Swifty, Writing

Rest in peace, Theo Angelopoulos

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:06:34 PST

Yesterday, just like many other times, I woke up to the beeping sounds of Facebook chat, alerting me of incoming messages.

It was a film festival programmer friend of mine, his message was this:

Edmund, this has to do with one of your favourite film topics, Theo Angelopoulos. He had just died in a traffic accident, ran over by a motorbike!

I sat up, suddenly wide awake, and started retrieving more news of his sad passing just hours earlier. The Greek master filmmaker had indeed died of heavy injuries after being hit by a bike near his film set. He was in the middle of finishing his trilogy that started with THE WEEPING MEADOW and THE DUST OF TIME. Angelopoulos was 76 years old.

The motorcyclist, who was hospitalized too, is an off-duty cop.

To be hit by a bike near your film set while you were in the middle of a shoot, how horrible!

This brings my mind back to THE DUST OF TIME, a 2008 film that will end up, sadly, as Angelopoulos' last completed film.

That was the very first Angelopoulos film I've ever seen that introduced me to the rest of his filmography. It was in February 2009, I was at the Berlin Film Fest for the Talent Campus, just two weeks after I've completed the shoot of my short film KINGYO, and a couple of months before I would edit it. It was also a couple of weeks before I would launch myself into Woo Ming Jin's WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER (the very first feature film I produced and edited in its entirety)

Desperate to learn, I attended numerous workshops at the Talent Campus, one with Wim Wenders, another with Janus Kaminski, the famed cinematographer who had shot all of Spielberg's films since SCHINDLER'S LIST. Then, one more with Tilda Swinton, who remains one of my favourite actresses today.

Aside from these workshops, I tried my best to attend as many screenings as I could. After all, to me, one of the most essential education in filmmaking is to watch as many bloody films as you can, especially in a film festival, where you were able to discover gems that you never would do so under different circumstances.

I remember going to the gala screening of AN EDUCATION and watching Carey Mulligan from afar, and then, witnessing for myself, the birth of a star. I even ran through half the city of Berlin, and then hitchhike my way (a nice young German couple offered me a ride when I asked for directions) to another cinema where I could catch ECCENTRICITIES OF A BLONDE-HAIRED GIRL by then-101 year old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira (he turns 104 this year). I saw him deliver his opening speech, but was already so exhausted that I passed out during the first scene of the film, and woke up by the sounds of clapping during its end credit. A fact that I feel ashamed of until this very day.

The press screening of Theo Angelopoulos' latest occurred in the afternoon. I arrived early to queue up for a seat. Intrigued by the synopsis of THE DUST OF TIME that I read on the festival catalogue. Being highly ignorant, I have only heard of Angelopoulos' name a few months earlier, when a Greek friend of mine who saw my old showreel told me that my visual style reminded him of the works of Angelopoulos. Being highly prideful, I remembered the name because I was curious to know why my humble little short films like LOVE SUICIDES and FLEETING IMAGES would invite comparisons to the oeuvre of a master!

I managed to secure a seat to the press screening. The film began and within its first ten minutes, as Willem Defoe launched into another one of his strangely-worded long monologues, I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness.

"Darn," I thought. "I should have drank some espresso before the film started."

A film-viewing experience without popcorn to munch on can be every intimidating. Alas, most film festivals disallow popcorns during their screenings, in order to preserve the PURITY of that viewing experience, to hear every single detail intended by the filmmaker without being drowned out by annoying crunching sounds of popcorn munching.

Around me, at the DUST OF TIME screening, were faint sounds of people snoring. The images onscreen became increasingly bizarre, like a half-remembered dream.

A half-remembered dream...

Ironically, this is how some people would describe an Angelopoulos film.

I feared, briefly, that I would doze off through the entire film like I did a night earlier with the de Oliveira film. My wounds were still fresh.

That was, until I reached a scene where a huge crowd converged at the city square after Lenin's death. The images were majestic, the score was haunting, I was suddenly very much awake.

I would remain awake through the rest of the film. Occasionally rolling my eyes at the "stylized" dialogue and maudlin histrionics, occasionally mesmerized by the poetic images I witnessed. Some scenes were indeed beautiful, some of his trademark long shots were indeed awe-inspiring. Seeing a long tracking shot where a character wanders in and out of his own memories, from present to past and then present again, speaking to people who could be ghosts or just conjurations of their own memory or imagination. How very art house! Or perhaps Art house with a capital A since it had so solemnly announce its own importance!

