in La too, and it was in a huge cinema. We couldn't go to the Imax, but we saw it and the biggest scream we could see it that wasn't Imax, and people were reacting like it was a Marvel movie

Yeah, He's like I kept thinking that it's like actually criminal that this actor could not find work for as long as he could not find work in front of the camera. He is so engaging. He's just like has a lightness and a charm to him that is all the more impressive for the fact that he does some real like impressive and authentic, like martial arts stuff work that is like and he's been high, high level stuff.

But this is like That's the other thing about this movie, which is why I think so far the the screenings and the limited release have been really successful, and I hope the wide releases too, because I feel like this people say this stuff, but this is literally a movie that has something for everyone.

Yeah.

Yeah, feeling depressed, nihilistic, wishing the world would end. It's for you feeling like you wish everyone was kinder to each other. Also for you feeling like you just want to see loads ofical action sequences that are completely outrageous and some of the best big screen Hollywood action that we've seen in years. Also for you want to see it intergenerational family story. Also for you need more queer people on your screen. Also for you like it's got everything.

It does something that really hits me on an emotional level, which is like and I think the best stories do that, which is take some wild you know, sci fi slash fantasy asque concept a multiverse, right, a multiple realities existing side by side, but like links it to something that is like really human, which is like regret about the

There's something like incredibly honest and vulnerable about it too, where it's like admitting that there's maybe something you want that's more and then kind of the realizations of what that really means, like the bit that really like I just I mean, there's so many good bits in that world, like we were talking about this, but like Wymand in that world when she accidentally bumps into him, it's very much his one car why in the mood for love kind of moment, and k is so brilliant and you

I love that it's so great and the visuals are fun.

And also like I love the way that they literally do the chaos theory butfly effect thing, where like you'll see the one decision and then you get to see this kind of mapped out how everything changed, and I'm just like what it's like. It's a really cool visual, but it's really.

Deep, it's really scary. On the one hand, that kind of like retro future hardware, like the different kind of like Verse jumping hardware that Wayman and the Alpha Verse wear is to like in his crew where to keep track of what's going on. On the one hand, like I remember thinking it's great design, but also like it must have been great because like this is cheaper than like CG or making it Yeah cool, But the other thing I was thinking, did you ever watch The Adventures

Many unbelievable kind of like draw things here. Like there's this old South Korean movie from like two thousand and three called Save the Green Planet, and there's like something to that of the way his head looks, and there's like definitely those old eighties sci fi kind of the almost like the serialized like Flash Gordon costumes that you just pull on and you have to build, you know, the Rob Liefeld many pockets, Like there's a lot of

That's going it absolutely is going to be. You know, I always rate I always rate a movie in action movie in part by am I gonna rewatch this scene at one am on YouTube randomly because it's like a random Wednesday night and I want to take a break from work And the answer is one hundred percent. Yes, I'm gonna watch that. I'm gonna watch that Fannybac scene.

It feels very much like it's looking into IDHD brain.

One hundred percent. Like their most famous music video is the DJ Snake Little John Classic turned down for what so the action scenes are in a lot of ways, like very reminiscent of that. It's like, you know, like uh, people being thrown through floors and like, uh, so much action and comedy on the screen at the same time, an incredible removes just like really really really funny and original film in that way.

Yeah, and I think just shout out. I believe they're called Marshall Club. There are a group of YouTubers who create like martial arts kind of stump pieces in their own houses, and that's who they Daniels found and brought on to kind of collaborate with them. Just unbelievable stuff. When you watch it, you sort of you can't really

Part for me. Yeah, it is like really really heartfelt. And to your point with the rock scene, there are for all the people who are like, oh, man, like where's I'm worried about the state of movies today with economics being so kind of warped by the success of the Marvel movies, here is a movie that does everything you want like a summer blockbuster to do, but also has like that indie movie heart and audacious, super weird choices that are like.

There is so much weird stuff like the two the rock.

Scene where you're just like, man, I can't believe that worked, and it really works. It lands so hard.

Yeah, and I think as well, like we've talked a lot about the icons, but like nobody was writing a script like this for Michelle Yo. You know, she said this is the script where she read it, and she was like, this is the movie that can see all the different things I can be, I can be funny, I can be serious, I can be badass, I can be sad, I can you know, and we know, like we've said, Key, he hadn't been in a major Hollywood movie for like twenty years. This was his first audition,

Just one of our greatest living Yeah, she should be getting.

A Best Actress Oscar and Jamie Lee Curtis. I'm like put her up for the best supporting baby because she Stephanie Sue as well. But like, this cost is just unreal.

Let me ask you, what was your Michelle Yo entry point? What was your original? What was your original drug? Your original into the Michelle Yo version, and mine is like super it's the obvious one super cop please story three super Cop in which she plays like a police detective who then has to link up with Jackie Chan's character to take down drug dealers in Malaysia, and it contains

I was gonna say, mine is definitely yes, madam.

Yes, absolute classic Hong Kong movie. Well, it's so good, sin Rock iconic.

It's like it's so bonkers to think like Michelle Actually the really incredible interview recently with my friend Gretchen Smail at Bustle, which is just so wonderful and adds a lot of really complex layers to the movie, where she talks about how she retired from acting in Hong Kong cinema at the age of twenty eight with plans to start a family, so she'd already done all of that by the time she was twenty eight, she'd had a whole career. Yes Madam, you know super Cop, like these

Yeah, you know these I mean, Yes Madam was like nineteen eighty five, That's what I'm saying.

Just unbelievable stuff. And it's just she's been so iconic on so many levels, and I think for a lot of us, she has been like a staple of all kinds of cinema, whether it was like Hong Kong cinema, whether it was the whether it was Wushoe actually coming

Well, let's talk with the creators of this movie. The writer director Duo Knows the Daniels, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Shiner. X ray Vision is brought to you by Karauma, the cool sustainable sneakers loved by surfers and skateboarders. They're reimagining classic sneakers with you, oh yeah, in the planet in Mind. Karauma is a b CORP certified sustainable sneaker company for all you corporation nerds out there who care about what type of corporations are active in the world. They are

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Yeah?

