tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84003622024-03-14T05:11:10.348+08:00Edmund YeoOfficial website of filmmaker Edmund YeoUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1583125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-73761852836176883162023-07-07T00:26:00.001+08:002023-07-07T00:26:27.131+08:00Clips and trailers from my works<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL03FBFA26B28B422A" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-50058977008284324502018-04-25T11:30:00.001+08:002018-04-25T11:30:25.596+08:00Compiling my own memories from Jan to April 2018<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Haven't updated in 4 months since 2018 started? Insane. So many things have happened! <br />
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A brief trip in Tokyo during the first week of 2008. (brief appearance on NHK too)<br />
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A trip to Europe in February for the Swiss premiere of AQERAT (it was my first time in Switzerland and the experience was awesome). <br />
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Also stopped by at Berlin Film Fest before Switzerland for the first time since 2009.<br />
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Started March with the Malaysia International Film Fest and the Malaysian premiere of AQERAT, met Ann Hui and Christopher Doyle at the closing ceremony! <br />
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A day after the ceremony, and a day or two before my own birthday, I received a "Most Outstanding Filmmaker" award from the Malaysian Chinese Film Association during their annual dinner. I was really just there for the food, and to meet up with film friends, didn't know they were giving out awards. -_-<br />
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Ended March with a film shoot in Hokkaido.<br />
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BgvdNEgB0d_/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Last scene for the day. It’s been fun, shooting amidst the majestic scenery!</a></div>
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A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/edmundyeo/" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank"> Edmund Yeo エドモンド·楊</a> (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2018-03-25T09:40:21+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Mar 25, 2018 at 2:40am PDT</time></div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BgtMzcZh4eE/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">The last time I shot in the snow was 7 years ago. For a short film called LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER. I was in Shirakawa-go. Kong was the cinematographer then as well. While the colour of the actresses jackets and having the same DoP gave me flashbacks of 7 years ago, I’m very sure it wasn’t as cold as today! (Didn’t help that I got a drastic haircut just a few days before coming here). Other than that, the shoot’s been fun. Looking forward to Day 2!</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg3wZ4rBk1O/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Thanks to Iwai Shunji’s LOVE LETTER, shooting in Hokkaido has always been a dream of mine for many many years. The past decade I had written some scripts which were excuses for me to do so. The projects never came to fruition, until now, with my 3rd feature film MALU. And so a few of us came here for a few days and shot our scenes. It’s been a joy working with the MALU family. They have left Japan this morning while I have flown from Hokkaido to Tokyo for other stuff, but the past week had been a tremendous joy! Here we were, filming, dining, having our misadventures. That’s why I’m so addicted to what I do! Thanks Malu family! Looking forward to the next and final phase of the shoot.</a></div>
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Now, April, I <a href="https://www.facebook.com/filmmakeredmundyeo/posts/10160170290230527">gave a talk at the University Malaysia Sarawak last week</a>. And I served as jury member at the Mini Film Festival, which is a short film festival that is run by students and lecturers in UNIMAS for the last 14 years. It's quite inspiring that such a festival can last for so long. It sure lasted longer than... KL International Film Fest (that one lasted for two years). <br />
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The crazy thing about the talk in the university was the growing realization that some of my very first short films, like CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY (which I screened to amused audiences) and LOVE SUICIDES, were done 10 years ago. <br />
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10 years ago, I didn't even think that I would be talking about my works 10 years later. <br />
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But I guess back then I was just trying to finish the damn films without thinking that much, just like what I do now. It's always strange to slow down, and then realize the passing of time. Even this journal, despite my lack of updates, it had really been around since 2004...<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-64708810969680694632017-12-31T11:39:00.000+08:002017-12-31T11:39:08.158+08:00Notes from the 22nd International Film Festival of Kerala<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The year is about to end, before it does I want to write about the International Film Festival of Kerala, which happened from Dec 8 to Dec 15, 2017 (I was there from Dec 7 to Dec 16, stayed throughout the duration of the festival). AQÉRAT was having its Indian premiere at the festival, <a href="http://iffk.in/aqerat/">as an opening film of its brand new section, Uprooted: Films on Identity & Space</a>, which are mostly films about refugees, displacement and search for identity.<br />
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The last time I ever been to India was 2007, so it took ten years to revisit the country. And Trivandrum, the city where the festival was held, was both familiar (reminds me of certain places in Malaysia) and not (the amazing audiences, the passion people have for cinema, it's one of a kind)<br />
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Each screening venue were huge auditoriums or theatres with a capacity of more than 800 people, with some of them seemingly meant for thousand over audiences. And having attended many screenings at the festival, it was amazing to see that the screenings were usually full, whether it was a 9am screening, regardless of the film, be it an arthouse film or a local Bollywood blockbuster, or an indie Malayalam film... or even my film. There would always be a long queue. And during Q and A, audiences would ask highly thoughtful and educated questions about the film. It was said that cinema is embedded within the blood of everyone there, from what I saw, I can't argue with that.<br />
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Aside from films, I also had a Tokyo Film Fest reunion with director Semih Kaplanoglu! (His new film "Grain" won the Grand Prix at Tokyo, while his previous film Honey was the Golden Bear winner at the Berlin Film Fest in 2010), having been too busy during the Tokyo Film Fest, it was great to finally catch his film in Kerala.<br />
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Aside from reunion with old friends, I also got to make new friends! <br />
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I even get to meet Alexander Sokurov, one of my heroes! He was there to pick up a Lifetime Achievement Award. Many thanks to the festival for doing a Sokurov retrospective, and a talk session with him.<br />
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List the films I saw in the festival.<br />
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1) The Insult (dir: Ziad Doueiri) (opening film)<br />
- This is when I experience the Kerala Film Fest crowd response for the very first time. People cheering, whistling and clapping their hands during moments in the film. Triumphant moments, when protagonists finally choose to do something decent, or a withering one-liner comeback, etc. A film about reconciliation of historical pain. <br />
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2) Sweet Country (dir: Warwick Thornton) <br />
- For some reason, as I sat through this film, I was reminded of John Hillcoat's The Proposition, which I saw in 2005 at the Luna Theater in Fremantle. I was still studying in Perth, and naturally I was curious about the state of Australian cinema. I made a point to catch a few films in the cinema, but The Proposition left the deepest impression. <br />
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3) Angels Wear White (dir: Vivian Qu)<br />
- I was vacationing in China last month when the film had its theatrical release. Although there were three multiplexes close to my hotel in Xiamen, none of them were showing this film. I'm glad to catch it. Teenage actress Wen Qi is exceptional!<br />
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4) Grain (dir: Semih Kaplanoglu) <br />
- Semih's famous Yusuf trilogy consisted of the films, "Egg", "Milk" and "Honey". "Grain", however, has nothing to do with the trilogy, it's a scifi meditation on survival.<br />
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5) 120 BPM (dir: Robin Campillo)<br />
- That soundtrack of this film by Arnaud Rebotini!!! Normally when one tells you that they "liked the soundtrack" of your film, most probably they have nothing else to say about the film, so I have to dispel it. I do think the film's great, there were moments in it so awesome in its visual flair. But that music just stayed in my head. Wish I had done the protest scenes in River of Exploding Durians with that much verve and energy.<br />
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6) Two Persons (dir: Prem Shankar)<br />
- A Malayalam film in competition. Set in one night, a man meets a woman, a nocturnal journey, they discuss about love, life and things that trouble them. <br />
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7) Loveless (dir: Andrey Zvyagintsev)<br />
- Yes, it's amazing. And I'm so glad the film had a theatrical release in Malaysia. There's a scene in AQÉRAT which was actually a homage to Zvyagintsev's previous film Leviathan ;)<br />
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8) Call Me By Your Name (dir: Luca Guadagnino)<br />
- Loved Guadagnino's "I Am Love", which I had constantly revisited. This one's actually more restrained and subtle, yet it lingers, like its song.<br />
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9) Newton (dir: Amit V Masurkar)<br />
- India's submission to the Oscars. A rousing, crowd-pleasing film, which, again, had audiences cheering and clapping hands during certain moments and lines of the film. <br />
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10) Let The Sunshine In (dir: Claire Denis)<br />
- My biggest regret was being too shy to say hello to Claire Denis when I saw her at the Jeonju International Film Festival in 2011. <br />
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11) A Fantastic Woman (dir: Sebastian Lelio)<br />
- Caught this on the last day of the festival. It was a morning screening, I woke up, I saw the Oscar's shortlist for Best Foreign Film. Among the 9 films, 2 I saw at the festival (Loveless and The Insult), so I needed to make it 3 instead. It was worth it. <br />
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12) Wajib (dir: Annemarie Jacir) (Golden Crow Pheasant Award winning film/ closing film)<br />
- Guy in returns to Nazareth from Rome to help his father hand deliver his sister's wedding invitation. Set entirely in one day, father and son road movie, cultural clashes (Palestinians abroad vs Palestinians at home), very universal. <br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-5954870167924443022017-12-07T19:55:00.000+08:002017-12-07T19:55:23.387+08:00Video recap of AQERAT at Tokyo International Film Festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9ZcRBAD8hIc" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />
<p>I am now waiting to fly off to India for the Kerala International Film Festival. I haven't been to India for 10 years, so I'm quite excited. I have to say that my previous trip was a memorable one. It was a month, I went to cities like Bangalore, New Delhi, and then going to places like Varanasi, Bodh Gaya etc. to make my pilgrimage. I was traveling with a Tibetan Rinpoche and a lama, I experienced the country in many different ways, from its beauty to its horrors, with images that seared into my mind until now. 10 years ago, I went to India, and after that, to Chile, I was 23. it was 2007. That was the year I met Woo Ming Jin and started a decade of collaboration, that was a year before I continued my studies in 2008. It cannot believe it's already been 10 years even though it did feel like a lifetime ago. <br />
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But before India, I would like to share with you all a video recap painstakingly shot by TK Cheng, Aqérat's line producer, assistant director, production designer (yes, he does many things). Throughout the trip in Tokyo Film Fest he had been carrying his camera taking photos, shooting videos, and this then, is a result of his hard work. Just to help us remember. Where would I be 10 years from now if I were to revisit this video again? Just like how I reminisce about my India and Chile trip from 2007? (The Chilean trip, in fact, <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/search/label/Chile%20Trip%202007">was written extensively in this blog</a>, it was the first ever film festival I attended as a producer, and it left a deep impression, footages I shot on my DV camcorder during the Indian trip, however, was used to edit a video essay called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bzuxVUWgu4">FLEETING IMAGES</a>.) <br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-55415767707583239732017-12-02T13:47:00.000+08:002018-01-06T11:18:38.724+08:00Memorable November<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fzu5xZfBcvM" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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This journal has existed since 2004, witnessing my days as a university student in Perth with dreams of filmmaking to the actual embarkation of my filmmaking journey. And thus it has witnessed many of my adventures and greatest triumphs, from my student short films in Murdoch during 2006 to directing a Japanese short film, KINGYO, that got into Venice Film Festival in 2009 to writing and producing Woo Ming Jin's TIGER FACTORY that got invited to the Director's Fortnight at Cannes Film Fest in 2010, and then winning the Sonje Award for Best Asian Short Film the same year at Busan Film Fest with another short film, INHALATION. <br />
