Junk cameras, eating problems etc.

It all started when I arrived at Tokyo after my somewhat lengthy Eurotrip.

I was in a bus from the airport to Shinjuku. As I was arriving, I saw through the window, a young girl carrying a kickass looking camera and taking photos at the streets. The bus stopped, I got out, dragged my luggage with me and tried looking for the girl. She was still there, I started asking about the camera.

She spoke fluent English and told me she was using a Mamiya RZ67.

"Where did you get it?" I asked.

Discussing INHALATION at the Clermont-Ferrand Intl Short Film Festival

Ernest Chong Shun Yuan and Susan Lee Fong Zhi in INHALATION


It's been nearly 3 nights since I got back from Europe, yet I still feel a little jetlaggy, a little worse for wear. Despite recovering from a bad cold while I was in Clermont-Ferrand, I ended up with another bad case of diarrhea (happens every time I go to France, really, 3 times in the last year. Maybe me and French food just don't mix, maybe I had too much French fries, maybe I shouldn't eat train food, maybe I shouldn't have airport food etc.)

Aha. Valentine's Day in Paris

It's now 8.25am, February 14. I've just spent a night in Paris and am heading to the airport in less than an hour.



Yes, I'm aware that it's Valentine's Day, but since the day had never really meant much to me, aside from having some nice chocolates to eat (they were never meant for me, alas.

I rather just spend the day thousands of feet above the ground. It's been a long trip.

The stars will wheel forth from their daytime hiding places; and one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over

Location:Rue Tronchet,Paris,France

Bye bye Clermont-Ferrand

I've gotten sick the past three days (a usual occurrence whenever I'm abroad). I guess being on the road for more than two weeks had taken its toll.

Anyway, this is my last night in Clermont-Ferrand, the past week had been fun. Screenings of INHALATION occurred every night. Always to a full house. Twice, my screening had happened in the Cocteau hall, which has a capacity for 1200 people.

In other days, film is screened in smaller halls that still hold 600+ people.

THE TIGER FACTORY Q & A session

I left Rotterdam on the 5th of Feb. Am now at Clermont-Ferrand, France, for the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

MSN Japan's most-discussed artistes...

For the past 3 days, ever since CINEMA TODAY's article of my short, EXHALATION, actress Tomoe Shinohara had remained one of the 3 most talked-about artistes on MSN, along with Nicholas Cage and Ai Hashimoto.

Awesome.

My Chinese New Year's Eve Celebration in Rotterdam

For a guy who had spent nearly a third of his life living abroad, it's still kinda strange to think that this was my first Chinese New Year spent out of Malaysia, the first time I didn't have the usual Steamboat CNY's Eve reunion dinner with family.

So my Chinese New Year's Eve was rather interesting. I started out seeing one of the Tiger Competition films by Iranian filmmaker Majid Barzegar called RAINY SEASONS. Then I ended up having lunch in a Chinese restaurant with Kiki, Hospitalite director Koji Fukada, and a pair of Koji's Japanese friends who live in Paris.

EXHALATION Q and A sessions (Day 1 and 2)

Happy Chinese New Year, folks.

It's still 6:25pm here in Rotterdam, gonna head off for my 'reunion dinner' with a bunch of Korean folks.

Anyway, haven't been able to post anything on the blog despite a whirlwind of stuff happening.

But here you go, videos from the Q and A sessions of EXHALATION on the 29th and 30th of January. They are both pretty long videos (especially the second one, since Sherman Ong was there as well to talk about his short film).

Article of my short film EXHALATION on MSN and Yahoo Japan

Had been trying to upload the videos from my screening Q and A sessions in International Film Fest Rotterdam the past few days, but they're taking quite a while to compress.

So I'll just share an article with you about EXHALATION that was on Cinema Today yesterday (which was then syndicated on MSN and Yahoo). Click the link below!

シノラーこと篠原ともえ、女優として新境地！喪服姿で涙を流す31歳の女性の色香漂う！


Trailer


The short was also mentioned on actress Tomoe Shinohara's blog yesterday.

Arriving at Rotterdam International Film Festival

I always have an obligatory McDonald's breakfast meal before a flight. The Mega McMuffin owns. So, when I arrived at Narita Airport, I had it again.



I then slept through more than 7 hours of my 11 hour flight to Amsterdam. Waking up only for the two meals, and watching I AM LOVE, starring Tilda Swinton (it was in competition at the Venice Film Festival 2009, the same year Kingyo was shown).

Nice film.



I then caught maybe half of MEGAMIND, but got interrupted when the plane arrived at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam.



A car picked up and took me to Rotterdam, it was a 1-hour journey.

When I reached the main film festival building, I picked up my bag, and ensured that the press desk was covered with promotional items for THE TIGER FACTORY and EXHALATION.



Chinling, one of the festival programmers, brought us to the Wuxia-themed WATER TIGER INN, where me, Matthieu (Bratislava Film Fest director, and many others) and Jessica Kam (PIANO IN THE FACTORY producer) could have a quick bite.

