A discussion on the most beautiful languages in the world (...and the ugliest)

A MSN conversation:

What Tsai Ming-Liang Said To Me

I met Tsai Ming-Liang at the Sin Chew Daily headquarters last night. Born and raised in Kuching, Malaysia, he is one of the most celebrated 'Second New Wave' directors of Taiwanese cinema, his films are often compared with the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Francois Truffaut, Robert Bresson and Michaelangelo Antonioni.

”我要努力实现导演梦“ (I will work hard to fulfill my dreams of directing) - Interview On Sin Chew Daily

My interview with Sin Chew Daily, Malaysia's leading Chinese newspaper, just came out today. I was truly surprised, and amazed to see that I was on the cover of the Sin Chew Plus section, I'm truly amazed, and humbled, by this.

The interview focused mostly on my determination to chase my dreams, my filmmaking misadventures, and a bit about my short film, GIRL DISCONNECTED.

Check out my interview on Sin Chew Daily's website. It's in Chinese though.

I'll just translate some quotes from myself.

Two Teaser Clips From GIRL DISCONNECTED

Working with me is NOT a privilege.

It's more like a punishment to most. Justin himself can tell you how many takes I would go for just to get a simple shot right. A production shoot with me can be really tedious and frustrating since I'm, er, a perfectionist.

But also, for the sake of reassuring everyone that I'm REALLY a filmmaker and not just some shallow lecherous hack who was only capitalizing on some opportunity to ogle at babes in an event which MIGHT enforce the objectification of women (initially, I was named as the judge without receiving a personal mail from the organizer) like some people do ;-), I shall share with you extended scenes from my last film, GIRL DISCONNECTED, just for a glimpse of, well, my filmmaking style. Enjoy.

James Lee's 'Things We Do When We Fall In Love 当我们同在一起'

This happened last week when I was at the press screening of THINGS WE DO WHEN WE FALL IN LOVE:

VIDEO: Filmmakers Anonymous 3

Filmmakers Anonymous 3

On the 27th of April, I went to FILMMAKERS ANONYMOUS 3 with Chewxy, just hours after attending the James Lee press conference (check out my vlog entry of the press conference if you haven't already).

2 months have passed since the previous session of FILMMAKERS ANONYMOUS, in which my short, GIRL DISCONNECTED, had its Malaysian premiere, (check out my videoblog entry of FA2 if you haven't already as well) I was absolutely eager to check out the list of short films available this time.

The following were the list of short films screened on that night (taken from Filmmakers Anonymous's official site)

HIKARU GENJI 光ゲンジ

HIKARU GENJI

Spider-Man 3 is not that bad (if viewed with irony)

Like most people, this is my most-anticipated film of the year, so I was absolutely excited when it turned out that I've gotten tickets to Hitz.fm's sneak preview of Spider-Man 3 just a day before its nationwide release (Spidey 3 is premiering in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and numerous other Asian countries on the 1st of May whilst people of USA can only catch the film on the 4th of May, YESSSSSS!!!).

I've long placed SPIDER-MAN 2 high up the pedestal as my favourite superhero movie of all time, because everything about it appealed to me, the humour, the action, the character drama, the romance, everything clicked so well that there was nothing I could complain about the film at all.

SPIDER-MAN 2 had pushed the bar so high that, since then, every single big-budget superhero movie that came out, with the exception of BATMAN BEGINS, seemed just like kiddie movies. Mindless popcorn entertainment that may satisfy only hardcore comic book fans. X-MEN 3 was entertaining for its major explosions (but nothing much), SUPERMAN RETURNS was so overwhelming in its sheer seriousness (and its attempt to make Supes suffer from girl problems like Spidey) that it left a bad taste in my mouth some time after I saw it, GHOST RIDER was rubbish, FANTASTIC FOUR was amusing sometimes (but only because I was in a good mood when watching it, and Jessica Alba convinced me that the film ain't that bad).

SPIDER-MAN 2 is near perfection, and represents, to me, commercial filmmaking at its best, when the artsy fartsy poser types start speaking haughtily about their disdain for Hollywood films, I point at SPIDER-MAN 2, I said that a film like that impresses me much more as some self-indulgent incoherent rubbish that packages itself as 'high art'.

And because of that, I never expected SPIDER-MAN 3 to surpass its predecessor, I'd be happy enough if the drop of standard isn't dramatic, and that it can still be nearly as good as SPIDER-MAN 2. Hearing that there would be three villains in the film had worried me initially, making me fear that the film would end up becoming something like BATMAN AND ROBIN, crushing under the weight of the numerous characters and subplots it needed to juggle.