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Thursday, July 22, 2010

Kazue Fukiishi 吹石一恵 at the Gegege No Nyobo 『ゲゲゲの女房』 world premiere

Nine years ago, when I was just finishing high school, I went to Japan for a family trip. I remember being in a hotel that was known for the hot springs, but what I remember most then was the lobby, where a public service announcement poster of actress/ model Kazue Fukiishi from the fire department was pinned onto the wall.

I vaguely recognized her name (few years earlier I had seen her debut feature in the TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL, a film adapted from a dating simulation... er, yeah), but I was mostly mesmerized by her beauty. That large luminous eyes peering deep into my soul, telling me to be careful not to play with fire, the slight playful smile on her face hinted that she knew secrets of me and would be a willing co-conspirator.

Returning to my room, images of her lingered, and the question that haunted my mind then was... "what if I cannot see this poster again? What if, for the rest of my life, this poster would just be a fleeting image that would just fade off in my mind, along with her name?"

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

3PM, a short film exercise

[3PM] Mika (Yumiko Kitazawa) listens to music


3PM is an exercise from the cinematography class I was taking last year. I remember finishing it around the end of June. Then summer came, and I was mired into some sort of depression, which is what I am pretty much going through now. (Quite odd, it's as if I'm stuck in a time loop like the protagonist of the film.)

I digress.

Anyway, all my rushes (raw footages) of this film had been destroyed when my hard disk died last year (just a few weeks after the film was done), making this a 'lost work' of mine. And I wouldn't exactly classify this as part of my oeuvre since it's really just a class project of sorts.

The film only existed in the form of some DVDs that I managed to burn for myself. There are some works that I've done which I would rather it doesn't see the light of the day, but I had a lot of fun shooting 3PM, with the help of a nice cast and crew. And I wouldn't want the film to disappear just like that, so I might as well upload it online for fun.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I have suffered so long for nothing.

I might be a tormented artist like Van Gogh


It was getting increasingly hard to sleep recently, especially in the past few weeks. I could never understand why.

Monday, July 19, 2010

I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like by Justin Isis

My friend, author Quentin S Crisp, has an important announcement to make.

Dear Readers,

My name is Quentin, but please call me Quentin S. Crisp. I have had the privilege of being interviewed on this blog in the past, and now I would like to address you directly. For some time I have been in correspondence and creative collaboration with Justin Isis, guest writer on this blog. A significant overlap in our aesthetic concerns led us to found the dadaoist blogzine, Chômu. Catching the westering rays of that dying blog (which will perhaps rise again), and taking its name therefrom, a new celestial body has appeared in the publishing firmament: Chômu Press.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Mitama Matsuri at Yasukuni Shrine 2010

Yesterday, I noticed an increase of traffic for last year's blog post about the Mitama Matsuri (or Mitama Festival) at the Yasukuni Shrine. I checked the date and realized that it's exactly been a year (plus a day) since I went to the festival. Last year I went with two of my friends, Zifeng and Yang Yang, it was a fun experience. We went there in the evening, and left after sunset.

It took me a while to decide whether I wanted to go again or not, with a newer camera, I could take much better photos than last year's. Too bad I would be going alone, but then, it's always been the case anyway.

This time, I arrived at the shrine at around 7:30pm. It was already night.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Cannes leftovers

My old laptop died last month and I ended up being forced to get a new one. Well, it was about time anyway, the laptop had been with me for more than 3 years, a usual life span for laptops?

I just opened its hard disk and hooked it up to my new comp just now because I needed to extract some information needed for tomorrow's final Masters' Thesis presentation. Then I saw some of the photos from my last day in Cannes which I have yet to upload on Flickr, and also an earlier video, so here you go.

This video was taken on May 18th, when Professor Ando was bringing us to this nice place for dinner.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Last days in Brignogan

25th of June. Everyone were leaving Brignogan. Before that they were waiting at the hotel lobby, it was the only place where the Wi-Fi signal was decent.


Olga, Lorena and Anita at the unofficial internet room


By evening, almost everyone was gone.

I made my way through the beach...

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Sumptuous feast and fun party during last day of Brignogan workshop

24th of June, last day of the workshop in Brignogan. After the session ended, I was interviewed by a local paper! (Orsi of Hungary, served as translator)

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Trip day in Brignogan

The script workshop sessions in Brignogan were usually held outdoors. How could it be otherwise? The scenery was great, we get to look at the clear blue sea.

Man and Sea!

Me at a Brignogan beach


And here's my teammate Anita of Bratislava, Slovakia, enjoying herself.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Sunrise and sunset, Brignogan-Plages, France

Ah, it's good to be operating in full strength again. After my grievous bout of nosebleed, and the upset tummy that lasted for a couple of days. Every time when I was on the verge of recovering, I would eat something... unhealthy, prolonging the pain, so during the weekend I decided to cut down my meals. It was pretty horrible.

Brignogan-Plages, or simply Brignogan, was where I had my scriptwriting workshops. After spending two days in Brest, a car picked me and a few others up at the train station and took us to Brignogan, a village 30 km away.

It didn't take too long.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Nosebleed

Still suffering from jet lag, I found it difficult to sleep last night. I stayed up the whole night, watching both the Japan - Paraguay match, and the last half hour of the Spain - Portugal match. Stomach felt queasy, another bout of food poisoning-like symptoms were creeping over me, though back then I was unable to pinpoint the actual source of my discomfort, and believed I might be having trouble adjusting to my bed again. (I disregarded the fact that I slept pretty comfortably through the afternoon after I got back from the airport, I thought I was merely too exhausted then to notice the discomfort)

I dozed off finally at 9am and woke up less than 2 hours later, feeling a familiar sensation in my nose. Blood again, was pouring out of my right nostril, profusely. I said 'again', because obviously I am used to this occurrence.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Brest, France. A travelogue of sorts.

