Evelyn, the primary character, is introduced filing taxes and the interplay between Evelyn and her husband is explored. The tone of the film: chaotic as suggested from this opening scene Color palette: softly subdued hues and the red color appears multiple times during the movie.
Revealing the mother - daughter dynamic between Evelyn and her daughter - Joy, regarding the situation that Joy has a girlfriend. Evelyn's unfavorable response to Joy is a product of her desire to please her father - Joy's grandfather.
At a meeting with an auditor, Evelyn had her first encounter with the multiverse. Her spouse introduces himself as Alpha Waymond Wang, a being from a different dimension who has been searching for a version of Evelyn who is capable of battling the demonic source wreaking havoc throughout the cosmos.
Evelyn now has access to all the talents that all the "other Evelyns" in the multiverse learn while battling an evil source in a different world. She demonstrates her kung-fu prowess in this sequence, drawing on her background as a fighter. Some well-known Evelyns include actress Evelyn, opera singer Evelyn from China, sausage-hand Evelyn, chef Evelyn, pizza sign spinner Evelyn, or just piñata Evelyn or alien Evelyn!
The appearance of the main antagonist - Jobu Topaki. She has been searching for Evelyn across the multiverse to find the version where Evelyn can sympathize with what she has been through.
The meeting of Jobu Topaki and Evelyn. She explains her motivations for looking for Evelyn and why she has been doing so for so long. Alpha Gong Gong, Evelyn's father from another dimension, rescues her. Evelyn aims to save Jobu even if it means upsetting the multiverse.
Jobu Topaki, her daughter, is not a different version of Joy, Evelyn discovers. Joy is Jobu Topaki, and she has been expressing all of her feelings with Joy. Evelyn understands she would constantly wonder what will happen in another life and whether it would make her happier than the one she is now experiencing. She is persuaded by Jobu Topaki to "let it go" and "look into the bagel". In this situation, a bagel may represent death.
“In another life, I would have just really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.” is what wealthy Waymond said to movie star Evelyn. Evelyn believes that she might be more happy in this life, where she is well-known and successful, but the reason for this existence is because Evelyn and Waymond were not able to get married. She considers her current life in light of this circumstance.
Evelyn understands that her husband's compassion is what gives him strength. She initially tries to make amends with her family and begin to appreciate the beauty in her everyday existence. The life she once believed may have been better has now been transformed into the existence she is prepared to live through.
Evelyn’s final fight. This time she approaches everything from a place of kindness, just like how her husband has taught her.
The conversation between Evelyn and Joy in a parking lot. Joy expresses how hurtful it is to be suppressed under social expectation from her mother and how Evelyn makes her feel. Evelyn shares her sincere thoughts, “And why, no matter what, I still want to be here with you. I will always, always want to be here with you.” Evelyn reconciles with Joy.
Evelyn Wang (Yeoh), a woman drowning under the pressure of her family's failing laundry, her failing marriage to Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), and the elderly father (James Hong) who disapproves of her life choices, is the subject of "Everything Everywhere All at Once." Yet as Evelyn discovers that she is just one Evelyn in a huge multiverse of Evelyns, and the only one who can preserve it, the growing distance between her and her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) threatens to tear the fabric of existence apart.
The movie chooses to depict the struggles that Asian immigrants may have had as a result of having to learn a new language and adapt to a new way of life while living abroad. Also, it shows the relationship between wife and husband as well as mother - daughter. What hits close to home the most for me personally is between all of the universe Evelyn could live: wealthy famous life (actress), physical power-claimed (kung fu fighter) or just the weird universe where she has born with hot dog hands and has to learn to how to love the woman she hates the most in the whole world (the auditor), she chooses the present life she is in. It’s the life where she opened a laundromat with the love of her life Waymond - where she has her daughter Joy; it’s the life that she left her family for when she was 20 and busy with taxes in her middle age; it’s the life that she used to wish things could be different and wonder if she could have been happier in another timeline. After all, she chooses to stay in that life, with her kind husband who always takes her side and her daughter whom she is willing to give up everything for.
“We should be looking to a forward-looking multiverse, because right now this universe we’re in is on a very scary path. And the multiverse is actually a really beautiful, important metaphor for right now because we need to be looking at all the possibilities, not just the one that we think we’re in. And we definitely shouldn’t be looking backwards.” - Danial Kwan (director of the movie)
Thesis: A middle-aged Chinese immigrant is swept up into an insane adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.
Key words: multiverse, chaos/chaotic, nihilism, asian immigrants, relationship within family, existential crisis, love and acceptance
Space jump effect. Initially I thought about sticking with this effect as a background throughout the whole movie.
Verse-jumping. One of the effects I tried to recreate using only type.
First motion test including almost all of the typefaces I will be using.
Second motion test including pictures that depicts different lives of the main protagonist.
Experimenting with the background. The ideas here are abstract circles, gradient and monochromatic. I think keeping the background monochromatic brings a different kind of feeling to the movie, compared to the 2nd motion test where there is background and typefaces swapping one after another. It also reminds me of nihilism, the goggly eyes symbol in the movie as well as a resemble for chaos.
Using several typefaces and a smooth transition between them, I will attempt to convey the chaotic emotion the main character feels when verse-jumping. The backdrop will also provide a hint about the several universes that will be shown in the film. The two motion videos sum up the idea of the storyboard - a chain of different pictures related to different universe in the background and verse-jumping was performed by using different typefaces and transition between one another.