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Interface News reporter | Hu Yujing
Interface News Editor | Zhang Youfa

For two consecutive years, director Wuershan has appeared in the summer season with his new film.

After the release of "Investiture of the Gods Part I: Chaoge Fengyun" last year, Wuershan, along with the Proton Group, the training camp, and the business Yinyu, became a kind of pop culture symbol, talked about by the audience. After nine years of hard work, the film itself has a rare mythological epic quality, attracting waves of audiences to the theaters, and the box office finally opened low and ended high, earning 2.634 billion yuan.

"Under the Alien" is adapted from Mi Er's comic "Under the Alien", which began serialization in 2015 and is still updated weekly. The story has not yet been completed and has become one of the most influential Chinese comic IPs. The movie selects the plot before the Luotian Dajiao in the original work. Zhang Chulan completes the transformation from hiding his alien identity and abilities to accepting himself and being determined to protect his loved ones.

Faced with such a long story, Wuershan's adaptation focus is on the two characters of Zhang Chulan and Feng Baobao, "telling the story honestly from the beginning". How the two of them establish mutual protection, these basic character relationships must be firmly established.

Wuershan said, "The original work is like a basket of grapes, but the movie wants to turn this basket of grapes into wine, highly refined, concentrated and strengthened, making it richer and more infectious within two hours."

Hu Xianxu as Zhang Chulan

From mythological epics to live-action comic adaptations, for the audience, this year's "Under the Aliens" is a quick switch in Wuershan's film career. But in Wuershan's opinion, the two films have many overlaps in production - both have completed the development of Chinese film genres, both use the training camp model in performance, and both are themes of the younger expression of traditional culture, and try new film techniques.

Wuershan regards "expanding the genre of Chinese films" as his mission, and tries to create superpower movies that are different from the Hollywood discourse system. In his view, Western superheroes seek abilities from outside, while Chinese superhumans seek abilities from within themselves. Qi comes from the energy stored in all living things in the world, inherited from family factions, and achieved through cultivation and enlightenment.

He is full of creative desire for pop culture collage in the process of visualizing comic texts, which is reflected in "Under the Aliens". The characters come with different styles of BGM. Xia He appears as a charming "sister, get ready", Feng Shayan appears as a "loser", and colorful barrage floats by at the end of the film, and the screen previews the contestants of the next "Alien Conference".

In conjunction with this story about young people's supernatural powers finding themselves, Wuershan tries to reconnect with young people.

"Comic-based movies are a mainstream genre all over the world, but in China this genre is almost vacant, just like mythological epics. Someone has to explore and try, no matter what the result is, because the audience for movies is young people," said Wuershan.

The following is a conversation between Wuershan and other media outlets, with some minor edits. (Q is a question from the media, and A is an answer from Wuershan)

Turning a basket of grapes into wine

Q: The story of the comic itself is very long. How did you decide on the first part to tell the story before the Alien Conference? What were the adaptation choices and overall considerations?

A：Because the world view of "Under One Person" is very large, with rich clues and many wonderful passages. But I think that when introducing this story to movie audiences for the first time, some basic information must be presented, such as the basic background of the world view, what "Qi" is, what is an alien, and what is the faction.

The core is the clue characters - Zhang Chulan and Feng Baobao. Their background stories, how they establish a relationship of mutual protection, the basic things must be firmly established before the subsequent stories can unfold. This is like a foundation. If we don’t understand the core characters, or don’t fall in love with them, the story that happens after entering the world of aliens will lack a fulcrum.

So I think I should honestly start from the beginning. I really like the opening of the comic. It opens up an imaginative parallel world in the everyday world, like the story of an ordinary college student. I like the feeling of entering a surreal world of supernatural powers from everyday life.

For viewers who have never seen the original work, this is also the most comfortable way of telling the story. So I chose to make the story of the two of them solid, especially how they established this kind of family relationship and mutual protection, to make this relationship solid and then go deeper.

Li Wanda as Feng Baobao

I added a few points to the play. One is that Zhang Chulan hid his identity as an alien not only because his grandfather entrusted him with the task, but more importantly, his previous exposure led to his grandfather's death. He felt guilty about his grandfather's death, so he strictly kept his promise.

In the original novel, this incident had nothing to do with Zhang Chulan. It was his grandfather who thought of a way to destroy Quan Xing, but the film script needed to make the character's psychology more in-depth and solid.

The second is the relationship between Zhang Chulan and Feng Baobao. In Xu Xiang's flashback, I added two scenes, one of which was Feng Baobao selling sweet potatoes outside the welfare home, and the other was when Zhang Chulan was reading a comic book and crossing the road and was almost hit by a car, and Feng Baobao saved him. I hope Zhang Chulan and the audience can feel that Feng Baobao is someone who is more persistent in protecting him than his grandfather, and is his only relative in this world.

The original work is like a basket of grapes, but the movie has to turn this basket of grapes into wine, highly refined and concentrated, making it more intense and more appealing within two hours. I have never tried to adjust, delete, compress and merge so much content before, but I think this is very important for comic adaptation.

Q: "The Investiture of the Gods" has a clear structure and can be divided into a trilogy. How are the second and third parts of "Under the Strange Man" arranged?

