Mannequins of Ginza

This will be the last video I put together for 2012.

Of Mannequins in Ginza.

In truth, it's more like my impressions of Ginza.

[VIDEO] Train Ride to Otaru with Dad

The year is about to end.

There is less than 24 hours left in the year 2012 for me. I wish to end the year the way I wanted to start the next. Just to keep on doing what I love to do, working on my craft, seeing more things.

This is a video that I shot in September 13th, 2012 (my sister's birthday!) when Dad and I took a train to the town of Otaru in Hokkaido. At that time, we were in Hokkaido for the Sapporo Short Film Festival where my short film LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER was screening. (I would later pick up an award from the festival)

The footages I shot were left in my hard disk for quite a few months, I decided to finally cut them together.

Christmas lights in Shinjuku 2012

Since I do not have the luxury of being on a plane flying back from Estonia like last Christmas, yesterday, I decided to just go to my familiar stomping grounds at Shinjuku for dinner and also to check out its illumination.

If you are too lazy to read my heartfelt writing, you can just watch my video of Christmas Illumination in Shinjuku. Now.

Manoel de Oliveira turns 104 today.

Today (December 11th) is the 104th birthday of Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira. This blows my mind.

He is currently the oldest active director in the world (unless the Spanish director Miguel Morayta, who is year older than Oliveira and retired since 1978, suddenly chooses to come back to make another film) and has remained prolific since he made his first film in 1927. (he became exceptionally prolific since 1990, when he would make at least one film every year until now)

Again, it blows my mind when I realized that Oliveira is actually older than the likes of Orson Welles, all of the French New Wave directors, Akira Kurosawa, Frederico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman... When GONE WITH THE WIND came out, Oliveira was already 30. When Orson Welles made CITIZEN KANE, Oliveira was already in his mid-30s. Oliveira was 50 when a group of French guys made films that spark what we now call the French New Wave.

I can go on and on with this, but I will share with you an Oliveira tale.

I AM NOT THE WORLD YOU WANT TO CHANGE by Izumi Takahashi [Tokyo Filmex 2012]

Izumi Takahashi's (高橋泉) I AM NOT THE WORLD YOU WANT TO CHANGE あたしは世界なんかじゃないから is one of the two Japanese films in competition at the Tokyo Filmex this year. (The other is Odayaka, which I, being the editor of its trailer, have seen much too many times)

EPILOGUE by Amir Manor [Tokyo Filmex 2012]

Having attended the Tokyo Filmex three times, this year marks the very first time when I actually got to catch the Grand Prix winner in the festival.

MEMORIES LOOK AT ME by Song Fang [Tokyo Filmex 2012]

The Tokyo Filmex ended a few days ago. I was surprised that I had managed to catch all three of the award-winning films. (well, except Kim Ki-Duk's PIETA, which won the Audience Award)

MEMORIES LOOK AT ME 记忆望着我 by Song Fang 宋方 is a Chinese docudrama that received the Special Jury Prize at Filmex. It was also the Best First Feature award winner at the Locarno Film Festival.

Photos of Tokyo International Forum at night. And autumn.

While waiting for the "111 GIRLS" screening at Filmex last night, I decided to take a walk and kill some time.


Nearby was the Tokyo International Forum building, which I haven't stepped in for four years. I thought it would snap some photos of the place.

BAD FILM by Sono Sion [Tokyo Filmex 2012]

I have been attending some screenings at the Tokyo Filmex since it started last week on Nov 24th.

The Tokyo Filmex is one of the two major film festivals in Tokyo (the other being the Tokyo International Film Festival held a month earlier). Ever since I moved to Tokyo, I had attended screenings at the 2008 and 2009 editions of the festival, but was unable to do so in the last 2 years because I was either at the Torino Film Festival 2010 or the Golden Horse 2011.

So it's good to finally be back, indulge myself in some films.

Happy 30th Anniversary, Mom and Dad

All my life, I have never really remembered the actual date of my parents' wedding anniversary.