Thank you, Yeah, we By the way, thank you for having us. Very excited to talk about the movie. Well, I'll start there. The random acts to use as an

And I was like, no, No, I said, I think I thought it sounded like an exciting short film like which we have a long list of kind of like gags you know that interest us, And so we would brainstorm it, but it didn't kind of take shape until we'd sat with it for a while and started kind of thinking about the multiverse and how the multiverse makes us feel, and why would we make a whole movie

It's like a convenient device for the story, but don't actually get to really sit in the philosophical and existential consequences of the premise.

Yeah. So, uh, it was.

It wasn't until we decided that we were going to go to too many universes until it was existentially terrifying, and then it was going to be a Chinese American family, and that the kind of immigrant experience and also just generational divide would become like the kind of relatable companion that we'd be using the multiverse to play with. That then we were like, oh, there's enough for a feature film here, you.

Know, it is enough for a free feature film. Yeah.

Yeah, we're like, and all little take is four years of Miracles and then we'll put it out in theaters. And somehow that happened.

Yeah, that's so incredible. I mean, the movie was just so wonderful. It was like immediately in my favorite movies of all time. It's just like I can't wait to go and see again. I'm just everything that I love. So it's so wonderful. But you said something there that I just think is so interesting and I'd love to dig into a bit more. What is it about the

Yeah.

One of the fascinating things about the multiverse or just the idea of infinity is that it's very interdisciplinary. You know, obviously there's like quantum mechanics and quantum fixils. It's has its version of it which you know, talks about you know, superpositions and and you know whether or not the wave function collapses, and you know, parallel universes. That's kind of I think that's what most people think of when they.

Or another way of putting it that I like to put it is like like there are a lot of scientists who believe there might actually be an infinite number of universes. That's a pretty scary thing, you know, physics wise.

And then and then and then, like you know, when we were doing research for this movie, we found that one of the first known instant of the word multiverse being used in the English language actually had nothing to do with science. It was actually a theologist who was basically lamenting the fact that how.

Confusing everything was.

He was like, from a moral perspective, I know that God is the one and only moral center of the universe.

Right, there's a universe.

But when I look around me and I see you know, the Heathens and whatever, it's like, there's a moral multiverse. The the secular world doesn't necessarily have one clean narrative. And so he used the word multiverse from a moral standpoint,

And so we're kind of looking at like, I mean, there's so many.

Different angles into this, this this concept that no one else is tackling, you know, like For the most part, the multiverse is is kind of used as a way to.

Combine IP an interesting way.

You know, Yeah, it's a cultural fracking.

We call it.

You're digging in the past of culture. We didn't coin that. We found it online and you're like, oh, we like that.

Word cultural fracking, and there's nothing wrong with that. Like I think, yeah, I love no, I love Super Smash Brothers. Super Smash Brothers is like incredible. I remember being like, I can have Pikachu and d K at the same time.

How incredible.

But we wanted to dig into just like DK because you're exactly the Pikachu is my main Pikachu with the with the wizard hat.

That's my name, Curve.

But so for our movie, we're like, oh, the multiverse becomes a metaphor for the Internet and what it feels like to be alive with the Internet. It also becomes a metaphor for the way that we all have these like bubbles and we all kind of exist in our own versions of our own movies.

You know, we believe we're the main character of our own movie.

And what happens when those two movies collide and they don't mesh, and so the whole film is characters who are living in their own stories, not realizing that they're talking past each other.

And so there's so many different.

Ways you can kind of use this premise to explore really real feelings and really real experiences. And you know, I feel like our movies just barely begin to tap into that.

The cast is unbelievable, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Yoh the Leedged which you know, not enough can possibly be said about her, James Hong Icon absolute like Titan legend in it. And then k Hu Kwan, who probably most people remember from Temple of Doom, which is Indian Jones movie that is aged poorly and the Goonies, But like, man, seeing him in this movie, I'm just like, why has he not been one of our top twenty most compelling actors

Like, what is it?

Like?

I didn't even know he had this in him to talk about this incredible cast. That also, one more thing I thought about a lot last night. It was just like, how this is the best action movie ever that is primarily said in an IRS office, like that is a choice. Yeah, talk to us about this cast.

Yeah for sure.

I mean it.

Started with Michelle and we knew we wanted to her, and we were worried that if she said no, there was no one else like that the movie just wouldn't happen. And then luckily she believed in It turns out she was more right for the role than we even knew, you know, and she really responded to the script, and then that made it so much easier to attract exciting people, you know, and to get the movie greenlit.

But even with Key, you know, there was no there was no question that, like there was something special about him, and he even when he read the script he knew, like right away, He's like, this role was made for.

Me, you know.

He told us that, he told us that after we cast him. How how the moment he read it, he was like, I think I need to come back into acting, and this is going to be my first role and how exciting is that going to be? So he his audition was the first audition he had done in like a couple of decades.

In the Wow.

Yeah, so he hasn't been he kind of retired from acting and went behind the camera, went to film school, did stunt coordination, and first he was a first ad for one Car Why for a while.

Yeah, exactly.

And the funny thing about Key, you know, because you're just talking about how we've been missing out on him for so long, it is this just kind of tragic that this kid that Spielberg found and Spielberg and his team found out of like, you know, thousands of other kids. They auditioned and auditioned forever, and they almost gave up on the character. They almost wrote the character out of the movie. And then they find Key, like out of all these kids, and he has this special like X factor.

You can't you can't like, yeah, there's no.

Way to evaluate it in that in any other way except for when you watch him, you just want to smile, and when you watch him so you just you fall in love with him.

And we knew that wayman to the character.

Women had to be that way because anyone else delivering lines about kindness or like, you know, please stop fighting.

Everyone just let us get along.

You know, anyone else delivering those kind of lines, I think it would have gotten a lot of eye rolls.

But with with Key Kwan, like he.

Can say those lines and you believe it and you and you want to live in a world where that is true. And I think there's Yeah, we're so lucky that we got him in this movie, and we're so lucky that I think our industry has him back.

You know, I'm so excited to see what he gets to do next.

For sure, And I would love to talk like he was definitely I love I mean, I love Michelle Yeo, I love James Holng, I love Jamie Lee Kerr. So this was like a movie where everyone in it is just incredible. But he is someone who is so core to so many of our childhoods. But I never kind of saw how I never saw where this his story was going in the movie, and it was. It was just so powerful and wonderful, and you kind of touched on it a little bit of his message of kindness.

