WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER shoot has ended

The two pictures above are screencaps from the film's raw footage, haven't done any colour correcting or anything



Wow, it's been a while since I've updated this blog. Despite having Internet access at Kuala Selangor, it was hard to really write about anything during a film shoot. Somehow, I just didn't seem to have the mood for it since all my attention's placed upon the film itself.

The 12-day shoot took place mostly in Kuala Selangor (except the last day, when we went to the famed waterfalls at Ulu Yam instead) and was an emotional roller coaster, and an intense physical exercise. We went to the jungle, to the river, to the middle of the sea, to shoot, then we shot at a salted fish factory and also a cockle factory. I was constantly assaulted by mosquitos during mornings and evenings (insect repellants can only help that much), and was also sunburnt.

It's all worth it though.

Ming Jin had gone off to Tokyo last night to attend his sister-in-law's wedding, so it's now up to me to edit the film.

Hopefully this will be considered as a worthy follow-up to Ming Jin's previous film, the award-winning THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA.

WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER shoot begins, tentative Chinese title

Well, today's my dad's birthday, so happy birthday, dad. Too bad he's KO'd by a bad case of flu and had been sleeping the whole time in his room.

I'm heading off to Kuala Selangor in a few hours for the WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKING FOR WATER shoot. The shoot will begin tomorrow, and will last until the 30th. However, there will be 2-3 days of break, so I'm looking at a 10 to 11-day shoot instead of a non-stop 14-day one. I'm quite excited, but I feel a little regretful that I have to, once again, miss ANOTHER local screening of CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY (well, if they're still screening it despite my absence) I'm not THAT elusive, but it's just unfortunate that all these tend to happen while I'm not in Malaysia, or when I have something else to deal with, like this film.

I've posted on Twitter and Facebook asking for help with translating the film title, WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKING FOR WATER, into Chinese... because it is, after all, a Chinese-language film. Most friends translated it literally and I got some really amusing titles, like:

欲女止渴记 (sounds like a Hong Kong Category 3 film)
火烧女郎寻觅水 (totally literal translation, funny)
火女求水记 (also a cute and literal translation)
猛女灭火 (feels like another Hong Kong exploitative film, like Chicks in prison or something)

So, ah, noticing that most Chinese film titles aren't literal translation of the English titles, I eventually settled for something simpler and more relevant to the story. So the film's Chinese title, for now will be called 遗情.

The pain of replacing an actor

An excerpt from the journal I wrote in 2006 during the making of GIRL DISCONNECTED, my student short film.

20th Century Boys: Chapter 2 - The Last Hope 20世紀少年＜第2章＞ 最後の希望

I made sure I was able to catch a film in Tokyo when I went back, and I ended up seeing 20TH CENTURY BOYS: CHAPTER 2 - THE LAST HOPE, the second film of the planned trilogy directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi. I saw the first film last September, which I rather enjoyed despite its flaws (read my review).

Set 15 years after the events in the first film, the protagonist of this film is the now-adult Kanna, played by Taira Airi, whose hairstyle in the film made me gape in awe.

Why did you bring your kid to the WATCHMEN film?

To the woman sitting behind me with her kid when I saw WATCHMEN two days ago:

Normally, I don't give a crap about the Malaysian rating system. Films that are rated 18 and above in Malaysia are mostly heavily-butchered, and tamer than most films that are rated PG in other countries. So I'm unsurprised that you overlooked the fact that this film is rated 18-PL (for overseas audience, this rating is reserved for films contain more than one element, either violence, sex or political/ religious content) and brought your kid along to see the film with you.

A quarter of a century

I've lived that.

Happy birthday to me.

Introducing 'WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER'

I've returned to Malaysia last night. The postproduction of my Japanese film, KINGYO, has to be postponed until April.

The main reason why I'm in Malaysia right now is because I'm producing Ming Jin's new feature film, WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER (good title huh?). This is his official feature film since THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA (KURUS and CINTA TIGA SEGI were TV movies).

Production stills from my Japanese film, KINGYO

I've spent the last two days editing my Japanese film, Kingyo, which I finished shooting end of January a day before flying back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year, I have posted some stills from the dailies few weeks ago ('dailies' is the term used to describe raw, unedited film footage, it's known as 'rushes' in UK and Aus, I normally call it 'rushes' too). I only have two more nights left in Tokyo, so am trying to do as much as possible. It took me a while to familiarize myself with Final Cut Pro, and also the Mac, since all these while, everything I've done have been edited on Adobe Premiere Pro. Thankfully, it didn't really take that long for me to get used to things.

Progress is smooth, although I'm unlikely to finish anything until I return to Tokyo again in April. For the time being, I'll just share some production stills taken by Chou-san (he's from China, the surname 张 'Zhang' is read as Chou in Japan, which is what everyone calls him). My last post only had a single picture of my lead actress, Rukino Fukisaki ("Hellevator: Bottled Fools"), so I'll put some here.

An odd, unexpected dream

On the first night I returned to Tokyo, I dreamed of someone I never thought I would dream of again. The last time I dreamed of her was two years ago, which I had chronicled in painstaking detail to my friend Sebastian during a melancholic rant in Valentine's Day 2008.

In my dream, she and I were both in some sort of a bare living room adorned with illogically minimalistic decoration and furnitures, bathed in ethereal white glow. Even though it had been nearly three years since I've last seen her, when she had seemingly vanished from my life with inevitable finality, and I myself never making any effort to find out where she was, meeting the dream-her again made me joyous, a joy mirrored by the smile on her face that I have seldom seen on the face of her real-life counterpart.

Together we spoke, about many things, all kinds of things, but none of them I can really remember. Perhaps we spoke about nothing, yet because we were merely speaking, nothing felt like many things, or everything, or anything. Her voice from my memories used to sound like a lilting whisper, yet the voice of the dream-her was boisterous and snappy.

Flight Fright

I'm in Tokyo again, but only for a week. Had to settle some things before flying back to Malaysia next Tuesday to continue preparations for Ming Jin's new film, WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER (I'm producing and editing).

Running into Hong Kong actor Nick Cheung and director Dante Lam

This happened on the 9th of February, the day before I saw snow for the very first time in Berlin. I was hanging out with the Singaporean filmmaker Michael Kam.



We were walking around at the main area of the Berlin Film Fest, Michael wanted to buy some souvenirs. But as we walked towards the Berlin Palast, I noticed a very familiar face.

My short film FLEETING IMAGES showing at HELP University tomorrow night

My short film FLEETING IMAGES will be making a premiere of sorts at HELP UNIVERSITY's Theaterette tomorrow (that's Thursday, 19th of February). It's one of the ten shorts at the Asiapromote Power and Grace Competition Screenings. The screening begins at 8pm.

Footsteps in the Snow

Returned to Malaysia just a few hours ago.