Seeing Willem Defoe in it, I thought of Carson Clay, his character in the second Mr Bean film. A parody of Art house filmmakers in film festivals filled with pomposity and pretensions. My mind wandered a little to the film within a film in Bean 2 and felt a little amused. That made me enjoy DUST OF TIME more.

Throughout the screening, some snickered, some continued to snore, a few seats away from me, a man was sighing a lot while scribbling on his notepad. A displeased film critic, it seemed.

"What was THAT?" I thought as the screening ended and I left. I was dazed. Until this day, I grimace at the mention of THE DUST OF TIME. But nonetheless, images from the film lingered in my mind for a long time, and I was adamant to find his earlier films, most master filmmaker have a, er, clunker. It would be stupid to write him off just because one of his latter-day works didn't turn out to be that good. That's like condemning Antonioni after watching his segment in EROS, or damning Kubrick for EYES WIDE SHUT (which to me, is still a bloody good film).

And because of this, I began seeking out other films by Angelopoulos. I started with LANDSCAPES IN THE MIST, followed it with the Cannes second place winner ULYSSES' GAZE, and then, the Palm D'or winning ETERNITY AND A DAY. Although I liked them to varying degrees, they all bowled me over by their scope, ambition and poetry.

Just look at that scene with Lenin's statue in Ulysses Gaze.

The flashes of brilliance I saw in THE DUST OF TIME were in full display in his earlier films, his style was very distinctive, somewhat Tarkovskian because of his meditative long shots and contemplative tone, yet different at the same time in terms of the recurring visual motifs and themes. Less bleak and more wistful and melancholic, maybe.

He, along with Tarkovsky, Bela Tarr,Wong Kar Wai and Edward Yang, are the few filmmakers I referenced most when I prepare for my film shoots.

Over and over again, as I find myself stuck while writing a script, I would pop in a dvd of an Angelopoulos film and study his craft, his tone, his rhythm.

I cannot count the amount of times I've watched bits and pieces of ULYSSES' GAZE and ETERNITY AND A DAY in the past two years, or the amount of times I've shown people one of his long takes, and then ask loudly "how did he do that??"

How indeed.

I would shake my head at parts of his films that didn't seem right to me. Even his masterpieces of the 80s and 90s (prior to that, his films were more emotionally distant, ALEXANDER THE GREAT is an example) The stylized acting, the stylized dialogue, the overblown melancholy, the manly monologues of melancholy delivered by his angstful protagonists.

And then I would smile, like how one would smile at the familiar antics of a fond one. "How very Angelopoulosian."

Yet I know that I would always revisit his works. Again and again. Perpetually studying. Perpetually seeking inspiration. There's always something new to discover.

Rest in peace, Theo Angelopoulos.

(I started to write this while I was in the middle of my 13-hour flight to Amsterdam. I continued fine-tuning this after reaching Rotterdam. When I was done with the entire entry, I realized the screening of my short films was an hour and a half away.)

Two of my shorts, LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER and GIRL IN THE WATER at Rotterdam International Film Festival 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:56:07 PST

After only a few days in Malaysia to celebrate Chinese New Year, I'm flying off again in less than 24 hours to Netherlands for the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

Both my short film LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER (making its European premiere) and another, GIRL IN THE WATER by Danish director Jeppe Ronde and my regular collaborator Woo Ming Jin ("THE TIGER FACTORY", "WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER"), which I helped to produce and edit, will part of the WAITING FOR SNOW IN MY KAMPONG program.

Last Fragments of Winter poster

A scene from Girl in the Water

Aside from the aforementioned two shorts, SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR RADIOACTIVE VILLAGE (Survival Guide Untuk Kampong Radioaktif Project), a collection of four short films by Malaysian masters like Liew Seng Tat ("FLOWER IN THE POCKET"), Tan Chui Mui ("LOVE CONQUERS ALL", "YEAR WITHOUT SUMMER"), Woo Ming Jin again and Yeo Joon Han ("SELL OUT!") is also part of WAITING FOR SNOW IN MY KAMPONG.

The four short films are available for viewing on Youtube, you can check it out if you haven't already.

This is Ming Jin's LOVE DISH (Masakan Cinta).