Yeah.

I mean I think at the start, as we kind of told you, it was just like we had this first jumping idea and we're like, oh, what if we could do some stylized fight scenes. We love action movies and like to do our version of the matrix, but with like Stephen chow craziness, you know, was so exciting. And then, uh, as is usually the case when we're like making something funny, we start to feel guilty about like, uh but why why this movie? What's it about? Are

And I mean we specifically wanted to be like, let's make someone kinding people to death, and.

That was that was the last puzzle pieces, Like oh my god, at the end, if she just kind, kind, kind.

People, like, everyone's happy exactly.

But it's like, what if we made that just as satisfying as like kill Bill or just a satisfying as a headshot from from John Wick? Because I think those things give us such a dopamine hit, which is why they're so fun and the way that they're shot and the way that but the editing works.

It is candy.

And so we wanted to take all of our special skills that we have in our back pockets to give to deliver that dopamine hit, but like totally you know, show it in a completely different radical way.

So yeah, we call that the empathy fight. It's very silly, but it was.

Really Yeah, that became like one of the north stars for the films. Like, if we can pull that off, I think this is going to be a very special movie.

So yeah, we really did. And I'd love to ask about some of these action scenes because I mean, the Wushoe fanny pack fight is one of the most truly like one of the most original fight scenes I've seen in a while. How did all of that stuff come together and how hard was it to get it to get it on film.

Yeah, we struggle with finding the right collaborators for this. We are such Hong Kong action cinema nuts, like we grew up on that stuff, all the Shaw Brothers stuff, and specific Yun Wu Ping's work. You know, he's worked with all the greats. And this guy Jackie.

Chan is like.

Anything yea.

And and you know, we really wanted to make a conscious effort to pull away from a lot of the modern action trends in the movies that we're watching and go back to the basics.

A because we love that stuff.

It's in our bones, but B because it's actually if done right, it can be just as it can be way cheaper to do, you know, because you know, those Hong Kong action films didn't have much money.

And so no money exactly no money.

Basically no money, a lot of time and like you know, maybe maybe a lot of injuries, but you know, we realized like this is something that we could do well if we found the right people. And one day we were on YouTube and we were looking up martial arts videos just for references, and we found this short film from these guys called The Marshall Club, and we're like, are these guys? Are these guys in the US, because like,

Room and then putting them online.

Yeah, and that was the that was exactly the energy we needed for our film, for for this movie.

Yeah.

Yeah, So it ended up being a huge priority for us, but like a successful collaboration between us having strong opinions and kind of being like, let's make each fight different and writing writing in a way that each one could could be an ode to a different kind of style of filmmaking that we love. And then the Marshall Club bringing their like encyclopedic knowledge of all Kung fu movies ever made.

And it's worth noting that none of them have or at least the two brothers, the two main corographers, never took any lessons.

They have a friend who's like, he's like more formally trained, but but Andy and Bryan are just like they just know what has been in movies.

They just watch movies at the whole Hong Kong movies and that's everything they know.

Yeah.

They So then they helped us pre visit all and then we had our stunt coordinator, Tim Yulick, who we've worked with a make it so we successfully hurt nobody. Yeah, yeah, and so we were able to just kind of like move really fast. Michelle was very surprised that we were able to shoot it all in the time we had and not do what it's called spraying with some people called spraying it down, where you're just like, get three cameras,

You know.

We we tried really hard not to do that.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Quentin Tarantino like years ago, like six seven years ago at the Sunday's Institute, at the Sunday's Lap He was one of our advisors, and we took the opportunity just like to pick his brain to be like, what was it like shooting kill Bill's like fight sequences, because those are some of my favorite American action scenes I've ever seen. And you know, he said something that you know, kind of feels obvious now, but like at the time was really interesting.

It's its own version of a narrative, of a visual narrative.

And so he learned from Muping, who was a consulting choreographer on Killbill, that every single shot was perfectly catered to the move that they were about to shoot next shot. So if like this punch to the face, let's get the perfect shot for that punch to the face. And then if the shot of him falling down has to kind of turn around one A d and break the one A line and also force the entire crew to relight,

And so our ad and our semotographer were like, no way we can do that. We tried to like take that ethos to heart and find some compromise somewhere in there and not yeah, and try to really study that style.

Yeah, and you can tell our movie I think the fight scenes are are I'm very proud of them.

Because they feel so different.

And you know after when when we go to see it in theaters, after every fight scene there's like applause breaks, which is like, come on, that's how amazing.

That's what it's like.

When in my theor it was people were reacting to it just it was it was wonderful to be a part of cheering, you know during the fight scenes, especially the fanny pack fight scene that was like a big, big statement piece.

The butt plug prop work was.

That was like being in the theater and like Captain America picked upon exactly like.

That that was what you were trying to go for.

I was just like, my god, that was really great. So like this kind of this. I love this juxtaposition between you guys bringing this grassroots collaborative filmmaking, which is what you do, and then this being like the first A twenty four movie with like an Imax release and that kind of juxtaposition. But you also did that with the VFX, right, because like I was reading your thread about how you didn't go to like a big post

Yeah, I mean the script we wrote, people read it and they were like, this is going to be like a eighty million dollar movie, right, No, it's not, we promise, And then we did in the rewriting process try to like really lean into the tricks we were used to and the tools we were used to playing with, and so coming from music videos, like we we have very basic VFX knowledge ourselves, and we leaned on that really hea so that we could do a lot of our

Or sometimes some practical effects. You know, people people I think people have like this nostalgic hard on for practical effects, but in practicality, it's it's it's actually a pain in the ass, you know.

It's like the setup time is such a pain and like every time you break it, you have to reset, you know, it takes like half.

An hour, and it's never quite perfect. And so what we do is we take the imperfect take. You know, maybe we'll get two takes if we're lucky, and then lot of times just one, just one take, and then we just like spruce it up and posts because we know how to, so like we get the best of both worlds, so it doesn't feel fully CG because I.

Think audiences are aware of it when when it's fully CG.

