CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY Shoot Begins

After having our rehearsal two days ago, the CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY shoot officially began today, on the 26th of Feb.

CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY Rehearsal

Despite being sick during the past few days, my short film, CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY (mentioned the completion of its script last December, and also announced its casting last month), is being fast tracked for a shoot next week.

The protagonists of the script were Mom, Dad and Son, I wrote the script with the child actor, Lim Ming Wei of FLOWER IN THE POCKET, in mind. And also imagined that Dad would look like a certain actor (I'll conceal his identity) who was in a James Lee film last year. To my surprise, the first person who contacted me after I posted up the casting notice was this very person I imagined.

My Prediction For The 80th Oscars

The 80th Academy Awards is mere hours away. Predicting the Oscars was something I've liked doing with Sebastian back in our high school days, but the guy is so pissed off over this year's nominations (he hated frontrunner NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) that he decides to sulk and boycott it. I'll do it myself. Anyone else who actually gives a rat's ass about the Oscars, or has an opinion about it can post their comments here.

Here we go (my prediction in bold):

Remembering The Day I Met Lydia Sum

I met the late Lydia Sum Din-Ha (her name is also spelt as Lydia Shum) during a 2004 trip in Singapore, months before I went to Perth.

It was an afternoon, and we were eating at the Wo Men De restaurant, famous for its fish head curry. The restaurant was relatively empty that day, I think we were the only ones there.

Then all of a sudden, I heard the restaurant door opening behind me, I didn't turn back, until both my mom reacted.

"It's Lydia Sum." She said.

KURUS Featured on THE STAR (20 Feb 2008)

KURUS is featured on today's The Star.



Props to them for including, well, a photo that has me in it :D

Kung Fu Dunk 功夫灌籃 is a depressing film to watch on Valentine's Day

I don't really mind Jay Chou as an actor.

So far, to me, his films were either surprisingly entertaining (INITIAL D), unintentionally campy (CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER) or unexpectedly affecting (SECRET). But I had my doubts about his newest film KUNG FU DUNK. In fact, I was prepared for the worst.

OMFG! KURUS is showing TONIGHT! (17th of Feb, 2008)

Okay, the NTV7 person probably made a mistake when she told us that KURUS will be showing on the 24th of February.

In fact, based on today's newspapers, KURUS will most probably air at NTV7 on the 17th of Feb, 10:45pm. Yes, that's TONIGHT!!!!!!

So please please PLEASE watch it!!!

Here are the trailers (again):






Tell your friends to watch it, and tell your friends to tell their friends to watch it, and then tell your friend's friends to tell THEIR friends to watch it etc etc.

Two (VERY AWESOME) KURUS Trailers

I've announced yesterday that the telemovie will be airing at NTV7 on the 24th of February, 2008.

So check out the trailers now.


KURUS trailer 1


KURUS trailer 2


Once again, KURUS (English title: Days of the Turquoise Sky) is from Greenlight Pictures, the folks who brought you the hit telemovie CINTA TIGA SEGI and the award-winning THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA (coming to cinemas soon). KURUS is a coming-of-age film that stars newcomer Arshad Zamir, Mislina Mustapha, Nam Ron and Carmen Soo. It is written and directed by Woo Ming Jin. It is produced by Edmund Yeo, Woo Ming Jin, Tomoko Ueda and Aron Koh.

Tags: kurus, days of the turquoise sky, woo ming jin, arshad zamir, carmen soo, mislina mustapha, nam ron, youtube, trailer, video

KURUS will be airing at NTV7 on the 24th of Feb, 10:45pm

Well, folks, I've gotten the confirmed the airing date for KURUS, and it's on the 24th of February, 10:45pm. NTV7.

Yes, that's the telemovie I last produced and couldn't stop talking about in the past few weeks.

Here are links to its press coverage:

• Carmen Soo and KURUS Featured on New Straits Times (11 Feb 2008)
• KURUS Featured on THE SUN (11 Feb 2008)
• Woo Ming Jin and KURUS Featured in New Sunday Times (3 Feb 2008)
• Carmen Soo and KURUS Featured on Metro Harian (2 Feb 2008)

And some miscellaneous links to production stills and others:

• Photos from KURUS Press Conference
• KURUS Production Diary - English Title confirmed. Days of the Turquoise Sky
• KURUS Production Diary - 'Carmen Soo Day 1'
• KURUS Production Diary - 'Carmen Soo Day 2'
• KURUS Production Diary - More production photos

Obviously, I'm going to do another marathon posting of the film until it airs.

The following are some random photos of KURUS. Refresh the page to view different photos.

KURUS (English title: Days of the Turquoise Sky) is from Greenlight Pictures, the folks who brought you the hit telemovie Cinta Tiga Segi. KURUS is a coming-of-age film that stars newcomer Arshad Zamir, Mislina Mustapha, Nam Ron and Carmen Soo. It is written and directed by my mentor, the award-winning Woo Ming Jin.

Tags: kurus, carmen soo, woo ming jin, arshad zamir, mislina mustapha, nam ron, days of the turquoise sky, telemovie, film, ntv7

CJ7 長江七號

By far the most anticipated Chinese film of the year, Stephen Chow's CJ7 had to deal with sky-high expectations since it happened to be his first film since 2004's KUNG FU HUSTLE.

Valentine's Day Melancholy

A MSN conversation between Sebastian and I that occurred in the morning:

Conversation on 'Sweeney Todd' With Lune

I saw Sweeney Todd two weeks ago, since I generally like most musicals, I rather enjoyed the film, though to me, it's a 'good but not great' film. Nonetheless, I have been looping the soundtrack on my computer a lot these days.