The past few days had been great. It's unfortunate that I didn't take a single photo during my brief trip in London. Three nights were too short for me, especially when I had such a hectic schedule. I saw a play starring Richard Dreyfuss called Complicity at the Old Vic, then I met up with a number of old friends from secondary school whom I've never seen since... secondary school, and after that, I went to do some hardcore book-hunting at the numerous antique bookshops in Charing Cross Road. So no, definitely not that much time to take photos.

But I'll rewind a little to the morning of 10th of February.

A Conversation With Quentin S. Crisp

Justin Isis has interviewed Quentin S. Crisp before, and that interview is probably the best place to start for general information on Crisp's writing and clothing style. The purpose of the following interview is to whore out Shrike, Crisp's soon to be released novella from PS Publishing. Before reading this you should order Shrike, especially the jacketed hardcover version. Shrike is one of Quentin S. Crisp's most exciting works to date, and by 'exciting' I mean 'tenser than injecting Red Bull directly into your blood stream'. Brief responses to Crisp's statements are given in [ ] brackets.

Arriving at the Berlin Film Festival

The flight to Berlin was a long one, but I needed to transit in Amsterdam first for 3 hours. I slept through most of the flight, so I was fine.

This is Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. I arrived at 5am in the morning.

NTV7's The Breakfast Show thought I was a headcrab zombie

As I waited to enter the studio to talk about videoblogging on NTV's The Breakfast Show in Monday morning, three thoughts were in my mind:

I'll be on tomorrow morning's NTV7 The Breakfast Show

It happened on Friday morning.

I woke up and saw a Facebook message and an email waiting for me, inviting me to appear on the 2nd of February's (that's tomorrow morning) edition of NTV7's The Breakfast Show. I'm supposed to talk mostly about videoblogging (that's why I posted this tweet on Friday, and got some interesting links in return), and also (hopefully) some stuff about my filmmaking.

I'll be arriving at the studio around 7:30am tomorrow morning, so I think I might appear around 8 to 9am? Quite early, I hope I won't be yawning repeatedly (or worse, dozing off) during the show! The chances of me embarrassing myself will be quite high, due to my personal discomfort with the camera (despite my acting aspirations!) I think it also had to do with... self-consciousness and vanity, I always worry that I don't look pretty enough, and the fact that I'm going to be on national TV will make things more complicated!

Snapshots of Chinese New Year 2009

When it comes to taking photos, I like taking the candid moments, when people are just talking, eating, doing things normally, everything without having to pose for the camera. Posing is fine, but I often ask people NOT to look at the camera when I'm snapping photos. I want... REALISM.

I didn't have my camera with me, I think I left it in Tokyo. So I used my sister's Nokia N78 instead.

The first day of Chinese New Year, as usual, was a visit to my uncle (dad's elder brother's) house. He and his family used to live in Malacca before moving over to Shah Alam 2 years ago, which is great, because going to his place takes only around half an hour as compared to nearly 2 hours in the past.

The entire family from my father's side were gathered, on that day, at my uncle's place. My dad's elder brother and his wife, my dad's eldest sister and her husband, my dad's youngest brother, my cousins, my cousin-in-laws, and the like. Seeing that one of my cousins is pregnant, I know that there will be more people at the family gathering next year.

Just some snapshots from my uncle's house.

John Woo's Red Cliff 2 赤壁 - 決戰天下 is rescued by Zhang Fengyi's Cao Cao

Before starting my review of RED CLIFF 2, let me tell you some of my thoughts on RED CLIFF 1, which I watched on DVD back in October.

I found RED CLIFF 1 somewhat entertaining, after suffering string after string of mediocre Hollywood films by John Woo, with the bad taste of PAYCHECK still fresh in my mouth, my expectations were low. So without any expectations, I enjoyed RED CLIFF 1. The manly (and somewhat homoerotic) bonding between Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) and Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), a John Woo trademark, remains quite amusing, Zhang Fengyi's turn as the charismatic baddie Cao Cao is the best performance in the film, the action scenes are big-scale and rather fun. In the end, RED CLIFF 1 was entertaining enough for me to not give RED CLIFF 2 a pass.

'kingyo' shoot ended, I returned to Malaysia. Chinese New Year came.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! GONG XI FA CAI!

The shoot for KINGYO (my new film, some screenshots here, you can even read about its write-up on Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow, Edmund Yeo reworks Yasunari Kawabata in his latest short film "kingyo") ended on last Thursday night, amidst a heavy rain in Akihabara. As I was drenched in the rain, I was reminded of my CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY shoot nearly a year ago, when the end of a shoot was signaled by a heavy rain as well.

After 4 hectic days of shoot, I felt relieved that everything progressed so smoothly. While I've always seemed optimistic to most people, previous experiences in student productions had taught me to always expect the worst but hope for the best during shoots. When a shoot ends, I always feel relieved, and giddy with joy that I managed to survive. And then there's always a feeling of gratitude towards my cast and crew, for enduring that journey with me.


The cast and crew of kingyo had seen some crazy stuff during the shoot


Maiko the Producer handled this perfectly. We huddled together, the cast and crew, with Maiko thanking our main actor Takao and main actress Rukino, and I was given two bouquet of flowers to present to them. Then Takao and Rukino spoke about how they felt regarding the shoot, and I also gave a speech (with assistant director, Lia the Artist, translating) about how I genuinely enjoyed the shoot and how I would love to work with them again. Josha the Cinematographer was then asked to lead this ritual, where he made a solemn announcement about how the kingyo shoot has officially ended, and then, all of us clapped our hands once, in unison. I've never seen anything like this before, but this ritual definitely brought a feeling of unity between us all. I would definitely 'import' this to my next productions in Malaysia.

I rushed to the airport the next morning, bringing the raw footage with me in a 1TB hard disk (while Maiko the Producer keeps another one with her in Tokyo). I would've wanted to edit the film immediately, unfortunately the digitizing was done via Final Cut Pro, and the hard disk was formatted only for Mac. I ended up not being able to edit the film because I use a laptop, and because I normally edit using the Adobe Premiere Pro (yes, all my short films, and Ming Jin's telemovie CINTA TIGA SEGI, the entire THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA, were done with Premiere Pro). Quite a hassle.

I returned to Malaysia on the 23rd (Friday night). A couple of days have passed, I've seen numerous films since then. RED CLIFF 2, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, IP MAN, BEAST STALKER etc. Perhaps I'll review them soon.

Chinese New Year arrived three days ago, and I am now in Ipoh, my mother's hometown. I even met up with Ming Jin just now, because Ipoh is his hometown too. We spoke about his feature film we are about to shoot (I'm producing), I also spoke about my surreal misadventures during the kingyo shoot, a project I've first expected to be small and simple, but ended up becoming the biggest project I've ever done, with a massive crew of such unbelievable professionalism that I thought I was doing a commercial film instead of an 'indie' film. Now that I'll be in Malaysia for quite a while, I'm eager to do another short film, something simple and small, can be finished in a day or two. Funny how I'm already thinking of another project before I even started editing this one!

