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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Demonstration in front of Hongik University on Korean Liberation Day

Went to the Hongdae area again yesterday for the Seoul Fringe Festival. I'll post up videos of some of the nicer singing performances I saw when I return from Seoul (Youtube has disabled commenting and video uploading for Korean users).

It was the Korean Liberation Day, and I thought I saw a demonstration in front of the Hongik University. In this video, you'll see me posing handsomely around the 40-second mark.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Colour grading WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER and exploring Samcheong-dong

Third day in Seoul. Finally began work on the colour grading of WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER in the Digital Intermediate Lab in KOFIC. Here's Ming Jin and I 'posing' with our main actor Chung Kok Keong in the lab.

Friday, August 14, 2009

KOFIC Tour, Korean BBQ and the awesome Hongdae area

Me drinking Pepsi


Yesterday was my second day in Seoul. I managed to eat some delicious Korean BBQ for dinner.

My short film, KINGYO goes to the 66th Venice Film Festival

The woman (Rukino Fujisaki) whispers something to the man (Takao Kawaguchi)
Rukino Fujisaki and Takao Kawaguchi in KINGYO


I knew about this a few days ago, but now the line-up's for the Corto Cortissimo (international competition of short films) of the 66th Venice Film Festival is officially out, I can finally announce it myself too.

My short film, KINGYO, will be making its world premiere at the 66th Venice Film Festival next month. To be in the oldest and one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world is an honour beyond my wildest dreams. Of course, this would never have happened without the cast and crew of KINGYO, thanks, guys. Some of us will be going to Venice.

KINGYO cast and crew. January 2009

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Arriving at Seoul

Reached Seoul this morning. Took a bus to the service apartment booked for us. Then headed off to the Kofic (Korean Film Commission) offices at 1pm.

It was raining.

That's the Nandaemun, located in the heart of Seoul.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Heading to Seoul for WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER post-production

I was sifting through the photos I took with my old camera when I found a number of production photos from WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER, a feature-length film I produced earlier this year. The film's written and directed by Woo Ming Jin.

This film, financed by the Asian Cinema Fund and the Hubert Bals Fund, was shot back in March at Kuala Selangor, and after returning to Malaysia last Monday, I've spent quite a number of days finalizing its edit with Ming Jin. We will be bringing the entire film to Korea tonight for the final stages of its post-production, like colour correction and film transfer.

The film shoot lasted for nearly two weeks, and because it was quite hectic, I didn't really snap any photos most of the time.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Genius kids make me feel puny

Sorry for the lack of updates since I came back to Malaysia, been really busy with stuff. And I feel demotivated since internet connection here's light ears slower than the one I had in Tokyo, have difficulties uploading photos, let alone videos!

Anyway, I was at the first day of the Klang Creative Fest 2009 yesterday because there was a screening of a couple of films I was involved in, like KURUS and THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA, and after that I presented my short films, CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY (which just got invited to next month's Calgary Film Festival, I'm surprised it still has festival life!) my little-seen experimental video essay FLEETING IMAGES (I decided to take it out cos it got invited for competition at next month's Singapore Short Film Festival), LOVE SUICIDES (gonna be in competition at next month's Split International Film Fest in Croatia) and then AFTERNOON RIVER, which was shot in Klang back in April and was really commissioned for the Creative Fest. In the end I decided to throw in my Groundhog Day-influenced romantic comedy 3PM because I wanted my screening to end on a lighter note, and people were influenced about my Japanese works (I didn't screen Kingyo for reasons I will explain in a few days)

But prior to my screening, I was walking about the fest, and saw many things that humbled me. Like genius kid painters.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Presenting my short films on 8th of August (Saturday)

I'm presenting three of my short films at the KLANG CREATIVE FEST, held in Klang Centro (map) on the 8th of August, 4:30pm. (exactly a year after the opening of the Beijing Olympics 2008 :D )

The first one will be the comedy, CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY, which won an Honourable Mention award and a Best Acting award (for lead actress Kimmy) in the BMW Shorties 2008 before screening at the Dubai and Naoussa Film Festivals (Greece).

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Some stills from my new short film THE WHITE FLOWER



The shoot for THE WHITE FLOWER ended around 12:30am this morning. I borrowed my friend Zhi Feng's house for the shoot. Everything was so hectic that I forgot to whip out my own camera until we were about to finish things.

Rest in peace, Ah Teong

The second day of the The White Flower shoot went on smoothly. I managed to wrap things up half past midnight. I will write about that later.

I came home just now and received a MSN message from my dad that Uncle Martin, the husband of my dad's sister (I called him 'Ah Teong', which was from the Teochew dialect), had just passed away this morning from cancer.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

THE WHITE FLOWER shoot - Day 1


Cast and crew of THE WHITE FLOWER
The cast and crew of THE WHITE FLOWER on top of the Futtsu Viewpoint structure. From left to right: Niklas the cinematographer, Zhu Dan the actress, me, Toro Inamura the actor, Kong the assistant director/ reluctant actor


31st of July. Principal photography for my short film, THE WHITE FLOWER (mentioned in my previous post) began.