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There are a lot of ups and downs, though I'm sure I don't really write the downs that much.<br />
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Exactly a month ago, November 3rd 2017, I received an award for Best Director at the Tokyo International Film Festival, for my latest film AQÉRAT (We, The Dead). My lead actress Daphne Low, who had worked with me since 2013 for the short film FLOATING SUN and then RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS, she received the festival's inaugural Tokyo Gemstone Award, which was for rising stars. That was her first ever award as an actress too!<br />
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Since then, the outpouring of congratulations, media coverage etc had been overwhelming.<br />
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As I stood on the stage then, it was difficult not to be emotional, firstly because I am aware of the film festival's history, and in 30 years of its history, many film greats had been recognized by the film festival, like Edward Yang and his Brighter Summer Day winning the Special Jury Award in 1991, while the Best Director award in the festival had won by filmmakers like Alan Parker, Yim Ho, Reza Mirkarimi, Guy Ritchie, Taylor Hackford, Ruben Ostlund, Alejandro Innaritu, Wu Tian-Ming, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the Safdie Brothers... to be mentioned with these greats is unbelievable, especially when I try to remember where I was when I saw the films they won their awards for. (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris won for 'Little Miss Sunshine', which harkened memories of my Perth days when I would go alone to the Luna Palace Cinemas in Fremantle, which specializes in arthouse films, with 'Little Miss Sunshine' being one of the films I saw then) <br />
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Then I thought of everyone who were part of my journey, from past to present, from Perth to Tokyo to back in Malaysia, teachers, mentors, comrades, companions who were involved in all my films, and I realized how fortunate I was that I have always met the right people who had helped me make worthy films that strengthened my belief in what I've been doing (well, there are some not-so-right people too, but they were rare, and they existed only as cautionary tales... or sources of irritation), with friendship that managed to endure. The connection I share with other people through film is one I cherish immensely, since being in love with cinema was such a lonely thing to do while I was growing up.<br />
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I remember in 2004 when I had a camcorder and I wanted to make a short film and one person decided to join me in this crazy quest. Here's to you, Justin. For being my best pal in Perth where we talked about films and literature, and for introducing people of J-Lit like Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Akutagawa, Junichiro Tanizaki etc. to me. So glad I got to meet up and celebrate with you a few days after the award ceremony. <br />
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So, November ended, and Facebook prompted me to remember what happened in the previous month. (after the Tokyo International Film Festival, I went off to become a surprise jury member at the Digicon6Asia a few days after, a surprise that surprised even myself)<br />
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It also reminded me of my 10-year friendship with Lesly the Cinematographer, who had been mentioned quite a few times here, having shot my short films like CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY, LOVE SUICIDES, AFTERNOON RIVER, NOW, FLOATING SUN, LOVE IS A DOG FROM HELL and finally AQERAT. <br />
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I'm afraid of making this post too self-congratulatory. Winning the award makes me grateful, and very humbling, but I still have to remember that I have half of a new film waiting for me to finish! And another new project I'm developing a story for! <br />
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</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-67927791404872568652017-08-24T15:03:00.001+08:002017-08-24T15:03:37.307+08:00Photos from Kampung Bagan Sungai Lima<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">When it comes to filmmaking, I always have this yearning to shoot it at places I've never been to before. Every new project, we'll have to go somewhere we've never been to before, I think it coincides with my love for traveling. <br />
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The past few weeks I've been visiting Kampung Bagan Sungai Lima (the "fifth river" in Malay), the village on this island are mostly on stilts. A quiet sleepy town, where people travel around only by walking or bicycles, it's almost as if I were transported somewhere else in time.<br />
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<center><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="7" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"><div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:28.14814814814815% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"><div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BXkGrlChwdj/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Location scouting</a></p><p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2017-08-09T07:09:21+00:00">Aug 9, 2017 at 12:09am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote><script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script><br />
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="7" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"><div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:28.14814814814815% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"><div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BXr7UZahZJF/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">A room with a view.</a></p><p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2017-08-12T08:03:59+00:00">Aug 12, 2017 at 1:03am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote><script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script><br />
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="7" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"><div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:28.14814814814815% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"><div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BXsZrWjhwoH/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Jetty of Five Rivers</a></p><p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2017-08-12T12:29:16+00:00">Aug 12, 2017 at 5:29am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote><script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script></center><br />
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-45651259059434977182017-06-30T01:03:00.000+08:002017-06-30T01:03:39.846+08:00Edward Yang. 10 Years later + Brighter Summer Day cast reunion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-89AjqYhf9hM/U3HIgsyQs0I/AAAAAAAAFY8/M6Yx7ZtRT1MBcsVEWLdxvy7rGdboUNaNACPcBGAYYCw/s1600/sjff_01_img0210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="516" height="302" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-89AjqYhf9hM/U3HIgsyQs0I/AAAAAAAAFY8/M6Yx7ZtRT1MBcsVEWLdxvy7rGdboUNaNACPcBGAYYCw/s400/sjff_01_img0210.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
The great filmmaker Edward Yang passed away exactly 10 years ago.<br />
<br />
That was 2007. I remember it most for being the year I got into the film industry. It was that one year between my return from Perth (late 2006) and my subsequent relocation to Tokyo (April Fool 2008).<br />
<br />
5 years ago, to mark the 5th anniversary of his passing, I <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2012/06/films-of-edward-yang.html" target="_blank">wrote this post</a> about his films.<br />
<br />
In that post, I remembered and chronicled my experiences of watching four of his films.<br />
<br />
(in this order)<br />
<br />
YI YI, THE TERRORIZERS, BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY and A CONFUCIAN CONFUSION.<br />
<br />
On the first time I saw YI YI:<br />
<blockquote>In the course of the film's 3-hour running time, I found myself mesmerized and amazed by the novelistic scope of the film, which seemed to cover every single aspect of humanity in the film. It was an absolutely rich experience, that the film would follow the lives of a typical Taiwanese family in the span of a year, beginning with a wedding and ending with a death, and the middle of it, we see the Father reminiscing his past love with an old lover, the Mother crying over the monotonous everyday life she had led, the Daughter undergoing the experience of first love, and the Son, gradually finding his own artistic side, taking photos of people's backs because he wanted to take photos of things that people could not see.<br />
<br />
Just like how the film was subtle in its majesty, my life, in a subtle way, was altered after watching the film, I never realized how much it would impact me.<br />
<br />
One particular scene that stood out to me had been a masterful sequence which featured a crosscutting between Father speaking to his old lover about their previous relationship while they were both in Japan, and Daughter, during her chaste first date. I stopped and looked at the sequence over and over, years later I would attempt its editing methods on Ming Jin's film WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER, and a couple of my shorts.</blockquote><br />
On the first time I saw A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY:<br />
<blockquote>It was also in 2008 when I saw the 4-hour film A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY (1991). This would end up as my favourite Edward Yang film of them all. Again, this was a sprawling tale set in the 60s and revolves around a 14 year old boy. The literal Chinese title was "THE MURDER INCIDENT IN GULING STREET", which was an incident that really happened during Edward Yang's teens, when a teenaged boy murdered his girlfriend who happened to also be involved with a teen gang leader. Therefore, knowing Chinese, what exactly happened towards the end of the film wasn't exactly a surprise, but watching it placed in context of the Taiwanese political environment then, and seeing how it affected the many primary characters in the film (the film had a cast of hundreds of amateurs), gradually consuming and eating their souls, the ending was inevitable.</blockquote><br />
Interestingly, in that post, I wrote about hearing news of A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY being restored, and how I have yearned to see the film on big screen. That was 2012. <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2015/10/busan-international-film-festival-2015_5.html">I managed to fulfil that dream at Busan Film Festival 2015</a>.<br />
<br />
From 2007 to 2010, I only managed to watch 4 of his films.<br />
<br />
From 2010 to 2013. <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2014/05/edward-yang.html" target="_blank">I finished the rest of the films from his filmography</a>. MAHJONG, THAT DAY ON THE BEACH, and finally, TAIPEI STORY.<br />
<br />
Those old posts I wrote, they are more detailed when it comes to articulating how I felt about the films.<br />
<br />
Anyway, in the last few days, as usual, a few film friends on Facebook had been commemorating and celebrating the works of Edward Yang.<br />
<br />
I joined in.<br />
<br />
<center><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffilmmakeredmundyeo%2Fposts%2F10158832819845527&width=500" width="500" height="552" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true"></iframe><br />
<br />
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffilmmakeredmundyeo%2Fposts%2F10158836552000527&width=500" width="500" height="627" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true"></iframe></center><br />
And finally, a video from a recent BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY cast reunion. Somehow I can only embed the video and not my post, so I'll include what I wrote on my FB post.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>10 years ago Edward Yang passed away. After his death I started watching his films. It was a year after I got back from Perth and a year before I moved to Tokyo.<br />
I started with YI YI, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of cinema. After that, I went to Tokyo, on one afternoon I managed to watch BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY. Life changed. I have watched the film a few times in the past decade, including its restored version on the big screen. Aside from Chang Chen,Elaine Jin and Lawrence Ko, most of the cast members remained in my mind, perpetually frozen in time, looking the way they look in the film.<br />
<br />
So it feels so amazing to see this BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY cast reunion!!! Everyone looks so different after 25 years! Especially Cat, seeing him as an adult blows my mind (he's supposed to be in subsequent Edward Yang films but I couldn't recognise him)</i></blockquote><br />
<center><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftghff%2Fvideos%2F10155531308246180%2F&show_text=1&width=560" width="560" height="489" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true"></iframe></center><br />
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</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-62722594104294404522017-06-09T19:05:00.000+08:002017-06-09T19:05:06.624+08:00Remembering Auntie Tan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Exactly a week ago, I was taking a plane to Langkawi for a wedding. A few hours before I flew off, I paid my respects to Auntie Tan, a dear family friend who passed away the night before.<br />
<br />
While I was flying I wrote a post to remember her.<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="587" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffilmmakeredmundyeo%2Fposts%2F10158687368230527&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe></center>
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<br />
<blockquote>
I am writing this while I’m flying to Langkawi for a wedding. It’s one of those pleasant flights where I’m fortunate enough to have an entire row for myself. Too bad the flight is so short.<br />
<br />
Right now, I want to write about a very dear family friend who had just passed away yesterday. All these years, I’ve called her “Auntie Tan”. A great friend of my mom’s, a person our entire family had been very fond of.<br />
