Leaving from Hong Kong to Guangzhou the day after the world premiere of THE WHITE FLOWER left me Twitter-less, Facebook-less, Youtube-less and Blogger-less, hence the lack of updates.
So, back to the screening of THE WHITE FLOWER. On the night of the 26th, I finally got to screen my experimental THE WHITE FLOWER to the public at the Broadway Cinematheque.
After hearing so much about the Avenue of Stars (it's modeled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame), I decided to pay a visit yesterday. I was greeted by the huge replica of the Hong Kong Film Awards statuette.
I arrived in Hong Kong yesterday afternoon (it's 2am when I'm writing this), the night before, Lesly the Cinematographer and Moon Lai the actress of THE TIGER FACTORY and NOW (the 1-min epic I shot last week) went to visit a horror film set.
This was actually posted on Twitch a while ago (my friends at Toronto J-Film Pow Wow covered it too), but I've been so busy with my own shoots back in Malaysia that I didn't get around to sharing it with you guys.
My experimental short, THE WHITE FLOWER, which I shot last year, is finally making its world premiere at the Hong Kong InDpanda Short Film Festival next week. To commemorate this, I cut together a trailer for the short.
It's an experimental film based on Yasunari Kawabata's short story of the same title, constructed mostly with still photos like Chris Marker's LA JETEE. It's my third Kawabata adaptation after LOVE SUICIDES and KINGYO.
Here's a synopsis.
A young Chinese woman living in Tokyo is haunted by remnants of a forbidden relationship and a dark family past. She ends up in a sanitarium and meets a doctor conflicted between his job and his personal feelings. After being discharged, she meets a wandering Thai filmmaker contemplating the relationship between art and love. Her encounters with them lead to unexpected revelations.
THE WHITE FLOWER is written, directed and edited by me. Produced by Maiko Itagaki. Cinematographer by Niklas Kullstrom (who just got married, congratulations, dude).
Starring Zhu Dan, Toru Inamura and Kong Pahurak (who also took the photo above).
Information of the film from the InDpanda website can be viewed here
6 days have passed since I wrapped the shoot of my one-minute epic, titled 'NOW'. Spent two days editing it. It was a tough slog, so many materials I've shot, yet I had to toss most of them away to fit into the 1 minute length. Nonetheless, it was worth the challenge.
Yes, you read that right. I was making an epic short film that is 1-minute in length. It's not the easiest thing to do, hence the pained expression etched upon my movie star-like face.
I've been back in Malaysia for nearly a week. Had been putting together a video shoot for the weekend, pondering the screenplay for my feature-length script, watching movies at home (watched HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, the new KARATE KID, Fellini's LA DOLCE VITA and Herzog's THE WILD BLUE YONDER) and the cinema (well, I just got back from watching DESPICABLE ME)... and er, eating a lot of nice stuff.
I don't really 'miss' Malaysian food when I'm in Tokyo. There are Malaysian restaurants in Tokyo, but I'm happy enough with my usual bentos and ramen (... or McDonald's).
But now that I'm back here, I make the most out of enjoying the food here.
Tao Sha, the actress I used earlier, returned for a quick voice recording session. She was to recite a poem by Phyllis Lin Hui Yin.
The past two months went by in a blur, I can't even actually remember what had happened since I came back from Brest and Brignogan. A few days of being sick, then dealing with the Masters' Thesis presentation, and finally, quickly putting together a few projects to shake off my rust and ennui (that derived from the lack of filmmaking and creative endeavours).
A few weeks ago I was contacted by Huey Ching, also a Malaysian in Japan (and a composer), proposing a collaboration. An experimental festival for live performances and all sorts of music project's coming up soon in Tokyo, she intended to merge her own music performance with videos.