But today is their 30th anniversary, so there's no way I'm going to forget it. (it only happened because 2 years ago Mom was emailing me an e-card she made for Dad to celebrate today, and I had a glimpse of the actual date of their anniversary!!)

Songs sung by my mom 我妈妈戚舜琴的歌

Yesterday (November 17th) was my mom's birthday.
昨天（11月17日）是我妈妈的生日。

In certain parts of the world, it IS still my mom's birthday.
在一些国家， 现在还是我妈的生日。

Over the years since I started this blog, I usually mention about her birthday.
每一年我都会在这部落上提起这一天。

I might have also mentioned before that she was a singer before she married Dad. And these are her albums.
你们也有可能知道我妈妈戚舜琴曾经是一名歌手。 跟老爸结了婚以后就退出歌坛。

Fascinated by THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, an incomplete masterpiece 30 years in the making

I haven't updated this blog the past two weeks because I was busy with my doctorate dissertation. The week that led to the dissertation were spent mostly in my dimly-lit room or my lab in Waseda University. It was a repetitive cycle of writing, researching, drinking lots of black coffee. The topic was something I have been familiar with for the past four years (It's an expansion of my Masters' Thesis), so it's not as difficult as I have worried. But there were still a lot of things to write.

Exactly a week ago, on a Friday afternoon, I managed to turn in my dissertation. Whatever happens next is beyond my control. Having not slept for the past 48 hours, I was tired when it all ended.

Saturday was a day I chose to recharge my energies. There was nothing else I planned to do except staying on my bed.

While doing that, I read on The Playlist about a documentary called PERSISTENCE OF VISION, a documentary about animator Richard Williams' 30-year-long work on his passion project "The Thief And The Cobbler".

I talk about horror films, ghosts, and Woo Ming Jin's short film DOUBLE (The Star, 26th of October, 2012)

Last week, just before I returned to Tokyo, I did an email interview with Phyllis Ho of R.AGE (the weekly youth section of The Star) about Woo Ming Jin's DOUBLE (which I co-wrote, produced and edited), and also horror films in general. I assume it's for Halloween. The article came out a few days ago.


Here's my part:

Woo Ming Jin answers questions about his horror short, DOUBLE

In the past week since our horror short film DOUBLE was posted on YOMYOMF, the responses had been surprisingly positive. I liked reading the speculations from the viewers. (watch it if you haven't done so already)

Watch this: DOUBLE by Woo Ming Jin (co-written, produced, edited by me)

Back in August, I did a short film called DOUBLE with Ming Jin, serving as producer, co-writer and editor.

How I bought a ZTE ACQUA V880E (an obscure Android phone available only in Malaysia for now)

I returned to Malaysia on Monday. It was raining heavily.

The 1st Tiny Pupil screening @ Nara International Film Festival 2012

An award-winning short film I produced, TINY PUPIL (2012) yxineff.com/film/xiao-tong… is now available online for a short while. Please RT this.
— Edmund Yeo (@greatswifty) September 27, 2012

Today, thanks to the Yxine Film Fest, TINY PUPIL by Teng Fei, which I produced, is available online for a brief period of time.

I find this the best time to share with you all the video of the post-screening Q and A session I did for TINY PUPIL at the Nara Film Festival on the 15th of September.

楊毅恆 冬天、最后的碎片 北海道短片展獲獎 (中國報) Edmund Yeo's LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER wins award in Hokkaido (China Press, 22/9/2012)

Mom called me this morning as well, to tell me that Last Fragments of Winter's receiving of the award in Sapporo Film Fest is also on today's China Press.

冬天， 最后的碎片」在札幌国际短片影展获奖的事情也被登上中国报了。感恩。

楊毅恆執導短片‧日本獲獎 (星洲日報） Edmund Yeo's Short Film Wins Award in Japan (Sin Chew Daily, 21/9/2012)

Mom called me yesterday morning to tell me that news of LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER receiving the award in Sapporo Short Film Fest was on yesterday's Sin Chew Daily.


