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Monday, December 02, 2013

An essay I wrote at the age of 10 made me seem like a closet psychopath

A friend back in primary school managed to dig out a book of collected student essays. Turned out that my autobiographical piece was in it.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Lav Diaz's 6-hour film, CENTURY OF BIRTHING (2011)

Lav Diaz

For the past few years, I have always wanted to catch a film by the Filipino director Lav Diaz. Most of his films are longer than four hours (his longest being close to 10 hours), yet he is prolific to make at least a film a year. How is that even possible???

Finished the principal photography on Woo Ming Jin's SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES

After 14 gruelling days, we're finally done with Ming Jin's SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES shoot. For me, the strange about film shoots is that they always seem longer than they really are. It's not because they are miserable so time seems to flow very slowly, it's just that so many things happen in one day that when everything is over, you realize you've gone through a range of emotions that you usually would go through in a longer span of time.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

More misadventures on the set of Woo Ming Jin's new film SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES

Here's a photo by our Art Director Gabby, which showed actress Emily practising her slapping moves on Ming Jin and I. Epic. That was the 7th of November.





Saturday, November 09, 2013

Woo Ming Jin's SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES begins principal photography

SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES is Woo Ming Jin's latest feature film that I'm producing, co-writing and (probably) editing. We have been shooting the film since Nov 4.

This marks Ming Jin's first independently-financed project since 2010's THE TIGER FACTORY (between this period of time, he also did commercial fares like the found-footage horror SERU, this year's hit zombie film KL ZOMBI and the upcoming MAMAK CUPCAKE)

An epic film that spans more than 30 years, SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES is about a village head trying to investigate a series of mysterious deaths in his village while dealing with his catatonic daughter, and remnants of feelings from a passionate affair during his youth.

Sunday, November 03, 2013

WATCH: James Lee's 2000 debut feature film SNIPERS

Malaysian independent cinema pioneer James Lee has uploaded another one of his feature films onto Youtube.

Saturday, November 02, 2013

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Adventures in the Biennale College at Venice (Part 2)

It's been a week since I got back from the Biennale College in Venice.

Now I'm back in the airport, preparing to fly off to Xi'An, China.

But before that, I want to remember my last two days in Venice.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Adventures in the Biennale College at Venice

Arrived at Venice

The Biennale College is a new initiative started last year by the Venice Film Festival to help support new directors around the world who are trying to do their first or second feature film.

This year, I was one of the twelve directors selected by the Biennale College to develop my feature film project.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

We Have Lost Even This Twilight: Remembering my trip to Pablo Neruda's houses in 2007

Last night, a friend posted on Facebook a Chinese translation of Pablo Neruda's CLENCHED SOUL (which was retitled as "We have lost even this twilight", just like the original Spanish title).

我們甚至失去了黃昏
詩/聶魯達 譯/李宗榮

我們甚至失去了黃昏的顏色。
當藍色的夜墜落在世界時,
沒人看見我們手牽著手。

從我的窗戶中我已經看見
在遙遠的山頂上落日的祭典。

有時候一片太陽
在我的雙掌間如硬幣燃燒。

在你熟知的我的哀傷中
我憶及了你,靈魂肅斂。

彼時,你在哪裡呢?
那裡還有些什麼人?
說些什麼?
為什麼當我哀傷且感覺到你遠離時,
全部的愛會突如其然的來臨呢?

暮色中如常發生的,
書本掉落了下來,
我的披肩像受傷的小狗踡躺在腳邊。

總是如此,
朝暮色抹去雕像的方向
你總是藉黃昏隱沒。

Clenched Soul

We have lost even this twilight.
No one saw us this evening hand in hand
while the blue night dropped on the world.

I have seen from my window
the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops.

Sometimes a piece of sun
burned like a coin in my hand.

I remembered you with my soul clenched
in that sadness of mine that you know.

Where were you then?
Who else was there?
Saying what?
Why will the whole of love come on me suddenly
when I am sad and feel you are far away?

The book fell that always closed at twilight
and my blue sweater rolled like a hurt dog at my feet.

Always, always you recede through the evenings
toward the twilight erasing statues.

Seeing the poem, I cannot help but remember my pilgrimage to his three houses, La Chascona, La Sebastiana and Isla Negra, in Chile back in 2007. Has it been six years already? It felt like another life. I was in Chile for the Santiago Film Festival (SANFIC), it was the first ever film festival I attended either as a producer or a director. I went there for Ming Jin's THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA, and stayed in Chile two days after the festival ended so that I could visit all of the houses.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

The idea of attending a friend's wedding had always been...

The idea of attending a friend's wedding had always been a scary one. They remind him of the passing of time, or his inability to find love.

Yet this was an invitation that he was unable to turn down.