This is LAI KWAN'S LOVE by Tan Chui Mui.

This is ORANG MINYAK XX by Yeo Joon Han.

And finally, WELCOME TO KAMPONG RADIOAKFTIF by Liew Seng Tat.

Will be curious to see all these films, along with GIRL IN THE WATER, on the big screen for the very first time.

You can read about my LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER shoot. I shot the film at the famed snowy village of Shirakawa-go, and then I returned to Malaysia to finish the rest of the film. Also went through a gruelling sound-mixing session with some industry legends.

Or you can read about the GIRL IN THE WATER shoot here and here. Along with my editing experiences too.

A simple reunion dinner @ my home (Chinese New Year 2012)

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:17:03 PST

After a few days of shoot in Taipei, and then another few days in Hong Kong for the post-production session, I returned to Tokyo for half a day, before making my way back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year.

It was the morning of January 20th. Tokyo was snowing for the very first time in 2012.

Another 2-hour bus ride back to Narita Airport. It's actually snowing, au revoir for 18 days, Tokyo. twitter.com/greatswifty/st…
— Edmund Yeo (@greatswifty) January 19, 2012

However, instead of the intended morning flight at 10:30am, some, er, stuff happened.

@flipcritic I suffered through more than just a short stopover. flight changed from 1030 to 2200 because of some miscomm with travel agent
— Edmund Yeo (@greatswifty) January 20, 2012

@flipcritic miscomm when I queue for check in and realized that the flight was never booked and the printout I had was just a schedule
— Edmund Yeo (@greatswifty) January 20, 2012

Yes, basically, I realized that there was a miscommunication with the travel agent and my flight ticket was never reserved! (I received an email more than a week earlier but that was really just a pending book which needed my personal confirmation... etc etc) It was horrifying to realize that only when I was at the check-in counter.

But I managed to fly in the end. Catching the 10pm flight instead.

At least the seats were empty.

I love it when this happens. twitter.com/greatswifty/st…
— Edmund Yeo (@greatswifty) January 20, 2012

So I arrived in the early morning of 21st Jan.

And today, on the 22nd of January, Chinese New Year's Eve, I'm having my usual simple reunion dinner at home with parents and sister.

Last year in 2011, I celebrated Chinese New Year at Rotterdam International Film Festival dining at a Mexican restaurant with Filipino, Japanese and Korean film friends.

In 2010, I took more photos during my reunion dinner.

This year's simpler. Just a short video of our dinner to let you have a look at how I usually spend my Chinese New Year Eves.

Gong Xi Fa Cai, everyone.

Hiroshi Teshigahara's films and Ikebana

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:10:49 PST

It's been a busy week.

My friend Dawn Yang (she's also something of an unofficial mascot of this blog. Look at the 'most popular posts' on your right, people generally stumble onto this website because they were looking for her or the exposing of her alleged boyfriend) had just came to Tokyo for a visit, so I was showing her around. If you were following on Twitter, you'll spot these tweets.

Had an epic dessert meal with @DawnYang1 our eating skills are surprisingly equal, even though we're both so slender twitter.com/greatswifty/st…
— Edmund Yeo (@greatswifty) January 2, 2012

Hatsumode at Ana Hachiman-gu Shrine with @DawnYang1 twitter.com/greatswifty/st…
— Edmund Yeo (@greatswifty) January 4, 2012

Aside from that, I also started doing some research on ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement). It was for a script that I was working on.

Not entirely sure where to start, I tweeted for help. And help did arrive when Brian Darr asked me to check out the short documentary, Ikebana, by Hiroshi Teshigahara.

@greatswifty Have you seen Hiroshi Teshigahara's film Ikebana? Or the documentary Dream Window, in which he appears?
— Brian Darr (@HellOnFriscoBay) January 3, 2012

After all, Teshigahara came from a line of ikebana masters. His father Sofu Teshigahara was the founder of Sōgetsu School of Ikebana, and the documentary short covered some of Sofu's Ikebana classes, and also an amazing art installation that Sofu put together.

After Sofu died in 1979, Kasumi Teshigahara (Hiroshi's younger sister) took over as the second Iemoto (headmaster) of the school. But she passed away a year later, Hiroshi Teshigahara himself became the third Iemoto of the school in 1980 until his death in 2001. The school is currently headed by Akane Teshigahara, Hiroshi's daughter. Last year (2011), the school had a series of activities to celebrate her tenth anniversary as Iemoto.