Well, that's what I've been going through in the past few days.

Sneak peek of my new Japanese film, KINGYO

Today's going to be the last day of my shoot for kingyo. It's 3:48 am right now, and I'm off to bed soon. But while I was digitizing the footage I've shot onto a newly bought external hard disk just now, I did some screen captures of them, just to share with you all an early look of my new film. The following pics are of the three primary characters in my film, I haven't done any colour correction at all though.













What do you guys think?

Got a crew, had a rehearsal. Thoughts on filmmaking as a collaborative effort.

After finding all our primary cast members, I wondered how to put together the production crew. Maiko The Producer said that she will recruit help from people of the Tokyo University of the Arts (the place where Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Beat Takeshi are teaching), she then rented a DVD to show me, an omnibus with four segments, each an adaptation of a Kawabata Yasunari short story. I was impressed by the technical skills and production values displayed throughout the film. I agreed, it would be quite wonderful to have such experienced people helping us out.

One day later, Maiko told me that she had recruited their help. Two directors of photography, a gaffer and a sound mixer. Aside from the sound mixer, they were not students, but alumni from the university, some are actually teaching there.

How I found the main cast for my Japanese film, kingyo

kingyo is the title of my upcoming Japanese project. I haven't been posting that much lately because I've gotten so busy preparing for the film. Constantly revising the script, drawing storyboards and deciding on the locations. Shoot begins next Monday.

Just to recap, kingyo is the split-screen project I mentioned about. For the script, I had gone off to even conduct a comically serious research with Akihabara maids.

I've actually been busy with kingyo even before I headed off to the Dubai International Film Fest, but then, things just started accelerating after I came back. Audition sessions were held for the three main roles: I needed a young woman in her late 20s, a middle-aged man past 45, a middle-aged woman around the same age as the middle-aged man. Audition went on for nearly a week, having not held an audition since January and February last year for CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY, I forgot how amusingly deflating they can be at times. Most who came were interested in the role of the young woman Chiri the Akihabara Maid, and I couldn't find myself satisfied with any. One was too young, one didn't look right as an Akihabara maid, one had trouble acting sad, one was too hot (I wanted a girl-next-door type, not a model!) Who could be my Chiri? Chiri is the main character in a film, someone who can carry the film is necessary!

Retiring my old camcorder (2005-2009)

During my New Year trip at the Kansai region, I became very sure that I have to retire my old camcorder. It's a Sony Handycam DCR HC32E which I've been using since my early days in Perth (sometime early 2005). I would say that this camcorder's existence had been crucial in my becoming a filmmaker.

Beautiful Sunset at Inokashira Pond

Today is a public holiday in Japan. It's called the Seijin No Hi, which is translated in English as the Coming Of Age Day. On this day, anyone turning 20 will be invited to attend a ceremony celebrating their adulthood. And then most of them will take this long-awaited opportunity to get drunk (it's also the minimum legal age to smoke and vote). I wasn't aware of this (I knew it was a holiday, but I didn't know why) until I received this tweet from Neil Duckett.

So when I went out, there were indeed some young women wearing kimono, and the guys were wearing suits, but because most males in Tokyo wear suits, I couldn't tell which ones were the ones celebrating Seijin No Hi.

Unfortunately, there will not be any photos of cute young women in kimono because I was resuming my location hunt today with my Maiko the Producer and Jo the Cinematographer after our failure to find a good park yesterday. I was excitedly leading everyone to Ueno Park after seeing how beautiful it was during the end of autumn. Unfortunately, winter had actually turned this place into a pale shadow of itself. So I decided to leave the location hunting to the other folks, since... well, they're Japanese and they probably know the place much better than I do. And so Maiko the Producer recommended the Inokashira Park.

[VIDEO] Catching the Kobe Sunrise

I slept at 8 something last night after location hunting for my film (more on that later), and woke up at 12 in the midnight. Haven't slept since then, was editing the second (and concluding) video of my new year trip at the Kansai Region. After I've uploaded part 1 (you MUST watch it!) a few days ago, I had some problems figuring out how to edit this video.

Watch LOVE SUICIDES at next Monday's MALAYSIAN SHORTS!

My newest short film, LOVE SUICIDES, will be one of the 10 shorts screening at the latest edition of Malaysian Shorts held next Monday. So if you want to catch my film on big screen, here's your chance! Even I myself haven't seen it on the big screen before!

Unfortunately, since I'm still in Tokyo until end of this month, I won't be around for the Q and A session. But Ming Jin (who is the producer of the film) will be representing me!

Some stills from the film:

[VIDEO] My New Year Trip at the Kansai Region Part 1

Phew. Been spending the past two days editing the video of my trip at the Kansai region during the new year period. Due to rustiness (the last time I actually edited something was for my short film, LOVE SUICIDES, and that was back in last October), I was slower than usual, and needed a bit more time to get into a groove again.

Anyway, I've decided to separate the videos into two parts because it's quite long, and I'm also doing this for, ah, narrative and dramatic purposes.

Passions for times ahead - Interview with the Malay Mail

After returning from my quick Kansai region trip to welcome the dawn of 2009 (no photos, but videos coming up), I was pleasantly surprised to learn from a Facebook friend that I was on this Malay Mail article, PASSION FOR TIMES AHEAD. To be on the papers during New Year, what better way is there for me to start 2009? Thank you for the honour!

In this article, Gabey Goh asked Noel Boyd of A Tattooed Blog, Michael Hartley of Dr Mike's Math Games for Kids, Ng Eng Kuan of Driving Malaysia, and I about 2008 web discoveries and hopes for 2009.

My original rambling answer is quite lengthy, so Gabey made the right choice by cutting it down to the final version, but for those who are curious, here's the unnecessarily long, stream-of-consciousness-esque original answer:

Happy New Year 2009! Some thoughts on 2008.

Happy new year, my dear readers! By the time you are reading this, I've already taken a train to Kyoto, and probably doing my New Year Countdown at Nara. This trip to the Kansai region came about just two nights ago. A sudden urge to go somewhere, see some sights, a brief break for myself since most of my Japanese friends had gone back to their hometowns.

Kimmy Kiew is Zoey, a Dawson's Creek character with ice powers

Kimmy Kiew in Chicken Rice Mystery
You know that the main actress of your short film had turned into a star when, aside from scooping up the Best Acting honours from BMW Shorties, she was chosen as the 'face' of the film by the Dubai Film Fest in their film catalogue. (I sent them two photos: a above photo of Kimmy, and a photo of the kid, Ming Wei, they ended up choosing Kimmy's photo... sorry Ming Wei)

I DO have a clearer photo of Brigitte Lin from Dubai Film Fest!