So we put tons of dust on them when they hit each other because that's how I Kung Fum look. And then we added more dust in post because some of the hits weren't as dusty as we wanted it. But we were always kind of mixing the two. But to kind of get to the end of the the headline, we had like seven friends do over five hundred visual effects,

So our friends would be watching YouTube tutorials for this this movie that we didn't actually know was going to be playing in Imax like that basically, But I think it was something that we, you know, honed in during

A land party.

You know, everyone was just We're just passing after effects projects back and forth, and you know, it was some of it was really frustrating because it was all new to us. But then, you know, the final shot of that of that Tenacious D video is this really epic shot of the band floating in you know, this cosmic you know, tapestry that's really beautiful.

And what that.

Final shot was was basically, you know, Ben Brewer, one of the other directors, created certain elements and then Zach Stultz would create certain elements, and Jeff Deson was create certain elements, and then it all get funneled to me, and I would kind of create the final you know, just because I'm so particular, just to save time on like all the back and forth in the notes, I would I would do the final pass and tie it all together. And I was like, why maybe we should

He was the kid in school who it's the.

First place I dropped acid.

Nice connect But he was doing like optical printing, like practically with with like sixteen millimeters back in college when everyone else was already moved on to digital or whatever. So like it was a really fun, weird, organic thing, and we are really proud of it, like all of.

It feels unique to this movie. It doesn't feel like we're trying to compete with the big blockbusters.

It has its own style and its own handmade ethos to it.

And during COVID, we were all just like, uh, we were going were everyone was working more hours than we expected, but we were just giving money to our friends. So it's pretty cool way.

To get the dream.

And we weren't going that far over budget. I was like, I guess we'll just send some money to our friends. It became like a valuable job for you know, all of them to be like, right, let's just let's just chug away.

And especially because all of these directors weren't booking jobs because there was nothing to do. It ended up being a really beautiful, like weird, perfect project for all of us.

You mentioned the four year journey to get this on the screen and the the numerous miracles that were necessary to make it happen. Was there ever a moment where you're like, Fuck, we're just not going to make We're not going to make this movie.

A couple of lowest lows, Dan, I think that, I mean, the biggest one was like we haven't talked. We haven't spoken too much about this, but you know, when we set out to make this movie, Asian American films hadn't been like a proven, like viable business like model, I guess for lack of a better words. So we actually had a hard time figuring out the casting of it all.

Apart, which was really it was really scary, but also just really frustrating.

It's kind of it's like because they're also likes there are a lot of talented people out there, like a good movie guys.

Yeah, And so that that that that was probably my lowest low just just realizing how as independent filmmakers, how tired we are to the value the imaginary value of these actors.

And it's it's none of them is their fault.

It's just the way that the machine works, in the way that the agents kind of talk to each other and.

And try to you know, like we're always in like this bad.

Position as in the independent filmmakers where we have very little leverage, you know, and it's very good. So that that is a very disempowering experience to try to get your money funded. Right now, we're we're executive producing another movie and we're in that problem right now, and you know, even as executive producers, we don't know what to do.

Sometimes it's like this.

The whole the whole conundrum of casting a list actors for small indie movies is it's like it's a really great model because then you know, these movies get to be seen by people. But then it's also really frustrating because it's so fragile. The whole thing can just fall apart any moment. And I more in all the movies that basically died close to the finish line, you know, because of casting problems, which I know so many of my friends have gone through that problem process.

Yeah, do you have a low point that it was fun? The whole thing was fun.

It was just a blasted yeah, yeah, finish.

Yeah. We finished it last summer and so we've been waiting until theaters were open because we, like everyone really believed it was worth seeing in theaters, but uh, you know so the last few surges of COVID were pretty demoralizing. It was like, Chris never, it's never coming out. It's never.

I don't know, And what is it like after kind of those that that journey, you know, the highs and loads and everything. What's it like for the movie to come out? And it hasn't even gone wide yet? But what's it been like to come out and see this story that I'm sure many people told you was like not universal enough or war was too ni sure, and to have like every single person who see it go,

Confusing?

Yeah, I still don't believe it. I genuinely don't. Like I still like, well, like someone will be like, oh, it's got this score on Rott Tomato and like I haven't internalized that. I don't think I believe you.

Yeah, I don't think I believe you because so much for our work is built off the premise of like, no one's going to let us make this, Like like that's that's such a driving force behind our processes.

It's like the things we want to see out there that aren't getting made, or the things that interest us. But then we know we're biting off something unlikely or that might be niche, but that'll mean something to the people like us.

And so we thought this would reach you know, a bigger audience than so sorry man, obviously, but even still, like we knew that there would this movie would be

Hot dog fingers? What was the percentages on that one?

Is like exactly, It's like and we're like, okay, but if we keep the hot dog fingers and how beautiful and romantic can we make that?

How how cathartic can that be?

So again, we can just win a couple more people, and so the whole thing is a very calculated affair, but our.

Math was off. This is too much.

Yeah, I don't believe it.

I do hope that with the wide release things start to like, you know, even out a little bit.

Pore this SoundBite after the movie flops, the exact dot com bubble of a movie.

It will be the funniest SoundBite when it becomes like the biggest movie of all time. And then you do it just like crying, like why do people.

Is that?

It's like the imposter syndrome in me is just fully on fire right now. I'm like, this is it's a horrible feeling. But also so on the grand scale, it's a horrible horrible feeling.

On the individual level, yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine.

But on the individual level, when we get chance to talk to people after Q and A's or have people d m us these very personal stories, it is just the most fulfilling, beautiful experience, Like the fact that we can work so hard on something that is very personal and very like specific to us and to have so many different kinds of people from different walks of life just see themselves in it. And it's like, you know, we've been doing screens and almost every it feels like almost every.

Night for the past three weeks.

Yeah, and you know, I would say at least half of them, if not more, someone will come up to us and start crying on one of our shoulders. And it's just this very strange thing where we have created this space for people to fully express themselves, you know now that you know, because the movie kind of just destroys logic, destroys any conventions, and just really just leaves you in this place of like possibility, or at least

It's it is just it is humbling.