Akane had actually done some flower arrangement demonstrations on the stage. This is a video of her ikebana demonstration in Sydney back on May 2010.

It's all really interesting. You can read about the Sogetsu school and the history of the Teshigahara family here.

One thing leads to another. As usual.

I started watching other films by Hiroshi Teshigahara. I've seen "Woman In The Dunes" a while ago, so this time, I decided to catch "Pitfall" and "Face of Another". "Pitfall" was his debut feature, "Woman In The Dunes", his second, was an international sensation, winning a Special Jury Prize at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, and also getting nominated for Best Foreign Film and Best Director (!!) in the Oscars. The latter was a rare feat, especially considering how avant-garde his film was!

Some time ago, Justin (who used to contribute for this blog) told me that if I were to adapt one of his stories into a film, it better be as sensual as this scene in Woman In The Dunes.

(Pitfall, Woman In The Dunes and Face Of Another are all collaborations between Teshigahara and the novelist Kobo Abe, and they are all scored by the composer Toru Takemitsu).

Very sensual indeed.

I don't know how to describe PITFALL. It's about a wandering miner who got murdered by an assassin in a white suit, and became a ghost wandering around the town, witnessing the plight of other impoverished, helpless workers of postwar Japan. Here's the PITFALL trailer. It's like an Alain Resnais film (Hiroshi Mon Amour comes to mind), or a magical realist novel, some called it a documentary fantasy. It's really pretty damned good.

But the one that really captured my attention was FACE OF ANOTHER, his follow-up to WOMAN IN THE DUNES, which was, apparently, a critical (and commercial, I'm sure) failure during its time. But obviously, it was another one of those films that was way ahead of its time. Unlike PITFALL and WOMAN IN THE DUNES, this is set in an urban landscape, and feels more contemporary.

A guy got horribly disfigured, he becomes increasingly bitter and self-centered when his bandaged look garnered some unwanted attention from other people, and even his wife acted uncomfortable around him. But then, his psychiatrist makes him a mask, a medical experiment which uses the face of another, so that it can cover his scars seamlessly and give him the identity of another person. With a new face, he sets out to seduce his own wife! The scenes of his seduction is so mindblowing, erotically-charged, that I had to pause, and rewind, just to make sure I saw what I taught I saw. The filmmaking was so daring, so masterful in atmosphere creation! My mind began to race through a number of possibilities for my own script. That's the joy of watching the works of masters, regardless of time, you always end up feeling inspired. Well, for me anyway.

Here's a newer trailer of FACE OF ANOTHER (for the MASTERS OF CINEMA series). Look at it, LOOK AT IT!!

When it comes to discussing about the Japanese filmmaking masters, Teshigahara is often overlooked, perhaps for his avant-garde style, or perhaps he's not as prolific as the others. But I think he definitely up there on the Pantheon, with the likes of Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Imamura etc.

So, there you go, if you have the chance, please check out Hiroshi Teshigahara's films.

Since then, I have returned to my research on ikebana.

Intensive research on Japanese flower arranging. I wanted to become a constant gardener@ 早稲田大学大学院 GITS instagr.am/p/e00_6/
— Edmund Yeo (@greatswifty) January 6, 2012

And have put together a rough outline of sorts for the story. Let's hope I'll be able to make that in within these few months. After I'm done with this other directing job that I've picked up. But that's a story for another blog entry.

My segment in '60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero' also mentioned in NEGATIV

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:19:07 PST

This article by Dennis Vetter at the highly-regarded German film website NEGATIV came out just a few days after the Dec 22 screening of the omnibus film '60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero' (on Christmas Day, actually).

I saw this article shortly after it was published and browsed through it hoping that I could understand something with my limited German skills. Unfortunately, the only word I recognized was my own name.

So I ran this through Google Translation and here's a rough translation about what the article said regarding 'I DREAMT OF SOMEONE DREAMING OF ME', my contribution to the omnibus film.

The original German text...