<br />
This morning before going to the aiport, I went to her house to pay my last respects. That was the least I could do. I was going to miss her funeral for a wedding, it almost felt like a dark cosmic twist.<br />
<br />
“Always cheerful, always smiling and always laughing, this is how I will always remember you. Thank you.” I said in my heart as I stood before her coffin.<br />
<br />
I first met her when I was 15, it was a trip to Hong Kong. It was a momentous Buddhist occasion. A bone fragment of the Buddha was being venerated and exhibited in public. Coming along with my family were two of my mother’s friends, one was Auntie Jennifer, the other was Auntie Tan. I knew Auntie Jennifer before that because her son is a friend from high school (while her other son would later marry my cousin :D ) our connections are quite deep, apparently.<br />
<br />
Some of my memories of Auntie Tan, for me, are of the family trips we took over the years, usually for Buddhist reasons. Hong Kong in 1999, a memorable trip to India in 2007. Or the Buddhist ceremonies she would always attend with mom. I remember too the durians she brought us. They are just simple memories, nothing dramatic, but the way she called my name was rather distinctive too. (sounds more like 宇恒/以恒 than 毅恒)<br />
<br />
We learnt that she had cancer a few weeks ago. Since then I have visited her a few times. She remained in good spirits, telling me about a niece of hers that she really wanted me to meet because she's studying performance art. Also reminded me that I can just treat her like my own mom.<br />
There’s not more I can say, but also a memory I have of Auntie Tan. It's a memory of a personal loss.<br />
14th of July, 2012. My grandmother died. We rushed to Ipoh, and spent the entire night chanting mantra. My uncles and aunts, my cousins, we were all awake the whole night to give my grandmother a proper send-off.<br />
<br />
One of the most unexplainable things about my grandmother’s passing is that I couldn't seem to cry at all. Despite how close I was to her since I was a child. The tears flowed freely from those around me, yet my eyes were so, so dry. From learning news of her death to the funeral to the burial. It baffled me. Was I so numb?<br />
<br />
But my memory is inaccurate, just like the above paragraph. Some brief moments tend to linger longer than others.<br />
On the morning of 15th of July, as the earliest light of the sun lit up the sky, we started making preparations for grandma’s funeral. In the midst of this, the first two people to arrive, who drove more than 2 hours to Ipoh, were Auntie Jennifer and Auntie Tan.<br />
When I saw them standing in front of the gate, looking for my mom, I cried then.<br />
<br />
(This photo was taken in 2010, Chinese New Year. We were visiting Auntie Tan's house. She was offering me my most beloved pineapple tarts. In the background was her husband Uncle Tan, who passed away not long after this photo was taken. Rest in peace.)</blockquote>
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" data-header="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edmundyeo/4499581779/" title="Auntie Tan, Uncle Tan and Seng Guan"><img alt="Auntie Tan, Uncle Tan and Seng Guan" height="266" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2682/4499581779_6c6596a6cc_z.jpg" width="400" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script></center>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-72106235282522099472017-05-18T19:30:00.000+08:002017-05-18T19:30:04.636+08:00The Starbucks Old Man<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm now hanging out at Starbucks, supposedly trying to write.<br />
<br />
What I'm supposed to write:<br />
New script. A tale of two sisters told through multiple timelines, a merging of past and present, dream and reality. It is supposed to happen in Japan and Malaysia.<br />
<br />
What I am writing now instead:<br />
This journal entry.<br />
An observation of an old man seated next to me.<br />
<br />
For the past two hours, ever since I came in, the old man had been sitting here, his table covered entirely with newspapers. He had been staring at the papers, but I'm not sure whether he is reading it. He hasn't been flipping the pages, so I'm really curious whether he is reading or staring.<br />
<br />
There are two cups before him, paper cups from Starbucks. He was just drinking water, no coffee in sight. He had not been ordering anything at all.<br />
<br />
I think I've seen a similar old man in a Starbucks at a different mall, I wonder whether it's the same guy.<br />
<br />
I find myself remembering those sleepless nights that I have spent in McDonald's at Tokyo few years ago. I was also writing a script for a film (it was never made).<br />
<br />
For a few consecutive nights I saw the same elderly people who hang out there after midnight. Presumably homeless. They would just order a 100 yen drink and spend the whole night there.<br />
<br />
I remember an old man who sat across from me, always holding a really thick dictionary-like book in his hands, and constantly wiping the table meticulously, compulsively with tissue paper. The repetition of his movement left me a little distracted.<br />
<br />
And thus I find myself experiencing deja vu across time and space. The old man in Starbucks, who is reading but not really reading the newspapers. Who has two paper cups of water put beside a loaf of bread that he has brought over by himself. Who is now in a state of half-asleep and is constantly scratching himself and rubbing his hands together (the air-conditioner is admittedly a little chilly today), occasionally wiping his hands compulsively with tissue paper he had casually taken from the counter.<br />
<br />
Merging of past and present, dream and reality, blah blah blah.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-5347396625561265612017-05-18T14:37:00.001+08:002017-05-18T14:37:19.651+08:00Jenny<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Whenever I'm in the midst of writing a new script, I often try to dig into my own memories.<br />
<br />
Either they are events from my past,<br />
or people I've met,<br />
or something I've read.<br />
<br />
It becomes some heightened state of awareness, where I begin remembering things I thought I remember. At the same time too, I wonder whether what I remember had really happened or were they just product of my imagination manifested because of my loneliness.<br />
<br />
There's always my memory of a person whose existence I gradually starting to question, as no one else seem to remember her at all.<br />
<br />
No sign of her on Facebook (her name was too common).<br />
<br />
No memory of her voice as we had never spoken to one another.<br />
(I<br />
was<br />
shy<br />
...?)<br />
<br />
My last memory of her was my last day as the president of the English Language Club in high school. I was Form 5 and stepping down, my (handpicked) successor was someone from Form 6. (my choice was either a Form 4 junior whose work ethics I questioned, or a Form 6 outsider, I chose the latter)<br />
<br />
I gave a farewell speech. To my surprise, she was in the room too. She wasn't a member of the club, but maybe she was there because she was a friend of my successor? (she was also a Form 6 student) Perhaps she was there to see her classmate take over the club?<br />
<br />
I was almost half the age that I am now, and as I (probably) fumbled through the speech, the only feeling I felt then was how surreal the entire situation was. I cannot remember what I've said, yet I remember her seated on the second last row of the classroom. She wasn't paying attention to the speech, which was okay, I wasn't paying attention to it either.<br />
<br />
Did I imagine her existence?<br />
Could it be possible that the sheer crushing loneliness that I felt during the last few months of secondary school had prompted me to conjure an imaginary person in my mind?<br />
<br />
If she is real, I doubt I will ever see her again.<br />
(Not the luminous eyes nor the (dark brown?) hair tied up in a ponytail,<br />
nor the constant pink flush no her cheeks.)<br />
<br />
If she is real, I hope she is happy now.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-66790507039077390932017-04-09T10:30:00.000+08:002017-04-09T10:40:16.436+08:00To the writer of the "Edmund Yeo and Malaysian films " article<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It is 3:30 am in the morning. I was trying to write on this journal an entry about a new project of mine called YASMIN-SAN, which is either a documentary or a film essay. I thought I had to write about it because I was about to start recording my own voiceovers for the film. I'm generally camera-shy and self-conscious (I don't appear in my own films), the idea of recording MY OWN VOICE for a film project left me a little uncomfortable. But YASMIN-SAN is going to be screened in public two weeks from now, so I don't have much of a choice!<br />
<br />
9 years ago, I attempted a film essay called FLEETING IMAGES. It happened a few weeks after I moved to Tokyo. Adjusting to a new life in a new country, I clung on to my lifelong love: cinema and literature. I brought many DVDs with me to watch, one of them happened to be Chris Marker's SANS SOLEIL. After I watched it in one lovely Spring afternoon, I realized my life was changed, my senses realigned, and it opened up to me the infinite possibilities of cinema. So I made FLEETING IMAGES, I had a lot of beautiful and bittersweet memories of this project. For the award I won, the unexpected appreciation it received, for the people I met, for the person I met after its very first public screening.<br />
<br />
<center><div style="position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:75.0%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2bzuxVUWgu4?ecver=2" width="480" height="360" frameborder="0" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></center><br />
I tried Googling FLEETING IMAGES as I was writing that post (trying to find its Youtube embed code, which I added above this paragraph), and stumbled upon a Japanese article in the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia website, which I believed was written last June as part of the Southeast Asia Program & Symposium.<br />
<br />
In the article <a href="http://www.shortshorts.org/southeast_asia/column/malaysia-en.php">"Edmund Yeo and Malaysian films"</a>, the author wrote about his (her?) first encounter with FLEETING IMAGES, which was essentially his introduction to Malaysian cinema.<br />
<br />
After reading it, I decided to put my initial post aside and write this instead. I wanted to thank the writer, but I couldn't find a place to leave my comments. I wasn't too sure whom the author was either, but after reading it I felt nothing but gratitude. <br />
<br />
I will put the entire article here (which is translated in English), along with its original Japanese text.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><b>Edmund Yeo and Malaysian films</b><br />
2016/06/07<br />
#1<br />
<br />
It has already been seven years since I first met the guy. To put it more accurately, maybe I should say, when I first met the guy’s short film—.<br />
<br />
A woman’s monologue was accompanied by various clips that began in Japan, on to Malaysia, India, and so on. If these unrelated clips that filled the screen happened to be still pictures instead of videos, maybe it would have reminded me of Chris Marker’s La Jetée. Emotions that words can’t explain, bustling intentions that can’t be replaced with languages, aspirations that continue pleading to be expressed… These things came fluttering down from the screen, and I found myself trying to capture each and every one of them with both of my hands. But before I knew it, they slipped past me and continued to flow toward their next travel destination, as if there’s a meaning to continue flowing for eternity and to never reach the destination for all eternity.<br />
<br />
The guy’s film called Fleeting Images was exactly like that.The creator was a Malaysian man named Edmund Yeo. My first impression was, “So this is the guy…”<br />
<br />
Edmund’s film Fleeting Images should be called “Short-lived Images”. The images that flowed and disappeared every second and every instant with the flow of time, was similar to that instantaneous flicker of our lives: elusive, haphazard, and the destination unknown. A letter filled with an ephemeral emotion is handed to us without telling us who it’s addressed to, and the voice that reads the letter becomes a distant echo, resists the flow of time, and continues to resonate in our ears.<br />
<br />
Who is it addressed to? Without knowing, the woman’s monologue becomes grains of words, crystalizes through the flowing time, and awakens a piece of our memory as it turns and runs away.<br />
While a couple of letters turn into the echo of a monologue and disappear between time and space, we quietly wait for the next page to be turned…You can say that seeing his films is like reading through a book. It’s a repetition of experiences. What’s important is not to give a fixed meaning to it. Rather than that, we must embrace the endless sway of transience as it is. It’s to continue this behavior in order to keep reliving the time.So this is the guy who depicted all that…<br />
<br />
The guy in front of me didn’t look like a movie youth or like a literary youth at all. An innocent smile filled his dark-colored face and “friendly” and “lovable” were the adjectives that fit him perfectly.<br />
<br />
Until then, I hadn’t had the opportunity to come face to face with a Malaysian person, so he was my first Malaysian friend. From his Chinese name, I kind of predicted he’d be a Chinese Malaysian, but his looks greatly defied my shallow speculation and I found myself sitting up straight. It was out of respect for the creator. This film’s unexpected surprise of beginning in Malaysia and going through Japan, will continue to touch my heart.<br />
<br />
This is what triggered me to begin thinking about Malaysian films—.In Japan, Yasmin Ahmad is a prominent figure, but how many of us know the background, the present, and the future of Malaysian films……? Edmund mentioned this in an interview once— “The country of Malaysia consists of multiple ethnic groups and cultures. We all have our distinct ways of living. So in my case, since I’m Malaysian Chinese, the characters of my films speak Mandarin, but I think the flow of time and methods of visual expressions we use in our filmmaking as well as the emotions that exist are totally different from what you see in Taiwanese films, Hong Kong films, and Chinese films. (“OUTSIDE IN TOKYO” )<br />
