Last night, he started to watch a film by one of his favourite Hong Kong directors, Johnnie To. It had nothing to do with the fact that it was Hong Kong's 15th anniversary handover, it just happened that he wanted to watch a familiar Hong Kong film with familiar Hong Kong actors. The film, ROMANCING IN THIN AIR, was a romantic drama with familiar trappings, part-NOTTING HILL, part-UPSIDE OF ANGER (he didn't know he could still remember this film), part-anything Nicholas Sparks.
Embed Instagram Post Code Generator
Monday, July 02, 2012
Sunday, July 01, 2012
That's how the first half of 2012 ended. Lovely.
The second half of 2012 sort of sneaked up on me. As I was walking home this morning at 4am, I was struck by how pink the sky was. The first rays of the sun were lighting up the sky.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Interview with me on the Pia International Film Festival website
This Japanese interview with me was done last November and had been posted on the PIA International Film Festival website.
I feel bad that I am posting old news, I never liked clinging to past glories. But for the sake of preservation, and just in case I cannot find the interview anymore, at least I will have records of it here.
I feel bad that I am posting old news, I never liked clinging to past glories. But for the sake of preservation, and just in case I cannot find the interview anymore, at least I will have records of it here.
7 years ago, some guy wrote a novella in 24 hours
In August 2005, I participated in something called Blogathon, a 24-hour blogging marathon for charity. In the span of 24 hours, participants had to write a new post every 30 minutes. For a pre-Twitter/ Facebook era, that was quite a difficult thing to do.
Friday, June 29, 2012
The Films of Edward Yang
The Taiwanese director Edward Yang had been one of my biggest influences.
He died of cancer at the age of 60 exactly 5 years ago, on the 29th of June, 2007.
A few filmmaker friends of mine like Ying Liang and Eva Tang had posted the video below on Facebook to mark this occasion.
He died of cancer at the age of 60 exactly 5 years ago, on the 29th of June, 2007.
A few filmmaker friends of mine like Ying Liang and Eva Tang had posted the video below on Facebook to mark this occasion.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Rest In Peace, Nora Ephron
I was slightly saddened when I learned of screenwriter director Nora Ephron's passing yesterday right after I woke up. She had been ill with leukemia for a while.
As you may have noticed from my blog posts this year. Often when a filmmaker dies, I find myself pondering the body of work that they have left, and my memories of them.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA film series were cinematic masterpieces
It all happened yesterday evening, when two friends of mine were reliving memories of old Jet Li films on Youtube.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
BUDDYZ TV Spots (a TV series of 5-minute episodes I directed for Astro Ria)
I mentioned about BUDDYZ last month, it's a Malay TV series of 5-minute episodes that I directed back in March starring Alif Satar, Syed Ali, Erin Malek and Elliza Razak, with special guest appearances by Shaheizy Sam (the guy pretty much appeared in almost every single episode as a different character).
Although I worked very closely with my editor and producers for the post-production (I returned to Tokyo right after the shoot, so had to do everything via email or Twitter), I haven't watched the finished work. So it was quite interesting to monitor what viewers thought of the series via Twitter. Was very flattered to see an increasing amount of tweets for the show, and that many of them had nice things to say about it. (obviously, BUDDYZ is a clear departure from the melancholic and "arthouse" films that I've always been making).
The final 16th episode is airing on TV tonight at 8:55pm (with repeats at 11pm)
UPDATED: Adding a playlist featuring both the first and second seasons of Buddyz
Sunday, June 17, 2012
10 great Father's Day films that you might not have seen
Today is Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, dad. Dad is going to be at a TV shoot today, accompanied by Mom and my sister, it's going to be a good one. (my dad is a judge in a AMERICAN IDOL-like Chinese singing show, however, unlike idol, the contestants are restricted to 45 and above. Quite a popular show that recently turned my dad into a celebrity of sorts)
Since my lifelong love for cinema was influenced by Dad, and I would never been a filmmaker if he were indifferent towards films, I think it's fitting that I try to commemorate this day by listing out a number of great Father's Day films that you might not have seen (I know I haven't).
To make things simpler for me, I'm restricting this list to only Asian films. (I'll do another list if this goes well, haha)
Since my lifelong love for cinema was influenced by Dad, and I would never been a filmmaker if he were indifferent towards films, I think it's fitting that I try to commemorate this day by listing out a number of great Father's Day films that you might not have seen (I know I haven't).
To make things simpler for me, I'm restricting this list to only Asian films. (I'll do another list if this goes well, haha)
Thursday, June 07, 2012
Discovering the world of radio plays (and dramas)
It all started from a phone conversation with Maiko the Producer (she produced my short films "Kingyo" and "Exhalation") a few weeks ago. She had been working at NHK Osaka for the past two years, earlier this year she was involved in the hit morning drama "CARNATION" as an assistant director.
She asked whether I wanted to try my hand in writing a radio drama. It was an interesting preposition. A storytelling medium I was entirely unfamiliar with, but seemingly filled with possibilities.
The first thing that came to my mind was, of course, Orson Welles' famous 1938 WARS OF THE WORLD radio drama, believed to be probably the most famous radio drama of all time.
She asked whether I wanted to try my hand in writing a radio drama. It was an interesting preposition. A storytelling medium I was entirely unfamiliar with, but seemingly filled with possibilities.
The first thing that came to my mind was, of course, Orson Welles' famous 1938 WARS OF THE WORLD radio drama, believed to be probably the most famous radio drama of all time.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Rest in peace, Kaneto Shindo
The Japanese director Kaneto Shindo passed away yesterday at the age of 100.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
If you had of asked me on a given day whether I'd one day end up passionately defending fanfiction, I would have given you a strange l...
-
**Mild spoiler warning for both versions of Cinema Paradiso** Was watching the director's cut version of Cinema Paradiso (called th...
-
Mishima is a writer associated with scale and grand gestures. Apart from his colorful life and the obviously theatrical nature of his publi...