The entire article (in Chinese only) is here.

Now I switch to Chinese.

LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER receives Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Award @ Sapporo Short Film Fest

16th of September was my second day at the Nara Film Fest. Aside from having the second screenings of Last Fragments of Winter (sadly, I accidentally deleted the video from the Q and A session) and Tiny Pupil (I might upload that one later), I also revisited some places in Nara that I went to 4 years ago, like the Todaiji Temple.

The 1st LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER screening @ Nara Film Fest 2012

On the night of Sept 15th, my short film LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER was screened at the Nara International Film Festival.

Nara International Film Festival 2012, I muse about Nara and "Yuanfen"

On the morning of the 15th September, I left Sapporo for Nara, taking the local Japanese budget airline, Peach Airlines, for the very first time.

Short films about the March 11th earthquake and tsunami @ Sapporo Film Fest 2012

For my final night in Sapporo, I decided to attend the Sapporo Film Festival's "AFTER 3.11" Special Programme screening. And what a fine screening it was to end my wonderful Sapporo experience.

This program is a compilation of short films related to the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami that happened in March 11th, 2011. I will recap them one by one, along with my thoughts.

Exploring Otaru 小樽市

My Last Fragments of Winter screening at the Sapporo Film Fest on Sept 12th was actually attended by Yi Hua, a friend from primary and secondary school whom I haven't met for ten years. This had never happened before in all my few years as a filmmaker. She just happened to be in Sapporo.

After that, when we were having ramen, she mentioned a place that intrigued me. The port town of Otaru, just northwest of Sapporo, known for its beautiful canal, the sublime seafood and music boxes (there's a famed music box museum).

And then, hours later, when I attended the Hokkaido Selection program screening, and saw a short film set in the town (there was also a scene shot in the museum), I instantly decided to go there.

So, I went yesterday.

Hokkaido Selection @ Sapporo Short Fest 2012

The beauty of a film festival is the opportunity to attend screenings of films that I might not be able to catch anywhere else in the world.

Over here in Sapporo Short Fest, I made sure I went to the "Hokkaido Selection" program screening, which featured short films that were either made by filmmakers from Hokkaido, or short films made in Hokkaido.

The 1st LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER screening @ Sapporo Film Fest 2012

An interesting thing about the Sapporo Short Film Fest catalog is that it includes photos of composers too. The only film festival I know which does such a thing, which is cool, film composers deserve a lot of love. So you can see the photo of my long-term collaborator and high school pal Wong Woan Foong in the Last Fragments of Winter entry.

Arriving at the Sapporo Short Film Fest 2012 opening ceremony

Yesterday morning, I made my way from Narita to Sapporo. My dad has joined the fun as well.

My eloquent tweets pretty much covered most of the trip.

Off to Hokkaido, a place I often fantasize and romanticize

While I am writing this, it is already 4am in the morning. At 11:30am, I will be flying off to Sapporo in Hokkaido for the Japanese premiere of LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER in Sapporo Short Fest.

This mysterious pile of CDs I have been going through...

Been writing the past few nights. I cannot stand the silence, therefore I always need to be accompanied by music.

I have a rather extensive playlist on my iPhone, but for the sake of not getting distracted, I usually chuck my phone aside whenever I go somewhere else for a writing session.

Which means that I was left with the music that I have in my computer. Sadly, they are not as extensive. After a few nights of listening to just the Cocteau Twins, I needed some alternatives.

Last night, I decided to go through the pile of CDs I have accumulated in the past four years since I came to Tokyo.

On Borges, Eco, Calvino, Marquez... and McDull

I never forgave my secondary school for banning us from bringing novels to school. That is why I constantly speak about it.

Back then, unable to accept such a rule, I occasionally brought a book to school for some reading pleasure. Alas, the school prefects deemed me, a guy who was just sitting at the corner, quietly reading a book, a threat to school safety, thus my books were sometimes confiscated.