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The multiethnic country, Malaysia. Although it mainly consists of Chinese people, just like the distinct development of its cuisine, films have also taken shape by absorbing a variety of sensibilities and tastes. That’s why I don’t feel that Edmund’s films are different from ours.<br />
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From Japan to Malaysia, and on to India, the fleeting fragments of images continue on as if they’re passing through a corridor, coupled with the monologue that tickles our ears as they pass by, taking us back to a nostalgic time and place that we possibly knew in the past. It’s the present but no longer the present. It was once a time in the past, but not anymore. It’s like a mixture of a faint memory and a premonition…… Each element is huddled together but then untangled once again…….<br />
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From Japan to Malaysia and on to India, transcending space and time, memories are linked together and images shimmer as they connect with one another. It’s something that’s created by passing through Malaysia, a topos where various times and cultures wander back and forth. That is the very reason why a certain richness is fostered and people who are no different from all of us begin living lives that are no different from ours… inside the film of Edmund Yeo.<br />
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#2<br />
Now let’s talk about Malaysian films… Well, I’m not actually well-versed and knowledgeable about Malaysian films. I only have a general knowledge. But my encounter with Edmund Yeo no doubt changed that a little bit.Yasmin Ahmad, a leading figure in the Malaysian film industry, passed away (summer of 2009) right after my encounter with Edmund, and special screenings to commemorate her took place in various locations. Let me introduce an Asahi Shimbun article from back then.<br />
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“Malaysia’s female film director Yasmin Ahmad, who has led the new trend of Southeast Asian films, passed away last month on the 25th from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 51. Her films that captured the realities of a multiethnic nation with humor and satire were screened in various film festivals in Japan and gained popularity. Her passing came just before the kickoff of her new film which included shooting in Japan. After graduating from a university in England, she became a TV commercial director for a Malaysian advertisement company. Her commercials with messages toward cross-cultural understanding and supporting the vulnerable, received high acclaim. She made her film debut with the feature film Rabun in 2003. The autobiographical film series featuring a young girl Orked, received international attention. Ahmad committed herself to supporting young directors in Malaysia and Singapore. She called herself “The storyteller”. She valued entertainment and creating content that was easy-to-understand for all. On the other hand, she cut through Malaysia’s intercultural conflicts and discrimination structure where ethnic groups such as Malay, Chinese, and Indian coexisted, and the screenings of her films often got axed. Her second film Sepet (2004) about the first romance between a Malaysian girl and a Chinese boy, received the Best Asian Film Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF). In a blog post prior to her passing, she mentioned that receiving recognition at TIFF etc. motivated her to keep pursuing her activities. Her maternal grandmother is Japanese. She mentioned that Otoko-wa-tsurai-yo (It’s Tough Being a Man) was her favorite film. Her newest film Wasurenagusa was going to be based on her grandmother in which she explores her roots. The filming was scheduled to take place in October in locations such as Ishikawa Prefecture.” (Asahi Shimbun September 9th 2009. ‘The greatest director of Malaysia’s film industry, Yasmin Ahmad, passes away.’<br />
http://www.asahi.com/showbiz/movie/TKY200908070263.html)<br />
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The death of Ahmad, who led the new wave of Malaysia, triggered people to reaffirm the frameworks of Malaysian films. I say this because I feel that new talents and gems in the filming industry are cutting their developmental stages short and moving into action.<br />
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Film festivals such as the Tokyo International Film Festival and Tokyo FILMEX have been introducing such Malaysian films both consecutively and at one-time screenings. As a result, young Malaysian talents such as Pete Teo (multi-talented music producer, film producer, and actor), James Lee (prominent figure in the Malaysian independent film industry), Lisa Surihani (leading actress in today’s Malaysian film industry), gradually became known (though it may be just among some).<br />
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Then in 2013 and 2015, special screenings such as “Cine Malaysia 2013 – Festival of Malaysian Film, Tokyo” and “Malaysian Film Week” took place to introduce the attractiveness of Malaysian films. There’s no doubt that this is an era in which new trends of Malaysian films exist and that there’s a ripple that hints something is about to emerge from there.<br />
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Now let’s return to talking about Edmund Yeo.Since encountering his film Fleeting Images, I’ve intentionally began pursuing his films. It’s because he belonged to Kohei Ando’s seminar at Waseda University and was using that as a backbone to create films one after another.<br />
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Kingyo (2009, submitted to the Venice Film Festival), Inhalation, Exhalation (both in 2010), Last Fragments of Winter (2012)… Each and every one of Edmund’s films adopts a slightly different style and topic. His inspirations include directors such as Tarkovsky, Edward Yang, Hirokazu Koreeda, but above that, Mr. Kohei Ando told me that Edmund loves Yasunari Kawabata. As if to prove that, Kingyo breaks free from locations and time, and fosters various cultures and multiple styles which are the backbone of Edmund’s films and includes new attractive elements of Malaysian films which would not have been created within the contained realm of Japan. No other location or time could have created that certain something that directly reaches out to us.<br />
It’s not something that can be born and talked about using a single proper noun like Japan or Malaysia. It’s something that can only be born through the framework of Asia as well as the places and time where random cultures clash and react to one another while creating a buzz.<br />
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Edmund Yeo’s films not only help us focus our attention there but also continues to flow at the very center of all that.<br />
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#Postscript<br />
Edmund Yeo’s first feature film River of Exploding Durians (2014) is a film in which he personally pursues the origin. A must-see.<br />
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<b>エドモンド楊とマレーシア映画</b><br />
2016/06/07<br />
#1<br />
そいつと初めて会ったのは、もう7年前になる。より正確には、そいつのショートフィルムと初めて会ったのはと、言い換えたほうがよいか──。女性のモノローグが流れる背景で映像もまた流れ、日本を起点にしながらマレーシア、インド……と、まるで脈絡などなかったようにしてスクリーンを流れてゆく映像は、もしそれが動画でなく静止画だったなら、クリス・マルケルの『ラ・ジュテ』を想起させたかもしれない。<br />
言葉によって説明しようのない想い、言語によって置き換えることのできない思惟のざわめき、表現されることを訴えつづける希求……そうしたものが、スクリーンからはらはらとこぼれでて、ぼくは思わず、それらすべてを両手で受けとめようとする。<br />
けれど、それらはいつの間にかぼくのあいだをすり抜けて、次の旅先を目指して流れつづけてゆく。まるで、永遠に流れつづけること、永遠に到達しないことに意味があるかのように……。そいつの『イメージのはかなさ』(Fleeting Images)は、まるでそんな作品だった。作者は、マレーシア人で、エドモンド楊という。その第一印象は、こいつがそうなのか──と。<br />
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エドモンドの映画『イメージのはかなさ』は、むしろ「つかの間のイメージ」と呼んだほうがよいだろう。1秒ごと、一瞬ごと、時間の流れのまにまに流れ去ってゆくイメージは、ぼくたちが生きている一瞬のまたたきにも似て、とらえどころがなく、行き当たりばったりで、到着点すら知らない。ひとつの手紙にこめられたその刹那な思いは、宛名も知らないままにぼくたちの目の前に差し出され、その手紙を読む声だけが、遠い木霊となりながら、時間の流れにあらがってぼくたちの耳に響きつづける。<br />
誰に宛てられたものなのか、それすら知らせられないまま、女性のモノローグはまるで言葉のつぶのようになって流れゆく時間のなかで結晶化し、ぼくたちの記憶の断片を呼び覚ましながら、フイっと逃げ去ってゆく。<br />
いくつかの手紙がモノローグの響きだけになって時間と空間のあわいに消え去ってゆくあいだ、ぼくたちはじっと静かに、次の頁が繰られるのを待っているのだろう……。<br />
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そう、彼の映画を見ることは、まるで一冊の書物を聴くのにも似て、繰り返される経験のようなのだ。大事なのは、そこになにかの意味を固定させることではない。そうではなくて、留められることのない儚さなの揺らぎを、そのまま受けとめつづけること。その行為を繰り返しつづけることによって、その時間を生き直しつづけること……。そんなことを、この男が描いたのか──。<br />
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目の前にいる彼は、まるで映画青年ぽくも、からきし文学青年ぽくもなく、浅黒い顔にくったくのない笑顔を浮かべて人なつこく、憎めないやつという言葉がそのまま人のかたちをとったかのようだった。それまで、マレーシアの人ときちんと対峙したことなどなかったぼくにとっては初めてのマレーシア人の友人であり、漠然とその中国系の名前から中華系マレーシアンを予想していた浅はかな思惑から大きく外れる彼のたたずまいに、ぼく自身はむしろ、居ずまいを正す。作者への敬意とともに。そして、マレーシアから日本を経て生まれたこのショートフィルムの不意打ちが、ぼくの心を打ちつづけることになるのだ。それからだった、マレーシア映画というものを考えるようになったのは──。<br />
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日本では、ヤスミン・アハマドの名前が突出して知られてはいるが、マレーシア映画の背景にあるものと、その現在、そしてこれからについて、どれほどのことが知られているものか……。エドモンドはあるインタヴューでこんなことを語っている──「マレーシアという国は、複数の民族と文化から成り立っている国です。私たちは皆、それぞれに異なる生活様式を持っているのです。ですから、私の場合は、マレーシア系中国人ですので、映画の登場人物たちは皆、北京語で話していますけれども、私たちの映画における時間の流れや視覚的な表現方法、そして、そこに息づいている感情といったものは、台湾映画や香港映画、中国映画で見られるものとは相当異なっているのではないかと思います」(「OUTSIDE IN TOKYO」 )<br />
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多民族国家、マレーシア。中国系を中心にして構成されてはいても、その料理が独自の発展を遂げてきたように、映画もまた、さまざまな感性とテイストをのみ込みながらかたちづくられてきた。だからこそ、彼、エドモンドの映画がぼくたち自身と異なっているとは思わない。日本からマレーシアを経てインドへ、回廊を抜けるようにして連なってゆくつかの間の映像=イメージの欠片たちは、耳をくすぐりながら過ぎてゆくモノローグとあいまって、かつて知っていたかもしれない懐かしい時間と空間へと、ぼくたちを連れ戻す。それは、いまであってももはやいまではない時間、かつてであってももはやかつてではない空間、かすかな記憶と予感のようなものが混じり合ったもの……とでも。そう、さまざまな物ごとが寄り集まりながらももういちど解きほぐされていったなにか……。<br />
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日本からマレーシアを抜けてインドへ、空間と時間を超えて記憶はつらなり、印象は揺らめきながら通じ合う。マレーシアという、さまざまな時間と文化が行き来するトポスを経ることによって醸し出されたなにか。それゆえにこそ、ある豊かさが醸成され、ぼくたちと変わりない人物たちが、ぼくたちと変わりない人生を生き始めるのだ。彼、エドモンド楊の映画のなかで──。<br />
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#2<br />
さて、ここでマレーシア映画について……などと書けるほどに、ぼく自身、マレーシアの映画事情に通暁しているわけではない。ごく一般的な知識をもち合せているにすぎない。のだが、エドモンド楊との出会いが、それを少し変えてくれたことは確かだった。マレーシア映画界を代表するヤスミン・アハマドが、エドモンドと知り合って、そのしばらくのちに亡くなり(2009年の夏のこと)、その後、彼女を追悼する特集上映があちこちで組まれた。当時の朝日新聞の追悼記事を紹介しておこう。<br />
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「東南アジア映画の新潮流をリードしてきたマレーシアの女性監督ヤスミン・アハマドが先月25日に51歳で脳出血で死亡した。多民族国家の現実をユーモアと風刺を交えて描いた作品は、日本でも様々な映画祭で上映され人気を集めた。日本ロケもある新作にとりかかる矢先の急逝だった。英国の大学を卒業後、マレーシアの広告会社のCMディレクターに。異文化理解や弱者支援などのメッセージCMで高い評価を得た。03年の初長編『ラブン』で、映画界に進出。少女オーキッドを主人公とする自伝的連作で国際的な注目を浴び、マレーシアやシンガポールの若手監督のサポートにも尽力した。自称『語り部』。誰にでもわかる娯楽性を大切にした。一方で、マレー系、中国系、インド系が共存するマレーシアの文化間対立や差別構造にも鋭く切り込み、本国では上映中止の危機にもたびたび直面した。マレー系の少女と華人の少年の初恋を描いた第2作『細い目』(04年)で東京国際映画祭(TIFF)の最優秀アジア映画賞を受賞。亡くなる前の自身のブログでは、TIFFなどでの評価が活動を続ける支えになったと述懐していた。母方の祖母は日本人。最も好きな映画に『男はつらいよ』を挙げた。次回作『ワスレナグサ』は祖母をモデルに自らのルーツを探る内容で、10月には石川県などで撮影を予定していた」(朝日新聞2009年8月9日「マレーシア映画界の名匠、ヤスミン・アハマド監督逝く」)<br />
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マレーシア・ニューウェイヴを牽引してきたとされる彼女の死は、だが、マレーシア映画という枠組みを再確認させることになったのではないだろうか。ヤスミン・アハマドという存在の不在を埋めるべく、新たな才能、新たな逸才が揺籃期を早々に切り上げ、次々と胎動し始めたように思えるからだ。<br />
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東京国際映画祭や東京フィルメックス、あるいはそのほかの映画祭でも継続的単発的にそうした新たなマレーシア映画は紹介されてゆき、ピート・テオ(音楽プロデューサーで映画プロデューサーで俳優でもある多彩な人物)、ジェイムズ・リー(マレーシア・インディペンデント映画の大立者)、リサ・スリハニ(マレーシア映画界の〈いま〉を代表する女優)ら、若きマレーシアンな才能たちについて、次第に知られるようになっていった(ごく一部でかもしれないが……)。<br />
<br />
やがて、2013年、2015年と、マレーシア映画の魅力を伝える特集上映「シネ・マーレシア2013★マレーシア映画の現在」および「マレーシア映画ウィーク」も開催され、マレーシア映画の新しい動きが確実に存在しているということ、そしてそこから、なにかが生まれでようとしているさざめきが確実に聴き取れる時代となってきた。さて、話をエドモンド楊に戻そう。<br />
<br />
初めて彼の作品『イメージのはかなさ』に接してから、ぼくは意識してエドモンド作品を追いかけるようになった。所属していた早稲田大学の安藤紘平ゼミをバックボーンとして、エドモンドは次々を作品を送り出していたからだ。<br />
『Kingyo(金魚)』(2009年、ヴェネツィア映画祭に出品)、『避けられない事』『避けられる事』(ともに2010年)、『冬の断片』(2012年)……。そのいずれもが、少しずつスタイルも異なり、主題も異なってゆくエドモンド映画。彼は、タルコフスキーやエドワード・ヤン、是枝裕和といった監督の名を、影響を受けた人物として挙げているが、それ以上に好きなのは川端康成だと、安藤紘平さんからうかがった。それを証すかのような、『Kingyo』の場所と時間を超えた味わいのなかに、日本という殻からは生まれてこない、さまざまな文化と複数の様式に支えられたエドモンド映画の、さらにはマレーシアの新たな映画の魅力が醸成され、ほかのどの場所と時間からも生まれてはこないだろうなにかを、真っすぐに訴えているのを感じとる。それは、日本でもなく、マレーシアでもなく、ただひとつの固有名詞によって語られ、そこから生まれ落ちるものではない。アジアという枠組、雑多な文化がざわめきをあげながらぶつかり合い、反応し合う場と時間からしか、産声をあげることなどできないものだ。エドモンド楊の映画は、そこへと目を開かせてくれると同時に、そのまん中でいまもつねに流れづづけている──。<br />
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#追記<br />
エドモンド楊の処女長編『破裂するドリアンの河の記憶』(2014年)は、彼自身がその源流を追いかけた作品でもある。必見。</blockquote><br />
He described how my film has touched his heart, I too wanted to say that my heart is touched by this article. In case the article will ever be removed from the Short Shorts website, I will still have it in this journal. So I can hold on to it longer.<br />
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I also wanted to tell the author that him being reminded by Chris Marker's La Jetée isn't that surprising, after all, I was blatantly paying homage to his other film, SANS SOLEIL.<br />
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And now, as I am about to begin recording my voiceover for YASMIN-SAN, I would also want to tell him that, coincidentally, not only am I doing another work influenced by Chris Marker, I am also covering the late great filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad. However, when making YASMIN-SAN, the Chris Marker work in my mind was A.K., his 1985 film essay/ documentary which chronicled the making of Akira Kurosawa's RAN. A "making-of" documentary which veered into subjects like Kurosawa's personal childhood, World War 2, the spontaneous nature of filmmaking, the bond between cast and crew, and many others. I hope when I am done with YASMIN-SAN, I can add another piece of memory for someone like the author of the above article.<br />
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-65368713367426914312017-04-03T11:48:00.001+08:002017-04-03T11:48:57.048+08:00Birthday and other moments in snowy Yubari International Film Festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Last month, I suddenly made the decision to go to Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, firstly because I've never been to Yubari before, secondly because the festival coincided with my birthday, and I thought spending my birthday in the snow would be great. I will now post these to help myself remember.<br />
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And so I went. Due to my flight getting delayed, I ended up having to take the more convoluted route there. Usually there would be a direct bus to Yubari from Shin-Chitose Airport (close to Sapporo), but the bus only runs until 6pm. After that I had no choice but to take the train, which involved switching lines, and waiting in near empty stations. It was quite atmospheric.<br />
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<center><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 28.14814814814815% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BRNuMSnhXif/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Shin Yubari station. I was happy to see the snow. For a while I thought I was the only person there.</a></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-03-04T11:23:42+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Mar 4, 2017 at 3:23am PST</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script></center><br />