A：The story of "Under One Person" has not been completed, so a trilogy is unlikely. The first part I chose is the beginning of the story, which is divided into three sections. The first is the Luotian Dajiao, which is the alien meeting in the movie. It mainly tells about Zhang Chulan's experience of hiding himself and Feng Baobao. From hiding himself to bravely entering the world of aliens, his psychological struggle is very crucial. This is suitable for the capacity of a movie and can also present the theme of the movie - whether to pretend and hide, or to be yourself.

Western energy comes from the outside, while Chinese energy comes from the inside

Q: How was the acting style of the film established? Which scene set the tone for the film?

A：I think there are several things to pay attention to. First of all, in terms of casting, comics will highly refine the characteristics of characters, such as being particularly beautiful, strange, and thin, which will highly stylize a world. So in casting, the image is the first priority, and it must be highly close to the comics.

Secondly, let’s talk about the performance style. We have never seen this kind of performance before, so we don’t know what is the right balance. We recruit and audition for each role. Three actors can enter the training camp for each role, and then go through a 6-month training camp course.

The course is divided into two parts. One is the acting class, which allows them to open up themselves, try out comedy performance styles, and then rehearse according to the story. The other is the martial arts class, because the entire action design style of "Under the Alien" is based on traditional Chinese martial arts, starting with physical training such as leg stretching, tendon stretching, and splits, to Bajiquan, Baguazhang, and Xingyiquan as the foundation, and then step by step practice exclusive boxing according to their own roles.

There are three makeup assessments in the middle. The first one is to see how close the look is to the character. After all, everyone feels comfortable with black hair, but once it becomes white hair or pink hair, it will not look good, so a makeup trial is necessary; the second one is a performance assessment, and the last one is a martial arts assessment.

Na Ran plays Xia He

During this process, we were also looking for the style of performance and the right balance in exaggeration and fun. Comedy especially requires performance rhythm. We conducted two months of home rehearsals before filming started and performed auditions constantly to find the fun and appropriate balance.

In addition to the performance, the editing pursues a comic-style sense of rhythm. There are different styles of sounds and music in the film, which all play a role in shaping the characters. Each character has his or her own bgm. For example, when Feng Shayan comes out, it is "LOSER", and when Xia He comes out, it is "Fang Si Ai". The lyrics are very similar to her inner monologue. The performance and the relationship between sound and picture are integrated together to form this expression effect.

This is a capability that only movies have, and a mode of expression that only movies can mobilize.

Q: How many special effects are there in the entire film?

A：There are more than 2,200 movie shots and more than 1,600 visual effects shots. Special effects pursue more creativity and stylization, and do not pursue absolute technical difficulty. We spent a lot of time on the concept design of visual effects, thinking about how to present the energy conversion exercises of Yuanqi theory and the five elements and meridians of traditional Chinese medicine. The most important thing is to distinguish it from foreign superpower movies in terms of cultural roots. There must be a clear distinction in the way of expression, otherwise the national style will not exist, because the way our superpowers are generated is different, right?

I have summarized that there are four ways in which superpowers are generated in the West: one is the failure of scientific experiments, such as radiation or spider bites; the second is from aliens who are not from Earth at all, such as Thor; the third is mythical characters, such as Wonder Woman; the fourth is from money, such as Batman and Iron Man. All come from outside.

But China's supernatural powers come from family and sect inheritance. We have Qi in our bodies. Qi itself comes from the energy contained in all life forms between heaven and earth. Supernatural people are nothing more than people who can perceive and use Qi. It comes from inheritance, and can only become stronger through self-cultivation. This is a complete set of internal logic, and it is a particularly Chinese way of thinking about the relationship between the world and oneself.

Special effects concept map source: Weibo @电影异人下

From a visual perspective, the generation of superpowers, Yang Wulei comes from the energy of the heart and lungs, which flows through the three Yang meridians of the hand to the whole body, emitting white and red Yang Wulei, while Yin Wulei comes from the energy generated by the liver and kidneys, which flows through the three Yin meridians of the hand and then produces black and blue thunder. The meridians, five elements and five colors of traditional Chinese medicine, as well as Taoist thought, are all very Chinese visual elements, and are the most fundamental part that distinguishes Chinese superpower movies from foreign ones.

Our imagination comes from traditional culture, but we need a modern way of expression so that our young people will find it cool.

Pioneering new film genres

Q: Why did you choose to make such a youthful and passionate movie after the classic "Fengshen"?

A: There are several things that are completely consistent between these two projects. The first of my work goals is to try to explore the genre of Chinese films. In the history of Chinese films, very few people have created mythological epic films like "Investiture of the Gods". There have been comic adaptations of Chinese-style superpower films like "Under the Aliens", but they are of the same genre as Hollywood's Marvel and DC comic adaptations.

Second, all my previous works contain elements of traditional Chinese culture, and they are all contemporary cinematic expressions of traditional culture, but they are placed in different genres. "Painted Skin 2" is a fantasy romance, "Mojin: The Last Dragon" is an action-adventure, and the "Fengshen" trilogy also adapts classical novels into mythological epics.