I had to write eloquent letters to the prefects just so I could get them back.

That is why, in some of my angry rants over the years, I couldn't stop blaming the local education system for not emphasizing the importance of literature and culture to its students, that we lived merely to score well academically, that our education was more on learning how to deal with exams, instead of preparing us properly to contribute to society. That our country is full of highly-educated folks who don't give a crap about literature.

Many years ago, back in Perth, Justin (who used to contribute to this blog but had since became a published novelist himself) once said this:

"I cannot imagine anyone not picking up a novel in their entire life. What sort of existence is that?"

I shrugged. "A typical Malaysian."

Being in love with literature is just as lonely as being passionate about films. Or maybe a little more so. At least most Joe Blows do go to cinemas for films as some social exercise. Any attempt to have a meaningful or deep discussion about the film will be futile. People will look at me as if I had farted loudly in a funeral.

Because they rarely happen, being able to go into in-depth discussions about films, filmmakers, or literary works, authors, can be a very pleasurable experience. Perhaps that is why I am often on Facebook and Twitter. Or why I often surf film websites and go through the comments section. Just to find and read about discussions that I can never seem to have in real life.

(Perhaps if I were a banker, I wouldn't have to deal with such a dilemma, no?)

Yesterday, Maggie Lee, film critic of Variety, tweeted this link to a book review:

7 x 7. 49th day of my grandmother's passing. Remembering a dream.

I returned to Tokyo last night, on the eve of Malaysia's Independence Day.

55 years ago, my nation's fathers fought for liberation and attained it, through unity and faith. 31st of August, 1957.

I love my country. But I think, judging from the current political climate, there isn't much for me to celebrate.

Aside from being Malaysia's 55th Independence Day, 31st of August, 2012 is also the 49th day of my grandmother's passing, or the 7 x 7. For Buddhist customs, 1x7 (the first week), 3x7 (the third week), 5x7 and finally, 7x7, are marked by a short praying ceremony.

I was around for both the first week and the fifth week.

On the 5th week (5x7), a ritual was held to put her plaque on the walls of a temple.

My homage to Chris Marker - FLEETING IMAGES (2008)

The great filmmaker Chris Marker passed away two weeks ago at the age of 91.

1-minute extract of my short, LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER

The folks at the Sapporo Short Film Fest have posted a 1-minute extract of my short film LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER on Youtube. The film is making its Japanese premiere at the festival next month, followed closely by screenings at the Nara International Film Festival a few days later. I'm pretty excited to have my film finally shown to the Japanese public.

The old TVB dramas were really quite awesome

"Wouldn't it be cool if you were to direct a TVB drama series?"

Mom and Dad were on the newspapers

In the past month, both my mom and my dad were featured on the papers.

Grandmother's Funeral

(My dear grandmother had just passed away. Since then, I received many kind messages from friends around the world expressing their condolences, they have my utmost gratitude. The next few posts in this blog will be about my grandma. Because I needed to remember.)

A photo trip through memory lane with my Grandmother.

Letters to my Grandmother

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A week has passed since Grandma died. I have shared with you my memories of her, and also the letters that we have written to her before her funeral, now I try to chronicle the funeral itself.

On the two nights before the funeral, she was placed to rest in the house that she had lived in for nearly 20 years, so that friends and family could come and pay their last respects.

Letters to my Grandmother

(My dear grandmother had just passed away. Since then, I received many kind messages from friends around the world expressing their condolences, they have my utmost gratitude. The next few posts in this blog will be about my grandma. Because I needed to remember. Here's a photo trip through memory lane with my Grandmother.)

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On the day before her funeral, my cousins and I decided to each write a letter to Grandmother and paste it on the wall next to her casket.

A photo trip through memory lane with my grandmother

(My dear grandmother had just passed away. Since then, I received many kind messages from friends around the world expressing their condolences, they have my utmost gratitude. The next few posts in this blog will be about my grandma. Because I needed to remember.)