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<a name='more'></a>Being in a train station with these film festival posters made me confident that I was about to arrive at the place.<br />
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<center><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 28.14814814814815% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BROHgCShoRz/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">That was me, waiting for the train to Yubari. Got there at 7:30pm and managed to catch two films at the film festival.</a></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-03-04T15:04:51+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Mar 4, 2017 at 7:04am PST</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script></center><br />
When I arrived at Yubari, I immediately headed to a screening venue (at Hotel Shuparo) to catch a few films in competition. The screening was a double bill of OCHIRU 堕ちる by Kazuya Murayama and はめられて THE ROAD TO LOVE by Shoichi Yokoyama. <br />
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OCHIRU is a 30-minute short film (and the only short film in competition, the rest were features, interesting programming) with a song that was stuck in my head for days. It tells the story of a middle-aged textile craftsman (they make kimono) and his gradual addiction towards an underground idol "Meme Tan". I'll just share the synopsis from the festival page.<br />
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<blockquote>Kiryu City is located in Gunma prefecture, where the textile industry was once popular. Kohei, who is a textile craftsman at a deserted weaving factory, encountered the local underground idol "Meme Tan" and he is gradually addicted to her charm. He regains the feelings he forgot ...<br />
A concentrated 30 - minute love story of a middle - aged man and his agonizing romantic feelings for her progress with the song "wonderland" of the underground idol. What is waiting for the serious textile craftsman's "Gachi love" and where it "falls"!?</blockquote><br />
<center><div style="height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OGmLYUMbZMY?ecver=2" style="height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; width: 100%;" width="640"></iframe></div></center><br />
Lead actor Makoto Nakamura's 中村 まこと nearly wordless (I think he only had one line in the entire short) deadpan performance spoke volumes.<br />
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The following film, THE ROAD TO LOVE, is a fun 60-minute tale.<br />
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<blockquote>Haruo, who was working for a filmmaking company in Shinbashi and had romantic feelings for his colleague, Kaori, found a lot of adult videos in Kaori’s room. It was Kaori’s older sister Honami that was captured on videotapes. Haruo was supposed to search for Honami with Kaori and involved with absurd adventures.</blockquote><br />
So basically it's about a guy helping a girl look for her missing porn star sister. Hilarity and monster-sized penises ensued.<br />
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The next day, I had a better view of Yubari.<br />
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<center><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 28.10185185185185% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BRPDv-EBu5r/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">It's a pleasant scenery to wake up to</a></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-03-04T23:51:19+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Mar 4, 2017 at 3:51pm PST</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script><br />
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 28.14814814814815% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BRQbtluhkSP/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Yubari evening sky</a></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-03-05T12:39:57+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Mar 5, 2017 at 4:39am PST</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script><br />
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 62.5% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BRRkcFPhmes/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Crossed a bridge yesterday and looked down, I saw this and wanted to remember it more.</a></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-03-05T23:15:26+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Mar 5, 2017 at 3:15pm PST</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script><br />
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Although in Yubari, I heard many people saying things like "despite how cold this place is, I am touched by the warmth of Yubari people", I was indeed touched by the warmth of the people in Yubari. During my second day, I was having problems trying to find food for myself. It was Saturday so all restaurants were closed, it was quite a frustrating experience. But this happened: <br />
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<blockquote>This happened a day before my birthday, in Yubari, at a makeshift cafe operated by festival volunteers, namely these few ladies in the photo, most of them having volunteered in the festival since its first edition in 1990. It was late afternoon, after the closing ceremony of the festival, and I was very hungry and desperate. Most restaurants I saw were closed (it was Sunday), the food stalls selling street food and buns in front of the guesthouse were gone right after the closing ceremony.<br />
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I was wandering around in the snow when I saw this café, headed in, and asked whether they had food. All they had left was potato soup, and coffee.<br />
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"I'll take it!"<br />
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And so I did. They excitedly told me I was their first ever Malaysian customer, and I was also the last customer of the year (they were already packing and closing). I told them it was the best damn soup and coffee I ever had and I felt happy. They too were happy and gave me some buns and chocolates. (That's even before I mentioned that my birthday's the following day!)<br />
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I thanked them sincerely and said that I was moved by the warmth of them despite the snow and the -6 temperature.<br />
Two days have passed. Moments ago right before I got onto the bus that I'm on now (heading to the airport, leaving Hokkaido, returning briefly to Tokyo) I had the very last bun they gave me. It's an act of kindness that lingers. Farewell snow.</blockquote><br />
At night I saw the I Want To Be Loved by Ronan Girre, which was produced and starred some of the people I knew pretty well. Kiki Sugino, Yoko Mitsuya, Shuna Iijima etc etc. Watching a horror (relatively) film of young people camping at the beach and being murdered by the ghost of a schoolgirl was unexpectedly entertaining, especially when you are watching this in snowy Yubari.<br />
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Finally, the next day, after spending two nights in Yubari, I headed off to Sapporo. It was my birthday, and as I waited for the bus to Sapporo, I spent a while in a cafe editing Aqérat. It was a nice pleasant birthday.<br />
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<center><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 28.14814814814815% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BRSILu3hJ-M/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Having cake while editing my new film. An ideal birthday morning.</a></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-03-06T04:27:47+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Mar 5, 2017 at 8:27pm PST</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script></center><br />
When I arrived at Sapporo, I met up with Eiji and Asae, my friends of the Sapporo International Short Film Festival, which I attended in 2012. They brought me to an awesome place for my birthday dinner, Hokkaido crab, ramen salad, fresh squid, I struggle now to remember what I've eaten, but they were all so good. And I will be forever grateful towards Eiji and Asae for giving me such a memorable birthday dinner.<br />
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Walking back to the hotel at night, it started snowing, in 33 years of my life, that was my first birthday in the snow.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-49574846570645871742017-03-28T20:00:00.000+08:002017-03-28T20:00:27.762+08:00Photos and worm-eating misadventures from a documentary shoot<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Ah yes, during the end of February, I was directing four documentary shorts for Channel News Asia, it was a one week shoot and each segment is only 2-3 minutes. The shoot took me to a few different cities and places, time for preparation was pretty short. I believed I was approached to direct them less than a week before the actual shoot. Nevertheless, I had fun. <br />
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And here are some photos (and videos) I took during the shoot. <br />
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The first segment is about Fung Wong Biscuits, a traditional biscuit shop at Petaling Street which has existed since the late 1800s, it is now run by its 4th generation owner, Melvin Chan. <br />
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ9IK1fBA65/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Petaling Street on a moody Sunday morning</a></div>
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A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-02-26T00:43:36+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 25, 2017 at 4:43pm PST</time></div>
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For the second segment, we flew off to Kota Kinabalu to chronicle the tale of Sandra Paut, a young chef who opened a restaurant that serves traditional Kadazandusun dishes, once they were the type of food you could only find in villages, but thanks to the efforts of Sandra, the dishes had became pretty hip among city folks.<br />
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BQz160lBpeu/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Yay, arrived at Kota Kinabalu in the morning and immediately shooting</a></div>
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A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-02-22T10:10:58+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 22, 2017 at 2:10am PST</time></div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ1iV9uh1WF/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Lady chilling with coconut.</a></div>
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A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-02-23T01:58:24+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 22, 2017 at 5:58pm PST</time></div>
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The most memorable part of the shoot was having Sabah Minister of Tourism Datuk Haji Masidi Manjun introduce to me the find art of eating the Butod worm. Alive. I think that rite of passage turned me into a real man.<br />
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The life of filmmaking is full of adventures. <br />
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The third segment is about former TV personality and rocker Rina Omar, who recently got into dragon boating. Got to follow her a day at Putrajaya during her dragon boat training. <br />
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ6brm2BF9C/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Am now at Putrajaya watching the sunrise. A good day for a film shoot.</a></div>
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A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-02-24T23:36:23+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 24, 2017 at 3:36pm PST</time></div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ6tgdOh5jl/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Stuck on a boat, filming a dragon boat training session</a></div>
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A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-02-25T02:12:09+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 24, 2017 at 6:12pm PST</time></div>
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A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-02-25T14:58:55+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 25, 2017 at 6:58am PST</time></div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ7E1V0AZ7X/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Another Saturday well spent at the lake with these amazing people! ❤🐲🚣 #argonagadragonboat #dragonboat #paddlers #paddlesup #friendship #boat #fun #Sun #sweatygoodtime #teamspirit #teamsport #fitness #fitfam #bestwaytostarttheweekend</a></div>
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A post shared by Rina Omar (@rockerina) on <time datetime="2017-02-25T05:35:59+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 24, 2017 at 9:35pm PST</time></div>
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I even posted my first ever Facebook Live video, because I realized that my crew and I couldn't exactly leave the boat until they were done with their 2-hour training, under the scorching sun, I had a lot to contemplate about... <br />
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Finally, the fourth segment documents a young man Ganesh Muran, who invented and installed solar-powered water filtering systems for impoverished villages (that belong to the orang asli. The villagers had no access to electricity and clean water). Instead of wanting to make a billion dollars like he wanted to, now Ganesh had a more modest intention of saving a billion people.<br />
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BRAwPNvBz9l/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Final day of a documentary shoot. Went to a village in the mountains with no electricity where its people are long forgotten</a></div>
