Chinese New Year 2010 Day One

As usual, on the first day of Chinese New Year (which was also Valentine's Day this year, not that it meant anything to me) we visited my uncle's (dad's elder brother).

He and his family used to live in Malacca until recent years. They now live not that far away. (perhaps 20 mins via car, as opposed to the near 2 hours back then)

Chinese New Year Eve 2010

Heya folks and Happy Chinese New Year.

It's been a while since my last update due to the slow internet connection (I feel demotivated), the sudden malfunctioning of my camera (couldn't open its lens suddenly on the second day of Chinese New Year, when I was in Ipoh), and mostly because I was busy preparing for this new film with Ming Jin that I'm producing (and editing).

Did anyone miss me? Guess not.

Anyway, I'll start it off by sharing with you all photos from the Chinese New Year Eve (13th of Feb).

A radio interview that almost happened. Almost.

A few days before I returned from Tokyo, I received an email from a radio station asking for an interview with me. So I said yes, I was coming back to Malaysia anyway.

After coming back, I remained in contact with the guy on e-mail, finally confirming the time for the interview. I was asked to go to their studio on Chinese New Year Eve.

Dilapidated buildings in KL had a strange charm

I think I picked up photography after I went to Tokyo. Everything was new, fascinating, so I decided to snap photos of them and post them online. To share with others the views of a foreigner in Japan.

It's no coincidence also, that I got into photography around the same time as filmmaking. Somehow after I started making films, things around me just felt a little different, and I just cannot resist the urge of taking snapshots of things I liked, at that very moment.

These photos were taken yesterday when Ming Jin and I, along with the current Greenlight Pictures team, went to KL to do some research for our upcoming film project.

Twilight train in Shah Alam

8th of February. After resting for a night, I immediately headed off to the new GREENLIGHT PICTURES office in Shah Alam for a meeting with Ming Jin. Actually, we are going to prepare for another film shoot over the next few weeks, and you'll be hearing a lot about our project soon.

This is the new office.

Back in Malaysia, not used to internet speed

I've been back in Malaysia since 3 nights ago. But somehow it felt longer than that.

The net connection here had been so horrendously bad that I don't even feel motivated enough to surf the net anymore. I ended up just sitting in front of my PS2 one whole day trying to complete Persona 4.

I didn't sleep at all the night before I leave Tokyo, mostly because I wanted to save all the sleeping for the flight. And it worked. I think I was only awake for 1 hour out of the entire 7-hour flight, mostly to eat the food that they served me.

(The in-flight entertainment wasn't working, so I couldn't catch any films in the plane at all.)

The plane departed from Tokyo at 10:30am, Japan time, and arrived at Kuala Lumpur at 5pm-ish Malaysian time (6pm in Tokyo).

Here's the skytrain of KL International Airport.

Shinagawa is like a sci-fi city

I'm heading to the Narita Airport in around 4 hours. Been busy with so many things in the past few days as I prepare to fly back to Malaysia.

Aside from going through another editing session for someone else's film, one of the things I did was extending my Japanese Visa. So I had to go to the Immigration Bureau at Shinagawa.

Arriving at the station early in the morning, I felt intimidated by the huge wave of people, all seemingly heading towards one particular direction.

Snow in Tokyo

Yesterday (1st of Feb) was a pretty rainy day.

But when I was having dinner with a friend, it suddenly started snowing.

40 hour editing marathon for EXHALATION

I was supposed to put together a rough cut of my latest short film EXHALATION by today.

I took almost a 2-week break from its editing to wait for Maiko the Producer to finish her Masters thesis, Torigoe the Sound Guy to the sound mixing (he had 3 productions lined up before him, EXHALATION, unfortunately, was number 3), and for Woan Foong the Composer to send me the music pieces (we last worked together in my last completed and still-unreleased short THE WHITE FLOWER). To kill time, I ended up helping to put together Kong's film, which is now called LADYBIRD'S TEARS.

But once Kong's film was out of the way, and Maiko was done with her thesis, and Woan Foong had sent me her avant-garde music pieces, things were set into motion again in order to hit today's deadline.

On the 28th, I went to Tokyo University of Arts at Yokohama to do some additional voice recording for actor Hiroyuki Takashima. It was actually my first time in Yokohama, I was surprised by the Western-styled architecture. I snapped photos like a tourist.

Maiko the producer receives Waseda University's cultural award

Yesterday, as I walked out of my place, the sky was very blue.

The busy labs in Waseda University's GITS building

GITS = Global Information Telecommunications School.

The final thesis presentation for Masters students is drawing near. Everyone's been busy in their labs.

Last night I went to check out Sakai Lab (lab of WHITE FLOWER assistant producer Liu Jin and Lia the Artist).