Move over, Pennywise
A karate-loving clown vs Michael Douglas. Enter the madness of Animal World
WHETHER IT’S PENNYWISE or the Joker, clowns are often the scary evildoers when they show up on the big screen. But Animal World — a Chinese action film that blends sci-fi with martial arts — aims to flip that script in a big way.
Adapted from the first part of the Japanese manga Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji, Li Yifeng stars as Zheng Kaisi who, after being deceived into entering a deadly game, has to battle hordes of monsters in order to survive.
And, in a twist from writerdirector Han Yan, he does so by turning into the world’s deadliest clown: “The clown is actually a cartoon figure that Kaisi knew from his childhood,” Han tells Empire. “When our hero gets excited, the clown jumps out from his body and helps him solve problems he faces. I’m kind of using the clown as a metaphor for the potential hidden inside of Kaisi.” It’s when Kaisi unlocks that hidden potential that he’s able to fight off his enemies with kung fu. While Yan says films such as the Kick-ass and Kingsman franchises made an impression on him, he’s aiming for something fresh. “I don’t want the action scenes to look like martial arts. Since the actor is fighting against creatures made out of CGI, I make it crazier and entertaining.” It’s not just monsters who Yifeng’s vigilante will have to contend with. In what marks a still rare collaboration between Western and Asian talent, Michael Douglas will be on villain duties. “I was planning to get an international superstar to play this big villain,” says Yan. “I made a list of the actors who’d be perfect for this character and wrote a 10,000-word introduction about the villain. Luckily, I didn’t have to go through my list because the perfect choice joined the team.” Don’t you love it when that happens?
ANIMAL WORLD IS IN CINEMAS FROM 29 JUNE