Ask me what I thought of Brest, two days earlier, when I was stuck there after missing my flight, I would have launch into an expletive-filled tirade. But now that I've reached Tokyo, and slept through the afternoon, I look at Brest, not with nostalgia, but with acceptance that the place played a rather big role in my latest trip.

My workshop was mostly in Brignogan, which is 30-45 mins away from Brest, by car. But due to circumstances I had never expected, I actually realized I have spent three and a half nights in Brest, compared to the 6 in Brignogan, I ended up becoming quite familiar with the city center. It's unlikely that I would ever return to Brest, it's not one of those places that I would go to for personal reasons. So acknowledging that fact does make me feel a little fonder of the place.

Anyway, a short chronicle of my days in Brest.

Monday, June 28, 2010

In LIMBO!

That was how I felt when I had to stay in Brest for another day.

The initial plan was simple. After writing my last post, I was supposed to go to the Brest station, catch a train to Paris, enjoy the beautiful countryside scenery during the 4-hour train ride, and then after reaching the Charles De Gaulle, sleep at the airport, and take the plane back to Tokyo.

Alas, things didn't work out, I was shell-shocked when there wasn't a train to be caught, and ended up being forced to reschedule my flight. Thus I ended up in Brest for an extra day. It's a frustrating feeling, when all your mind is prepared to go home, and BOOM! Some unforeseeable crap happened, and I ended up being stuck.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Leaving Brignogan, France

Heya folks, I've been in Brignogan, France, for the past week or so. Brignogan is this nice coastal village 30 mins away from Brest. Been so busy with my scripwriting workshop, so no time to really post anything here. I took many pretty photos too, no time to upload either.

It is now 10:53am, a car is supposed to pick me up at 3:30pm and take me to Brest station, where I will have to take a train to Paris (train ride lasts 3-5 hours). After I reach the Paris Airport, I will still wait for another couple of hours before I fly back to Tokyo (the flight is at 7am, next morning). I expect to, well, sleep in the airport.

I brought two books with me for the trip, David Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS, and Vladimir Nabokov's THE REAL LIFE OF SEBASTIAN KNIGHT. I was already in the last quarter of CLOUD ATLAS, so I finished the book while I was still in the plane. SEBASTIAN KNIGHT turned out to be a much breezier read than expected, I finished that during my first two days in France, even before the beginning of the workshop!

I ended up having to download some e-books via Scribd, and was reading Nabokov's PALE FIRE, and Haruki Murakami's HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD. Despite having mixed feelings of Murakami's works (enjoyed NORWEGIAN WOODS, annoyed with WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLES, liked AFTER DARK, indifferent to most stories in THE ELEPHANT VANISHES), many have actually said that some of my works reminded them of his stories. I would say that it's coincidence, since, for the past two years, I live in the same dormitory that he used to live in, go the same university that he goes in. I like listening to jazz too. 9 years ago, when I was studying for SPM, the final government exams for secondary school in Malaysia, I had Duke Ellington blaring from my CD player. Sometimes, I would also humorously liken my improvisational filmmaking methods to those of a jazz musician.

Anyway, I'm enjoying HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD, although I would say that overall, I still prefer David Mitchell as a writer (though he's clearly influenced by Murakami). So yup, another day drifting by while I prepare my long trip back to Tokyo.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Cannes Day 9: Moon Lai's Photoshoot

The last day in Cannes was quite uneventful. All the pressure and stress we had leading towards our screening were finally gone. We could finally just enjoy the festival and the place, it's a little unfortunate that our screening took place towards the end of the festival, otherwise we could have had more relaxing days like this.

Monday, June 14, 2010

VIDEO: Talking about my new short, INHALATION at THE TIGER FACTORY press conference at Cannes Film Festival

Had been shutting myself away from the rest of the world working on a new film treatment.

Then, my comp died.

I ended up doing the writing at Saizerya (a Japanese "family restaurant" similar to Denny's) in the past few hours.

Will continue writing that.

But for now, take a look at a video from THE TIGER FACTORY press conference at the Cannes Film Festival on the 21st of May, 2001, just before its official screening. Jeremy Segay moderated the Q and A, those present were Ming Jin (the producer-writer-director), me (the producer-writer-editor) and Moon Lai (or Fooi Mun, the lead actress).

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Cannes Day 8: The Tiger Factory day!

Spent the entire last week trying to finish up my Master's Thesis. It's due end of this month, but I had other things to do, so had to get it done earlier. I succeeded.

Now, on with my penultimate post for the Cannes trip.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Cannes Day 7: Pretty uneventful aside from the Directors' Fortnight Party

Nothing happened on my 7th day in Cannes. That was the 20th of May, just a day before our press conference and screening. We continued going around giving out invitations to friends and people who were interested in catching THE TIGER FACTORY.

After that we bumped into Lee, editor of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's eventual Palm D'or winning 'UNCLE BOONME WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES', and the actress Wallapa (who played the princess in the film). We went off to have some kebab. Lee gave us tickets to the Uncle Boonme gala screening too, awesome!

Monday, May 31, 2010

Cannes Day 6: Lee Chang Dong's Poetry

Been busy writing my masters thesis (due end of June), giving my mid-term thesis presentation in Wednesday (just two days after I got back from Cannes) and being repeatedly pestered to give advice for someone else's graduate film project that I had no time to update my blog.

19th of May. Went to the gala screening of Lee Chang Dong's Poetry. That was probably the highlight of that day, I can't remember anything else from that day.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Cannes Day 5: Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy

After meeting Abbas Kiarostami at MK2's Jia Zhangke party, I knew I had to catch his film.