Jeder einzelne Moment besaß hier Bedeutung. Im Gedächtnis blieb etwa Edmund Yeo, nicht nur aufgrund seiner lebendigen Persönlichkeit, sondern auch deshalb, weil in seinem Film der Schneefall der Örtlichkeit eine Entsprechung fand und er in wunderschön fotografierten Bildern wunderschöne Darstellerinnen präsentierte. Das zieht immer, weil im Publikum Menschen sitzen, so funktioniert der Anthropozentrismus, den viele so gerne mit dem Kino verknüpfen.

is translated to:

Every single moment had meaning here. In memory of Edmund Yeo was about, not only because of his lively personality, but also because in his film, the snowfall was a correlation of the location and he presented in beautifully photographed images beautiful actresses. This often leads to sit in the audience because people, so does the anthropocentrism, which many love to associate with cinema.

Well, I kinda guessed what it mean. Thanks, Dennis!

The aesthetics of my segment was definitely enhanced by my two beautiful actresses Moon Lai (Woo Ming Jin's 'The Tiger Factory', my one-minute Prada short film 'Now') and Arisa Koike (my latest short film "Last Fragments of Winter").

Once again, you CAN watch my 1-minute segment in my video recap here.

I was mentioned in Hollywood Reporter's review of '60 Seconds of Solitude in the Year Zero'

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:30:43 PST

It's a great way to start the year. The stunningly beautiful balloons of the Zojo-ji New Year Countdown. An epic dinner of desserts with Dawn Yang yesterday.

And today, on the 3rd day of 2012, Maggie Lee's review of 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE IN YEAR ZERO (omnibus film I participated in) on Hollywood Reporter had this to say about my segment "I Dreamt Of Someone Dreaming Of Me".

Twentysomething emerging short film directors also make their mark with works that display resourcefulness (with budgets, time, etc).

Through "I Dreamt of Someone Dreaming of Me," 26-year-old Japan-based Malaysian Edmund Yeo expresses his cultural duality with split screens, one following a Malaysian girl in a cheongsam as she loiters around the city, the other featuring a Japanese girl against backdrops of traditional architecture in the snowy North. Bookended by one standing by the sea and the other by a pond, he integrates the water motif into a broader idea of the flowing, ephemeral nature of filmmaking and of this particular one-off screening.

Very awesome. Very honoured.

You might remember me mentioning about the film's one and only screening at Tallinn that I attended on December 22, 2011, with my nice video recap, where you can actually see the whole 1-minute of "I Dreamt of Someone Dreaming of Me"

Thousands of balloons in the air during the countdown to 2012 @ Zojo-ji Temple, Tokyo

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:05:10 PST

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well, I wasn't expecting to end 2011 with such a downer of a post.

Therefore, I'm going to start this year with a bang, by showing you a video I shot of the countdown to 2012 at Zojo-ji Temple that I went to last night.

(... there was also a rather big earthquake right before I started writing this, when it was shaking, I was sitting on my bed, quietly wondered how serious would it get. And as I was thinking, the quake stopped. Apparently, it was a Magnitude 7.0 earthquake.)

But anyway, here's the video.

Every year during New Year's Eve, people would go there and line up for a 'Wishing Paper' in the Temple. the booth opens at 8:30pm, but usually people have to line up at least 2 hours earlier (which I did, yesterday). Each 'Wishing Paper' can be exchanged for a balloon to be released into the air during the countdown.

Thousands of balloon in the air? A sight so spectacular that I can barely even describe it.

In evenings, Zojo-ji is very beautiful.

Especially with Tokyo Tower looming majestically over it. Despite seeing it so often, I somehow find myself unable to stop taking photos of it.

My last two New Year's Eve were spent at Maiko the Producer's house, with the lovely hospitality of her parents and their delicious sukiyaki. I could just sit back, relax, and watch the Red-White Competition on television. (You can read about my New Year's Eve 2010 recap here, or the New Year's Eve 2009 recap here and here)

I wasn't going to be at her place this time, so I thought I would find another way to signal the beginning of the new year. (... even though it meant that I have to sacrifice watching Shiina Ringo at this year's Red-White Competition!) But I tried to retain some tradition. For example, every time when I reach Maiko's hometown on New Year's Eve, I would buy a shirt at Shimamura shop to wear on New Year's Day. Yesterday, I bought a shirt at a Shimamura shop closer to my place too.

Saying goodbye to 2011.

And then, after the balloons that flew into the air, after the rapturous cheers of the thousands and thousands of people around me, I realized 2012 had started.

Again, the same question I asked a year ago.

I wonder where will I be a year from now?

A somewhat nightmarish dream I had to end the year 2011.