Stills from "The Legend of the Gods Part I: Chaoge Storm"

The story of "Under the Alien" integrates the supernatural powers of "Qi", Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, the twelve meridians, etc. into today's real life. I think this way of combining tradition and contemporary is very genius, clever, familiar, and imaginative.

Third, the protagonists of "Fengshen" and "Under the Strange Man" are all young people. I particularly hope to introduce to you some young generation actors who are more comprehensive in image, performance and action ability through the new project. They can complete very difficult film shooting. Therefore, training camps have been set up for these two projects to conduct professional training first and then start shooting.

Fourth, the two projects are also consistent in advancing film technology. The Investiture of the Gods involves the performance of the mythological world, mainly using computer visual effects to try to create living content, such as digital creatures and digital characters. The Investiture of the Gods Part II will also upgrade this, and the entire production difficulty and workload will also be upgraded.

"Under the Aliens" pursues the aesthetic visual effects of comics as a whole, and uses artificial intelligence to create an 18-minute live-action animation to complete the flashback part. I think this is the first time in the history of world cinema that a 4K animated image that can reach the level of a cinema projection has appeared, which is of historical significance.

People are always discussing whether artificial intelligence has changed and affected the industry, or whether it will make us lose our jobs. But my view has always been that all technologies serve expression. It is not that the emergence of new technologies will lead to the demise of old technologies. They are often combined together to produce new possibilities. So I hope that this video can bring some inspiration to my colleagues.

Concept map of the special effects of "Bin Ling Qian Jiang" Source: Weibo @电影异人下

Q: As a comic book movie, is "Under the Aliens" mainly aimed at young audiences? Because in the United States, Marvel and DC are the logic of young movies.

A：Definitely, because comic culture is youth culture, it has just been in the subculture status for a long time. If there is a movie that can present it well, maybe it can enter the big genre of mainstream movies.

In fact, comic book-adapted movies are a mainstream genre all over the world, but in China this genre is almost vacant, just like mythological epics. Someone has to explore and try, no matter what the result is, this step must be taken, because the audience of the movie is young people.

I think no matter what, the future of movies is the carnival of young people. Especially theater movies should better present the social attributes of young people, and they should also see works with their own cultural characteristics in theaters.

The text of "Under the Alien" comes from a comic, which is regarded as a classic by comic fans, but most moviegoers are unfamiliar with it. In the future, young moviegoers should see film works and film genres that are highly integrated with their own culture.

Take the music in the film as an example, from Tu Honggang's "Chinese Kung Fu", to pop songs from the 1980s and 1990s, to the current popular rap, deathcore with a Famicom style, metal music, R&B, electronic music, as well as street dance and costumes in the action design. I hope to incorporate various elements of popular culture into my creation, so that contemporary Chinese young people can find themselves in the movie.

This story is actually also a story of a young man's growth, a story about the choice between his family, the expectations of his family, the life direction chosen for him, and the person he really wants to be.

My understanding of the characteristics that youth films should have is: having a certain current significance, the combination of ideas is imaginative, the temperament of the film is like a disco, with a carnival or party feel, and it is a particularly dazzling and carnival experience in the cinema. This is the kind of film effect and cinema experience I want to pursue.

The organization of text and visual elements of "Investiture of the Gods" all come from classic forms of traditional Chinese culture, such as the story of King Wu's conquest of King Zhou, "Investiture of the Gods", as well as the bronze culture of the Shang Dynasty, the landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty, and the water culture of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

"Under the Alien" is a completely different field. I hope to turn all the current popular culture elements into film material, including the end subtitles in the form of barrage, because mobile phone visual reading is the mainstream form of reading now.

Q: After filming "Under the Alien", do you feel that you have expanded yourself?

A：No, I usually like to listen to this kind of music and read comics, which is what I am passionate about. I especially hope to mainstream the original Chinese traditional culture that is not an imitation of Europe, America or Japan.

In addition to classical music, all the bands in the film are currently active in China, such as Super Cut, MiniG, and Yu Zhen. They are first-class in the hearts of special music fans, but have not yet entered the public eye. Mi Er's works are also first-class Chinese comics, whether in terms of expressiveness, ideological depth, or cultural complexity, they are world-class.

I am used to treating each project as a subject and studying its completion path. The new subject that "Under the Alien" brought me was how to transform the visual aesthetics of comics into film language, because the aesthetics of comics are different from pure literary works. In addition to the story, it also has a basic visual style. It is still frozen, with only one picture. How to fill the blank space in the middle? From one action to the next, if it is replaced by a real person, how should he perform to retain the style of the comics? When it becomes a real-life movie, you still don’t feel it is artificial or exaggerated. This is very interesting.

In addition, "Under One Person" has been serialized for 8 years and is still updated weekly. It is a long linear creation. The movie is at most two or three hours long. It is very interesting to know how to cut the story segments, select the characters and story lines, how to form the structure of the script, how to choose the actors, how to deal with the comic performances, and how to coordinate the music and sounds after the photography and art character modeling are completed.

I am a very curious person and I am particularly interested in trying things that I have never done before. This comic has given me a strong desire to create.