Nespresso in Cannes Film Fest

At the main Palais building of the Cannes Film Festival, where the Market is held, and just between the theaters showing the competition films and the Un Certain Regarde films, there's a Nespresso Cafe that provides free coffee to people with festival accreditations.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Cannes Day 4: Prof Ando brings us to nice restaurant

I've returned to Tokyo this morning. It's been an enjoyable trip in Cannes. The reception for THE TIGER FACTORY was very warm, there was a nice standing ovation, but I'll get to that later.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Cannes Day 2: Finally saw some celebrities

I'm staying in a hotel at Juan Le Pins, which is one station away from Cannes.

As I took a walk around, I realized Juan Le Pins is quite a charming little place.

First day in Cannes

I arrived at the Charles De Gaulle Airport on 4am. I was supposed to wait for 3 hours before the transit to Nice.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

My award-winning short film, LOVE SUICIDES now (temporarily?) online

[Love Suicides] The woman (Kimmy Kiew) is pensive


My short film, LOVE SUICIDES (2009) has also been temporarily uploaded online last month as part of Brazil's Fluxus 2010 - International Film Festival on the Internet, so I decided to allow the folks at GUA to host the short for a while as well.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Watch CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY online (a suitable film for Mother's Day?)

Today is Mother's Day, so I thought it would be the perfect time to share with you all my very first non-student short film, CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY (2008), which is now uploaded on Youtube

Singer Yui Ibuki 伊吹唯 performing in front of Shinjuku Station exits

On the 6th of May, before I caught sight of Denis the tap dancing painter, I saw Yui Ibuki 伊吹唯 performing at the West exit of Shinjuku station (I was on my way to Yodobashi Camera to check out some camera lenses).

Friday, May 07, 2010

Denis the Tap Dancing Painter

Last night, as I was heading home from Shinjuku, I saw Denis, a tap dancing painter. I can assure you that it's not really a common sight in Shinjuku. The guy had a lot of showmanship and had attracted a large crowd of people during his performance.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Another afternoon in Asakusa, then at the Lucie Rie exhibition in Roppongi

On Sunday, the posters of THE TIGER FACTORY were finally delivered to us. They looked good. To celebrate that, Professor Ando decided to organize a short tour in Asakusa for Ming Jin and the rest of us THE TIGER FACTORY gang.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Met old friends. I realized I had an eventful year.

The Japanese Golden Week had begun. I met up with three of my old friends, Ai, Iyo and Maiko. Not Maiko the Producer, but another Maiko, who, like Ai and Iyo, were friends I met during my Perth days in 2005, when they were exchange students.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Preparing THE TIGER FACTORY for Cannes

The past few days went by in an even quicker blur. Day became night, night became day, sometimes I didn't sleep, sometimes a nap is treated as a sleep, I have lost all sense of time.

I went back to Malaysia for 3 nights to:

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Behind a scene of THE TIGER FACTORY

Lai Fooi Mun in THE TIGER FACTORY


This was shot on the 6th of March (my birthday!), during the 4th day of THE TIGER FACTORY shoot. Pang the Sound Guy had to play a minor role, so it was up to the director Woo Ming Jin himself to carry the boom mic.



Making films in Malaysia, you kinda have to do everything.

(another 2 hours before I head off to Narita Airport)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Returning to Malaysia for 3 nights to finish THE TIGER FACTORY edit

Pearlly Chua and Lai Fooi Mun in THE TIGER FACTORY
Pearlly Chua and Lai Fooi Mun in THE TIGER FACTORY


Ever since the news announcement of THE TIGER FACTORY's Directors' Fortnight selection in the Cannes Film Festival (once again, I would like to point out that the film is a Malaysian - Japanese co-production, which wasn't mentioned in the initial press release, nor written on the official website!!) I haven't been getting any proper sleep. Last night I slept (more like fell asleep before the computer) at 12am and woke up at 3am. Then after that I just started replying to many emails from some publicists and distribution companies who had interest in our film, and then had email exchanges with Prof Ando the executive producer, who was also awake.

THE TIGER FACTORY goes to Cannes Film Festival

Dear all,

The past two days had been a blur. Woo Ming Jin's THE TIGER FACTORY, which I produced and co-wrote, had been selected for The Directors' Fortnight section in next month's Cannes Film Festival.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

My short films, LOVE SUICIDES and KINGYO will also play at the Singapore International Film Festival tomorrow (with LADYBIRD'S TEARS)

I mentioned in my previous post that the Thai-language short film that I wrote and produced, LADYBIRD'S TEARS, will be having its world premiere at the 23rd Singapore International Film Festival tomorrow (19th of April, 2010).

Aside from that, both the shorts that I wrote and directed, LOVE SUICIDES and KINGYO will also be part of their Asian Shorts program. It's quite an honour to have 3 shorts that I was involved in being presented at the film festival.

Ladybird's Tears, a short film I wrote and produced

Back in January, I mentioned that I was reworking somebody else's film. The film will end up being called 'LADYBIRD'S TEARS', directed by my Thai friend, Kong Pahurak, and starring Zhu Dan (who can be seen in my upcoming short THE WHITE FLOWER, which Kong acted in as well).

zhu dan in Ladybird's Tears


In the previous post, I mentioned that LADYBIRD'S TEARS were assembled from footages of Kong's unfinished experimental short film STARDUST MEMORIES. I saw some potential in what he did, and decided that it would be a bit of a pity to leave the film in the can. The pictures you see here are actual screenshots of the film.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Goodbye Cherry Blossoms

The rain 2 days ago removed most of the cherry blossoms from sight. How fleeting they were, and how hard it is to not feel a tinge of melancholy to know that I won't see them for another year.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Road trip in Slovakia. Adieu.