The following review is done with my friend, Lune (back in 2005, she and I collaborated in the Blogathon, in which we alternated between her drawing pictures, and me writing a novella based on her drawings, our collaboration was awesome, considering that we conjured all those up in 24 hours), who having seen the musical, ain't that impressed with the film adaptation.

Carmen Soo and KURUS Featured on New Straits Times (11 Feb 2008)

Carmen Soo's experiences during the KURUS shoot is revealed in Sharifah Arfah's interview with her on New Straits Times.

(click pic below and go to 'ALL SIZES' to view larger version)



Or read the interview here.

KURUS, a film which marks my very first producer credit, will be showing on NTV7 soon. It is also making its festival premiere at the Hong Kong International Film Festival next month.

I'll be posting up the trailers one of these days.

Tags: kurus, carmen soo, arshad zamir, woo ming jin, interview, film, days of the turquoise sky

KURUS Featured on THE SUN (11 Feb 2008)

The Sun's Pauline Wong did a feature on KURUS, this telemovie I produced and couldn't stop talking about in the past few weeks.

A Bittersweet Return to Ipoh for Chinese New Year 2008

I'm back from Ipoh, mom's hometown.

Some of you may know that last Dec, my Alzheimer Disease-ridden grandmother was hospitalized after being attacked by two snatch thieves just outside her house.

These are two photos of her in the hospital early January.

BLASTED ASIANS TOO CLEVER

What I Miss About Chinese New Year Eve

Photos by Hugo*

During my childhood, Chinese New Year Eve had always been one of my favourite days of the year.

Because it was so magical.

I could stay up late at night, and watch endless Hong Kong films (mostly those comedies starring Sam and Michael Hui) showing on TV then, I could see my neighbours burning incense and other stuff outside their houses, and most of all, once the clock struck twelve, there would be the deafening sound of fire crackers to signal the beginning of Chinese New Year.

Yet over the years, Chinese New Year Eve had lost its magic to me.

Since I stay up late almost every night... Chinese New Year Eve felt just like any other day.

Since there are less Hong Kong films these days, and most probably I've been watching more films now, most HK films aired on TV are stuff that I've already seen before.

I was going to lament about how firecrackers have been outlawed in the country... but since I was interrupted by the faint sounds of fire crackers while typing this, I guess there's really nothing to lament about.

This year's the Year of the Rat, just like the year I was born. I've already reached the second cycle of the Chinese Zodiac. 12 years ago today, I was in the last year of my primary school.

Has it lost its magic? Or maybe it's just because I'm not a child anymore.

Nonetheless, I'm still looking forward to the angpows.

Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Hei Fatt Choy, everyone.

Tags: happy chinese new year, gong hei fatt choy

Dusting off my Nanowrimo 2005 novel...

Back in Nov 2005, I took part in the National Novel Writing Month 2005 and attempted to write 50 000 words in a month. I succeeded in hitting the word count, but the novel remained unfinished, so somehow, it felt like a hollow victory.

Woo Ming Jin and KURUS Featured in New Sunday Times (3 Feb 2008)

Ming Jin the Mentor and our latest production, KURUS, had been featured in the 3rd of February's New Sunday Times.

Aside from the film itself, this article focuses mostly on our wonderful collaborators, The Limkokwing Film and Television Institute and their involvement in KURUS.



KURUS (English title: Days of the Turquoise Sky), starring Arshad Zamir, Mislina Mustapha, Nam Ron and Carmen Soo, will be coming to NTV7 soon.

It's also going to next month's Hong Kong International Film Festival, which I'm going to attend. (YES!)

Anyway, just a day before this, Carmen Soo and the film, KURUS, were featured in Metro Harian.

Tags: kurus, arshad zamir, woo ming jin, greenlight pictures, days of the turquoise sky, limkokwing, carmen soo, mislina mustapha, telemovie, ntv7, film

Carmen Soo and KURUS Featured on Metro Harian (2 Feb 2008)

This is from yesterday's Metro Harian, a Malay-language newspaper. It's a feature on Carmen Soo and our film, KURUS.

Click the pictures and check out the larger versions if you want to read the feature. I like the title "Victimized by Naughty Students". (Carmen plays a school teacher in the film)

Had to fold the papers to scan them, quite a hassle.





Yes, it's unfortunate that I had this weird expression on my face in that group photo with Carmen (I'm the one in purple, btw).

The telemovie, KURUS, is coming out on NTV7 soon and co-stars Arshad Zamir, Mislina Mustapha and Namron.

I'm heading back to Limkokwing University tomorrow to edit another trailer for it.




KURUS trailer 2


Related entries
Photos from the KURUS press conference on the 28th of Jan.
KURUS Production Diary - 'Carmen Soo Day 1'
KURUS Production Diary - 'Carmen Soo Day 2'
KURUS Production Diary - More production photos

Tags: kurus, carmen soo, arshad zamir, woo ming jin, mislina mustapha, days of the turquoise sky, limkokwing, greenlight pictures

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY by Julian Schnabel

I saw this film in Singapore last week, but just before I entered the cinema, I went to buy Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir, 'Le Scaphandre et le Papillon' that this film was based on. The book is thin, so it could actually be finished in one sitting (I read sporadically, so it took me two days)

The book was written after Bauby, a former 'Elle' magazine editor, suffered a massive stroke that left him paralyzed from head to toe, save for his left eye, and he wrote the book by communicating with the blinking of his eye. An amanuensis repeatedly recited a frequency-ordered alphabet (E, L, A, O, I, N, S, D ...), until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. He died in 1997 just a few days after the book was published.

How I Made A Short Film With Nokia N95 (Part 3)

Go read Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven't already.

This is the final post of my production diary for my latest short 'FROM BHOL LE WITH LOVE', which was used as an opening video for the PC.com Awards Ceremony.