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:13:46 PST

It's the last day of the year. I had a troubling dream this morning, even though my sleep was brief (9am to 1:30pm, yes my sleep patterns are odd).

I dreamed that I was in an Eastern European-looking country that was covered in snow. Or maybe it wasn't a real place at all because everything looked so rustic and dilapidated. I was there for an event that I assumed was film-related.

At the event I met a man who seemed ravaged by an unknown terminal illness. He was tall, gaunt and dignified. It was the dignified air about him that made me suspect that I was at the presence of someone who had attained greatness.

We spoke, he told me about his ideals and dreams, I listened.

He suddenly smiled. "I emailed you once before, remember? Many years ago."

It was the sort of dream where I would sort through my own memories and find an entire backstory for a dream-character. And so I tried to remember our email exchange and somehow I remembered that it was something brief and mundane.

We were in his house, it was dimly-lit, the flickering lightbulbs around us somehow cast shadows over me that reminded me of a German Expressionistic film by Fritz Lang.

The man stopped talking, there was suddenly a look of weariness and sorrow on his face.

"It is unfortunate that I don't have much time left."

He collapses onto the floor, I watched impassively. A woman came next to him, yelling his name. I wondered whether I knew the woman too, or perhaps she was hired to look after him. I was overwhelmed by a wave of dizziness.

As I struggled to open my eyes, I already knew that the man was dead. There were photos floating in my mind, photos on a Facebook page, photos of his funeral. These images that floated in my mind felt like my memory.

I saw mourners, and a coffin black as ebony.

I remembered also, that I had collapsed beside the man after the dizziness that overcame me. I was so tired then.

Again I tried to open my eyes and I saw nothing but bright lights. I was in a white room filled with doctors and nurses. Had I been hospitalized? I sat up from my bed. My mother was there too.

When the others were gone, I told my mother what happened. That I met a man but he had just died.

My mother looked grim. "I must tell you what really happened."

"What?"

"Are you really feeling okay?" She asked. Somehow she looked a little shell shocked.

I nodded.

"You had been in this hospital because you lost your mind. We found you. The doctors had given up on you, the rest of the world thought you couldn't be cured."

"But I thought I lost consciousness because I felt tired. So very tired." I was starting to feel incredulous.

"They thought you were a failure. I tried to believe that things would eventually go well." My mother said.

"A failure?" I almost wanted to sneer if I weren't so devastated. "How long had I been here?"

My mother and everything else was gradually fading away. There was then a loud gushing sound, the sound of a waterfall? But I heard my mother amidst the cacophony of chaotic noises.

"Two years."

My heart skipped a bit. The world was starting to spin around me.

Two years... I've lost my mind for two years? But it felt so much longer. I felt as if I had lost almost an entire lifetime, the prime of my years, I thought I was on the verge of achieving... Something. I couldn't remember anymore. Again, my mind failed me.

And then, I woke up.

I felt relieved, that I was dreaming. My messy little room in Tokyo, my laptop next to my bed, I got up and stumbled out through the door... And found myself blinded by a dazzling white light again.

I brought my hand up, shielding myself from the light, and saw silhouettes of doctors and nurses.

"He's not supposed to know yet! Let him adjust first, didn't I say that?" a doctor yelled.

There were a flurry of activities from the nurses, yet they weren't approaching me.

I felt strangely calm. I think I was smiling serenely. Somehow I knew...

It was a scene from CAPTAIN AMERICA. It was also a scene from INCEPTION.

A dream within a dream.

Is someone going to plant an idea inside my head? I knew a girl who loved INCEPTION...

The alarm clock of my iPhone rang, jolting me awake.

I remained on my bed for a few seconds, I needed that to remember who I was again.

Kultuurikatel - The place where Andrei Tarkovsky shot STALKER

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:00:01 PST

If you have read my epic previous post about the 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE IN YEAR ZERO screening held on the 22nd of December, I don't blame you if you've thought that my trip in Estonia climaxed during its first day.

I thought the same too as I left the Port of Tallinn on a boat, heading towards the venue of the closing ceremony. That was my last public screening of 2011, ending a very busy year when I had travelled around the film festival circuit almost every month. I would just kick back and relax, recharge my energies. I had a few more days in Tallinn, I expected to spend them in solitude since I was staying around longer than the other invited guests (I was scheduled to fly back to Tokyo on Christmas day). Explore Tallinn, soak in the festive atmosphere, I don't really celebrate Christmas, but the excitement of being half a world away would probably dampen the inevitable melancholy feeling that often plague my soul.