It's a humbling reminder of the fact that, like, our films matter. And I think a lot of people have forgotten that. You know, I even forgotten that, like I don't. I don't until like, you know, three weeks ago, when the movie came out. Don't I was starting to lose faith in the idea that movies can change pop lives. You know, like I've forgotten that, I've forgotten that that's what happened to me, Like I forgot that movie has changed my life and that's why my bad became a filmmaker.

In fact, there's so much more work to be done in the world.

And you know, if this is the only tool I have to save the world, I want to use it, you know, and how how thrilling, how exciting and so like you know, when our next movie comes out and it saves the world, you.

Can this sound exactly exactly.

Slash when Dan starts a cult, when I started.

Exactly the Bagel cult.

But part of part of the the credit will go to all the wonderful people who have reached out to us and remind us of the fact that stories matter, or the blame matter exactly, or the blame when when the when the movie backfires.

And does the opposite somehow right, the opposite. Yeah, it ends the world. That's actually what our next movie should be.

Just suicide cult of a movie.

No, it's about two directors trying to make a movie to save the world and accidentally they end.

The world in the World's good.

You guys are too scoop us.

Well, congratulations on really just a really super mind melty, heartfelt movie that it was a blast to watch. Congratulations on it coming out. Congratulations on the accolades you all deserve it. Here's hoping it's the biggest hit in the world very soon. And we just we loved it.

So thank you, Thank you so much for coming and thank you so much.

Nice to meet you. Also, such a great conversation. Thank you guys, Thank you.

Thank you so much for taking the time.

Bye.

Up Next, Ira and Lewis interview the iconic the legendary Michelle yo x ray Vision is brought to you by Smile Actives. Are you self conscious about your smile due to stains? Are your teeth aging you? Popular food and drinks are known to stained teeth. Beverages like coffee and wine stain them over time. So what can you do to brighten your smile. Well, you should give smile Actives a try. Smile Actives is safe. I was loved when

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And we're back for an all new episode of Keep It. I'm Iron Madison, a third I'm Lewis Bertell. This week's episode is about vibes, okay, and if there is any movie out right now that more encapsulates vibes than anything, it is everything everywhere, all at once.

Yes, and we are very lucky to have the legendary and to say delightful is a complete understatement. I was sitting in this interview just overjoyed with our Michelle yo.

Is with us.

The Bond girl.

I was gonna say, you know what, I feel like she rarely comes up in like a list of like the best Bond girls ever, and it's like, I mean, who is more formidable than Michelle Yo.

I know, I feel like because she was part of that era that took the Bond girl too like Bond woman. You know, that was when we started to have the conversation should we be calling them Bond girls?

As long as you call them, that's my route.

Paul, We're not cutting that joke, Lois. I want people to hear it. I want Danielle Perez to hear it and say, you know what, He's not as good as me.

But Michelle Yo is clearly better than like what other bob like Maude Adams, Barbara Back.

Come on, Michelle Yo is top tier anyway.

Yeah, I mean Michelle Yo. Halle Berry. I always yeah, I always forget that Grace Jones, I guess wasn't a Bond girl. She was like a villain.

Correct, Yes, And and she got to stare angrily and have trapezoidal facial features all over that movie.

Yeah. But getting back to everything everywhere, all at once, which, by the way, I fucking loved. And it's wild that it's from two directors who they're collectively known as the Daniels, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who got their start directing music videos. As I feel most John rabbending movies that feel like a cult movie from the moment you watch it.

Which?

If you have ever I heard that song even once, it's still resonating in your skull.

So and a couple Foster the people on songs that aren't pumped up kicks, so you probably never heard them before.

I was gonna say they are not ringing about.

But you know, their last film was their debut Swiss Army Man, which I still have not seen.

I have friends who stands it doesn't seem like my sort of thing, but that doesn't mean it's not good.

I just remember hearing farting Corpse and I was like, you know what, it's not for.

Me, right, some things just aren't for us.

Also, I'm weirdly not a Daniel Radcliffe stand to the point where I need to see everything that he's in, even though I do appreciate him, you know as a elder statesman.

Oh yeah, no, I would even just say a grown up yeah, Like when you ask him for a quote and he's like here, comes someone with a head on their shoulders appreciate it enough if you just provide that we love it.

Do you want to talk about what happened at the Oscars? Daniel Radcliffe Absolutely not.

He's like, I'm five to two and I gotta get out of here.

No.

But the thing about this film is that it's one of those films that I feel like you're like the Matrix, you know, like when it comes out, like everyone is talking about it and everyone is sort of telling you to go and see it. I truly have not had a film, at least within the past few years, maybe thanks of the pandemic, but even right before the pandemic where people are texting me asking if I've seen it, or friends are like, hey, do you want to go

Well, I would actually compare it to the does not seem intuitive Hereditary in that it is putting together genres that seemingly don't belong together, namely, like in Hereditary's case, you get like very visceral horror, and then you get a family drama like rabbit Hole or something, whereas in this movie you get a very sensitive observed family situation, a queer story, and that's looped together with this sort of.

Comic book thing.

This.

I don't think I'm giving much away by saying a multiverse thing. And so there's it's one of those something for everyone type movies.

Yeah, I mean A twenty four sort of does that well, you know. In addition, in addition, I guess that's what they do. Yeah, in addition to being an urban outfitters, they are also very good at sort of genre films that are multiple genres. All right, when we are back, we sit down with the icon Michelle Yo to discuss everything everywhere, all at once, and and all of her other classic films. I mean, she's been in so many

Very happy to be here. Ira and Lewis.

I first want to say this movie is amazing and you are amazing in it, and it is so exciting to see you in a role like this. And I want to ask you. Before this interview, I revisited Yes Madam.

Oh wow.

And what's so interesting about that is that you immediately have this amazing screen presence. You are so funny in that film, and you were just sort of like really command the screen with your skill at like martial arts. And you just sort of like really commandeer that film. And I want to know, were you always a funny person? Like, I know you started out in pageants, but like you're you're so you're you're so funny in Yes Bata, You're

Oh my god, definitely not from a pageant.

Right, miscongeniality? Okay, you were.

Probably right, good friend, Okay.

No, When I first started, there was nothing funny.

I never saw myself. My producers never really saw me as funny. They were very focused on It's true. The movie that I was in, Yes Madam, is one of my.