Time for me to upload the rest of the photos I took while I was in Bratislava (check out the earlier Bratislava blog posts and photos here). I was waiting to do this only when I was able to edit together the video I took on that particular day.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Would I recommend another to join the film industry?

Well, dad had came for a visit since Friday. The following photo was taken on his first day here, in Shibuya.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

The 8th day of Chinese New Year 2010

21st of February. It was the 8th day of Chinese New Year, 2010. Some Chinese families of the Hokkien dialect group have a special praying ceremony when it's midnight, during the beginning of the 9th day. (Not mine though.)

Here's from Wikipedia about the 9th day of Chinese New Year.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Remnants of Jaya Supermarket

I'm sharing some of the first few photos I took after I got my Canon EOS 7D on the 21st of February.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Welcome party (and cherry blossoms) in Toho Studios

I'm going to elaborate upon the previous post.

Cherry blossoms in Toho Studios

Well, it's the time of the year again for the blossoming of cherry blossoms (sakura) in Tokyo.

I've managed to retrieve my old Panasonic LX-3 after sending it off for repairs prior to my trip to Bratislava, so I managed to snap a couple of photos with it last night when I was at Toho Studios. Nowadays I actually carry two cameras around, my LX-3 (it's more inconspicuous) and my Canon 7D... which I use only when I want to take photos that can only be taken with a DSLR.

So for now I'll just share the photos that I took with the Panasonic LX-3. The entire story of why I was in Toho Studios will come later.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Last workshop in Bratislava

26th of March. Friday.

We had our very last workshop session.

Just to explain a bit more on the Script & Pitch workshop that I have attended without giving away supremely confidential information...

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Slovakian Sushi

Thursday. 25th of March. I remember that mostly because I had sushi for lunch. To think that I came all the way from Tokyo to Bratislava, just to have sushi! How fun!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

More photos of Bratislava

24th of May. Wednesday. Went off for a walk in the Old Town area to buy some souvenirs for friends.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I ate a lot in Bratislava.

Day 2 of the workshop in Bratislava. But this isn't going to be about my (CONFIDENTIAL) workshop.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Blooming flowers

Second night in Bratislava. It's currently 5:30 am. I've been awake since 3:30 am. Thinking about my script, it's a feature-length film, so it's nothing I've ever done before. Need a while to ponder.

The first session of the workshop was fun. 3 people in a team, a tutor and a story editor trainee. We all discuss about our own screenplay, mine and another girl's, Anita from Slovakia, are in early treatment form, while another guy, Alexis from Greece, already has his script in its first draft. We take turns discussing and deconstructing each other's stories, it's not something you get to do everyday, so it's fun.

I'll give more details later.

Didn't take any photos that are worthwhile, so I'll just post up some photos I took near my dorm in Tokyo, just a day before I came to Bratislava.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Photos of Bratislava at night

After posting my last blog entry, I noticed that the sky had gone dark. It was half past six, a bus was to take me to dinner at 8:30pm, plenty of time for a walk, and so I exited the hotel.

I'm now in Bratislava, Slovakia

I recently watched 'UP IN THE AIR' while I was on the plane back to Tokyo. I felt that I could totally relate to George Clooney's character.

After 3 nights in Tokyo, I took to the skies again. This time I was heading towards Bratislava, in Slovakia. I'm one of the 20 participants invited for the Script and Pitch Workshop.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Chinese New Year 2010 Day Two

This is a flashback to February 15th. The 2nd day of Chinese New Year. The photos I took that day were the last ones I took before my original camera, the Panasonic LX-3 had its untimely death.

I had just brought the camera to the Panasonic Service Center in Akihabara for repairs, and had been forced to convert to using DSLR since then. (In case you hadn't noticed, the production photos of THE TIGER FACTORY, and the ones of my dad's birthday dinner, those were taken with my new Canon 7D).

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Petronas Twin Towers, the unclear future, and a traffic jam

On my last day in Malaysia (which was dad's birthday), I was at KLCC in the afternoon to meet up with an old friend, so I decided to snap a photo of the Petronas Twin Towers.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Dad's birthday dinner 2010

Anyway, just as I've mentioned in my previous post. Yesterday was my dad's birthday. He has hit the big 6-0. Good work, dad.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Monday, March 15, 2010

Spent my birthday in the pig farm (The Tiger Factory shoot day 4)

6th of March. I spent the 4th day of The Tiger Factory shoot in the pig farm again.

Here's Ming Jin, with a piglet.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

THE TIGER FACTORY film shoot day 3

It's been a busy week. No time to upload photos, nor this blog. But now that the first leg of the THE TIGER FACTORY shoot is done (it ended on the 10th of March and will resume without me during the end of the month) and I've also completed the shooting of my newest short film (I'm still consistently pumping a short film out every two months) last night, there's some free time.

5th of March. We moved to a pig farm for the film shoot.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

THE TIGER FACTORY film shoot day 2

Second day of the shoot. Things went smoothly. Today's shoot happened entirely at the Moon Chew restaurant in Klang.

THE TIGER FACTORY film shoot day 1

Have started shooting Ming Jin's new film, THE TIGER FACTORY, today/ yesterday (it's 1:22am when I'm writing this).

The film shoot is divided to two blocks, and will last throughout the entire month of March. Or April, still not sure. But the first block is from the 3rd til the 10th.

I'll be spending my birthday (6th of March) in a film set.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Chinese New Year 2010 Day One

As usual, on the first day of Chinese New Year (which was also Valentine's Day this year, not that it meant anything to me) we visited my uncle's (dad's elder brother).

He and his family used to live in Malacca until recent years. They now live not that far away. (perhaps 20 mins via car, as opposed to the near 2 hours back then)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Chinese New Year Eve 2010

Heya folks and Happy Chinese New Year.