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A post shared by Edmund Yeo (@edmundyeo) on <time datetime="2017-02-27T10:31:27+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 27, 2017 at 2:31am PST</time></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-41422410915285660292017-03-28T16:37:00.000+08:002017-03-28T16:38:40.499+08:00Hello again, journal, let me tell you about my new film "Aqérat"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vk2OY4CaKIg/WNod_aPsIXI/AAAAAAAAjAQ/UIm3Jy7NpOwDgPsxhj1kX31nrxrpVP8PgCLcB/s1600/15799837_10154149425473199_4273054612116030042_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vk2OY4CaKIg/WNod_aPsIXI/AAAAAAAAjAQ/UIm3Jy7NpOwDgPsxhj1kX31nrxrpVP8PgCLcB/s640/15799837_10154149425473199_4273054612116030042_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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When was the last time I have actually posted here? Probably nearly 6 months ago, during the Tokyo International Film Festival. The truth is, ever since I figured that I can automatically post my Instagram posts here, I have gotten lazy. <br />
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But somehow, my Instagram pictures stopped appearing it, it's quite a bummer, but it means that I have to return and actually WRITE here. To my imaginary audience of one. <br />
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In that amount of time since I was gone, I have shot my new feature film, "Aqérat". That was late December. Been working on it since then.<br />
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"Aqérat", which means "life after death" in the Rohingyan language, tells the story of a desperate young woman named Hui Ling (played by regular collaborator Daphne Low) who gets involved in human trafficking. It's about the recent Rohingyan migrant crisis that had been happening the past few years, it's also a love story. <br />
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Film is shot in the Northern state of Kelantan, which is really close to the Thai-Malaysia border. Before the shoot, I've never been there before, but filmmaking is an act of constant exploration, thus it would have been a waste to not find a way to capture this beautiful, unique place onscreen. <br />
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Trusty TK the production designer and art director had once again uploaded production photos of the shoot. Great stuff, he deserved the Dongseo scholarship at last year's Asian Film Academy at the Busan International Film Festival :D<br />
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In truth, this film project happened pretty suddenly. But it's been nearly 3 years since I have shot my last feature River of Exploding Durians and I gave myself a rule to make my next film within 3 years, because the film world is constantly evolving, and I didn't want the entire world to pass me by before I get to make my next film. It's a depressing thing to even think about. <br />
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This site has also gotten a major revamp, been trying out the new Blogger themes. Unfortunately, by doing this, the old commenting form has disappeared. I don't know how to even put it back. It makes writing here and even bigger act of isolation. But nevertheless, I can still be found on Facebook or Twitter. <br />
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Bye journal.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-43040470527152266992016-11-30T19:30:00.000+08:002016-11-30T19:30:01.120+08:00Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 5-hour opus HAPPY HOUR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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Ryusuke Hamaguchi's wonderful <a href="http://hh.fictive.jp/en/">HAPPY HOUR</a>, like the Iwai Shunji retrospective, was also part of the Japan Now section in the Tokyo International Film Festival. <br />
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I need to give props to Japan Now. Ever since the festival started this section last year, with Ando-sensei (yup, my former university professor Kohei Ando-sensei1!!) serving as programming advisor, the section has become one of the main attractions of the festival. The screening of noteworthy (of commercial or critical merit) Japanese films of the past year, complete with Q and A sessions moderated by Ando-sensei, had been great! <br />
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I remember having dinner with Ando-sensei in August right after he had served as jury member of the Guanajuato International Film Festival (where he saw Happy Hour for the very first time and awarded it the Best International Feature Narrative award) and we discussed about the trickiness of trying to program this film at the Tokyo International Film Festival due to its length (5 hours!!!) I said to Ando-sensei that if the film would ever show in the festival, I will definitely go and see it.<br />
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I'm very glad Ando-sensei managed to program the film, and made the experience even richer by making it an all-nighter screening!<br />
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I wrote this a few hours after the screening:<br />
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<i>From 1030pm last night to 5am this morning, I was at Ryusuke Hamaguchi's HAPPY HOUR screening. A 5 hour 17 minute long magnum opus which started as a story of four women in their late 30s before gradually expanding into an observation on contemporary Japan, the impossibility of romance, the fleeting nature of friendship, the role of art, and many others.<br />
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I have wanted to see this film since last year, and it was only earlier this year I found out its cinematographer was Kitagawa Yoshio, who also shot my KINGYO back in 2009 :D<br />
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I was expecting something like the films of Lav Diaz, but I'm reminded of Edward Yang's YI YI instead. The four female leads (much deservingly) won the best actress award at Locarno Film Festival last year (film also received a special mention for Best Screenplay), to think that they have never acted on-screen before this film and had only just attended the acting workshops conducted by the director makes their achievements even more mindblowing. The complexity and emotional nakedness of their performances are a sight to behold, and a privilege to enjoy.<br />
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The acting performances are naturalistic and multilayered, apparently the cast members were very much involved in the developing of the screenplay, giving creative input and pointing out things that their characters might or might not say. Which is great, it's always great to have cast members who can participate in an extensive creative process with the filmmaker, since filmmaking is such a collaborative process.<br />
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And credit also has to be given to the rest of the cast. The beauty of this film is that you gradually learn not just the main characters but also those around them a little more, constantly changing your initial opinion about them. You would have thought Kohei the estranged scientist husband of Jun is a chilly bastard incapable of emotions, yet he shows surprising depths in later scenes of the film. Instead of being likeable or unlikeable, they are just who they are. It's life based on how it is perceived.<br />
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Before the screening there was a Skype session between Ando-sensei and Director Hamaguchi (who's based in Boston), actress Tanaka Sachie and cowriter/producer Nohara Tadashi.</i><br />
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</div></center><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-65939469524795988002016-11-28T15:36:00.002+08:002016-11-28T15:40:47.292+08:00My love letter to Iwai Shunji's Love Letter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M0UA1yrUTfs" width="560"></iframe></center><br />
I wrote this on Facebook last month, after watching Iwai Shunji's Love Letter at the Tokyo International Film Festival. I have seen this film countless times in various forms, on VCD, on DVD, on digital file, either on TV or on computer, but never on the big screen, so that particular screening in Tokyo left me overwhelmed, and of course, nostalgic.<br />
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Here's my love letter to the film Love Letter:<br />
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<i>I saw Iwai Shunji's Love Letter (2005) on the big screen today. Sometimes you see a film at the right time, at the right age, so you fall in love with it in ways you cannot imagine.<br />
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It was 1998. I was 14 when I first saw Love Letter, I think this might be the film that made me fell in love with Japanese cinema, the emotional impact it left me was immense. The lyricism, the romanticism, the pain of unspoken love and the melancholy of memories, I was intoxicated by these vivid feelings through this film. I loved a little more, contemplated a little more, daydreamed a little more, became more obsessed with the snow. Films can do these things to you, when you see it at the right time, at the right age.</i><br />
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After that I tried to get many people to watch the film too. At that time, all I had was a VCD in a special box set from Hong Kong, with a beautiful booklet containing essays about the film. Friends, family, relatives, classmates, secondary school crushes, I wanted them to watch the film too so they could feel what I felt when I first watched the film. Some shared my enthusiasm, some didn't, it was then that I realized that your love for a film can be unique, private, personal. I was 14. Even the soundtrack I bought not long after that became a cherished treasure.<br />
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Many images stayed with me until now. The opening of Hiroko lying on the snow, the chance meeting between Fujii Itsuki and Hiroko which was interrupted by pedestrians, Hiroko wondering whether "Love at First Sight" was a lie, the extended high school flashback of the two Fujii Itsukis, male Fujii Itsuki disappearing briefly behind swaying curtains as he is reading a book whilst female Fujii Itsuki watches, the tearful "o genki desu ka?" on top of the mountain, and finally, that, transcendent, sublime ending.<br />
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I have seen the film many times, from my teens to my early years in Perth, I was always watching a few scenes from Love Letter before I was shooting my student shorts, I watched it again when I first moved to Tokyo, because I was about to make Japanese films and I wanted to find the film that influenced me all these years ago.<br />
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But I have never seen the film on the big screen, until today. And what an emotional experience it was. I smiled at certain scenes, as if I was revisiting an old friend. It had been quite a few years since I saw Love Letter. When the film ended, my eyes were wet again, I wonder whether I was moved by the film, or whether I was reminded of the 14-year-old me who first saw the film. Maybe, I was also reminded of the 20-year-old me in Perth who was watching this film while having silly dreams of becoming a filmmaker.<br />
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It was a remembrance of things past.<br />
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After the screening, Ando-sensei had a talk with director Iwai Shunji and actress Nakayama Miho. My professor from my Waseda University years, moderating a talk session with the director and actress of a film that left a mark in my early teens? Unbelievable.<br />
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As they talked about a film shoot that happened more than 20 years ago. I realized this was a film that had remained with me for 18 years. Because I saw it at the right time, at the right age, so I loved it in ways impossible to describe.</i><br />
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</center></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-92233439326402843152016-11-21T10:22:00.001+08:002017-04-09T02:48:17.157+08:00ASIAN THREE-FOLD MIRRORS: REFLECTIONS @ TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<p>It's already been a month and I never had the chance to write about the Tokyo International Film Festival. <br />
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This always happens when I'm preparing for a film shoot. I lose track of time. Today becomes yesterday, tomorrow becomes today, and I don't even notice it.<br />
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Last month I went to the Tokyo International Film Festival for the world premiere of the omnibus project, <b>Asian Three-Fold Mirror: Reflections</b>. I was one of the producers of the segment, <b>Pigeon</b> by Isao Yukisada (along with Ming Jin and Shunsuke Koga-san)<br />
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So, here are some photos of me at the red carpet. I managed to meet popular actor Saitoh Takumi, whom I met two years ago in Bali when he was doing the film <b>Taksu</b>. I also met Rin Takanashi, the star of Abbas Kiarostami's final film <b>Like Someone in Love</b>.</p><br />
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I attempted to take a photo of Meryl Streep too.<br />
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<p>26th of October, <b>Asian Three-Fold Mirrors: Reflections</b> had its world premiere.</p><br />
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<p>A few days later I was invited to be one of the panelists along with the three directors of Asian Three-Fold Mirror.</P><center><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FChengtk%2Fposts%2F10153951156148199&width=500" width="500" height="664" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true"></iframe><br />
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</center></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-84136754651127840922016-09-14T13:19:00.000+08:002016-09-14T13:19:43.179+08:00Trailer of Asian Three-fold Mirror 2016 : Reflections (Brillante Mendoza, Isao Yukisada and Sotho Kulikar)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J_MzruXdAG4/VwvMVVpw7uI/AAAAAAAAczE/bYIPAgANVa8mn-q0VGKf8YbBE6h8IPZnwCPcB/s1600/12977099_10153948666716648_3029542154688195461_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J_MzruXdAG4/VwvMVVpw7uI/AAAAAAAAczE/bYIPAgANVa8mn-q0VGKf8YbBE6h8IPZnwCPcB/s400/12977099_10153948666716648_3029542154688195461_o.jpg" width="320" height="400" /></a></div><br />
<p>Earlier this year, I was involved as one of the producers for director Isao Yukisada's "Pigeon", his segment for the omnibus project Asian Three-fold Mirror 2016: Reflections 『アジア三面鏡2016:リフレクションズ』 (<a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2016/04/cast-and-crews-instagram-posts-about.html">check out the photos posted by cast and crew</a>), produced by The Japan Foundation Asian Center and Tokyo International Film Festival. <br />
