Out of the many reasons you should go out of your way to check out Everything Everywhere All At Once is the fight choreography, which was coordinated by popular YouTubers MartialClub. The channel that began over ten years ago has propelled Daniel Mah, Brain and Andy Le into Hollywood lately, as evidenced by their work on Into The Badlands and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Their talents are certainly impacting the Asian American and Pacific Islander community as they bring traditional martial arts into the fold of buzzy films like this one.
When the MartialClub spoke with CinemaBlend’s Law Sharma, the trio shared their experience feeling the impact they feel on the AAPI community. Brian Mah shared how they approach their burgeoning martial arts careers that are already leaving a big mark on Hollywood. In his words:
This isn't my term, it is coined by Joe Rogan and his friends: immigrant mentality. We're only one generation removed from a lot of strife overseas. And we recognize the struggles that our parents and our predecessors endured in order to get us here. But we take from that it's not just their efforts, but it's the effort we learn from their example. And just seeing the value of hard work injects it into everything you do and to see it payoff. Like, that's not only what we've come to believe about our own work process, but that's the kind of work ethic we want to communicate to other people. None of us ever imagined we'd be coordinating tuxes and dressing up for things [like galas].
Everything Everywhere All At Once has quickly become a 2022 favorite, with our own Eric Eisenberg awarding the film CinemaBlend's first perfect five-star review of the year, as well as the mid-budget movie being a solid (but too early) prediction for 2023 Oscar glory. Everything Everywhere All At Once has amassed a similarly near-perfect acclaim from critics and audiences alike, along with pulling incredible per-theater averages despite the bigger-named Sonic the Hedgehog and Morbius reigning in weekend box office totals. MartialClub YouTubers (and brothers) Andy and Brian Le also reacted to their success:
What the fuck is this? No, never thought I'd be dropping bricks on like a suit! Like, damn!
Everything Everywhere All At Once follows Michelle Yeoh as a laundromat owner who has fallen on some rough times as she deals with an annoying tax audit and divorce papers from her husband. Things get interesting when an alternate version of her husband (played by former Indiana Jones and The Goonies child star Ke Huy Quan) travels across the multiverse to tell her she is the one who needs to save it.
The Le brothers are even featured in the movie itself in a memorable fight scene with Michelle Yeoh… featuring butt plugs! I know, it sounds wild, and it is. Once you’ve seen it, check out our breakdown of the Everything Everywhere All At Once ending. Brian Mah also said this during the interview:
We realize this is the other side of the process you put in, not for that, not for the glam or anything like that, but for the love of what you do. But we realize, it's starting to turn into something, and that goes with the territory.
The MartialClub is seeing some serious success right now, but it sounds like they have a great mindset about it all. One half of the movie’s directorial team, Dan Kwan, also shared with CinemaBlend that he grew up on the Hong Kong fighting style in the movies he’d seen as a kid. He discovered the MartialClub on YouTube and found them to be the right fit for the choreography in the film. It goes to show that stunt coordinators can come from everywhere and the MartialClub’s many years of hard work has entered a place of success they are not taking for granted.
Check out more from our Everything Everywhere All At Once interviews here on CinemaBlend, and be sure to see it in theaters now.