It's been a while since my last update due to the slow internet connection (I feel demotivated), the sudden malfunctioning of my camera (couldn't open its lens suddenly on the second day of Chinese New Year, when I was in Ipoh), and mostly because I was busy preparing for this new film with Ming Jin that I'm producing (and editing).

Did anyone miss me? Guess not.

Anyway, I'll start it off by sharing with you all photos from the Chinese New Year Eve (13th of Feb).

Saturday, February 13, 2010

A radio interview that almost happened. Almost.

A few days before I returned from Tokyo, I received an email from a radio station asking for an interview with me. So I said yes, I was coming back to Malaysia anyway.

After coming back, I remained in contact with the guy on e-mail, finally confirming the time for the interview. I was asked to go to their studio on Chinese New Year Eve.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Dilapidated buildings in KL had a strange charm

I think I picked up photography after I went to Tokyo. Everything was new, fascinating, so I decided to snap photos of them and post them online. To share with others the views of a foreigner in Japan.

It's no coincidence also, that I got into photography around the same time as filmmaking. Somehow after I started making films, things around me just felt a little different, and I just cannot resist the urge of taking snapshots of things I liked, at that very moment.

These photos were taken yesterday when Ming Jin and I, along with the current Greenlight Pictures team, went to KL to do some research for our upcoming film project.

Twilight train in Shah Alam

8th of February. After resting for a night, I immediately headed off to the new GREENLIGHT PICTURES office in Shah Alam for a meeting with Ming Jin. Actually, we are going to prepare for another film shoot over the next few weeks, and you'll be hearing a lot about our project soon.

This is the new office.

Back in Malaysia, not used to internet speed

I've been back in Malaysia since 3 nights ago. But somehow it felt longer than that.

The net connection here had been so horrendously bad that I don't even feel motivated enough to surf the net anymore. I ended up just sitting in front of my PS2 one whole day trying to complete Persona 4.

I didn't sleep at all the night before I leave Tokyo, mostly because I wanted to save all the sleeping for the flight. And it worked. I think I was only awake for 1 hour out of the entire 7-hour flight, mostly to eat the food that they served me.

(The in-flight entertainment wasn't working, so I couldn't catch any films in the plane at all.)

The plane departed from Tokyo at 10:30am, Japan time, and arrived at Kuala Lumpur at 5pm-ish Malaysian time (6pm in Tokyo).

Here's the skytrain of KL International Airport.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Shinagawa is like a sci-fi city

I'm heading to the Narita Airport in around 4 hours. Been busy with so many things in the past few days as I prepare to fly back to Malaysia.

Aside from going through another editing session for someone else's film, one of the things I did was extending my Japanese Visa. So I had to go to the Immigration Bureau at Shinagawa.

Arriving at the station early in the morning, I felt intimidated by the huge wave of people, all seemingly heading towards one particular direction.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Snow in Tokyo

Yesterday (1st of Feb) was a pretty rainy day.

But when I was having dinner with a friend, it suddenly started snowing.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

40 hour editing marathon for EXHALATION

I was supposed to put together a rough cut of my latest short film EXHALATION by today.

I took almost a 2-week break from its editing to wait for Maiko the Producer to finish her Masters thesis, Torigoe the Sound Guy to the sound mixing (he had 3 productions lined up before him, EXHALATION, unfortunately, was number 3), and for Woan Foong the Composer to send me the music pieces (we last worked together in my last completed and still-unreleased short THE WHITE FLOWER). To kill time, I ended up helping to put together Kong's film, which is now called LADYBIRD'S TEARS.

But once Kong's film was out of the way, and Maiko was done with her thesis, and Woan Foong had sent me her avant-garde music pieces, things were set into motion again in order to hit today's deadline.

On the 28th, I went to Tokyo University of Arts at Yokohama to do some additional voice recording for actor Hiroyuki Takashima. It was actually my first time in Yokohama, I was surprised by the Western-styled architecture. I snapped photos like a tourist.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The busy labs in Waseda University's GITS building

GITS = Global Information Telecommunications School.

The final thesis presentation for Masters students is drawing near. Everyone's been busy in their labs.

Last night I went to check out Sakai Lab (lab of WHITE FLOWER assistant producer Liu Jin and Lia the Artist).

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Black and white photos do seem more dramatic...

This is a quote from one of my heroes, Andrei Tarkovsky, on colour cinema.

When we watch something going on we don't notice colour. A black-and-white film immediately creates the impression that your attention is concentrated on what is most important. On the screen colour imposes itself on you, whereas in real life that only happens at odd moments, so it's not right for the audience to be constantly aware of colour. Isolated details can be in colour if that is what corresponds to the state of the character on the screen. In real life the line that separates unawareness of colour from the moment when you start to notice it is quite imperceptible. Our unbroken, evenly paced flow of attention will suddenly be concentrated on some specific detail. A similar effect is achieved in a film when coloured shots are inserted into black-and-white.

Colour film as a concept uses the aesthetic principles of painting, or colour photography. As soon as you have a coloured picture in the frame it becomes a moving painting. It's all too beautiful, and unlike life. What you see in cinema is a coloured, painted plane, a composition on a plane. In a black-and-white film there is no feeling of something extraneous going on, the audience can watch the film without being distracted from the action by colour. From the moment it was born, cinema has been developing not according to its vocation, but according to purely commercial ideas. That started when they began making endless film versions of classics.

Unexpectedly ended up at the GREEN DAY concert in Saitama!

Green Day concert tickets


Yesterday, while I was having lunch with a friend at Acacia restaurant, Shinjuku, she told me she had two free tickets to the Green Day concert in the evening at Saitama and whether I wanted to go.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Erna reviews KINGYO

The woman (Rukino Fujisaki) whispers something to the man (Takao Kawaguchi)


I was just saying in my previous post that it's not everyday someone would bother to write a review of your short film.