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On the night of 14th July, 2012, my Po Po, maternal grandmother, passed away peacefully in her house. She would have turned 80 this October. All 28 years of my life, she was the only grandparent I knew.

She is survived by nine children, twenty-two grandchildren, one great-grandchild (with one more on the way), two godchildren and six god-grandsons.

Letter from Byung-lock Min, outgoing festival director of Jeonju Film Fest

Less than a few hours after I received the email from Un-Seong Yoo mentioned in my previous post, I received an email too, from Byung-lock Min, the Jeonju Film Festival director who had resigned last week shortly after he was appointed to head the festival for another term.

I think it is necessary to hear his side of the story as well. But really, in the end, I cannot see who is right or wrong, who wins or loses, maybe for this, everyone loses.

Yoo Un-Seong and the Jeonju International Film Festival

I received an email just now from Yoo Un-Seong, former programmer of the Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea.

Remembering Sam Raimi's original Spider-man trilogy

I saw THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN two nights ago and enjoyed it.

Because of that, and also because of this video below, I am prompted to revisit the original Spider-man trilogy by Sam Raimi.

Observing the observation deck of Haneda Airport at night

This is the story of a man marked by an image from his childhood. The violent scene, whose meaning he would not grasp until much later, took place on the great jetty at Orly, a few years before the start of the Third World War.

On Sundays, parents bring their children to watch the planes... Of this Sunday, the child of this story would remember the frozen sun, the scene at the end of the jetty. Moments to remember are just like other moments. They are only made memorable by the scars they leave. The face he had seen was to be the only peacetime image to survive the war. Had he really seen it? Or had he invented the tender gesture to shield him from the madness to come? The sudden noise, the woman's gesture, the crumpling body, the cries of the crowd. Later, he knew he had seen a man die.

I have never been to the observation deck of Haneda Airport before. So last night, before heading to the gates, I decided to take a look.

A movie leading to a dream leading to an imagined movie...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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)

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.

Rest in peace, Kaneto Shindo

The Japanese director Kaneto Shindo passed away yesterday at the age of 100.

Theo Angelopoulos mini-retrospective and documentary

Last week, just a day before I headed off to Ningbo China for a short trip over the weekend, I walked past the nearby arthouse theater Waseda Shochiku and paused when I noticed that they were screening three Theo Angelopoulos films in a span of two weeks.



The films were:

Why film festivals matter to me

(UPDATED: This blog post was initially a repost of an email on the Malaysian Cinema mailing list from Venice Film Festival programmer Paolo Bertolin asking for the means to contact FINAS (the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia). Was hoping that posting this in public would help him get a reply.

He got it, problem solved, so as per his request, I'll remove his email exchanges in the mailing list. And expand more on my last few paragraphs regarding my thoughts about film festivals. It's sort of a love letter for film festivals, perhaps.)

Ying Liang, James Cameron, The New Yorker

I wrote about Ying Liang's horrifying situation with the Chinese authorities a few days ago, the responses were surprising. Although many of our friends in the circle were already aware of the situation and had communicated with him on Facebook, other friends of mine were very nice to help spread the news around on Twitter and Facebook. This news was picked up by Richard Brody of The New Yorker.

Brody had written in the magazine about Ying Liang's previous films, which, to tell you the truth, I haven't really seen. (I'll rectify that soon), and in his blog post, Brody had many nice things to say about Ying Liang's films.

Ying Liang - A Chinese filmmaker's plight

Two weeks ago, I translated Professor Si-Tu Zhao Dun's words of wisdom about how film directing as a profession does not really exist shared by my friend, the Chinese filmmaker Ying Liang.

BUDDYZ on Astro Ria

BUDDYZ is a series of 5-minute minisodes on the Astro Ria channel presented by Digi. It stars Alif Satar, Syed Ali, Erin Malek and Elliza Razak, with special appearances by Shaheizy Sam.