First action films.

In fact, the first movie I was in is a action comedy movie. But the comedy and the action were all done by Samo Hook and the legendary Samo Hoo and George Lamb. The amazing singer actor, And when I was watching them, I'm thinking, like, I can do this, you know.

Because this very much is all choreography.

It's all about precision and timing.

It's like dance.

It's like the world of ballet and dance that I've been involved in for the last blah blah blah of my life. So when I was so grateful when the producers are well, okay, you know, she's a little bit crazy. She must be crazy to even try, because that world of martial arts and is physical. I mean, if you asked the Jackie Chance and the Jet Lee and the Master You and Mall Pain and the Samu Home, there

We have these like scrawny little.

Thin wires that held the whole body weight and you we over like wizen around in the air and when it snapped, you literally the stunt guys just fall from wherever they are. So at that point when I actually turn around and say I would like to try this, they looked at me like I was insane.

But then you know she studied abroad. Maybe that's screwed with it.

But okay, so they yes, Madam. I was surrounded by comedians like the John Sham, the Choy Hawk.

They were like the.

High powered comedy artists. I mean they walked into the set and people laugh. So I was tasked with, Okay, now I have to convince the audience that I belong here. I deserve to have a place next to the guys doing this martial arts. So I trained very hard and it was It was not not an easy task because they have been they paid their dues to be where they are. They it didn't come on a silver platter for them. So to join the boys club, which it was a boys club, you know, they will tell you because.

They did it in that way in the in the mindset.

We protect our women, we don't let them get hurt and this and except you know, Jackie says that I were like, no, bro, don't go there. And you know, because we have to learn to protect ourselves and if you keep doing that, then we will never grow to be who we are right, which which is prevalent all the time. So that was the beginning of my days,

That's how it is.

So but I loved it. I love the physical aspect of it. I love the challenge of it. I love to meet part of the boys gang and go like, yeah, let's go out and have fun. Man. You know, you get to do things that you would never get I would never do in real life.

I don't.

I was so pleased to see this clip of you that's going around viral.

I believe you're talking to GQ and you talk about how oh my god.

That's such a beautiful interview.

Yeah, right after you say you love hanging with the boys, I bring up a moment in which you cry, this is not to be crossed.

Oh my god, I'm never going to live this, dun.

But something I loved about that clip was you talk about how, even just reading the script, all of these kind of genres are a parent Like there's comedy in it, there's tragedy, there's martial arts, et cetera. What's crazy to me is I cannot picture this as a script. So much is going on on screen that I can't picture that translated to the page. So how much of what you see in this movie are you surprised to see? Because I can't picture it all just existing in the script.

I'm not supposed it's all in the script.

Wow, if you see a picture of my script, Because how I work is like I tag any scene that I'm in and on the side. Normally you know when you have a script. I was tagg it on the side. So I look at the script and I know, okay, I am in like thirty of the whatever pages or whatever. I'm in fifty or something like this. So that's my process. And if it's an action movie, it has like Okay, this is a dramatic scene, it will be tagged in yellow.

It is an action scene, it will be tagged in red.

By that time I finished tagging my script, I first started off with you know, the big stickers, and I found, Okay, I'm not going to have enough space for this because in one page there are ten multi.

Universe versus going on.

So I went onto the really it tybt skinny ones and by the time I finished one day, I'm going to post that on my Instagram and you guys will see what I mean. My script was tagged all the way around with all the colors of the rainbow because it's each universe get their own color.

And by the end, I was like, what the hell am I dealing with?

It was I am in every single scene, every single team. There is like just no, like okay, I can take the next few days off and wander around and see what's going to happen. It was like no, but it was written like that. The Daniels did not stray. They had a This was like their bible. And remember we are an independent film. Well like, yes, we're in independent felt mon steroids and probably a.

Lot of it. I don't know what they were feeding them, but the facts.

We had eight weeks but thirty seven shooting days. And you cannot go and do this with all the crazy things happening, you know, by saying, well, let's see what happens today.

No, no, no, no no.

They are their team lacking our DP. You know, the stunt coordinator Tim, you know, with the set designer, the Jason everyone, they all they've been together, they work together. And Paul our editor. I mean I met his wife and he says, you've been living with us for two years.

And I'm like, oh, dear, I don't know what to say to that.

But they know each other so well, so they know their editing as they like the martial arts sequences.

It's not by accident.

They know how to pull back when they want you to see and then give you the most intense close ups.

Right.

This is not by accident. This is understanding their craft, understanding the different techniques that they can put into this. When we don't have the money to do special effects, to do the confetti, blah blah blah, they have confetti coming out of the guy. So it is done with precision, It is done with like great thought and so everything. I was surprised to see something, you know what, because there are so many multiverses going on you when you see it, you go, oh, oh the link, you know,

Read it it is at.

Different times of the shot, so you don't see it as a scene and only comes together right at the end when she needs that skill and you see why, Oh she became blind because she fell on that and she blinded herself as a kid. So but then the father taught her another skill, another gift that she had, which.

Was her voice.

You know, I'm like, what, it's an opera single got to do with a skill, Oh, because she can hold her breath. So then you know, all these like imagery that you shoot ties in and gives you that, Yes, you are not surprised, but the realization how it is tied together, that's the beauty of that journey.

I mean, well, speaking of even that moment that Lewis brought up too. You know, I love how you talk about how you know this was sort of like a script, like a role that you'd been waiting for and you were it was almost like a gift to you. And you've had such a long career with so many different roles.

You know, No, I think in this particular one why I think where I know that Gqua interview you are talking about it was suddenly that moment, you know when you feel that the Daniels they saw me people.

You know, you want people to see you and give you.

The opportunity to show you what I am capable of, And that's what they gave me. It was a very precious gift. And then not just them, they had the guts to ride it. And then we had a twenty four who believed that their gods were right and Michelle yo Is crazy enough to want to do this and then to hold out for.

A cinema release in these times. You know, we've been we've had a real.

It's been hot the last two years, and I think on many different levels, each person, for families, that disconnection and finally to be able to it was such a moment of everything, everything just coming together, like the stars aligned, and you can't even begin to know who to thank, but somebody is, like in the universe is looking after this little movie that we pourt so much love into the theater.