It was to my amusement that after serving us drinks, the waitress got into a heated encounter with a beggar who just walked into the place. And then they got into some martial arts stuff, and me and the customers were instantly turned into extras of a wuxia film!

Here's a video of their performance.


video page


Awesome. Yesterday was the first day of their 7-day performance, where a treasure-hunting story was supposed to take shape as it goes on.

I managed to take photo with the actress after it ended.



It's 10:17AM right now. EXHALATION will be screening at 2PM, exciting.

Spending Chinese New Year abroad

So, here I am, in a bus to Narita airport.



It's funny, realizing that this will be the first time when I'm actually not returning to Malaysia for Chinese new year. Even all my years in Perth, and the past few years in Tokyo, I always managed to be at home for the reunion dinner and all.

For this year's, I'll still be in Rotterdam. Perhaps I'll be celebrating it with other filmmakers in some Chinese restaurant over there, if I'm not wrong, there's also gonna be a screening of The Tiger Factory on either Chinese new year eve, or the first day itself.

Perhaps I myself should try to catch a Chinese film or something cheerier as well at the film festival. I'm superstitious, I wouldn't want to watch dark depressing films of woe and death to start my Chinese New Year!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

---

Swifty, Writing - Edmund Yeo's blog

Check out the two clips from Woo Ming Jin's THE TIGER FACTORY

In exactly 12 hours I'll be flying off to Rotterdam. Aside from my own short film EXHALATION, I'm also there for Ming Jin's THE TIGER FACTORY, which is the feature film spin-off of my short, INHALATION (hah). Since he can't make it to the festival, it's all up to me to handle his Q and A sessions as well after each screening. Fun.

Discussing my short film 'EXHALATION' with Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

Less than two days left before I head off to Rotterdam International Film Festival, so pardon the onslaught of EXHALATION stuff here.



While preparing an EXHALATION press kit for the festival last week, I enlisted the help of Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow's Marc Saint-Cyr to conduct a short interview regarding the film.

Marc Saint-Cyr had previously reviewed EXHALATION.

The short interview is here.

I'll share an exchange from the Q and A regarding why I alternated between black-and-white and colour in the film.

MSC: How did you decide which sequences in the film would be in black-and-white or color?

EY: The black-and-white, was, in fact, a last-minute decision made during post-production. I remembered reading an interview with Andrei Tarkovsky where he pointed out that a black-and-white film immediately creates the impression that your attention is concentrated on what is most important. On the screen, color imposes itself on you.

In order to underline the melancholic undertone of the film, I decided to drain most scenes of their colors. I inserted colours in certain scenes when I needed to accentuate the emotional states of the protagonists. A feeling of brief warmth, or lingering sadness, or an abrupt break from monotony. In the end it was an experiment of sorts for storytelling.

(UPDATED: The Tarkovsky interview I was referring to is here.)

5-minute previews of my short films EXHALATION and INHALATION

If you are one of the 3 people who had been following my filmmaking escapades so far, you'll know that I've made two short films, EXHALATION and INHALATION. Both are similarly titled and shared many common themes, but are ultimately two (vastly) different films.

我是个比较孤独的人-好戏网专访马来西亚新锐导演杨毅恒（我） "I'm quite a loner" - My interview in China's Mask9

Switching to Mandarin...

嗨， 朋友们。

最近接受了中国的《好戏网》访问。 他们已经将采访专题发布在《好戏网》的首页推荐。

若有兴趣的话， 请通过以下链接查看。 呵呵。

我是个比较孤独的人-好戏网专访马来西亚新锐导演杨毅恒

问的问题很仔细，很深奥， 我喜欢。 但是也必须用一点时间思考了才能好好的回答他们。

跟你们分享该文章的摘录。

Rest in peace, Bryan Chiel

I was writing the screenplay for my new short film when my sister suddenly messaged me on Facebook Chat.

"Do you remember Bryan? Aunt Amy's son?" She asked.

I instantly had a bad feeling, and hoped silently that the conversation wouldn't be going to a direction that I didn't want it to go.

Ashita no Joe baby

As you can see from the post filled with photos of kimono-glad young women, I was at the Meiji Shrine for the Seijin no Hi (Coming-Of-Age Day).

While I was at the shrine, I saw a baby sleeping in his stroller.

Girl drinks milk, lots of feathers appear

Yesterday afternoon, Kong filmed the conclusion of his 3-scene short film (that started with Girl In Shower Meets Slasher and Men Throwing Stuff at Helpless Hobo Boxer)

Of course, I was there to chronicle it all.

Men throwing stuff at helpless hobo boxer

Yesterday afternoon, Kong continued shooting the second scene of his 3-scene one-minute short film. (the first scene is of a girl in a shower encountering a slasher).

"CHASING THE DREAM" - article of me at Goreng Dot Com

"CHASING THE DREAM", Erna's profile of me on the brand new Goreng Dot Com website came out two days ago.