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Its trailer is finally out!<br />
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English version.</p><br />
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And Japanese version.<br />
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<p>The Japan Foundation Asia Center and Tokyo International Film Festival have co-produced the first of the Asian Omnibus Film series, Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2016: Reflections.<br />
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The Asian Three-Fold Mirror project brings together three globally-acclaimed, talented directors from Asia to co-create a series of omnibus films with a common theme. The first of the omnibus film series, Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2016, reflects on history and culture in their chosen countries to create new light. Under the theme of “Living in Asia”, crew and cast joined forces across national borders to depict the lives of characters who journey between Japan and Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia. New films have been created to help bring together the people in Asia.<br />
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“Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2016: Reflections”<br />
■SHINIUMA Dead Horse<br />
Director :BRILLANTE MA MENDOZA / Cast: LOU VELOSO<br />
■”Pigeon”<br />
Director :ISAO YUKISADA / Cast: MASAHIKO TSUGAWA、SHARIFAH AMANI、MASATOSHI NAGASE<br />
■”Beyond The Bridge”<br />
Director :SOTHO KULIKAR / Cast: MASAYA KATO、CHUMVAN SODHACHIVY、OSAMU SHIGEMATSU<br />
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Co-production by The Japan Foundation Asia Center & Tokyo International Film Festival / Supported by Imagica / General Producer: TAKEO HISAMATSU <br />
(C)2016 The Japan Foundation, All Rights Reserved.<br />
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2016/Japan/Color/Vista<br />
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<a href="http://asian3mirror.jfac.jp/">http://asian3mirror.jfac.jp/</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-80364423099276549552016-07-18T12:41:00.001+08:002016-07-19T11:31:23.486+08:00Shohei Imamura's Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute (1975)Five years ago, I <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2011/10/karayuki-san-forgotten-japanese.html">wrote about the Karayuki-san</a>. The Japanese women who were sold or smuggled into Southeast Asia (mostly pre-independence Malaysia and Singapore) to work as prostitute from the late 19th century to early 20th century.<br />
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For reasons I cannot comprehend or explain, it became something that had haunted my mind for the past half decade. Maybe because this was a part of Japanese/ Malaysian history (countries obviously close to my heart) that was gradually being forgotten, so I became increasingly curious, and determined to commit their stories into film.<br />
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There are publications about them, but films? The only ones I am aware of are still Kumai Kei's Oscar-nominated SANDAKAN NO. 8 (1974) and Shohei Imamura's KARAYUKI-SAN, THE MAKING OF A PROSTITUTE (1975). The former is a fictionalized retelling of their plight, the latter is a documentary. <br />
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I finally found time to watch the documentary last night. In the documentary, the director Shohei Imamura was interviewing an old lady named Kikuyo Zendo, a former Karayuki-san. As they walked through familiar places like Klang and revisit locations of her memories, before finally revealing that at that time she was staying at Petaling Jaya, I was sort of shocked. Was she staying within my neighbourhood? Where I live now is an area that had existed long before my birth. In 30 years of my life I have been staying mostly in this house. A decade or two before my birth, she was probably roaming the same area. <br />
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People come and go, history happens, time is constantly moving. I don't know why this felt like such a big deal. Perhaps I am not used to seeing familiar places from a different time through the prisms of another. <br />
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In this effortless documentary I relearned many things that I have learnt during my years of researching the Karayuki-san, while also getting nuggets of information that I never knew before. When everything is recounted in first person, and committed to celluloid, the feeling is a little different from reading it from books.<br />
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This documentary is hard to find, I think it's still included in <a href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/59832/man-vanishes-a/">Shohei Imamura's A Man Vanishes DVD</a>. <br />
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But you can find the entire film on Youtube, unfortunately, it only has French subtitles. Yet if you are curious, I still recommend that you scan through the film. Many of it transcend language anyway.<br />
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One thing I need to note is that many publications and <a href="http://www.cinemanest.com/imamura/glabo1/gukou_57.html">articles</a> about this documentary, including the seminal <a href="https://books.google.com.my/books?id=Eo_Hav3qHYEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PR15#v=onepage&q&f=false">AH KU AND THE KARAYUKI-SAN book</a> have mentioned that the locales visited by Imamura and Kikuyo were in Singapore.<br />
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But watching the documentary myself. I'm rather sure that all of Kikuyo's interviews were conducted in Malaysia, in areas around Kuala Lumpur. Like Cheras (the nursing home), Klang (the port at the opening, the ship, the previous brothels), Petaling Jaya (Kikuyo's home) etc. Even the cemetery they went to seemed very much like the Japanese cemetery in Kuala Lumpur, and not Singapore.<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-21177284361936907542016-07-15T13:08:00.002+08:002018-10-14T20:41:40.915+08:00Remembering Abbas Kiarostami and rediscovering his films<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Ever since the passing of the Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami, I've found myself remembering the brief personal memories I have of him. They were all very fleeting.<br />
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<center><a data-flickr-embed="true" data-footer="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edmundyeo/31437713998" title="With Abbas Kiarostami, Cannes 2010"><img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1903/31437713998_e011a9315a.jpg" width="500" height="376" alt="With Abbas Kiarostami, Cannes 2010"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script><br />
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<i>Cannes Film Festival 2010</i></center><br />
Merely that Ming Jin and I, along with Fooi Mun, our <i>The Tiger Factory</i> lead actress saw him at the MK2 party and had to hurriedly (and politely) stop him to take these photos before he was about to leave.<br />
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Fooi Mun had actually met Abbas a few months earlier, when she was at the Marrakesh International Film Festival (Charlotte Lim's <i>My Daughter</i>, which she starred in, was in competition, they ended up winning a Jury Award).<br />
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The next day Fooi Mun and I <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2010/05/cannes-day-5-abbas-kiarostamis.html">attended the afternoon screening of Kiarostami's <i>Certified Copy</i></a>. that was the first time I've ever seen his film on the big screen. That was one of my fondest memories of Cannes Film Festival 2010.<br />
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When I met Kiarostami again, it was at the Busan International Film Festival 2010, a couple of months later. I never got to interact with him, but he was the dean of that year's Asian Film Academy. I was at their "Graduation screening", and I got to watch him give a speech.<br />
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At the awards ceremony when I walked off the stage after winning the Sonje Award for Best Asian Short Film, I walked off the stage, a little flustered, but also trying to hurry and get the hell away as quickly as I could before the "Main Event", when the feature film awards were given to the New Currents Competition directors. <br />
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Kiarostami was seated at the front row, clapping his hands, looking directly at me. "Congratulations!" He mouthed. "Thank you!" I think I mouthed back, spoke, or yelled. Until this very day, he was the only person among the audience whom I remembered. Everything else was a blur. That was the last time I saw him.<br />
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The next day, dad flew from Busan to Seoul while I returned to Tokyo. Dad called me after he landed in Seoul: "Hey! I was on the same flight as Kiarostami!"<br />
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We always seem to remember Kiarostami with joy. <br />
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But the joy of having fellow filmmakers, film people and film lovers on my Facebook is that I get to rediscover his films. I am ashamed to say that I've only seen (bits and pieces) <i>Taste of Cherry</i> and <i>Like Someone In Love</i>. <i>Certified Copy</i> was the only one I've seen in its entirety (!!!), along with a few of his shorts in omnibus projects like <i>Tickets</i>, or <i><a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2008/08/swifty-reviews-chacun-son-cinma-to-each.html">Chacun Son Cinema (To Each His Own Cinema)</a></i><br />
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To rectify this, I decided to do a mini-marathon of Abbas Kiarostami films (if watching one film every other day can be considered a "mini-marathon").<br />
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I started with <i>Close-Up</i>, followed with <i>Through the olive trees</i>, then <i>Life, And Nothing More</i> (in retrospect, I should have watched <i>Life, And Nothing More</i> first, followed by <i>Through the olive trees</i>, in order to maximize my enjoyment of his beloved Koker Trilogy). and then I watched <i>Wind Will Carry Us</i> and <i>Ten</i>.<br />
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Like most times when I were sampling (binge-ing) the works of the masters, the entire experience had been a tremendous delight, and inspiring. I loved how he daringly blurred the lines between truth and fiction, between documentary and drama, in his exploration of human emotions. Yet the poetry of his films (I remain haunted by the ending of <i>Through the olive trees</i> and many moments of <i>Wind Will Carry Us</i>). <br />
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I was so inspired that I managed to even revamp and figure out a script that I have been struggling to write. I was stumped for months, and a few days of watching his films allowed me to rewrite an entire treatment in a day. That's the power of great cinema. That's the timelessness of greatness. <br />
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I cannot really imagine living a life where you measure films as if they were a trend, that a film that came out 2-3 years ago would be considered an "old" film, and then you move on to seeking other things that are in the cinema, indulging yourself in things that you will forget immediately after the credits are rolling. <br />
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Poetry is forever. To rob yourself the pleasure of exploring these works from different times and different eras, I think that's one of the biggest tragedies I've ever witnessed.<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="660" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffilmmakeredmundyeo%2Fposts%2F10157090795060527&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="716" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffilmmakeredmundyeo%2Fposts%2F10157092262415527&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="588" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffilmmakeredmundyeo%2Fposts%2F10157094686910527&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe></center></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-11565818618602645872016-06-30T21:30:00.000+08:002016-07-11T04:11:42.908+08:00WATCH: Woo Ming Jin's 2005 short film CATCHING THE SEA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Once again I've been restoring and uploading some of the old short films that Ming Jin and I had made over the past decade onto the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/greenlightpic">Greenlight Pictures</a> Youtube channel.<br />
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My latest upload is Ming Jin's 2005 short film CATCHING THE SEA, which stars Pete Teo and Liew Seng Tat and served as a precursor (or spin-off) for his feature film THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA.<br />
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Shot at the very scenic Pulau Ketam, this film has two parallel stories which follow a few wandering souls as they deal with loss after a deadly plague has swept upon their entire village.<br />
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I'm not involved in this at all (my collaboration with Ming Jin only started in 2007), but for the sake of Youtube upload, I've been replacing some of the old music with original tracks so that we wouldn't get into copyright issues. So it's great to bring back regular collaborator Wong Woan Foong's contemplative piano piece to end this short. Aside from that, I've also been doing the Chinese subtitles for these films.<br />
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CATCHING THE SEA pretty much characterized many of the Malaysian New Wave cinema that emerged in our country during the mid-2000s. Mini-DV cinematography, pensive atmosphere, minimalistic plot, and languid rhythm meant for contemplation.<br />
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You can watch Ming Jin and my other shorts and telemovies here:<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-27903890154630228372016-06-30T12:23:00.000+08:002016-06-30T12:23:02.354+08:00Treasure trove of Andrei Tarkovsky videos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q8rBPA68h9Q/V3SaRoXRILI/AAAAAAAAdgY/MEK8ANvx-ac8pOKq6nOOEAoITapj9ZkSgCLcB/s1600/andrei_tarkovsky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q8rBPA68h9Q/V3SaRoXRILI/AAAAAAAAdgY/MEK8ANvx-ac8pOKq6nOOEAoITapj9ZkSgCLcB/s400/andrei_tarkovsky.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Recently, as I was finishing up a making-of documentary that I was working on in the past few months, I decided to do some research on other great making-of documentaries. It's always great to seek inspiration from the masters, and I was also thinking of an Andrei Tarkovsky documentary that I watched on Youtube a year or two ago, <strong>Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky</strong>. <br />