I need to rephrase that.

It's not everyday that you have TWO people writing about two different short films of yours.

Here's an excerpt from Erna's KINGYO review.

An ex-colleague of mine was rather disdainful about Edmund, saying that he thought far too highly of himself.

He obviously didn’t get Edmund at all. He’s a funny soul, who is often misunderstood. If only they could see past the hilarious fascetiousness on his blog and see the sensitive soul with a gift and love for narrative.

Emil Kloeden reviews FLEETING IMAGES

[Fleeting Images] Varanasi


I was a little surprised when I was contacted by Emil Kloeden yesterday via Twitter for permission to use one of my FLEETING IMAGES screenshots for his review.

It's not everyday that someone would bother to write a review of your short film. Thanks, man. Here's an excerpt:

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Visiting the ancient city of Kamakura

My friend, Kelly (she's from Taiwan), had been preparing to do a very small-scaled short film, and had enlisted Kong's help to shoot it.

She had wanted to shoot her place in a traditional Japanese house, and so her friend Anna, offered to let Kelly use her great-grandmother's house in Kamakura.

Yesterday, Kong and Kelly decided to go to Kamakura to look at Anna's house.

I decided to tag along because I've never been to Kamakura before.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Reworking someone else's film

I completed the rough cut of EXHALATION last Saturday. The next step is to wait for Torigoe the Sound Guy to do the sound mixing for me, which means another trip to Toho Studios (that's where I did my post-production for KINGYO, I actually spent a night there, and even ran into Takuya Kimura). But because Maiko the Producer had been busy writing her Masters' thesis (deadline 21st of Jan), she hasn't had time to book the studio and schedule the date for the rest of the post-production work.

Left without anything to do, I was once again, stricken with post-creativity depression, or boredom, or whatever you people can think of. (it should be obvious to most long-time readers by now that I'm a bipolar workaholic)

But then on Tuesday, my friend Kong, who also had to do his Masters thesis, made an off-hand remark about getting someone else to do the re-editing for his 'experimental' film, STARDUST MEMORIES, because he had been busy, and after his thesis he probably had to work on editing his latest film, THE DEAD FOREIGNER (loosely translation, original title is Shinda gaijin) which was shot a few days before my EXHALATION, and was also produced by Maiko, shot by KINGYO cinematographer Josha and starring KINGYO actress Luchino.

Not everyone likes editing, but I do. So hearing his off-hand remark, a huge light bulb flashed above my oversized (figurative and literal) head.

"Okay! I will edit it!" I said. Anything just to give myself something to busy myself with.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Young Women in Kimono at Meiji Shrine during Seijin No Hi (Coming Of Age Day)

Today's (actually, since it's 1am while I'm writing this, it's actually yesterday) a public holiday in Japan. It's Seijin No Hi (Coming-of-Age Day). On this day, ceremonies are held at local city offices for young adults who reach the age of 20. Women go out in furisode (a style of kimono with long sleeves draped down, which is necessary, since it's winter), men occasionally go out in traditional clothes, but nowadays they usually wear suits.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

China Mobile Film Fest 2009 recap

Okay, I was thinking of writing my thoughts on AVATAR, which I saw and really enjoyed yesterday, but better to give a quick recap of the entire China Mobile Film Festival before I forget about it.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Ana Hachiman-gu Shrine in Waseda

I've spent a rather quiet and adventure-free New Year that was a direct contrast of the one I had last year (videos here and here).

But the New Year is a 3-day celebration in Japan, and what I like most are the shrines and temples that are set up with stalls selling food and goods during the period. And then the many people hanging around. Some would have their fortunes told, some would buy good luck charms, some were there for the food, I was traveling alone in Kobe when I ventured around in a temple, seeing the crowd made me feel a little less lonely.

Yesterday was the last day of the celebration, I slightly regret not heading off to one of the bigger shrines in Tokyo like Senso-ji or Meijijingu to snap some photos. However, I needed the rest after I finished the last 2 months of 2009 in such an exhausting manner, and also because I wanted to prepare myself for the post-production of my new film. So instead of going too far, I went to the Ana Hachiman-gu 穴八幡宮 Shrine near my place.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Celebrating a real Japanese New Year (and then running into HK actor Roger Kwok)

New Year's Eve. After finishing the EXHALATION shoot the night before, I spent the entire night transferring the footage into a computer, and then doing backup on two different external hard disks.

When everything was done. It was 5. Maiko the Producer, me and Kurihara the Production Manager (he was also the web designer for the KINGYO website) hung out at Denny's before they were able to return the rented van at 7am. I finally slept at 8:30am.

Woke up 4 hours later.

Maiko's mom had invited me over to their place to celebrate New Year with them, so at 5pm in the evening, I returned to the place that was my shooting location for the past few days (EXHALATION was shot in Maiko's hometown).

We reached at around 7pm. Just in time for the KOHAKU UTA GASSEN (RED WHITE SONG BATTLE) to start on NHK.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy 2010!

I'm now hanging out at Tsukui, new year has come, waiting for Maiko the Producer's mom to prepare some soba (apparently it is Japanese tradition to eat soba during new year!).

2009 had its ups and downs, but for me, they were mostly ups. Hopefully 2010 will be better, for me and you all!!!

EXHALATION shoot day 3

Last night, I shot the remaining scenes for my new film EXHALATION.

This is lead actress Kiki Sugino in her uniform (in the film she works in a Pachinko shop).

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

EXHALATION shoot day 2

Early in the morning, when I returned to the location for the shoot of my new film, EXHALATION, it struck me that i was going through the last few days of 2009.

It was rather apt that, in a year which I would consider a breakthrough for my filmmaking career, I would end it while making a film.

