Why I always have casting nightmares during productions

I've trying to find a child actress for my new short film during the past few days. In addition to that, I've also been recovering from a mild case of food poisoning (I've been visiting the toilet pretty frequently)

I've managed to find myself a child actress this morning, which was really an act of desperation. Before that, I've been gathering the contacts of professional child actresses, I tried to avoid those who were represented by agents because... I can't really afford them.

Dance of the Dragon 龙之舞 is... er, special

My dad suggested yesterday that I should try to go to the cinema and catch DANCE OF THE DRAGON, a film I've never heard of starring Fann Wong and Korean actor Jang Hyuk ('Volcano High' and 'Windstruck'). He said that he heard the film had won numerous awards at some film festival lately, which made me a little curious, so I tried to check its info on the newspapers, and on its tiny poster, it listed out the glorious awards it won at the inaugural WEST HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (WHIFF), including BEST FILM, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST ACTOR (Jang Hyuk) and BEST ACTRESS (Fann Wong).

So I went online to find reviews about the film, and managed to stumble upon somewhat positive reviews of the film here and here, and was... convinced. I was also intrigued by its cast and crew (seemingly all white, including co-directors and writers John Radel and Max Mannix, the latter an Australian). A Singaporean film with an international cast and crew? Might be interesting.

The view from my plane

Finally reached Malaysia last night.

My plane was 10am, but if you follow my Twitter, you'll know that I decided to go to Narita Airport the night before and slept there. I didn't want to face the risk of missing an early train to the airport and miss the flight since the check-in time was supposed to be 7:30am.

20th Century Boys 20世紀少年'

Aside from PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA, this film is THE Japanese film event of the year. The first installment of an ambitious, sprawling trilogy with a reported total budget of 6 billion yen (that's 60 million USD, posters claim that it's an all-time high) starring Japan's most popular actors and comedians (it's the most star-studded Japanese film I've seen since Mitani's THE MAGIC HOUR) and based on a 24-volume award-winning manga series by Naoki Urasawa (same guy who did MONSTER).

SPEED's reunion segment at Nippon Television's 24 HOUR TELEVISION / LOVE SAVES THE EARTH

UPDATED (1/9/2008): I've added the videos of yesterday's reunion. Incredible that it's on Youtube that soon.

Things to do when I return to Malaysia on the 3rd of September

I'm going back to Malaysia next Wednesday, but I'm only going to be back for 16 days. I haven't been updating the blog much this week because I've been doing some preparations for my return, along with some last-minute shopping as well.

I intend to shoot a short film (tentatively titled 'POSTCARD AND BALLOONS') when I come back, that's why I've been spending most of the past week sitting in cafes, writing my script. Initially, I was doing my writing at the Starbucks in either Shibuya or Shinjuku, but realized that going to either of these two places take away too much of my time, especially since it's been raining everyday, so I've shifted to the uni cafe instead. It's been great, I actually finished the first draft of my new script yesterday, and I'm hoping to get Kimmy to act again since our collaboration in CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY had been so successful. :D

Is THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM the Jackie Chan / Jet Li pairing I've been waiting for?

Pardon the lack of updates, been busy writing a 400-word short story, having a MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA marathon, pondering the ending of my new script, and, well, some other stuff. So, here you go, a review of THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM I watched this morning.

Liveblogging the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony

Just like what I did with the opening ceremony, I'm going to try to liveblog the closing ceremony as well. But instead of flooding my Twitter like before, I going to try something new. Hence the window below.

Tags: beijing olympics closing ceremony 2008

TOKYO! omnibus film by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon Ho

I was in a cafe at Shibuya two days ago, struggling to write the script for a new short film. It went well except for the fact that I just couldn't figure out the damn ending.

After sitting there for three hours, I thought I needed a break, and most probably inspiration. So I headed off to see TOKYO! An omnibus film featuring segments done by French filmmakers Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho. The only connection between the three half-hour segment is that they're all set in Tokyo.

THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA in cinemas now!

I know some of you folks don't follow my postings at THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA blog, so I'll announce here:

Yup, THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA had opened at Cathay Cineleisure since Thursday and will be around for two weeks! So please check it out! Then you can check out my very first (and probably only) attempt at composing. (aside from serving as co-producer, I did the additional editing and music for the film's theatrical release)

Here are three reviews of the film that have popped out recently.

• Zee of Cinema Online likes the film.
• Michael Guillen of Twitch as well.
• S. B. Toh of The Star? Not so much.

You can read The Visitor's interview with director Ming Jin as well.

Thanks for the reviews, guys.

Once again, here's the trailer.

Oh wow, SPEED is getting back together!

UPDATED: CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEOS AND PHOTOS FROM SPEED's REUNION SEGMENT ON NIPPON TELEVISION'S 24-HOUR TV DURING THE 31ST OF AUGUST, 2008.



Got this from Tokyograph.