Asian A.V. Club Interview: Director Raman Hui

RADII is excited to announce a new collaboration with Asian A.V. Club, a newsletter celebrating Asian and Asian American creatives in the film and television industry, from directors to producers, makeup artists, soundtrack composers, and everything in-between. RADII will be showcasing excerpts from Asian A.V. Club’s in-depth interviews. To read the full version, head to their site. First up, director Raman Hui.

There are few directors who can successfully navigate careers in two distinct global markets, but in the case of Hong Kong-born Raman Hui, he’s found the perfect blend to work between Hollywood and Asia as one of the industry’s most sought-after creatives. From his work on Shrek the Third to helming one of the biggest box office grossing films in China, Monster Hunt, Raman continues to pave the way for aspiring Asian animators to find a space for themselves on an international stage.

With his latest animated film The Tiger’s Apprentice, Raman directs a star-studded cast featuring the voices of Michelle Yeoh, Lucy Liu, Bowen Yang, and loads more, as a young teenager goes on an adventure alongside warriors representing the Chinese zodiac. We recently caught up with Hui to talk about his early days and how he found his path to his professional achievements.

Asian A.V. Club: Do you remember any moments, or things you were into, that kick-started your interest in pursuing a career in animation?

Raman Hui: I was just a typical Hong Kong kid growing up. I loved to watch this TV show called Ultraman where it wasn’t a cartoon, but actual humans who would dress up and fight the monsters. [laughs] I used to love drawing the monsters from that show, but at school, they don’t encourage you to draw. But I was only good with drawing and maths, and for some reason, that got me qualified to go to Hong Kong Polytechnic as a graphic design major.

I never thought about doing animation because during that time, there weren’t that many animators with a career in the local industry. At Hong Kong Polytechnic, there was a rostrum camera [used in television and films to animate a still picture or object] that no one was using, and I found it interesting. So I was like, I can draw something, and make it move. Then once I did that, I just fell in love. And that was almost 40 years ago, I’ve been animating since.

Asian A.V. Club: 40 years! You still look so young! [laughs]

Raman Hui: I was so lucky that I got a job offer in the US, so I moved to Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley. At that time, not a lot of people were making animation films. When I look back, we waited a long time, almost seven years before we got to do anything that we found interesting. And the first thing that we got to do was the film Antz (1998) that starred Woody Allen. When we got to do that, we were like, ‘Oh my God, we’re making something on the big screen. And people are going to PAY to see it!’

For the next few years, I was working closely with Jeffrey Katzenberg at DreamWorks Animation. Not only was he great, but he gave me a lot of opportunities and I just took on more responsibilities. He really helped me become a director.

Asian A.V. Club: At what point did you decide to kind of come back to Asia to work on the film Monster Hunt?

Raman Hui: The funny thing about that is I came back to Asia, because of the DreamWorks movies, I got to meet a lot of people who distributed their films in the region. One person was Bill Kong, who not only distributed films in Hong Kong, but also produced movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Bill came to Hollywood one time while I was there and said, “Why don’t we do something together?” I said yes immediately because I wanted to come back to Hong Kong to be closer with my mother. And then Monster Hunt happened.

Asian A.V. Club: What was it like to work on a project that wasn’t about animation, and was instead a live action, CG-heavy film?

Raman Hui: It was tough. Everything was so different because of the CG visual paths and just directing actual people, that was something I had to adapt to. [laughs]

Asian A.V. Club: It must have been nice to return to your animation roots for The Tiger’s Apprentice. What was it about this project that made you excited about it?

Raman Hui: I had just released Monster Hunt 2 in 2018 and Paramount Animation approached me about The Tiger’s Apprentice. My first reaction was like, I'm probably too busy to do it and I’m not sure if I wanted to move back to the US. But then they sent me the script and I decided I had to do it because it was set in the Richmond District of San Francisco.

Asian A.V. Club: What’s the significance of the Richmond District?

Raman Hui: When I moved to San Francisco, I decided to move to the Sunset [District] and Richmond was close by. I would go all the time for Asian food and felt very at home there. So when I was reading the script, I realized that if I was an Asian kid, not only would I love to watch this, but it presented what daily life was like in this predominantly Asian area; and I loved the idea of that.

Asian A.V. Club: What was it like for you to work with this cast?

Raman Hui: We are blessed with this cast. All of them said yes when we approached them with just the synopsis. For example, when we approached Michelle Yeoh, we told her this is the movie that we're making, but we’re not sure which part for her yet. If she wanted any role, what would it be? Michelle immediately said, “I want to play the villain.” [laughs] Because Michelle is always playing the good person who makes sure everything is all right, it was so much fun watching her embrace the character of Loo. We might be joking about something and then when you could see her suddenly switch to being serious and mean. Then afterwards, she’d say, “Oh, that was so funny.” I loved watching her making fun of herself.

To read the whole interview with director Raman Hui, click over to Asian A.V. Club where you can not only find out more about his fascinating career, but also discover other wonderful creatives working behind the scenes of film and television!

All images via Asian A.V. Club. Animated stills are from Raman’s latest film, The Tiger’s Apprentice.