RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS and THE SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES @ International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015

I'm actually at the airport now, waiting to fly off to Rotterdam within the next two hours.

On the 27th, RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS will be having its European premiere there. So is Woo Ming Jin's SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES (which I produced and co-wrote). I guess both films are linked in many ways, so it's unsurprising that they will both have their European premieres on the same day.

Ode to KLIA 2

The Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA 2) opened in May 2014. Since then, it became the place I always had to go to whenever I fly to Tokyo. I have been there a couple of times, flying to Bangkok, Busan, Phnom Penh etc.

A stroll through Yanaka Ginza

I've returned from Tokyo yesterday.

Once of them most pleasant experiences I had was visiting the Yanaka Ginza Shopping District 谷中銀座商店街 after having afternoon tea with a friend. The street made me feel as if i were transported to the Edo period, as if I were worlds away from hypermodern areas of Shinjuku and Shinuya.

It was my first time there. That's the beauty of Tokyo, I have lived there for 5 years, yet there's always something new to discover.

SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES 偷·情 trailer

The SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES 偷·情 trailer is up!

The film, which I produced, co-wrote and edited, were screened at the Busan International Film Festival and the Singapore International Film Festival. It will be making its European premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam later this month.

How I celebrated New Year in Japan

First post of 2015!

My New Years of 2010 and 2011 were spent with Maiko the Producer (she's a Director in NHK now) and her family. Which I have written about in detail, and taken great photos, here and here.

The years after that, I have gone to Zojo-ji Temple in 2012 (where people released thousands of balloons in the air after countdown) and the familiar Senso-ji Temple in 2013. Last year, I had to shoot RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS and had a production meeting on New Year's Day, so it was the first New Year in six years that was spent in Malaysia.

This year, I got to return to Maiko's house for New Year Countdown.

Fragments from the last few days of 2014

I'm flying to Tokyo soon. I intend to end 2014 there, just like how I've been doing it from 2008 to 2012. But for now, I'm just going to post up Facebook posts, instagram photos from me, about me, etc. On how I spent the last few days of 2014. Just so I can remember.

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES made me feel old

Because of my love for the Lord of the Rings trilogy (to me, it was the Star Wars of my generation), and the conclusion of The Hobbit has marked the end of a particular moviegoing chapter of my life (... unless The Silmarillion gets adapted too), I decided to post my thoughts on The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies on Facebook.

WATCH THIS: 3 DOORS OF HORRORS 2014, three microbudget horror short films

A couple of days ago, I attended the premiere of the 2014 edition of 3 DOORS OF HORRORS held at the MBO Cinemas in Citta Mall.

DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA'S LOST ROCK AND ROLL

I've been back from Cambodia for nearly a week, but due to a ghastly (and HUGE) blister on my foot, it was nigh impossible to calm myself down enough to do some writing!

Anyway, the doctor has popped the blister three nights ago, and I can finally continue writing again, especially about a particular film I caught at the Cambodia International Film Festival.

One of the gems of the festival, to me, was John Pirozzi's documentary, DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA'S LOST ROCK AND ROLL. A very comprehensive, feature-length documentary that the director spent nearly a year on. It's about a "golden period" from Cambodia's independence, to just before the country was rocked by civil war and the murderous Khmer Rouge regime.

Films directed by Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk

Yesterday, I caught the screening of a documentary called DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA'S LOST ROCK AND ROLL by John Pirozzi (I'll write more on the film in another post). And through this film, I became very intrigued by the late King Norodom Sihanouk, whose love for music helped create the golden rock & roll era in Cambodia. Yes, he played the saxophone and the piano.

There are lots of videos of the King, on Youtube, singing. Here's an entire playlist of videos. Of the king. Singing.

RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS 1st screening @ Cambodia International Film Festival + Nguyễn Võ Nghiêm Minh's NUOC 2030

(Screenshot of NUOC 2030, NOT River of Exploding Durians!)

Yesterday was the Cambodian premiere of RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS.

I took the Tuk Tuk to the Platinum Cinema in Sorya Shopping Center. Taking a Tuk Tuk to a film festival screening? I don't think I've ever done it before. What an interesting experience!

Post by Edmund Yeo.