Looking for photos to use in an email interview, I sifted through some remaining photos of the Dubai Film Fest closing ceremony that I haven't uploaded in my earlier post.

And I found a photo with Taiwanese filmmaker Chang Rong-Ji, who made the short film '天黑 The End Of The Tunnel', also in the same category as I was. His film is a mixture of fact and documentary, focusing on a real-life blind pianist and his (fictional) relationship with a pretty schoolmate who is healing a broken heart. The short film was his first attempt at narrative fiction as his previous works were all documentaries (one won the Golden Horse two years ago)

Thomas Alfredson's 'Låt den rätte komma in (Let The Right One In) is hauntingly sweet

Not that many people I know (non-film buffs who don't keep track on foreign film news) have heard of this beautiful Swedish film directed by Thomas Alfredson, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. When I was asked to explain the premise of the film, I was a little hard-pressed, the best I could come up with was...

Shimaka Sato's K-20: Legend of the Mask K-20 怪人二十面相・伝 starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Takako Matsu

I didn't even know that this film is already playing in the cinemas until I saw the trailer on TV yesterday (or rather, early this morning, 4am), and I immediately decided to see it because, aside from the film festivals I attended, I haven't been to the cinemas in Tokyo for a long time.

K-20: LEGEND OF THE MASK (also known as K-20: THE FIEND WITH TWENTY FACES) is, in my opinion, Japan's attempt at the superhero genre, or to be more precise, the HOLLYWOOD superhero genre, because when I was seeing this film, I can't help but noticed many similarities between the film and the many superhero films that came out in Hollywood this year, especially with its admirably high production values.

Senso-ji (Asakusa Temple) does not celebrate Christmas

I don't celebrate Christmas, but I decided to do something for the day. The plan was simple. Meet up with my friend Sen-san (she's from China, her surname's Sen, and somehow 'Sen-san' is more catchy than her actual Chinese name, so that's what I always call her), have sushi at Ueno, and then go to cool places with Christmas decorations where I can snap some photos, and she can test her Nikon D70.

The many faces of Dubai

[Warning: this post has crapload of photos that might take some time to load]

More photos that I took from Dubai. By now, you might have some misconception that Dubai is this really huge extravagant city with new construction projects everyday, one colossal skyscraper threatening to outdo the other. I was curious about the place, I wanted to explore more. What is the real Dubai? Or rather, is there a different Dubai aside from the luxurious hotels, beautiful private beaches, huge malls I've seen during the first few days of the film festival?

Seeing Tsui Hark and Brigitte Lin during my last day at the Dubai International Film Fest 2008!

Heya, I've already returned to Tokyo for two nights, but still, I think, a little jet laggy. Even so, that didn't stop me from immediately conducting audition sessions for my new film yesterday morning, and later today! (I'm such a workaholic!)

I'll post the photos from my last day at the Dubai Film Fest. But I'll still be posting many Dubai-related stuff in the next few days, like the numerous films I've seen etc.

The CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY screenings at the Dubai International Film Fest

The screening for CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY was on the 13th and 14th. Evening on the first day, early afternoon on the second day. It's in competition under the AsiaAfrica Short Films category, and it was screened with 4 other short films of the same category.



Aside from CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY, the other short films screened in the same programme were:

1) Ambulance, by Richard Legaspi of Philippines
2) Young Blood, by Haolun Shu of China
3) Everything Is Okay, by Akjoltoy Bekbolotov of Kyrgyzstan
4) Bakhytzhamal, by Adilkhan Yerzhanov of Kazakhstan

All directors were there to introduce the films, and then come back for the Q and A session after screening. Unfortunately, I only have photos of the first screening, and not the second. The following photos are from the Q and A session. Far left is Philip Cheah, programming consultant and moderator of the sessions. The first on the right was Haolun Shu, and then there's Richard standing beside me.








A photo of us having dinner after the screening. My dad was there too, of course. Dressed in red is Adilkhan Yerzhanov of Kazakhstan, in black is Akjoltoy Bekbolotov of Kyrgyzstan. Adilkhan is a major film buff who likes Johnnie To, Alexander Payne and Paul Thomas Anderson too. We have similar film tastes :D




I had more questions to answer during my second day, where I was there to describe the creative process of the film, and also explain about the Malaysian Censorship in general to an audience member. I cheerily brought up the censorship issues faced by Flower In The Pocket, which I believe had been very helpful in encouraging the creativity of local filmmakers (in finding methods to avoid censors).

Overall, I have to say that this had been a fun experience. It's the first time I've ever seen my own directed film being screened in a multiplex, the sense of pride is a little different from, say, when I represented Ming Jin to present ELEPHANT AND THE SEA at its screening and Q and A session as producer during last year's Santiago Film Fest.

A few days later, dad and I had a conversation about Perth. It's only been two years since I've left the place, yet it felt so much longer. But then, maybe two years is a long time, it's just that two is such a small number, I should've just used '730 days' instead of '2 years' because it sounds longer. More than 730 days ago, my dad was also present during the screening of my student short film GIRL DISCONNECTED in my university. And now, more than 730 days later, I was given the privilege of having my short film screened at this Dubai Film Fest. It's almost as if we've gone full circle!

Photos from my first day at the Dubai International Film Festival 2008

Heya folks, been in Dubai since the 11th. Haven't had the time to go online until now. Saw lots of films, went through both screenings of CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY. So let me post some photos, I'll write more about my thoughts later.

Anyway, my dad came to Dubai too, and we're now staying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, which is one hell of a hotel.

The Curious Incident Of The Vanishing Sunglasses

It's not that I'm imitating Wong Kar Wai or Takashi Miike, but I REALLY like to wear my sunglasses. I only choose not to wear it when I can't wear it, like during classes, or when the sky's too dark, or when I need women to see my soulful eyes... but that's it.

The golden leaves of Yoyogi Park

For four consecutive days, my intended trip to Yoyogi Park (decided to go there after snapping photos of Ueno Park) was canceled by some unexpected event. Like stumbling into a role as an extra during a film shoot on Wednesday, and yesterday, I was suddenly issuing orders to kick start the pre-production of my new short film project.

When I woke up today, I saw lots of red leaves flying past my window, and the ground outside was covered completely with leaves. Winter had started five days ago, and I assumed that the red leaves of autumn will not last long on the trees. I was unaware of the transition until then. The sky was pale and gray, a gloominess that reflected my own melancholy. Melancholy? Or was it just the lingering effects of the flu pills I've taken?

The weather forecast on my Firefox said that it would rain later in the afternoon. Circumstances were forcing me into another race against time. Grabbing hold of my camera and my tripod, I decided to make my way to Yoyogi Park. I've been there a few times, mostly when I was walking to the NHK station at night for the Refugee Film Festival earlier this year, and once during a Thai carnival where many food stalls and tents were erected, so I never had a good look of the park.