I want to tell you, you know, like people are going out, how you need.

To watch the movie right? You had shared experience.

It's like going back to our primal days when our ancestors like were under the stars and they were storytelling around the campfire.

And things like this.

And for us, this is our safe place, you know, in the cinema where we are with strangers, we are with people that we don't know, all.

Were with our family and people that we love.

But the experience, the shared experience of joy, of pain, of laughter is so real.

That we feel it with each other. And I think this was what this movie.

Has come out at an opportune time.

Then we can have that what the let's just wah.

And they you sit and have a great time. And you're right, you have to see it in the cinemas and not just once. I think it's I find that with the first time when you watch it, the intellect kicks in, the cerebral pot kicks and you.

Go like, Okay, I am going to know who and what.

And then after like fifteen minutes, you're like, that's when you become like Evelyn Walng And that's what the second time when you watch it, you're not so like, Okay, I am prepared to put on the safety belts, be in for this roller coaster, right, and just go.

Aw because now you have an inkling.

Oh, they have to do crazy things or ridiculous things before they can multiverse jump, right, That's all you need to know. And then when they go to that universe, Evelyn Wong is going to learn a skill that she has never thought that she would possess, and she'll come back here and do all these like crazy things that fight for humanity and fight for the people that she loves.

Let's see, and the core of the story.

Is that it is the familiar connections that we all find so relatable.

With speaking of skills, you mentioned something in your interview magazine feature with Paul Giamatti where you talk about who I mean, that's so rad that you talk to him for that, But you mentioned how you mastered a calm, serene look for when you do martial arts, and in this movie you have to merge the martial arts with comedy, with you know, confusion, since this character is perpetually confused

No, you remember this is.

And you don't have the luxury of so many takes. You know, you have to get it right. And I think because we and all it takes is the Daniels, and this is what I say to them every day.

At the beginning, I'm going to be confused because you're going to be like multi jumping me.

I know the gist of it, but you have you're like my, my my anchors.

Right, you too are going to hold my hand and you're going to bring me back when I need to come back, and you this is what you do.

You are the directors, remember that, right, you are very simply the directors. Don't play mess with my head. It's already messed up enough. So when that happens, you know, when you jump into the universe. When I fight, I automatically, it's very because that's what we've been trained to do all this time. It's like when you fight, you maintain because you are the mentor, you are the teacher. You are the number one martial artists, So you don't.

I'm like, you don't.

You don't flinch when a punch comes at you.

You you learn to do it with the zen like quality. Right.

So, and I'm fighting with Jamie and she's the best. She's fun, she's like gung host, She's like willing to do this, and then the Daniels come up to me and she's like, uh, But Evelyn Wong doesn't know how to fight. So you know, when she gets the skill, her face is registering the confusion of why the hell are my hands doing these like incredible things? And I have no control. You know, it's like the whole story when she's talking about Rakacuni and all those kind of things.

Like so when you get into your head and then they make you do all these things.

And you don't realize what you're doing, and every really like, what the hell are you talking about? So I have to register the what frig is going on here?

And then you so wow, I could do all this.

You know from the change of expression, you are suddenly Evelyn Wong who have got this new skills and then able to do all these physical things. Yes, you learn to fracture your mind, you learn to like split it. It's like body does this, face does this, and that is going to how it is worked. So that was the great challenge. But that's why I signed up for the movie, was the challenge of doing things that I had not done before.

I want to talk a bit about you run the gambut on people you've worked with, you know, like you started out, you know, you said working with like you know, like Sabo Kang, you know, like as like a director and also like doing stunts early on, and then you I feel like you got to work with so many icons and like the Hong Kong cinema world when you did Crouching Tiger, what was that experience, like, you know, working with Angley and also you know, just having him

Working in with Angli is like poetry in motion.

You know, he is he the way he loves cinema, the way he loves the humanity and the storytelling him you look at it is a very intimate movie. It's about literally three people. For Jade Fox being the antagonist, right, It's about me moved by Yusilia and that I play, and junk Ki and her young lover. So it's about what is important and the martial arts world. And that was what Angli was trying to do. He was trying to present to the world something that he knew as

Sensibility with martial arts.

That was when I was I was doing the press for Tomorrow and Ever Dies, one of the most incredible movie that any actress would want to be part of.

And I waited two years. I didn't do another movie after that, waiting for Angry because we.

All believed in him. We all believed in his vision, and we all wanted to make it happen. Show your fat myself, Peter Howe will calm. We all came together to say we want the rest of the world to embrace our culture.

In that way.

It was one of the best, one of the most poignant, one of the most beautiful, but one of the most painful experiences because I tore my acl after the first action sequence when I was, you know, around.

The wall, and I run up the wall and down.

The wall, and then I think, when you're on the wire, off the wire, on the wire, off the wire, your body gets so confused.

Your mind is like where the hell is it going? You know?

One time I jump and I'm soaring in the sky. Next time I jump, my land thud, and like, like what happened to you? How come I can't fly? And it was the last day of the shoot. My it felt like someone clubbed my knee. I fell to the ground and I was fighting with the stun double and I was like, why did you kill me.

And the poor guy was so horrified. He was like, I didn't touch you.

I did it, and I thought, sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry you didn't There was no way because we were both doing it at a distance. But upon master Union Pain was our stunned choreographer's co ordinature at that time, and Angie, who was the editor, they went frame were framed to understand how was that possible that you know a simple thing that, But that's always the case.

The simplest motions are the ones that you get into trouble with.

And in one of the shots, they saw that my leg when I was doing the front jump kick had just touched his leg, which probably that split second which I really didn't even know or notice, right and when I landed, it just wiped me out. And it was most also painful but beautiful because ang could have changed to me because I had only done that action sequence and action sequences with the artistry of master Uni Oppin,

Thank god they did. My god, God, what a movie. Uh yeah, incredible.

No, as far as I'm concerned, there's also no second one of that movie. I just remember that was a movie that you came out and everybody I know had to see it, and it was like, wait, now I have to research every movie that's ever been like this in history. It was such an education for everybody. So you really ushered in something for a lot of film viewers. I said, I'm looking through your filmography, truly, most of the things you have done of your career seem like

Like you know, is just in an earthly normal realm.