Monday, December 28, 2009

EXHALATION shoot day 1

The 3-day shoot for my newest short film, EXHALATION, had just started. It's the biggest production I've ever taken (yes, even bigger than KINGYO).

Some photos from the film shoot today. I have only 4 hours to sleep before I get up at 5am for day two of the shoot.

The crew arrived at the location at 8:30am in the morning. Everyone started preparing.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Yakiniku Christmas Dinner

I remembered last year's Christmas, it was a quiet one. I miscalculated that Ueno Park or Senso-ji Temple would be open for Christmas, but I was wrong. It was a peaceful but somewhat melancholic experience.

I kinda assumed that the same would happen this year. Perhaps I would just head off to one of the cinemas and watch AVATAR alone, but something else came up, and all of a sudden, I found myself at a Yakiniku restaurant called Buchi, in Shibuya.

LOVE SUICIDES picked up Best Director award at China Mobile Film Festival 2009

(I've announced this on Twitter and Facebook a few days ago, but haven't actually done it here, so here you go...)

Just to share some good news. I picked up the Best Director Award for my short film LOVE SUICIDES at last week's China Mobile Film Festival in Shenzhen.

KINGYO reunion party

Yes, it's Christmas, but let me post some long overdue blog entries for now.

The KINGYO team had a reunion party on the 15th of December, right after the CON-CAN Award Ceremony.

Actually, it's more like a 'wrap party' instead of a 'reunion party'. Although we finished the shoot for KINGYO almost a year earlier (principal photography was done by the end of January 2009), none of us had the chance to really had a 'wrap party'. None of us were able to be at the same city at the same time, so it was great to finally have something like that.

Here's part of the team.

Part of the KINGYO team here
(from left to right: me, Kawamura-san who borrowed us his house for the shoot, still photographer Zhang Xiaolei, production assistant Seki, lead actress Luchino, production assistant An-chan, Lia the Artist/ Assistant director, Maiko the producer and Linto the post-production technician)


Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The CON-CAN Movie Festival Awards Ceremony and Ando Lab screening in Waseda

Last month, the people of CON-CAN Movie Festival decided to hold an awards ceremony in Waseda University because, aside from me, another award winner Nishihara, was also a Waseda student.

The CON-CAN Movie Festival Screening in Keio University

I just got back from Shenzhen, China, two nights ago. Was there a couple of days for the China Mobile Film Fest, was mortified to be reminded again that Facebook, Youtube, Blogspot and even Twitter were blocked, hence the lack of updates. I picked up an award from the festival, but I'll get back to that later.

Last Monday (14th of December, 2009), I headed off to Keio University for a screening of FLEETING IMAGES (watch entire film here) organized by the CON-CAN Movie Festival. My film, along with 3 of the award-winning films of the festival, were screened. But that night, only me and Monica Gallab of Belgium (Special Jury Prize winner for NICE DAY FOR A PICNIC, film embedded at the bottom of the post) were present for the event.

This is Yumi the Photographer, she studied French literature.

Yumi the photographer

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

My return to the ruins of Sun Hills Hotel and Fujino

Back in May, I explored the ruins at Sagamihara. It was an unforgettable adventure that stayed with me, so I decided to return to the ruins of Sun Hills Hotel again, for location scouting.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

I don't think my handwriting is THAT ugly

Another sleepless night.

I developed an outline for my new film two nights ago.

Yesterday evening, I tried to come up with a rough film treatment. (it's typically the step before the first draft of a screenplay)

Maiko and Kong, along with An-chan, were having discussions about Kong's new short film, which was scheduled for shooting this month.

Me, knowing that it was a rare moment where I could concentrate without having any other distractions, took some papers and started scribbling some notes.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

TOKYO FILMeX 2009, Sell Out! director Yeo Joon Han's Q and A session.

I felt a sense of nationalistic pride when I went to catch SELL OUT! at TOKYO FILMeX on the 24th, last month. Took me quite a while to finally catch the film since I wasn't around during the film's local theatrical release in Malaysia couple of months ago. I enjoyed the film, though I liked the satirical, comedic parts more than the musical parts. SELL OUT! Lead actress Jerrica Lai, who had a great voice and was awesome in the film, would later give another wonderful performance at the stunning WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER, produced by, well, me.

Difficult to sleep because of another new project

I've been having problems sleeping again.

The past week when my family were around, I had my most normal sleeping schedule in MONTHS. Sleeping around 1am, waking up around 8-9am, it was healthy.

After finishing my latest THE WHITE FLOWER (I now have the film in screener DVDs, but there will still be some minor tweaks here and there before it really premieres), its month-long post-production leading to some of the craziest, most irregular sleeping time for myself (I would take a brief nap from 11pm to 1-2am, wake up, orchestrate net meetings with Niklas the cinematographer and Woan Foong the composer, getting materials for them to continue the progress of the film, and then updating them by uploading some footage online for them to view etc.) I started having breakfast before I sleep at around 9-10am.

_MG_6873
still from THE WHITE FLOWER


The best thing is that I get to skip lunch (which isn't served for free in my dorm, haha) since I often sleep through the noon and wake up around 2pm. I live like a peasant because my deluded romanticized view of struggling artists is one where everything is shoved aside for the sake of his craft or art.

So yes, after THE WHITE FLOWER was done, family came to visit, and I slept properly. They returned to Malaysia on Saturday morning.

I then started planning the storyline for my latest short film. Yes, my 7th short film of the year. A project that happened suddenly (more details in future posts, if I can remember) during a conversation in a cafe when I went to the TOKYO FILMeX end of last month.

My new film is called EXHALATION. I wrote the script back in April when I was in Malaysia just after the WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER shoot. It's an original script, and not another Yasunari Kawabata adaptation. The script was rather simple and I had planned to shoot it only in one night. Unfortunately, things didn't work out with the film's intended main actress, so I ended up making AFTERNOON RIVER instead (the first half of my upcoming short film AFTERNOON RIVER, EVENING SKY).