I stumbled into a role as an extra in a new film with Love Exposure's Mitsushima Hikari

More incidents of stunning coincidence. More insane synchronicity.

On Monday, during a lab meeting (held every two weeks between film students in uni), my professor announced that two events will be happening in Waseda University on Wednesday (today):

Synchronicity

I was on my way to the Takadanobaba station when I saw a large flock of birds flying around. So I took out my camera and snapped some photos.

[TOKYO FILMeX] Love Exposure 愛のむきだし

Mitsushima Hikari as Yoko in Sono Sion's Love Exposure

(As I was finishing this post, I found out that this film had won the AGNES B. award at the Tokyo Filmex, congrats!)

After taking photos of Ueno Park yesterday, I rushed off to catch Sono Sion's LOVE EXPOSURE at Tokyo Filmex. Frankly, the main reason I wanted to catch the film was for the experience. It's not everyday that you see a 4-hour Japanese film around! There weren't anything else I knew about the film.

Having not seen any of Sono Sion's films prior to this, and having just read a Bela Tarr interview a day before, I had assumed that this would be a slow and languid arthouse flick that requires tons of endurance and patience. So I packed myself some Black Thunder (awesome chocolate biscuits that you can only get in Japan) and most importantly, a can of coffee. During the (Tokyo Filmex Grand Prize-winning!) WALTZ WITH BASHIR screening at the same film fest a few days earlier, I was dozing off at some parts (not because it was boring, but because I myself was tired), so I didn't want the same to happen again.

When Sono Sion and his cast came to introduce the film, he assured everyone that the film would be 'over in a flash'. I was reluctant to believe him.

Autumn at Ueno Park

I decided to go to Ueno Park today to see whether there were any autumn leaves left. I've never been to the park before and I thought a stroll there would bring me peace of mind. Bringing my trusty but crappy camera with me, here are some photos I snapped in the afternoon. It's a beautiful place, but I wish I had a good enough camera that can do the scenery justice.

I started out by snapping photos of the trees in the park. Not many golden leaves were left, but still a nice sight nonetheless.

Conversations With Other Women. The split screen technique.

More update on the Japanese short film I've been writing lately (read about my seriously comical research on Akihabara maids in preparation for my writing). Being a melancholic tale of an old man and a young girl wandering aimlessly through the empty streets at the span of a night, chit-chatting, and haunted by memories of lost love, missed opportunities etc.

[TOKYO FILMeX] Strizh

Just got back from STRIZH at the TOKYO FILMeX. The 2nd film I saw at the festival. I was watching this film in a perpetual state of annoyance and anger. It had nothing to do with the film itself but what happened to me during the screening.

Films I want to catch at the Dubai International Film Festival

The list of films for the Dubai International Film Festival had came out yesterday on their site. And I was absolutely blown away by their line-up.

Now, aside from presenting my own short film, CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY, during its two screenings (I'm also facing some stiff competition under the Muhr AsiaAfrica Short category, and Naomi Kawase's chairing the jury committee for this, wow), I think I'll have plenty of time to catch as many films as possible during my eight days in Dubai.

So I will now make a quick list for the films I intend to watch for now.

[TOKYO FILMeX] Linha de Passe

I've only seen two Walter Salles films, 1998's CENTRAL STATION and 2004's THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, (I'm discounting the short films he did for PARIS JE'TAIME and CHACUN SON CINEMA, but I like his segment for the latter) I enjoyed the former, but I preferred the latter. Walter Salles also had a hand in producing one of my all-time favourite films, Fernando Mereilles' CITY OF GOD.

This film, LINHA DE PASSE, the opening film of TOKYO FILMeX, is a collaboration between Salles and long-time collaborator Daniela Thomas (she was co-director for most of Salles' pre-CENTRAL STATIOn films). She was there to present the film and also for the Q and A session.

Shocked to see old high school friend in a short film!

A few nights ago, I had a really bizarre dream.

Megumi Yokata photo exhibition, TOKYO FILMeX Opening Ceremony + Tony Leung Ka Fai's 5 greatest roles

Originally, I've intended to write about both the TOKYO FILMeX opening ceremony, and then my thoughts on the opening film co-directed by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas, LINHA DE PASSE (really good film). But I'll write my review in my next post.

I headed to Yurakucho rather early today because it's the opening of the TOKYO FILMeX and I wanted to make sure I can get tickets for LINHA DE PASSE. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there would be an opening ceremony before the screening of the film. Being one of the first to buy tickets at the door, I managed to secure two nice seats for myself and my friend, Mahmoud the Tunisian director. (Four rows from the screen)

Then as I waited for Mahmoud to come, I saw that there was a photo exhibition being at the next hall, so I went and had a look. It was a photo exhibition of Megumi Yokota, a Japanese girl abducted by North Korea in 1977.

Final thoughts on Rome trip and BMW Shorties

I suggest you read the following posts (or skim through the photos I painstakingly took) before you read this:

Rome Day 1 (Pt. 1) - Grand hotels, real Italian pizza and Via Veneto!

Rome Day 1 (Pt. 2) - the EASY VIRTUE premiere with Jessica Biel, the bittersweet fun at the International Rome Film Fest

Rome Day 2 (Pt. 1) - Unforgettable sights during the half-day city tour

Rome Day 2 (Pt. 2) - PRIDE AND GLORY premiere, Colin Farrell hides from me as I walk down the red carpet


Zahir Omar, me, Maha and Ida Nerina outside Grand Hotel Parco dei Principi before departure

It is now the 21st of November, Friday as I'm typing this. 2 weeks had passed since I came back to Tokyo. 3 weeks had passed since I returned to Malaysia from Rome, 4 weeks had passed since I returned to Malaysia from Tokyo to fly to Rome. 6 months had passed since CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY won the two awards at BMW Shorties, and gave me the trip to Rome.

[Tokyo International Film Festival] The Clone Returns To Homeland クローンは故郷をめざす

I only managed to catch two films at the Tokyo International Film Festival last month before I got too busy preparing for the meetings at the Tokyo Project Gathering. The first one was the omnibus film headed by Mamoru Oshii, KILL. Which left me very underwhelmed, and immediately after that film, I went off to see THE CLONE RETURNS TO THE HOMELAND, because I was intrigued by its trailer and its title.

Kanji Nakajima's THE CLONE RETURNS TO THE HOMELAND is a rare live-action Japanese science fiction film, and even rarer, an arthouse sci-fi film more in the vein of SOLARIS (I haven't seen either Tarkovsky nor Soderbergh's version, but that's what this film's been commonly compared with in other reviews) than STAR WARS. And being modestly budgeted, the film's aesthetics reminds me of the much-underrated GATTACA. It's more about the ideas and philosophy behind the science, it is the cinematic equivalent of a 'hard sci-fi' novel (that all my life, I could never seem to finish), but instead of being too technical and dry, the deliberately-paced film won me over because it was so visually poetic and marvellously acted.

