Where is Xu An from?

Xu An

Xu An is a mixed-race child born and raised in Hong Kong. His mother is Australian and his father is Chinese. He joined the industry in 1991 and worked with Tsui Hark for 11 years. He worked as an assistant director and screenwriter. He started to participate in special effects guidance work from "The Legend of Shushan". In 2001, he formed his own company and worked on "Slaying the Wolf", "Dragon and Tiger Gate", He served as special effects director for many films such as "The Ghost in My Heart" and "Painted Skin 2".

Chinese name: Xu An

Foreign name: KoanHui

Nationality: China

Birthplace: Hong Kong

Date of birth: September 1971

Occupation: Director, screenwriter, special effects director, actor

Representative works: "Legend of the Gods", "The Peach Blossoms of the Great Cold", "The Legend of Shushan", " Painted Skin 2》

Character introduction

Koan Hui was born in Hong Kong in September 1971. His father is Chinese and his mother is Australian. His ancestral home is Shantou City, Guangdong Province. Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, special effects director, and actor.

Acting experience

Xu An entered the film industry in 1991 and joined director Tsui Hark's "Film Studio" as an assistant director. He has successively participated in the production of many classic films such as "Once Upon a Time" series (the fourth installment), "The Undefeated in the East", "Green Snake", "New Dragon Inn", "Butterfly Lovers", "Butterfly Lovers", etc.

Xu An serves as a screenwriter and has written multiple movie scripts. His screenwriting works include "Knife" (directed by Tsui Hark, starring Zhao Wenzhuo), "Black Man" (directed by Li Rengang), "The New Man" (directed by Chen Musheng) and "Flow Against the Current" (directed by Tsui Hark, starring Nicholas Tse and Wu Bai) ).

In 1999, he assisted director Tsui Hark in the visual effects design and production of the movie "The Legend of Shushan" and was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Award at the 21st Hong Kong Film Awards.

In 2014, he took over the filming of the movie "Legend of the Gods" invested and produced by China Star Film Co., Ltd.

Main works

Director's works

Screenplay works

Visual effects works

Assistant director's works

Sound Design

Executive Director

Actor's Work

Planning Work

Honorary Achievements

Hong Kong Film Awards Nomination

The 21st Best Visual Effects "The Legend of Shushan"

The 26th Best Visual Effects "Dragon and Tiger Gate"

Taiwan Golden Horse Award

2012 49th Best Visual Effects "Painted Skin II"

2000 37th Best Original Film Music "Downstream and Countercurrent"

Media Evaluation

Sina Entertainment and Xu An

Sina Entertainment: When the audience goes to watch the movie, what will they see that was made by you?

Xu An: Because this is a large-scale fantasy film, we have almost 1,700 shots in the entire film, 1,200 of which are special effects shots, and then there are some. The key point is to reskin, and there is one reskin. , we worked with the special effects makeup to do it in the later stage. Then there is a scene in the opening scene of the play where Xiao Wei, Zhou Xun’s character, is the ice crack made in reality. It is us who achieved this ice cracking effect in the later stage. Then there were also the production of some scenes. There was an animal scene, the scene where a bear attacks the princess. The scene and the bear part were also done in conjunction with special effects makeup. Then there are some magic spells throughout the film, including Yang Mi’s character, Tweety, who can turn into a bird, and sometimes half-bird, half-human. We are responsible for those special effects.

Sina Entertainment: So what is the reason for joining this project this time?

Xu An: It is a company in Beijing, Tiangong Pictures. As the special effects management company for "Painted Skin 2", they needed a visual effects director, so they came to me to discuss cooperation, and then I was very interested in this kind of film. I am very interested in the genre, and I also watched the director's first film "Sword Laughter". I think he, because I also pay more attention to that kind of vision, so I quite like his style. So I was very interested in cooperating with him, and after talking with him several times, I saw that the director actually made a lot of preparations, including visual effects preparations. He drew a lot of concept drawings and designs. I think this is something that has been done in previous Hong Kong films. Okay, domestic films are good, because we usually follow the director's ideas while filming, but that approach cannot produce a complete finished product like an American film. This time I see that there is an opportunity. , we can realize an initial concept and finally realize it step by step. For the first time, we have the space and opportunity to achieve this result. In the end, we also achieved what we originally wanted to do, so it is very rare to achieve this. Chance.

Sina Entertainment: How did the director communicate with you about the special effects, because it is actually quite heavy.

Xu An: It’s very important, because it is a fantasy film, and the focus is on the visual effects. The director made a lot of preparations of his own. He also invited Japan’s Yoshitaka Amano to do concept design. It was the first time I saw him. When I met him, he told me that he hoped our film could present a feeling called Eastern magic, so I was very interested in this. It can show a new kind of film with its own style of domestic films.

I also spent a lot of time communicating with the director in the early stage. He found a group of artists who drew concept drawings. After I joined the crew, I made those drawings into animation demonstrations, which are movable storyboards. But we used three-dimensional to do it. In the early stage, we had already shot the key scenes of the entire film on the computer. We already knew how to grasp the angles, lighting, and atmosphere when we arrived on set. For example, the special effects makeup team already knew in the early stage that the skin of this shot needs to be very thin, and the skin of the other shot needs to be elastic. We have prepared it in the early stage, so when we go to the scene to watch it, we can accurately Get the material we need.

Sina Entertainment: I have seen some behind-the-scenes of Hollywood movie shooting. When the director was filming, he could see through the camera the final actor's performance in front of the blue screen and the final composite effect. . Do we have that equipment?

Xu An: The equipment is there, but the people are not. The hardware may be there, but the software is not there yet. But there are no films that require this kind of cooperation, just because for films like "Avatar", most of them are done in post-production, and the characters are created in post-production, so it is needed.

Sina Entertainment: What do you think is the biggest challenge this time?

Xu An: The first thing is imagination. Because we hope to achieve a sense of shock in this film that the audience has never seen before, so we collected the early concepts and imagined how to cooperate with some technologies. Big challenge. And because there are many different types of effects involved in the film, including animal effects, skin effects, and scene effects, each one needs to be re-developed, and some technologies need to be re-developed. We also have cycle constraints, so we have to do all the effects well. The work we assign is also one of the challenges.

Sina Entertainment: How many people are involved in the special effects team this time?

Xu An: More than two hundred people.

Sina Entertainment: What kind of scale is this compared to other movies?

Xu An: It should be the top scale. It is the top scale among domestic films. Because of that volume, I just said more than a thousand special effects shots, but our cycle is also relatively tight. In fact, we do Three and a half months. The same amount of work in the United States might take a year and a half. They were surprised to hear our speed, but our conditions are like this. This is also one of the challenges, that is, there is not enough time, because the more time you have for special effects, the more time you have for special effects. Just make it more real.