Raman Hui makes smart transition from Hollywood to China
HE HIT paydirt in China with the monster hit Monster Hunt, but Hong Kong director Raman Hui, 52, was actually schooled in movie-making at Hollywood.
He spent 20 years as an animator, most significantly with DreamWorks, where he designed the now-iconic ogre Shrek and co-directed Shrek 3. That coloured his vision for Monster Hunt.
“(The movie’s) target audience is anyone who is young at heart. That means (they) can be from 6 years old to over 70 years old,” he said. “Actually, that is very similar to DreamWorks movies’ target audience. ... I would make sure it (wouldn’t) be too scary for young kids, and at the same time (not) too simple for adult audiences. ... The same (as) when we were making Shrek movies.”
As in the Shrek series, the main theme in Monster Hunt, according to Hui, is “acceptance.”
In September, Monster Hunt became the highest-grossing film in Chinese box office history, bringing in 2.428 billion yuan (RM1.64 billion). Worldwide, the movie has been watched by over 65 million people.
Viewers more accustomed to Hollywood movies may think Monster Hunt is Chinese to its core.
“The message is to understand differences, to see the world through others’ eyes and to foster more understanding between people and groups,” Hui explained.
When asked why he chose to create a world of “monsters” — which are actually quite adorable and anthropomorphic — he said: “What we considered most important when making the monsters was that we didn’t want them to just pop out and scare people.
“We wanted them to have emotions. We wanted the audience to like the monsters, to laugh with them and grow attached. That was why we gave them expressive faces, and made them more human-like.”
As Hui’s background was in animation, he said it was “not easy at all” to combine live actors with his computer-generated monsters.
“When we did the special effects, we had to pay a lot of attention to details to make them work well and be alive,” he said.
“Matching the (live) action and making the monsters feel like they are (really) there also took a lot of different (takes) to get there.”
Fortunately, Hui had a team of excellent moviemakers to help him navigate. The executive producer credit went to Bill Kong (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lust, Caution), who was joined by the likes of production designer Yohei Taneda (Kill Bill) and visual effects supervisor Jason Snell (Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars).
Hui has publicly said that a sequel for Monster Hunt is in the works, but no details have yet been released.