ICHI 市 starring Haruka Ayase

I first saw the teaser of ICHI back in June, it was shown before the other Haruka Ayase vehicle, CYBORG, SHE. And I was mildly intrigued by the idea of doing a gender switch on the classic Zatoichi character, of course, by the time CYBORG, SHE ended, I immediately took a liking to Haruka Ayase and made a mental note to watch this film.

17th of November. Mom's Birthday. A Video Retrospective

Today's my mom's birthday. Unlike last year, where I was able to celebrate the day with a whole gang of relatives like my grandma, uncle, aunt and cousins, I'm here in Tokyo. So for this event, I shall re-post some of the older videos of my mom so that you people will know her more.

A serious research on Akihabara maids

Uploaded by kalandrakas

As I've mentioned before, during the past week, I've been doing some research for my new short film, like watching Hong Sang-Soo films.

Despite the improvisational nature of my film shoots, I tend to make sure I have an actual script first. And I managed to turn in the first draft of the script last night. There was something lacking. The early feedback I've gotten were somewhat lukewarm, those who liked it liked it for its premise and atmosphere (two lonely souls wandering through empty streets at night, talking, haunted by memories of lost love and missed opportunities, unspoken words etc.) than the actual content.

Ming Jin pointed out that the story needs to be fleshed out more, and it's something I need to draw my own experiences from. Also, more research has to be done as well. The former is hard because I'm (relatively?) young, and I normally rely more on my creativity and imagination for stories.

Rome Day 2 (Pt. 2) - PRIDE AND GLORY premiere, Colin Farrell hides from me as I walk down the red carpet

If you're interested, read the following posts (even if you don't want to read, there are tons of beautiful photos) before you read this:

Rome Day 1 (Pt. 1) - Grand hotels, real Italian pizza and Via Veneto!

Rome Day 1 (Pt. 2) - the EASY VIRTUE premiere with Jessica Biel, the bittersweet fun at the International Rome Film Fest

Rome Day 2 (Pt. 1) - Unforgettable sights during the half-day city tour

I think this will be the second last post of my Rome trip. (I'll wrap it up with some final thoughts of the trip and my own experience with BMW Shorties)

I would like to divulge a little secret that not a single soul at the Rome Film Festival knew during the night of the PRIDE AND GLORY (new film starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell) premiere.

Watching Hong Sang-Soo films, discovering Miwa Nishikawa. Researching for new short film.

My posting here had been erratic because I've spent the past few days trying to do some research for my writing. I intend to do another short film, and this isn't the ambitious one-taker that I've been talking about last month (I'm planning to do that in Malaysia instead). The ideas for this new film came during my time at the TIFFCOM, and I continued playing around with it in my mind when I was in Rome, and then Malaysia.

During conversations with coursemates, I've half-jokingly said that I would adapt SNOW COUNTRY by Yasunari Kawabata, but instead of having a man and a geisha, I'll update it so that it'll be about a middle-aged salaryman and an Akihabara maid (or a waitress in a maid cafe). I just had images of two lonely figures traversing down the empty streets of Akihabara (which, unlike Shinjuku and Shibuya, seems really empty and isolated at night) The reason why I thought of using an Akihabara maid is because they are often figures of ridicule by the non-Otaku crowd, and the sight of Akihabara maids trying to give out tissues and leaflets to disinterested people at the streets always feel a little poignant to me. So why not try to examine a person behind the cute costume? After all, the 'subservient maid' is just a role they play at their workplace.

Rome Day 2 (Pt. 1) - Unforgettable sights during the half-day city tour

If you're interested, read the following posts before you read this:

Rome Day 1 (Pt. 1) - Grand hotels, real Italian pizza and Via Veneto!

Rome Day 1 (Pt. 2) - the EASY VIRTUE premiere with Jessica Biel, the bittersweet fun at the International Rome Film Fest

(This post is much delayed because I had to look through Wikipedia first to make sure I knew which places I actually visited during my half-day city tour in Rome.)

Our time in Rome was short, only two nights, so it was absolutely necessary for us to see the famous sights, otherwise we would return home in embarrassment. Thus Vijay hired a van for us to bring us around for a half-day city tour. Note that being a half-day city tour, we didn't have the time to enter any of the places, the queues were too long, so we had to make do with snapping photos and continue running to the next destination.

I can't say that I'm a hardcore fan of Roman history, because I didn't really memorize everything about it. But I remember spending hours once two years ago reading about its history on Wikipedia. Did you know that Nero, the CD burning software, is named after an ancient Roman emperor who burned his own city? See? This blog is absolutely enlightening, no?

We passed by the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II) and I was AWED because the architecture was so awe-inducing.

Quantum of Solace

I just got back to Tokyo, but I managed to catch a preview of QUANTUM OF SOLACE on Wednesday night, before I flew off.

Witnessing history before returning to Tokyo again.

I'm flying back to Tokyo in eight hours. It's now an hour past midnight.

Jason, my Hong Kong friend in Tokyo, had once asked me why I follow the U.S. news so much. Why do I watch the Daily Show? Why do I watch Letterman? Why not follow just as regularly the news of any other countries? Why not, say, my own?

Rome Day 1 (Pt. 2) - the EASY VIRTUE premiere with Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes at the Rome International Film Festival

[CONTINUED FROM THIS POST]

When flying to Rome, I was in a mild state of panic because, while we were all told to bring along DVDs of our BMW Shorties-winning films (just in case we had screen it when attending the Young Directors Project Shorties Presentation at the Rome Film Fest later that night), I brought LOVE SUICIDES (my latest short film) instead of CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY by accident.

I was resourceful (when you're a disorganized and forgetful person, you'll end up learning how to clean your own crap), and came up with all kinds of methods to remedy this problem ever since we stopped briefly at Dubai for transit. I swiftly asked my sister to upload the ISO file onto Yousendit so I could download from there and burn a copy. Unfortunately, my resourcefulness was defeated by the ever unreliable Streamyx, and it was impossible for her to upload a 1GB file online without facing non-stop disconnections. I guess I've been pampered by the insane Internet speed in Tokyo, where it would take only ten minutes (or less) to upload a 1GB file.

In the end, knowing that I didn't have CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY with me, I was somewhat distraught, but told myself that LOVE SUICIDES was probably more suited for European sensibilities etc. anyway. It would be impactful to see a short film with devastatingly heartbreaking scenes of a mother force feeding her cute little daughter:

Rome Day 1 (Pt. 1) - Grand hotels, real Italian pizza and Via Veneto!

(Continued from this post)

After a brief stop over at Dubai, we continued our flight to Rome.

This trip to the Rome International Film Festival was part of the prize I won from the BMW SHORTIES for Chicken Rice Mystery back in May. I'm traveling with fellow winner Mahaletchumi Tavamany ('Sing in the Rain'), and two judges Zahir (last year's BMW Shorties winner, director of K-HOLE and TEDDY AND I) and famed actress Ida Nerina.