Sadly, these were the only photos I took that are related to the screening. :(

RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS @ Cambodia International Film Festival + Kulikar Sotho's THE LAST REEL + Opening Ceremony

I'm currently hanging out at my hotel room in Phnom Penh. In a few hours, RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS will be screening. Technically, this is the first film festival for DURIANS after Tokyo International Film Festival, I'm pretty thrilled, this is my first time in Cambodia.

Photos (and videos) from the MASYA ALISYA shoot

Two days after I came back from Copenhagen, I immediately headed off to a TV movie shoot that I was co-directing. Here are some photos from the Masya Alisya set.

Happy 10th Anniversary, Blog

Yesterday, I realized that this blog has existed for more than 10 years.

In an era of social media sites, the idea of keeping a blog is so passé, yet it remains.

And so, this blog has accompanied me for a decade, from my time as a directionless university student in Perth, to the gradual realization of my childhood dreams of becoming a filmmaker.

In truth, I cannot really remember how did I end up starting this blog. The first ever post of this blog was me giving a progress update on a novel that I was working on. But who was I addressing? I can't remember anymore. Perhaps the blog was started so that I could update a small circle of friends about what I was doing in Perth.

The first blog post was, in fact, pretty much what would have been a Facebook status update, or a Tweet. My oft-used online pseudonym then was "Swifty", I wanted to update people about my "writings", so the original URL of this blog was swiftywriting.blogspot.com

In 2005, I would then start writing about things I liked, video games, the latest films I saw, the latest books I read etc. Armed with a camcorder, I started making "films" with friends in university, I posted photos of these shoots, writing my thoughts about the experience, proclaiming my excitement and love for doing what I've been dreaming of doing. While making allusions to events of an unrequited love that until today, never had any closure.

3rd screening of RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS 破裂するドリアンの河の記憶 @ Tokyo International Film Festival

So, here I am, a weeks since I have returned from Copenhagen, and 5 days into a TV movie shoot.

It's been a month since the world premiere of RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS at the Tokyo International Film Festival. And three weeks since the third (last) screening of the film at the festival.

I have written about the first screening and the second screening of the film, so I figured I'll wrap things up. I'm writing all these mostly to help myself remember.

THE 3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA is devastatingly beautiful

Pirjo Honkasalo's THE 3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA (2004) is one of the few films I caught in CPH:DOX at Copenhagen last week.


I walked into the cinema with high expectations, since the CPH:LAB booklet I was given had recommended us lab people to go to the film, calling it one of the greatest documentaries ever made.

Despite the expectations, I was indeed mesmerized by what I saw, with numerous images haunting me long after I left the theaters. The film reminded me that non-fiction cinema can indeed be made with sheer artistry and poetry. I was reminded of Tarkovskian films of yore, even assuming that it was a film made in that time period. I was surprised that it was done merely a decade ago. Perhaps it was shocking to me, to see such things happening so recently.

My photos of Copenhagen during the CPH:LAB and CPH:DOX

The CPH:DOX international documentary film festival, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of the most prestigious and well-known documentary festivals around.

Every year, as part of the festival, the CPH:LAB (formerly known as DOX:LAB) is held where 20 directors around the world are invited to attend workshops and classes. These 20 directors are paired up so that they can make an audiovisual project together, it can be a feature-length film, a short film, a documentary, a video installation etc.

This year, I was one of the 20 directors who was given the opportunity to participate in this. (and I'm paired up with the Croatian director Sonja Tarokic)

2nd screening of RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS 破裂するドリアンの河の記憶 @ Tokyo International Film Festival

25th of Oct, a day after the RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS world premiere, I had two "free days" before the next screening.

Video of RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS press conference @ Tokyo International Film Festival

This is the video from the Oct 24 press conference of RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS, just a couple of hours before its world premiere.

RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS 破裂するドリアンの河の記憶 red carpet and world premiere @ Tokyo International Film Festival

I finally got back from Tokyo.

The Tokyo International Film Festival in the past 10 days had been absolutely emotional, and inspiring. I will now take the time to update the blog with Facebook posts (not just mine, but others too) of the wondrous journey RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS had taken during its world premiere in this grand, prestigious festival. It all felt like a dream.