After a triumphant premiere at San Francisco’s CAAMFest 2024, Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu’s groundbreaking “Extremely Unique Dynamic”’ is once again set to grace the city’s screens at the Frameline48 LGBTQ+ Film Festival. Marking a significantly impactful milestone in AAPI and queer cinema, this pioneering “Meta-Asian-Stoner-Coming-Of-Age-Bromantic Dramedy” has received overwhelming acclaim for Leung and Xu’s captivating performances and approaches to cultural intersections of intimacy in male relationships, marijuana use, and being gay while also being AAPI.
The dynamic duo play best friends Danny (Leung) and Ryan (Xu) who similarly are making a movie about two friends also doing the same before one moves away. Along with the hilariously layered meta premise, the film is brimming with poignant explorations on challenging typical stigmas, elevating itself into the pantheon of modern, accurate, and nuanced AAPI representation. As first-time filmmakers and professional actors, Xu and Leung bring a deeply personal vulnerability and authenticity to the screen, delving into uncomfortable but necessary, conversations with honesty and humor.
“Extremely Unique Dynamic” masterfully balances its side-splitting comedy with the gripping tension, and setting a new standard for cinematic Asian-American and LGBTQ+ representation with its fresh perspective and Leung and Xu’s heartfelt portrayals. We had the great opportunity to chat with them both on what their film means for the future of AAPI cinema, for overcoming stigmas, and for its significance at this year’s Frameline Festival.
Hello! We’d love to start off with how the film has a captivating, meta-narrative structure. What inspired you to take this approach, and what were some of the challenges and rewards of creating a movie about making a movie? Do you have any particularly memorable BTS moments?
IL: The main goal for me was to have fun with my friend before he moved to Canada, and create a lasting memory for our friendship. Getting Harrison to sit down and talk about things that weren’t an interest to him like WARDROBE and HAIR and MAKE UP and SET DESIGN was a big stressor. Have you ever had to deal with someone who waits until the last minute and goes into a store and picks out an outfit and says “This will do, I don’t want to do this anymore” and not be stressed out? I think that was the main challenge among many other challenges. The reward for me was when people kept complimenting the outfits and me screenshotting and sending it back to him to rub it in his face.
Just thinking about being on the couch with our team editing 7 days a week, 12 hours a day was fun and fulfilling. Creating a song and music video with Nikola our sound mixer and Justin our VFX/MV director was a blast.
HX: People always say “write what you know” and what better way to do that than to play heightened versions of ourselves? In the film (and in real life), we’re both actors, I’m a digital marketer, Ivan is a rapper, and I’m about to move to Canada with my fiancé. Well actually, I did just move to Canada with my now wife, so it was super trippy to see the movie play out in real life.
One of the challenges of making a triple-meta movie was having to constantly keeping track of what level of meta we were in. And Ivan was zero help in the process because he never once understood the meta layers and STILL doesn’t understand to this day. We even had to reshoot an entire scene because the meta didn’t make sense in the edit, so we went back and reshot it as different meta characters.
In terms of memorable BTS moments, I would say the day we went around LA shooting on the DV camera was a blast. It just felt so carefree and we didn’t overthink anything. I think that’s what ultimately lead to genuine performances on screen because it truly did feel like my actual LA send-off capturing core memories with my BFF.
And so what messages do you hope the film conveys about overcoming stigma related to being gay, using marijuana, and emotional vulnerability in male relationships, especially within the AAPI context?
IL: I hope people can see that we are multifaceted people. There are more stories we can tell than the usual LGBT movie, AAPI movie, stoner movie. There is not one way to act as an LGBT person – your sexual orientation does not represent your personality, not every LGBT film has to revolve around romance for instance. Just because someone ingests marijuana does not mean they’re a burnout that can’t take life seriously like in the movies, and not all AAPI movies have to be a fish out of water or family trauma story. We’re real people with much more real stories to tell than what the industry currently is showing. It’s interesting exploring point of views that haven’t been touched upon yet.