I actually directed it. (You might remember back in March that I mentioned about directing a Malay TV series. Yes, it does look rather different from my usual output) The series finally came out on Tuesday (1st of May), followed by the second episode on Thursday (2nd of May).

Sadly, being in Japan, I can't really watch any of them.

When what you desire in life bleeds into video games...

A week ago, after having a rough cut of my latest short film shown to financiers and clients, I decided to take a sabbatical. (Usually, after a film shoot, I would immediately jump into putting the footage together, editing them, seeing whether what I got had been what I've envisioned, or, perhaps I got something better than I hoped. But once I'm done with a first rough cut, I would for myself to adhere to usual industry beliefs, and to take a break from the footage so that I could come back to it with fresh eyes, approaching the materials with much more objectivity and distance. Because of the freeform improvisational nature of my usual filmmaking methods, I tend to "make discoveries" of my films through post-production)

Therefore, during this break, I intended to just do some researching, finding inspiration from other films regarding the editing, finishing up a book that I was reading (currently reading: Italo Calvino's THE BARON IN THE TREES), follow the NBA Playoffs.

Oh, and maybe play a game...

So I installed SKYRIM.

Film directing as a profession does not really exist

I saw this posted on Facebook by the Chinese filmmaker Ying Liang. He was passing to his students words of wisdom from his own teacher, Professor Si-Tu Zhao Dun.



The whole thing is in Chinese, so it's actually better if you can read it in its original language as my translation will be pretty shaky:

Here's the original:

Instagram photos of the week: End of cherry blossom season

Been busy with the post-production of my new film, and also dealing with a couple of deadlines. So I'll just entertain this very silent blog with more stunningly beautiful photos that I uploaded on Instagram during the past week.

The photos I posted had one recurring theme, the end of the much-loved cherry blossom season in Japan. Usually it's signaled by some heavy rain.

Thoughts on 31st Hong Kong Film Awards / Ode to Lau Ching Wan

The 31st Hong Kong Film Awards was held on Sunday night. I was following the results on Facebook and Twitter because I didn't know where else can I catch a live telecast of it in Japan.

A SIMPLE LIFE by Ann Hui ended up as the big winner of the night, winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay and probably a few others I didn't count.

I haven't seen it, so there's not much I can say.

But I ended up writing my thoughts about each of the acting award winners on Facebook, which I'm going to share here. (and I will expand on what I wrote if I can)

My (stunningly beautiful, of course) Instagram photos of the week

The past week had been pretty busy for me. I was "supervising" the post-production of the TV thing that I shot in Malaysia last month (when I said supervising, I pretty much meant "jumping into the whole damn thing and doing a lot of re-editing myself), while simultaneously doing the pre-production for a short film (that I'm shooting right now).

Anyway, you might notice that numerous photos I've posted on this page were from Instagram, a service I rather liked because of the way it could enhance my iPhone photos. Everyone's talking about it now since it got acquired by Facebook for a measly sum of $1 billion dollars, I also thought that the photos I took had been increasingly awesome, so I'm sharing the ones that I have taken in the past week.

Happy 80th birthday, Andrei Tarkovsky

I was quite surprised when Radoslav Sharapanov left a comment on my recent Andrei Tarkovsky Facebook post that today is actually Tarkovsky's birthday.




Tarkovsky died in 1986 at the relatively young age of 54, when I was only 2. He would have been 80 years old this year. Same age as my grandmother.

Experiencing Japan's strongest storm since 1959

3rd of April 2012. It's been 4 years and 1 day since I first moved to Tokyo.

This special event was marked by Japan's strongest storm since 1959.

Remembering Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui

During the last few hours, I was wondering why everyone's suddenly posting photos and videos of Leslie Cheung on Facebook. An internet meme I knew nothing about?

And then I remembered that he died on the 1st of April, 9 years ago.

Sharing some episodes of ROAD TO AFA that I directed

This is very late, since the Asian Film Awards ended two weeks ago. So you probably already knew that the Oscar-winning A SEPARATION was the night's major winner. (full results here)

But I haven't been updating this blog much these days, so please bear with me.

