James Lee, Jinnyboy and I talking about short films (The Star, 6th of January, 2013)

Back in December, I did an interview with The Star's Kenneth Chaw for an article about the rising popularity of short films in Malaysia. The article came out exactly three weeks ago while I was still in Kanazawa. (I found out about that, naturally, from friends on Facebook.)

The other interviewees were filmmakers James Lee and Jin Lim (more popularly known as JinnyBoy), well, excuse ME for not having a name that starts with J.

Kenneth and I had a really long email interview, which never really made it to the final article, but I will be posting that later. For now, you can just have a look at the full article:

Solo adventures at Kanazawa (part 2)

I'll continue chronicling my Kanazawa trip from two weeks ago before it the tiny details slip out of my mind. Some of the anecdotes here were posted on Facebook, but I'll try to expand.

I've never seen a snowfall like this in Tokyo before

14th of January, 2013. When I woke up and looked out of my window, I was stunned to see this scenery.

Solo adventures at Kanazawa (part 1)

This is how I would start my travelogue...

"The passing days and months are eternal travellers in time. The years that come and go are travellers too. Life itself is a journey; and as for those who spend their days upon the waters in ships and those who grow old leading horses, their very home is the open road. And some poets of old there were who died while travelling.
There came a day when the clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to roam along the seashores. I returned to my hut on the riverbank last autumn, and by the time I had swept away the cobwebs, the year was over.
But when spring came with its misty skies, the god of temptation possessed me with a longing to pass the Barrier of Shirakawa, and road gods beckoned, and I could not set my mind to anything. So I mended my breeches, put new cords on my hat, and as I burned moxa on my knees to make them strong, I was already dreaming of the moon over Matsushima.
I sold my home and moved into Sampû’s guest house, but before I left my cottage I composed a verse and inscribed it on a poem strip which I hung upon a pillar:

This rude hermit cell
Will be different now, knowing Dolls’
Festival as well."

But alas, these words were already written, centuries earlier, by the poet Matsuo Basho, in his masterpiece "The Narrow Road in the Deep North".

Almost a week had gone by since I came back from Kanazawa. How would I chronicle such a trip then?

TINY PUPIL's 4-year-old actress wins best actress award at Yxine Film Festival

This happened last month, Chen Yu Ting, the (very young) lead actress of Teng Fei's TINY PUPIL (which I produced) had won the Best Female Performance award at the Yxine Film Festival.

None of us were able to attend the award ceremony in Hanoi on the 15th of December, so Chen Yu Ting accepted her award on video. She was 4 when the film was shot, 5 this year.

She also showed that her talent extended beyond just acting.

Countdown to New Year 2013 at Senso-ji Temple

It it unbelievable that I was having my fifth New Year countdown in Japan already.

You can immediately watch the video here if you are too lazy to read what I have to say.