HX: We joke about it in the film, but we don’t really see much content out there with Asian guys talking about feelings. Asian men are usually portrayed as pretty stoic individuals who bottle up their feelings. The core of this film is really about a gay best friend coming out to his straight best friend and Ivan and I talked about how it’s actually quite a common scenario, yet it hasn’t really been presented in film. Layering the AAPI element on top of it, we wanted to show that Asian men can talk about their feelings and be vulnerable.
Many AAPI films and Hollywood stars are referenced in the film. How does the film contribute to greater cinema’s evolving AAPI, and queer, representation? Were there any cultural specificities or nuances you made sure to include to ensure a genuine representation?
IL: I think it’s funny, but we kind of just called out things that we had an opinion on and poked fun at it to help open conversations, and sometimes it just came rolling out of our mouths probably because we were living it. I just hope it starts some conversations.
HX: Given the meta nature of the project, I think we were able to tackle some of these things head on like how Hollywood stereotypes Asian men or how film marketers pander to gay audiences. Due to the improvisational elements of the film, we have so many other variations of scenes where we even talk about why Asian people don’t say “I love you” or where we talk about Olivia Rodrigo. Perhaps in the extended cut…?
Both of you display a wide range of emotional performances that truly drive the film’s deeper, more poignant themes. How did you channel these emotions for the more charged/contentious scenes, and how did you approach this balance with the overall comedic tone?
IL: Harrison and I built a lot of trust and respect (or lack of) for each other over the years. It’s fun and safe to act with someone around whom we can be our true selves. I was able to channel my amazing acting prowess because Harrison was there for me and didn’t judge what I was giving to him and vice versa (<—there was some sarcasm thrown in there, I’m not narcissistic. Just hilarious maybe). To be honest, I didn’t think of it much. We’re people. We can be funny and then a moment happens, and things can turn on its head at a drop of a hat. Or feelings could be built up over time internally that no one would notice until one event or one passing comment happens and that could be someone’s breaking point. It’s life.
HX: We shot mostly sequentially, so it was nice starting with the lighthearted comedic scenes and building toward the more emotionally charged scenes. I think the best comedies are the ones that have heart, and I think it’s always fun to surprise the audience after they’ve been laughing for so long to hit them with an emotional, honest scene. Also, Ivan is right, he is a tremendous actor who everyone needs to hire. He’s not only good at comedy, but fantastic at drama too. If you can nail comedy, you can nail drama, but it doesn’t always work the other way around.
What has been the most surprising or rewarding feedback you’ve received from audiences so far?
IL: The most surprising and rewarding feedback I think is that people really like or love it! HAHA. We made this for ourselves. We didn’t know how it would be received so it really makes me happy when audience members come up to us and say they felt seen and understood what we were trying to do too. It really makes me happy and feel really fulfilled.
HX: It’s been such a joy watching our movie in packed theaters. We’ve been lucky enough to sell out most of our screenings at festivals so far, and I love just sitting in the audience and hearing what jokes land and what don’t. Someone in Sonoma during our world premiere gave us a standing ovation and told us we should submit this to the Oscars, so I would say that was the most surprising! Obviously, we’re realistic… we’re not doing that.
Lastly, what does it mean to you to premiere “Extremely Unique Dynamic” at the Frameline Film Festival, particularly in San Francisco, a city known for its historic queer and AAPI movements?
IL: It’s SO validating! I was concerned if people would see our movie and wonder if it’s “gay enough” (which in my opinion it is), if it’s “Asian” enough (which I think it is), and if it’s considered a “stoner movie” (which I think it kinda is). It’s so validating to know that Frameline saw what we were trying to do and let us be a part of their historic family. I cannot be more ecstatic.
HX: Ivan couldn’t have said it better. But I also had to rewrite a lot of his responses and fix his spelling and grammar.
Thank you both for your thoughtful and thorough responses, we can’t wait to see your film again at Frameline!
“Extremely Unique Dynamic” will premiere with Ivan and Harrison at the Frameline Film Festival on June 22, 2024 3:30 PM — 4:37 PM at the Vogue Theatre. Tickets can be purchased here.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