Since EXHALATION was written before I finished KINGYO, 3PM, AFTERNOON RIVER, EVENING SKY and THE WHITE FLOWER, I think I might have grown more as a filmmaker in the past 8 months (well, I hope so anyway), so I decided to resurrect the project but transplant the story to Japanese settings, and also to increase the scale of the film.

On Sunday, the day after my family left, I spent the entire day in my room, watching films, doing research, reading Yukio Mishima's DEATH IN MIDSUMMER anthology which I just bought two days earlier (funnily, as I try to find reviews of the book, I would end up finding a 3-year-old entry ON MY OWN BLOG written by guestblogger Justin). There was an idea of turning the story from a solo one-woman piece (initial plan was that all secondary characters were either out of focus, or off-screen, audiences can only see the main actress) to a two-hander (instead of being about one character, it's about two, Kong would point out that it's consistent with my usual theme with 'dualism')

By then, my body clock has already been disrupted. Again.

On Monday (that's yesterday), I hung out in the uni lab to do the Japanese subtitles for LOVE SUICIDES. Film will be screening in Waseda University (along with my KINGYO and FLEETING IMAGES on the 15th of December). Maiko the producer and Liu Jin (assistant producer for THE WHITE FLOWER) were there, so I had a few hours of brainstorming session with them. The film became increasingly dark, elements of child porn, child and teenage prostitution, incest etc. were discussed as possibilities for the film's plot. The film went from a nihilistic drama to a murder thriller, then to a soap opera, and then to didactic sociopolitical bore.

My head was spinning.

In the end we figured it was a bit too much, so we took a more melancholic route instead. With that, a story outline started to take its form. So excited with its materialization that I started typing it out and sent to Ming Jin. I then went home at 11:30pm and took a nap at midnight. I woke up this morning at 3am. Ming Jin said he liked the idea. I became more excited and started to think and think and think. Discussing more ideas with Woan Foong, looking at other films, reading about articles, all these to grab hold of the film's essence.

... and then, it's 10:30am.

Creativity is sleep's greatest enemy.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

The Eibunren Awards Ceremony 2009

I went to the Eibunren Awards Ceremony yesterday morning with my family (who came to Tokyo for a 1-week visit). As I've mentioned before, KINGYO had won two awards, the Semi-Grand Prix and the Best New Creator award.

The Eibunren Awards is organized by the Japanese Ministry of Culture and the Japanese Association of Audiovisual Producers usually to honour documentaries or other videos dealing with sociopolitical or ecological issues. KINGYO is the first ever independent narrative short film to receive a major award from them, so they gave me the new individual award called the New Creator award.

Monday, November 30, 2009

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" in Wakeijuku

A few things had happened. I completed my new short film, THE WHITE FLOWER, I saw a few films at TOKYO FILMeX too (will try to write about them), parents + sister had also arrived in Tokyo for a visit (and also to attend the Eibunren Awards Ceremony on the 2nd of December).

I also intend to throw myself into my 7th short film of the year. I just need to conjure myself a script. More about that later, I hope.

I live in Wakeijuku dorm, that's the dorm Haruki Murakami lived in. The place had prided itself as the place where Norwegian Woods was based on. My feelings towards the place is a stormy one. But then, it IS situated at a pretty good location, and food and electricity are included in my not-too-unreasonable monthly rental fees.

Two nights ago, at the lounge of my building, there was this performance.



Too bad I don't get that everyday.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Finishing up THE WHITE FLOWER

25th to 26th of November. That was the deadline I gave myself to finish my latest film THE WHITE FLOWER. Since KINGYO, I haven't had a film that had such a long post-production, and to think that KINGYO was only 6 months ago. So I've reached the final stages of tweaking the film before doing my first batch of preview screeners for the film.

Monday, November 23, 2009

TOKYO FILMeX 2009, Tsai Ming Liang and the opening film 'Visage'

I had a lot of fun in last year's TOKYO FILMeX film festival. (can read about all my blog posts here, til this very day, my review of Sono Sion's LOVE EXPOSURE is still one of the most-read posts in this blog), so I definitely had to come this year. And this time, I even have a pass!

So yup, the opening ceremony was held yesterday evening, at 5:30pm (it's currently 3:20am as I'm writing this). Here are this year's jury members.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Me, kingyo, Eibunren Awards wins, mentioned in Uni Press newsletter

I have blamed my recent sleeping problems on work (the heavily intense post-production of my short film THE WHITE FLOWER), I've even constantly tweeted (+facebook status update) about it. But moments ago, a guzheng-playing Twitter friend Seren Koo replied to me by suggesting that writing down my ideas and what I want to do would liberate thoughts from my mind, and thus making it easier to sleep.

I realized that my lack of sleep seems to correlate with my lack of blog updates. Many times, writing a blog post at night for me can be quite (mentally) exhausting (despite said post being deceptively mindless!), and I can just drift off to sleep after that. Thus I will start writing something long, and insightful and mentally taxing just so I can exhaust myself enough to sleep.

Alas, the blog post you're reading now is probably not one of them.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Wrapping up my Pusan Film Festival 2009 experience (part 2)

Oh, it seems that I only have 3 photos and two videos that I haven't uploaded from last month's Pusan Film Fest, so I'll do it now.

12th of October, 2009. Last night in Busan (I realized that I've been making a mistake by repeatedly referring to the place as 'Pusan' instead of 'Busan' when the city's official name has long been changed to the latter). There was a Wide Angle party. The Wide Angle program of the Pusan Film Festival includes the documentary and short film competitions.

This is Kirsten Tan, Singaporean filmmaker currently based in New York. She had a short film in competition.