Malaysian Actress Lai Ming, Golden Horse Best Supporting Actress nominee

I came back from Rome two nights ago (photos and blow-by-blow account will come in the next post), and was pleasantly surprised by the recent newspaper coverage of Malaysian veteran actress, Lai Ming, who had recently received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at this year's Golden Horse Awards for her work in Jack Neo's MONEY NO ENOUGH 2.

Waiting at the Dubai International Airport

I've reached Dubai.

Currently waiting at the gate. People are boarding onto the plane now.

The Dubai International Airport's pretty awesome.

BUY MY WRITING

Hello, Justin here.

If you've been reading this blog for a long time, you're probably familiar with me.

Anyway, I'm here to do a bit of self-promotion.

First off:

Quentin S. Crisp kindly whores out my writing.

Next up, be sure to buy Postscripts #17, which contains my story "The Plot."

Or better yet, buy the hardcover version, which is signed by me.

Okay, that's all.

Wait, I forgot. Keep reading Chomu.

Thank you.

Creating Gems on Screen - Interview with The Star

Just a few hours from flying to Rome. Taking the midnight flight. Will stop by at Dubai. Going for dinner after posting this.

I was interviewed by Nicole last week while I was in Tokyo, and her column, CREATING GEMS ON SCREEN, came out on the Metro section of The Star yesterday. Unfortunately, she didn't have enough space to squeeze in my answer to her last question, so I'll put it here instead.

HOPELANDER at the Tokyo Project Gathering 2008

I've just returned from Tokyo a few hours ago. Haven't been able to update the blog during the past few days because I've been busy with the Tokyo Project Gathering, a co-production market held in conjunction with the Tokyo International Film Fest and TIFFCOM.

[Tokyo International Film Festival] Kill 斬, an omnibus film by Takanori Tsujimoto, Kenta Fukasaku, Minoru Tahara and Mamoru Oshii

poster of KILL

I saw two films at the TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL today, the much-anticipated KILL (official site), and THE CLONE RETURNS TO THE HOMELAND, both Japanese films having their world premieres, I couldn't resist. Normally, I have a personal rule NOT to review films from film festivals I'm invited to (that's why I didn't review a single thing I saw at the SANTIAGO or HONG KONG film fests). I don't want to diss films that my own production is competing against because it'll make me look classless.

Two reviews of DAYS OF THE TURQUOISE SKY (KURUS)

KURUS, or DAYS OF THE TURQUOISE SKY, continues its festival run. Here are two recent reviews of the film from our Southeast Asian neighbours.

The Girl With A Melancholic Face

Maybe it was the booth girls, or the cosplayers.

But when I went back to bed after breakfast this morning, I dreamed of a girl with a melancholic face.

Babes of Tokyo Game Show 2008

[WARNING: Lots of photos in this entry, may take some time to load.]

I went to the Tokyo Game Show 2008 today.



Although I don't mention it much in this blog, but I'm an avid gamer ever since I was a child. While film will always be my one and greatest love, video games and literature might tie for second. In fact, when I'm in Malaysia, during down periods (no film shoots), I actually spend more time playing the PS2 (I'm always in some RPG marathon, I've completed all the Final Fantasy games except the first 3) than reading a book.

Trying to resurrect a short film project

It's already the second week of classes. This semester is shaping up to be much less stressful compared to the previous one. There's no hardcore 13-session intensive Japanese courses where I have to wake up at 8 in the morning to attend. Just four sessions of what I think is important to me (one oral class, one listening class, two grammar classes)

It's not stress that I cannot handle, but the repetition. By being so wrapped up with my Japanese classes then, I was in a slight lull. I felt that the world had been passing me by in Malaysia while I was sitting in a classroom learning Japanese. Hence my desperation in trying to do something, well, anything. Anything just to connect myself with filmmaking again.

That's why I tried to develop a short film back in May (tentatively titled YUKI). A Japanese-language film based loosely on a Yasunari Kawabata short story I read (like my latest, LOVE SUICIDES). Unfortunately, things hadn't progressed much since then.

Paco and the Magic Book パコと魔法の絵本 and its 'maximalistic' filmmaking)

I was first exposed to Tetsuya Nakashima's filmmaking not through the internationally-acclaimed MEMORIES OF MATSUKO (which I was absolutely in awe of), but through a brilliant short film by him done quite a few years ago (could be 2004 or 2005, not sure), ROLLING BOMBER SPECIAL, which starred SMAP's Katori Shingo and totally makes fun of the Super Sentai (Power Rangers, Masked Riders etc.) genre.

This short film is a MUST-WATCH.

CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY selected for competition at Dubai International Film Fest 2008

I actually received the email a few nights ago and chose to keep it mum until it's a certainty. So yes, it's confirmed, CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY had been selected for competition at the Dubai International Film Fest 2008 this December. It will be featured in the short section of the Muhr Awards for Excellence in AsiaAfrica Cinema programme. A tremendous honour, and I'm truly elated about this.

I like Satomi Ishihara, but I don't really get Flying Rabbits フライングラビッツ

As I watch Satomi Ishihara on TV right now, interviewing the singer and voice actress Aoi Teshima (known for voicing Therru in Ghibli's TALES FROM EARTHSEA, she has a fantastic fantastic singing voice!), repressed memories of two weeks ago came back to me and filled my heart with sorrow.

Impromptu Paul Newman tribute. Thoughts on BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID

Frankly, up until he recently passed away, my impression of Paul Newman had always been vague. I remember more of the old Paul Newman than the young Paul Newman who was at the height of his fame. I remember him best in the awesome ROAD TO PERDITION. (And also for the Newman's Own food products I used to see at Perth supermarkets).

DAYS OF THE TURQUOISE SKY (KURUS) wins award at Bangkok International Film Festival

Just got an email from Ming Jin early this morning (around 3am). Our film, DAYS OF THE TURQUOISE SKY (known to Malaysian audiences as KURUS) had won the Special Jury Prize at the Bangkok International Film Festival's Golden Kinnaree Awards last night, under the South-East Asian Competition.

Burn after reading... Salman Rushdie's MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN

I got myself this book two years ago in Perth. Not through purchase, but by forcing Justin to swap his MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN with my THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (by John Fowles). It was a fair trade. He didn't like magical realism, while I do, and he ended up enjoying the latter immensely anyway.

But this isn't exactly a book review, just a quick note on how I felt after finishing Salman Rushdie's MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN yesterday afternoon. It didn't really take me that long to finish the book, really. I picked it up during my two weeks in Malaysia earlier this month, read through chunks of it on certain days in the LRT, then more as I flew back to Tokyo. Because the in-flight entertainment was down throughout half of my journey and I couldn't watch any films on the plane except THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, I spent most of the time reading instead.