You might remember that I mentioned directing a series of interviews with a few major Japanese film figures last month while suffering from a hideous food poisoning as part of the ROAD TO AFA (Asian Film Awards) program hosted by Janet Hsieh. A month earlier, in January, I was in Taipei for these interviews.

I didn't exactly blog about my Taipei escapades, so I'll post up some of my old tweets related to it.

Some nice scenery during my TV shoot

I've been doing my TV shoot since the 10th of March (hence the lack of updates).

The majority of the shoot took place in Sekinchan. This marked my 4th shoot in that location, from my short film LOVE SUICIDES in 2008, to Woo Ming Jin's WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER (which I produced) in 2009, to last year's LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER.

It's unsurprising that this region had became quite a popular place for film and TV shoots, the scenery had often been stunning.

These are some of the sights I saw early in the morning, just before camera rolled.

6th of March, 2012. Happy birthday to me!

Forty-five minutes ago, the clock struck 12, I have been bombarded with Facebook and Twitter birthday wishes from friends, family, acquaintances, people I've never met, film people, former primary school friends, former secondary school friends, former university friends, frenemies and the like. Thanks, folks. It's been a colorful life.

A year ago today, I was in Tokyo, spending the entire day in the editing room, editing a little half-finished short film called LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER. I met a few friends who dropped by, had a meeting with my producer Yuiko, and then at night, I left for the airport, and prepared to fly to Kuala Lumpur... I almost lost my computer bag.

A year has passed. The difference is that I'm now spending my birthday in Malaysia.

But at this very moment I am trying to complete a script for a little project that I'm doing in April.



In a few hours after I sleep and wake up, it will be rehearsals for a TV series that I'm directing. (it's the main reason why I'm back)

Yes, it's all work.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

EMPTY KINGDOM interviews me

The very awesome arts and culture website Empty Kingdom had just posted an interview they did with me.

In this interview, I discuss why I stick with short films, and mostly on my latest short LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER.

Rest In Peace, Aunty Mak Fong 楓姨，一路好走

Yesterday, I found out with sadness that the veteran actress Mak Fong 麦楓 had passed away after a brief battle with lung cancer. She was 77.

Regarding the Oscars...

The Oscars is just a few hours away, and if I don't oversleep until the afternoon, I might be able to catch its live stream on my computer.

Creative Spotlight: Episode #96 – Edmund Yeo (JAPAN CINEMA interviews me)

The awesome Japan Cinema had posted a very in-depth interview I recently did with its editor-in-chief Marcello as part of their "Creative Spotlight" series.

It's hard to direct a series of interviews with legendary Japanese directors when you are ill.

I came back to Tokyo on the 8th, arriving early in the morning.

As the day went on, I knew something was wrong.

Jeppe Ronde and Woo Ming Jin's GIRL IN THE WATER (which I helped produce and edit) wins Best Short Film at Danish Oscars

Last night, I received this very unexpected and wonderful news that Jeppe Ronde and Woo Ming Jin's GIRL IN THE WATER, a 20-minute short that I helped to produce and edit, had won the BEST SHORT FILM Award at the Robert Awards (the Danish Oscars)!

Directing Life - article about me on Style: Magazine (Jan 2012)

I never imagined myself ever appearing on Style: Magazine. Ever. Not in my wildest dreams. Life is pretty insane. But here's Nicole Foo Bihzhu's feature on me at Style: Magazine.

I have to thank my old secondary school classmate Jesly Hieng once again, for scanning this. I was unable to find the magazine anywhere since I got back!

2nd Q&A session. LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER/ GIRL IN THE WATER @ International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012

On the 27th of January, after being much better-rested, I did the second Q and A session for LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER and GIRL IN THE WATER moderated by Paolo Bertolin. This one's pretty long since a kindly audience member was willing to help me film the entire session!