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Thanks to <a href="http://www.cinephiliabeyond.org/andrei-tarkovsky-the-essential-documentaries/">Cinephilia & Beyond's comprehensive article on documentaries of Andrei Tarkovsky</a>, I learnt of a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnWhoZnGUmDsE6WHZJOJoCw">great Youtube channel</a> which had uploaded some really great Tarkovsky interviews and documentaries.<br />
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<strong>Andreij Tarkovskij in Nostalghia</strong> is a making-of documentary by Donatello Baglivo which focuses on the making of Tarkovsky's penultimate film <strong>Nostalghia</strong>.<br />
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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GYf0De_CZsc" width="420"></iframe></center><br />
There's also a compilation of unreleased scenes from <strong>Solaris</strong>.<br />
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Meanwhile <strong>Sacrifices of Andrei Tarkovsky</strong> is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the director. I'll just borrow the description from the Youtube:<br />
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<i>The film uses unique materials related to the years Tarkovsky spent in Italy: Florence, where he lived, and where his museum now exists, at a place called Bagno Vignoni, where "Nostalgia" was filmed in the house of the Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra.<br />
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The film will include rare unique images: young Tarkovsky on the set, fragments of the documentary "Time of travel", which was filmed in Italy by Andrei Tarkovsky with Tonino Guerra. For the first time, viewers will see the location of filming of "Stalker" in Estonia...<br />
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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x4HgQ0zDP08" width="420"></iframe></center><br />
The final interview with <strong>Stalker</strong> cinematographer Alexander Knyazhinsky, who spoke about <strong>Stalker</strong> and the cancerous plague that killed many of the cast and crew members after the shoot (including Tarkovsky)<br />
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If you are a Tarkovsky fan, this Youtube channel and the aforementioned <a href="http://www.cinephiliabeyond.org">Cinephilia & Beyond site</a> are highly recommended. <br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-15259916148800330942016-06-16T13:00:00.000+08:002016-07-17T03:57:15.887+08:00AFTERNOON RIVER, EVENING SKY, my 2010 short film<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JBHdDGVEBGY/V4qRj3Y3vYI/AAAAAAAAdu4/uuTyBd5SRuEae4UR_fTh3z-GsUeMeH81QCLcB/s1600/Get%2BReady%2Bwith%2BMe%2BSummer%2BRoutine%2BYouTube%2BThumbnail%2B%252823%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JBHdDGVEBGY/V4qRj3Y3vYI/AAAAAAAAdu4/uuTyBd5SRuEae4UR_fTh3z-GsUeMeH81QCLcB/s400/Get%2BReady%2Bwith%2BMe%2BSummer%2BRoutine%2BYouTube%2BThumbnail%2B%252823%2529.jpg" width="400" height="225" /></a></div><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The past few weeks I've been uploading some of the older films, shorts and telemovies that Ming Jin and I had done over the past decade on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/greenlightpic">Greenlight Pictures Youtube channel</a>. <br />
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Last night I've uploaded AFTERNOON RIVER, EVENING SKY. <br />
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<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZVlskZd8Peo?list=PL1v7xlNKGgnE6M0T2zA9-QddLsHAHNSYq" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />
I made this short film in 2009. Because it had the misfortune of being made between my (relatively more high-profiled short films) KINGYO and the INHALATION/ EXHALATION pair, this short (along with a few others I made within those few months) kinda got lost in the shuffle.<br />
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Aside from having its world premiere in competition at the Bratislava International Film Festival and then being part of the S-Express Malaysia programme that toured in various Southeast Asian Film Festivals (I think it was played at the Thai Short Film and Video Festival), I seldom had the opportunity to share this short with others. But it's on Youtube now.<br />
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The short film is divided into two parts, I shot each part in a day, but 5-6 months apart. <br />
The first part "Afternoon River" initially existed as a short film <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2009/08/kids-in-klang-creative-fest-09-make-me.html">commissioned by the Klang Creative Fest 2009</a>. A few weeks after that, after returning from the Venice Film Festival, I was overwhelmed by inspiration, so I shot the second part "Evening Sky".<br />
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"Afternoon River" was shot in Port Klang, a place I would later return to for my subsequent short INHALATION (2010) and even a few scenes of my feature RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS (2014). "Evening Sky" was shot around Seapark and Paramount Garden area, which is around where I (still) live.<br />
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Actress of Afternoon River segment was Grace Ng, who also studied in Perth and did my graduation short film with me 10 (!!!!) years ago. The main actor and actress of the Evening Sky segment are director/actor/comedian Wong Chee Wai and Lee Layfun (who is returning to acting these days after a few years of hiatus).<br />
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In my mind, Chee Wai was playing the same character that he was playing in Ming Jin's earlier short film SLOVAK SLING (his segment in the 15Malaysia omnibus project).<br />
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<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/le2VI_DuBhs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-46282208109544135102016-06-12T23:39:00.002+08:002016-06-24T10:48:26.371+08:005 scenes I loved in Wong Kar Wai films<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">A list of <a href="http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-10-best-scenes-in-wong-kar-wai-films/">10 Best Scenes in Wong-Kar-Wai films</a> on Taste of Cinema prompted me to think of my own favourite scenes in his films too.<br />
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10 best scenes in WKW's films. Yup, the ones on the list, I really like. But since most of his films are characterized by transcendental moments, I'll list out some of my favourites (that are not on the list). Avoid them for spoilers, I guess.<br />
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In no particular order:<br />
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<strong>1) Ending of FALLEN ANGELS</strong><br />
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- Might be my favourite ending in a WKW film. I first saw this film when I was 13 and I was bedridden because of Chicken Pox. I didn't 'get' this film, I expected something action-packed. Yet I stayed til the ending, and somehow, when her last line left a strange feeling in my heart.<br />
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"As I was leaving, I asked if he'd give me a ride home. I hadn't ridden on a motorcycle in a long time. Actually, I hadn't been that close to a man for a while. The road wasn't that long, and I knew I'd be getting off soon. But at that moment I felt such lovely warmth."<br />
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To me, the ending transcended the rest of the film.<br />
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<strong>2) Blind Swordsman's last stand in ASHES OF TIME</strong><br />
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- I loved the earlier, badass "Looks as if I shouldn't have come for this duel at all. Is it all right just to leave a hand?" scene with the blind swordsman. But that epic fight, where you gradually realize that the "Peach Blossom" he had mentioned was not a flower but the name of his wife. Whoa.<br />
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<strong>3) End of He Zhiwu, Cop 223's story arc when he gives the "If memories could be canned, would they also have expiry dates?" monologue.</strong><br />
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</strong> - A simple birthday greeting led him to this revelation, that some moments he wanna remember forever. "If memories could be canned, would they also have expiry dates? If so, I hope they last for 10 000 years." Many would recognize this VO as an often parodied line in Stephen Chow's Journey to the West classic. But hearing this for the very first time, I felt like levitating.<br />
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<strong>4) Su Lizhen and the Cop in DAYS OF BEING WILD</strong><br />
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- The brief night encounter between the heartbroken Su Lizhen and the Cop (Andy Lau) is important in a sense that many things in the rest of the film were consequences of this moment. Him wandering in Philippines and running into Yuddy, the last phone call she made, the ringing empty phone booth. I loved this entire arc.<br />
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<strong>5) Caetano Veloso's "Cucurrucucu Paloma" over the majestic Iguazu Falls in HAPPY TOGETHER</strong><br />
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- There are many moments in Happy Together that stay with me. But the very first time when I saw it, when Lai Yiu-fai covers his face and there's a sudden cut to the Iguazu Falls, and Caetano Veloso singing Cucurrucucu Paloma. My jaw fell upon. I wish I have been able to see the film on the big screen.<br />
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(It blows my mind when I realize that I've never seen a single WKW film on the big screen. Just short films like his segment in <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2008/08/swifty-reviews-chacun-son-cinma-to-each.html">To Each His own Cinema</a>)</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400362.post-90945072825410687692016-06-11T11:30:00.000+08:002016-06-19T00:13:28.920+08:00Nicole赖淞凤【和时光拔河】 官方完整版 MV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SJDRTP5sI2g/V2VzGlVukWI/AAAAAAAAddo/XvyG96evAsMG7rTOLW0d7Of0wt04hIv8ACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-19%2Bat%2B12.11.47%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SJDRTP5sI2g/V2VzGlVukWI/AAAAAAAAddo/XvyG96evAsMG7rTOLW0d7Of0wt04hIv8ACLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-19%2Bat%2B12.11.47%2BAM.png" /></a></div><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The music video I directed for pop star Nicole Lai is finally out! Had a lot of fun doing this, time was short, I shot this during a brief break between two festival trips. Please check it out! <br />
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Now I switch back to Chinese.<br />
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前天与大家<a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com/2016/06/nicole-mv-30-30-second-trailer-of-music.html">分享了MV的预告片</a>, 昨晚<a href="https://www.facebook.com/NicoleLaiSongFeng/">Nicole赖淞凤</a>的【和时光拔河】完整版MV终于出炉了! <br />
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这MV在Youtube上介绍得非常细腻, 我也没什么好补充的。 ;)<br />
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<blockquote><i>时光的拔河赛<br />
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2016 。6月 我爱故我在<br />
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吉隆坡 横滨 北京 武汉 东京 <br />
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赖淞凤的新MV 终于完成了。<br />
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2016年对于Nicole 来说是事业越走越明朗的一年。<br />
三月份代表马来西亚,出征香港亚洲流行音乐节 2016 ,囊括 亚洲超级新星大奖的 ‘最佳演绎大奖’,‘乐视音乐人气大奖’以及‘最受欢迎新星队制大奖’ 三大奖项<br />
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捧起了奖项的时候,这几年在音乐路上的味甘酸甜的感觉都涌上来。<br />
心情就如她的歌曲”和时光拔河“里的一段歌词:<br />
”生命就像高空飞梭 现在我收获丰硕 我还是原来的我“<br />
当她录唱“和时光拔河”这首歌的时候,已经有很大的感触。<br />
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歌词说的就是她和音乐梦想的故事,考验很多,冲击不少,但是她一直都在坚持着做自己最爱的事业,和时光拔河,其实也是和大环境抗衡,只是心中的爱覆盖了一切,好多年了,她用尽所有的力量来参与这场拉力赛。<br />
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不妥协,梦想像一个巨大的发电厂,给她源源不绝的正能量。在她的歌声里,你可以深深的感受到她的坚毅和内心的强大。<br />
决定开拍这首歌的音乐录影带时,Astro艺人经纪部有了一个这样的一个想法。<br />
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导演的人选好不好也找一个,像Nicole 一样,为了梦想不惜一切和时光拔河的对手?<br />
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于是,找到了在世界影展得过不少奖项的电影导演Edmund 杨毅恒。<br />
不走商业路线的导演遇到Nicole 会有什么样的火花?<br />
导演对她的印象来自她的歌声。<br />
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”她的歌声渗透着力量和强烈的情感,对我来说是马来西亚难得一见的美丽,有个性,又独特的嗓音。“<br />
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“听了这首歌以后,我的脑海里出现了许多场景,就是MV后来出现的画面,所以这个作品的拍摄过程中非常的好玩,有一种让人飞起来的感觉。“<br />
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是的,坚持梦想的人,都是和时光拔河的人。<br />
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每一个城市里,都有这样的一段呐喊的回响。<br />
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导演带Nicole进入一个幻境,再从幻境穿越回到现实,又在飞越到不同的城市去鸟瞰匆匆忙忙生活的日常。<br />
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”你太过在意别人怎么想,怎么说,那么,所有在你身边的事物,都是冷酷,无生命意义的。<br />
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你的好朋友变成塑胶模特儿,舞蹈员追赶你,但你发现生命的意义,所有的事物都会改变,塑胶模特儿也会变成真人。“<br />
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导演非常赏识Nicole 的工作态度:“在拍摄期间她是队里最努力的一个人,在烈日下,她穿了很多层的衣服,她要跑,跳,唱!非常的不容易,知道她很累了,但当我们开始拍摄,她很快的就能量满满,尽全力达到我的要求。”<br />
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在吉隆坡拍摄完毕以后,导演就飞到亚洲其他城市继续其他拍摄工作,他带着MV的片子在不同的城市剪接。<br />
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“配合第一句歌词的意境:我看过 我们的世界多辽阔。。。。我把我在这些地方观察到的城市生活角度,放进MV里,效果也很不错。”<br />
结果,这一支MV 游历过四个城市,东京,横滨,北京,武汉。。。<br />
最后在吉隆坡完成。<br />
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两个原本不认识,各自在不同的梦想领域和时光拔河的人,在这一首MV里,各自有了不同的领悟。<br />
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而他们各自的时光拔河赛,都在进行中。<br />
从不藉词停下来歇息,因为发现自己最擅长的,就是和时光拔河。</i></blockquote><br />
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(YYH = 杨毅恒)</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr /> <a href="http://www.edmundyeo.com">official website of filmmaker Edmund Yeo</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com