THE SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES (2014) by Woo Ming Jin, which I produced, co-wrote and edited, has been released digitally on FilmDoo! So please, go and watch it, I promise you it's something different from this part of the world. It's probably one of the rare gay films made in Malaysia.
I first read about Liliosa Hilao a couple of years ago. I cannot really remember how did I actually stumble upon her story then. I was in Tokyo, I was binge-reading the colourful history of Philippines on Wikipedia, and like a labyrinth, it led me to unexpected places, namely the sad story of Liliosa Hilao. The atrocities that happened to her during Martial Law were painful to read, and after I was done, I remained haunted by it.
A few years later, when I finally started making my film RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS, I decided to incorporate scenes of a high school class reenacting forgotten ASEAN history, because I was hoping to preserve these in cinema. The truth is, our education system, our history books, just like those in this region, are rather insular and limited, many things weren't allowed for discussion. How then, can we grow if we were kept constantly in a bubble?
One of the scenes in RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS is a reenactment of Liliosa Hilao's story. I decided to upload it a few days ago when I heard of the ongoing political situation in Philippines, where Bongbong Marcos, son of Ferninand Marcos, was running for vice president. A subject of great consternation for many, especially those who had to endure Martial Law. Since many were discussing about how the atrocities were being forgotten, I realized I had to share Liliosa's story to the public.
It took 2 days before it caught on, and to my surprise, the feedback and responses since then had been overwhelming. It's something I've never experienced before. What moved me most was to actually hear from the family of Liliosa Hilao. When I was reading about Liliosa Hilao's story all those years ago, I would never expect to do something that could reach her family. Life is full of surprises. I'm very humbled by this experience.
Instead of working on my script, I ended up procrastinating and checking out my long dormant Youtube page.
I then realized that I've actually been a Youtube user since 2006. That's 10 years. That's a really long time!
I remember a couple of these video-sharing sites coming out around the same time during my final year in Perth, and I was trying a few time. All of them didn't last, except for Youtube.
Many of my really old videos are still there, stuff I shot when I just got to Perth. Learning how to operate a camcorder, teaching myself how to edit with an editing software (I was using Sony Vegas).
I have often wondered whether I should just delete these damn videos since I've already moved on. What I made then were embarrassingly personal (they are video diaries anyway), and not exactly the type of thing I would want people to associate myself. I want people to stumble upon trailers of River of Exploding Durians, Kingyo, Inhalation, Last Fragments of Winter etc. (ahem, basically the stuff from this playlist) And not my Murdoch University student projects in 2006! Not the little "short films" I did with friends in 2005 and 2004 when I didn't even know what filmmaking was!!!
But then, they are part of the journey, and they lead to what I am now, so I'll just keep them... for the time being.
Most of them are snippets that seem more fitting for Facebook video. But Facebook hasn't existed when I shot them. So there.
These stuff were actually shot and edited in 2004, when I just got to Perth. They were literally the first ever videos I've ever done.
Since then, I've been posting and retweeting a lot about him on Facebook and Twitter.
I always knew who he was as he grew up, but wasn't really truly exposed to his greatness until I saw that Super Bowl Halftime Show. That was epic and spine-tingling.
Two days later, when a friend lost her Macbook and External Hard Disk, and was entirely distraught, all I could do was to ask her to believe in the goodness of humanity by watching Prince's Super Bowl Halftime Show.
This 2005 short film by Woo Ming Jin was made during the height of the period which some had referred to as the "Malaysian New Wave". It was a time when a tight-knit group of filmmakers in the country started making films together, or helping each other by taking different roles in the production. It was the rise of DV cameras and digital filmmaking, which gave many the chance to make their own films.
The two leads of this short film are actually fellow filmmakers Tan Chui Mui and Liew Seng Tat, who were a year or two before they each made their breakthrough feature debuts, LOVE CONQUERS ALL and FLOWER IN THE POCKET.
Here's the synopsis:
In this black comedy about the disintegration of a love affair, a young woman's (Tan Chui Mui) loneliness in the midst of Kuala Lumpur's metropolitan sprawl triggers a tenuous relationship with a naïve salesman (Liew Seng Tat) who has a tendency to please and over-emote.
Sharifah Amani plays Yasmin in PIGEON. Yasmin is named after the late great Yasmin Ahmad.
Well, the awesome thing about social media and smart phones is that many film shoots are now being chronicled and posted about endlessly, relentlessly, by the cast and crew of the film.
It wasn't like that 5-6 years ago, when all you had was one person taking production photos, and then posting them online later. (This blog had served this purpose back then with the earlier shoots that I was involved in)
As for the PIGEON shoot last week, naturally, the cast and crew, and even director Isao Yukisada himself, were posting photos on Facebook and Instagram while the shoot was happening. I don't exactly have everyone's Instagram account (director Yukisada has more of a following on Facebook, which he is more active on, but his Instagram account is growing)
I'm going to be sharing the ones from the director, the main cast members Sharifah Amani, Nas T, Sherry Alhadad, and also TK the line producer/assistant director and Boon the Production Designer. They all have really awesome accounts which are worth following!
I am actually in charge of doing the making-of documentary for this short film, and I'm thinking of incorporating these posts into my documentary. It's something I will have to think more about.
Now, enjoy the posts!
(Sharifah Amani's posts were particularly emotional)
From the 29th of March to 5th of April in the past two weeks, I was involved in the film shoot of Isao Yukisada's PIGEON. Greenlight Pictures and I were the Malaysian producers for this project, which is a segment in Tokyo Film Fest's upcoming omnibus project Asian Three-Fold Mirror.
Shot mostly in Penang, with Malaysian and Japanese cast and crew members (... and one Thai sound guy), this 30-minute short film stars Sharifah Amani, Masahiro Tsugawa, Masatoshi Nagase, Sherry Alhadad, Nas T Muammar Zar, Sherry Alhadad.
The photo album for this shoot is going to be constantly updated for the next few days.
PIGEON is a segment of the "Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2016" omnibus film directed by Isao Yukisada.The short film was...