The entire thing lasted for more than half an hour... which was, er, actually longer than the running time of LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER (23 minutes), but I trimmed it down to spare your eyes and ears. I talked quite a bit about both short films, anecdotes during the film shoot and many others.

Here's the video.

Talking about the short films LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER and GIRL IN THE WATER @ International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012

I got back from Rotterdam yesterday after spending three nights at the festival. Everything was like a blur, my stay there was so brief (last year, I spent a week in Rotterdam before heading off to Clermont-Ferrand for another week). Already, I'm prepping for a short film shoot in the next few days.

Arriving at Rotterdam in the early morning of Jan 26th, I immediately had to prepare myself for the first festival screening in the afternoon. Not a lot of rest there.

Rest in peace, Theo Angelopoulos

Yesterday, just like many other times, I woke up to the beeping sounds of Facebook chat, alerting me of incoming messages.

It was a film festival programmer friend of mine, his message was this:

Edmund, this has to do with one of your favourite film topics, Theo Angelopoulos. He had just died in a traffic accident, ran over by a motorbike!

Two of my shorts, LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER and GIRL IN THE WATER at Rotterdam International Film Festival 2012

After only a few days in Malaysia to celebrate Chinese New Year, I'm flying off again in less than 24 hours to Netherlands for the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

Both my short film LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER (making its European premiere) and another, GIRL IN THE WATER by Danish director Jeppe Ronde and my regular collaborator Woo Ming Jin ("THE TIGER FACTORY", "WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER"), which I helped to produce and edit, will part of the WAITING FOR SNOW IN MY KAMPONG program.

A simple reunion dinner @ my home (Chinese New Year 2012)

After a few days of shoot in Taipei, and then another few days in Hong Kong for the post-production session, I returned to Tokyo for half a day, before making my way back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year.

It was the morning of January 20th. Tokyo was snowing for the very first time in 2012.

Hiroshi Teshigahara's films and Ikebana

It's been a busy week.

My friend Dawn Yang (she's also something of an unofficial mascot of this blog. Look at the 'most popular posts' on your right, people generally stumble onto this website because they were looking for her or the exposing of her alleged boyfriend) had just came to Tokyo for a visit, so I was showing her around. If you were following on Twitter, you'll spot these tweets.

My segment in '60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero' also mentioned in NEGATIV

This article by Dennis Vetter at the highly-regarded German film website NEGATIV came out just a few days after the Dec 22 screening of the omnibus film '60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero' (on Christmas Day, actually).

I saw this article shortly after it was published and browsed through it hoping that I could understand something with my limited German skills. Unfortunately, the only word I recognized was my own name.

So I ran this through Google Translation and here's a rough translation about what the article said regarding 'I DREAMT OF SOMEONE DREAMING OF ME', my contribution to the omnibus film.

I was mentioned in Hollywood Reporter's review of '60 Seconds of Solitude in the Year Zero'

It's a great way to start the year. The stunningly beautiful balloons of the Zojo-ji New Year Countdown. An epic dinner of desserts with Dawn Yang yesterday.

Had an epic dessert meal with @DawnYang1 our eating skills are surprisingly equal, even though we're both so slender twitter.com/greatswifty/st…
— Edmund Yeo (@greatswifty) January 2, 2012

And today, on the 3rd day of 2012, Maggie Lee's review of 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE IN YEAR ZERO (omnibus film I participated in) on Hollywood Reporter had this to say about my segment "I Dreamt Of Someone Dreaming Of Me".

Thousands of balloons in the air during the countdown to 2012 @ Zojo-ji Temple, Tokyo

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well, I wasn't expecting to end 2011 with such a downer of a post.

Therefore, I'm going to start this year with a bang, by showing you a video I shot of the countdown to 2012 at Zojo-ji Temple that I went to last night.

(... there was also a rather big earthquake right before I started writing this, when it was shaking, I was sitting on my bed, quietly wondered how serious would it get. And as I was thinking, the quake stopped. Apparently, it was a Magnitude 7.0 earthquake.)

But anyway, here's the video.