Mom force-feeds little girl (a scene from Love Suicides)

p0wnzed!

Heya folks, as I've promised, I'm posting up the following scene to give everyone a sneak peek of my new short film LOVE SUICIDES.

Shout-out to the cast and crew of my film LOVE SUICIDES

Heya all, in case you don't know, I've gotten back to Tokyo last Friday night. Sorry for my lack of updates recently, been busy finishing up the editing of my new film, LOVE SUICIDES.

Film shoot at Kuala Selangor 3

The following photos are taken during the same day as my previous post, but this time, with Mei Fen's camera.

I'm going back to Tokyo tomorrow and will do the finishing touches for my new short film when I'm back there. However, I've already completed a rough cut of the film yesterday. Didn't really take such a long time, actually. I started yesterday 4ish in the morning, slept a little, then got most of it done by afternoon. And then worked on it a little more when Ming Jin, Han and the rest came over at night for some feedback.

Now I understand why most indie filmmakers here like doing minimalistic films with long quiet takes. My new film is like this, and it's just so much easier to edit compared to my previous ones like CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY and FLEETING IMAGES! There are some long lingering shots to help establish rhythm and atmosphere, but I seriously don't think it's as slow-paced as a Tsai Ming Liang film. Going for long takes and having minimal dialogue (Kimmy only has two lines in the film, the little girl Erica never talks) really doesn't mean that the film has to be slow, things do constantly happen onscreen (look at Wall-E).

P.S. Erica is a Malaysian Dakota Fanning.

Anyway, here are the photos:

Film shoot at Kuala Selangor 2

Went back to Kuala Selangor to finish up my new (but still untitled) short film yesterday. Kimmy's scenes were done on Saturday (photos here), so I only needed to do the little girl, Erica/ Li Hui's scenes.

The shoot was much more relaxing because we only had to leave in the afternoon. We were about to return to the Malay house, but went the wrong way and found some really beautiful paddy fields instead. We decided that the place is so beautiful that we have to shoot a scene there. I wanted to pull off a Terence Malick DAYS OF HEAVEN-type shots.

(note: All these photos are taken by Miharu with her cellphone)

Film shoot at Kuala Selangor

The shoot yesterday at Kuala Selangor for my new (yet untitled) short film was a success. Started out a few hours later than anticipated (... seriously need a production manager in the future), but managed to finish way ahead of schedule.

Shoot was really smooth, but towards the end, poor Li Hui, our 7-year-old main actress started crying. Film shoots can be quite boring and stressful for a child, even if working with a director who barely raises his voice like me. Will have to prepare a DS for her tomorrow, perhaps. Or comics.

All the photos were taken by Han.

Happy (Belated) Birthday to my little sister!

Yesterday (Sept 13) was my little sister's birthday, unfortunately, I had was shooting my new short film and was unable to celebrate with her.

So happy belated birthday, little sister.

Here is a photo of her being attacked by the Pedobunny at Puroland because, even though she's really 19 this year, she still looks underage.



(She doesn't look that different from 13 years ago)

Location scouting at Kuala Selangor

Ming Jin and I went location scouting yesterday at Kuala Selangor for my new short film (the untitled part 2 of my 'BAD MOMMA TRILOGY' that started with CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY).

It was my first time at Kuala Selangor, and I got to see some of the locations where THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA was shot. But I myself managed to find a couple of really interesting places for tomorrow's shoot.

Why I always have casting nightmares during productions

I've trying to find a child actress for my new short film during the past few days. In addition to that, I've also been recovering from a mild case of food poisoning (I've been visiting the toilet pretty frequently)

I've managed to find myself a child actress this morning, which was really an act of desperation. Before that, I've been gathering the contacts of professional child actresses, I tried to avoid those who were represented by agents because... I can't really afford them.

Dance of the Dragon 龙之舞 is... er, special

My dad suggested yesterday that I should try to go to the cinema and catch DANCE OF THE DRAGON, a film I've never heard of starring Fann Wong and Korean actor Jang Hyuk ('Volcano High' and 'Windstruck'). He said that he heard the film had won numerous awards at some film festival lately, which made me a little curious, so I tried to check its info on the newspapers, and on its tiny poster, it listed out the glorious awards it won at the inaugural WEST HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (WHIFF), including BEST FILM, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST ACTOR (Jang Hyuk) and BEST ACTRESS (Fann Wong).

So I went online to find reviews about the film, and managed to stumble upon somewhat positive reviews of the film here and here, and was... convinced. I was also intrigued by its cast and crew (seemingly all white, including co-directors and writers John Radel and Max Mannix, the latter an Australian). A Singaporean film with an international cast and crew? Might be interesting.

The view from my plane

Finally reached Malaysia last night.

My plane was 10am, but if you follow my Twitter, you'll know that I decided to go to Narita Airport the night before and slept there. I didn't want to face the risk of missing an early train to the airport and miss the flight since the check-in time was supposed to be 7:30am.

20th Century Boys 20世紀少年'

Aside from PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA, this film is THE Japanese film event of the year. The first installment of an ambitious, sprawling trilogy with a reported total budget of 6 billion yen (that's 60 million USD, posters claim that it's an all-time high) starring Japan's most popular actors and comedians (it's the most star-studded Japanese film I've seen since Mitani's THE MAGIC HOUR) and based on a 24-volume award-winning manga series by Naoki Urasawa (same guy who did MONSTER).

SPEED's reunion segment at Nippon Television's 24 HOUR TELEVISION / LOVE SAVES THE EARTH

UPDATED (1/9/2008): I've added the videos of yesterday's reunion. Incredible that it's on Youtube that soon.

Things to do when I return to Malaysia on the 3rd of September

I'm going back to Malaysia next Wednesday, but I'm only going to be back for 16 days. I haven't been updating the blog much this week because I've been doing some preparations for my return, along with some last-minute shopping as well.

I intend to shoot a short film (tentatively titled 'POSTCARD AND BALLOONS') when I come back, that's why I've been spending most of the past week sitting in cafes, writing my script. Initially, I was doing my writing at the Starbucks in either Shibuya or Shinjuku, but realized that going to either of these two places take away too much of my time, especially since it's been raining everyday, so I've shifted to the uni cafe instead. It's been great, I actually finished the first draft of my new script yesterday, and I'm hoping to get Kimmy to act again since our collaboration in CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY had been so successful. :D

Is THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM the Jackie Chan / Jet Li pairing I've been waiting for?

Pardon the lack of updates, been busy writing a 400-word short story, having a MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA marathon, pondering the ending of my new script, and, well, some other stuff. So, here you go, a review of THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM I watched this morning.

Liveblogging the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony

Just like what I did with the opening ceremony, I'm going to try to liveblog the closing ceremony as well. But instead of flooding my Twitter like before, I going to try something new. Hence the window below.

Tags: beijing olympics closing ceremony 2008