Ever, absolutely I would love to do that, you know, Yes, I was sounding yes, mean that I have to.

Choose one over the other.

I hope not good, right, because you know, I love the challenges of being of doing things and it's nice. I would love to do a rom com in a musical or something like that.

It would be so fun. And you're right, it doesn't always have to be physical.

And you know, maybe a threat of being injured or things like that, and it would be so nice just to do something that's like intimate and fun and loving.

Yes, And I'm glad.

I'm glad to hear that because even looking at crazy Rich Asians, I'm like, that's like the most gigantic production ever, Like even that movie, which could be you know, just a thought. A quote unquote fun movie seems incredibly demanding based on how much time it must have taken the.

Place, the scene alone, you know, place like the choreography that I feel like I have to go into that.

Yah. No, you know, it's the thought that goes behind, is the respect that you give that culture, what is important to that culture. Majong is very important to the Chinese culture. And it's not just a game. There's much that goes on behind that game. It's like bridge, you know, it's like backgammon, It's like all these kind of things, Chess,

I get to be funny. I get to do physical comedy in everything everywhere, all at once.

Like in Crazy Richass, everybody is having a wild time and I get to play the most serious, like you know, scary part.

Them to the beach party.

Man, come on.

I would be interested to know, like what kind of like films do you consume. You know, you're you're you're known for, you know, you know, the martial arts films that are you know, the very involved in technical but like when Michelle Yo is at home, like what are you watching? Like what interests you?

Haha?

Actually I watch anything. I'm such a movie boff. I mean, I would go to the cinemas by myself and I constantly do. Maybe one thing that was surprised to you is that I love horror films.

Hmmm.

I would go and watch a.

Horror film by myself, wondering. I sit close to the door, I sit right at the back when there's no one who.

I love.

I love druma, I love mysteries, I love thrillers. I just basically love the thrill of being in the cinema. I just love that experience because it's a way of escapism, you know, the magic of not having to just enjoying something a story. I love musicals, I love everything, so I watch anything now I'm even watching you know, baking shows. It's like, what the hell happened to me?

Well, I mean, like you're this is a twenty four film, and you've just announ said you love horror films. So I feel like in two years we will see you in some a twenty four horror film where you're torturing your family or something.

I am, I am a little bit. I don't want to dwell in the realm of others, you know what I mean. I love Mutch them, but I don't want to be invited into.

Well.

I just I just want to say, your enthusiasm for all these different types of movies totally comes across in this movie, and like, only I think only somebody who has that that fervor and that zeal for movies could give a performance like so, I thank you so much for that.

Oh, thank you, thank you.

Yeah, I mean, I just but it's true.

I think with this movie, we all just literally looked at each other, Yes, like with Key with Jamie, with Stephanie and James Hong, and we looked and.

Harry Shan as well.

Right, we just looked at each other and go like, yes, we are unapologetic with the silliness, the wranchiness or whatever it is, and let's just have a great time.

Let's believe in this.

And we literally held hands to say dance the way, go let's jump in, and we all grabbed the Daniels. Why the like, ah, that was the only thing you could do it. It's like to be fearless, right, and in that way we empower each other.

We just go for it, and we did.

We went for it absolutely.

Lastly, I just feel like, you know, you've done so much. Are there things? Are there things that like are there films that you're known so much for, you know, like Crouching Tiger, you know, and like now this film, like you know, it's like genre bending films that are you know, like introducing people to like a whole new way of

Yes, yes, you know that.

When we've set out to do a film, obviously you want the best for it to happen. And the best for a movie is like to get the best box office, right. I mean it is show business. I mean that's the reality of it. It's like we we do it because we want people to be able to embrace it and say, yes, this is And sometimes you do movies where maybe it's a little bit ahead of time and people are like, oh what you know, maybe like the Heroic Trio. I

And another one is The Lady that was directed by the.

Yeah, that's such a that's such a It's I feel like it's such an outliers like a LUs On film, because.

If you think about it, as artists, you have to explore, you have to do things out of your comfort zone.

He can't just do Taxi Driver the whole time, right, I mean for Alment, the whole time. Yes he could, and he's great at it.

But then you know, sometimes you have to do something that's so but he did that with love and heart. There was a story that he really really wanted to tell, and so did I and that's how we came together to do The Lady, which was about the Burmese desident dos Bansan Succi.

Mhm.

Yeah.

Fabulous performance by the way.

Yeah, it's it's it's a it's a gorgeous film. I mean, and we can say that about so many things you've done. I mean, I just want to reiterate that, like, this movie is mind blowing. I am definitely going to have to see it again. Uh, and I you know, I've just been everyone. It's it's been a while since a film has like been released that I feel like I am constantly getting text from friends being like do you want to go see this movie? Or have you seen

Wow.

It's I think it's just a really really beautiful.

Film that is amazing, because that is what we hope we see.

You know, what we need now is more convers between people, you know, like good wonderful shared ideas and you know, like, how did you see that part?

Did you realize this?

And you know, and not to be left out, what do you mean you didn't see you better go watch it before you can join.

And that's so great and that's what I love about you know.

Yes, there's so many different reasons, the Internet, the word of mouth, and it's so important because we have real conversations with each other, with family, with friends, and sometimes even with strangers because we are having a shared experience.

So this is that's fantastic. I'm so glad to hear it.

Yeah, well, thank you so much being here with us. I mean, there's truly an honor to talk to you today.

Nice talking to you guys.

Yes, thank you, thank you.

That's it for this special bonus episode of X ray Vision. Catch the next episode on Wednesday, March fifteenth for the last of US finale. And remember we're bringing you two episodes a week, not counting this week, we're bringing you three. That's two episodes a week every Wednesday and Friday on your podcast platform of choice.

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That's how exciting.

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X ray Vision is a Crooked Media production. The show is produced by Chris Lord and Sol Rubin. The show is executive produced by myself and Sandy Rohard are editing and sound designers by Vacillis Photopoulos. Dellan Villanueva and Matt de Group provide video production support and Alex Rella Ford handle social media. Thank you Brian Vasquez for the music. Bye