But then, as usual, life is full of little surprises. I then found out that the after-party was to be held in a place called Kultuurikatel. The exact place where Andrei Tarkovsky shot STALKER.

"What? STALKER was shot in Tallinn?" I spluttered in barely contained excitement when this little piece of trivia was conveyed to me.

Some of you who actually knew me as a filmmaker (... and not arrived at this blog looking for Dawn Yang pictures or 10 Things To Do After A Break-Up) might know that I'm a huge Tarkovsky fan. I quote Tarkovsky when I wanted to lament about being an artist in an ill-designed world, about how art would be useless in a perfect world. I ask my cinematographers to give me 'Tarkovskian shots' during film shoots, I shoo the cast and crew away the night before a shoot to watch a Tarkovsky film for inspiration.

I discovered Tarkovsky relatively late, it was only 2 years ago. The first Tarkovsky film I've ever seen was STALKER. And like first love, your first Tarkovsky film is hard to forget, especially when it leads you to the rest of his awesome filmography. This fan video of STALKER might give you a little idea what the film is like.

It was a life-altering experience for me. The poetic visuals, the dream-like languid pacing, the bravura shots, it was transcendent cinema at its finest. The Kultuurikatel is an abandoned power plant dating back from the 19th century and had recently been converted into a place for cultural events. In fact. earlier this year in August, a STALKER festival was held for artists to pay homage to Tarkovsky's film, either through films, visual arts or music.

But being so tired that night after the screening, I opted to skip the after party. I wanted to see the place in its full glory during the day anyway.

And so, the next day, 23rd of December, I went to the Kultuurikatel for my Tarkovsky pilgrimage.

The imposing structure loomed over me.

Strangely beautiful because of its decaying, rustic quality.

It was unfortunate that I couldn't really get into the building during the day.

Nearby was a row of houses that seemed abandoned as well.

I continued observing Kultuurikatel, knowing that I had taken enough photos (mediocre ones, unfortunately) to tell people about.

I couldn't help but suddenly remember an afternoon in May 2009, when I explored numerous ruins ("Haikyo" in Japanese) at Sagamiko, I was intrigued by the ruins of Sun Hill Hotel.

A few months after that, I returned to the Sun Hills Hotel ruins again. This time, it was for recceing. I was preparing to shoot my short, EXHALATION.

I did end up using that location. I shot EXHALATION on the 28th, 29th and 30th of December, 2009.

I was inspired then, to look for building ruins, mostly because I had seen STALKER (and then THE MIRROR).

As I've mentioned earlier in this post, this year, I had travelled to quite a number of film festivals, mostly because of EXHALATION's festival run (started in Dubai Film Fest 2010 before proceeding to Rotterdam, Jeonju, Shanghai, Hong Kong InDpanda Short and finally, Tokyo).

It's fitting that I managed to end the year visiting the very place which sparked my imagination and formed the core of my work that led to my travels.

It is December 29th, 2011 as I am writing this.

The scenes set within the ruins for EXHALATION was shot in December 29th, 2009.

Do you believe in synchronicity?

60 Seconds of Solitude At Year Zero screening @ Port of Tallinn

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:11:27 PST

I was in Tallinn because of the omnibus film project 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE AT YEAR ZERO, the whole concept was 60 directors, 60 seconds each, so that everything comes together as a 1-hour omnibus film. Invited directors range from cinematic legends to exciting up-and-comers and to the utterly-obscure-but-somewhat-cute (me).

The film was supposed to be screened only once, on the 22nd of December, at the Port of Tallinn, and as the film was being screened, it was being burned as well, so there is no way this can be screened again.

Now, you can skip my colourful commentary and beautiful photos by watching the video now.

Otherwise, let's move on.

On the evening of the 22nd, a bus picked us all up at the hotel.

Whisking us to the Port of Tallinn.

I noticed an intimidating crane and thought of Bela Tarr films.

A stupefyingly beautiful newscaster was covering the event. Alas, I wasn't able to catch a good view of her with my camera. But I have to say though, most women in Estonia are stupefyingly beautiful.

As you can see from the above photo, there were a few boxes lying around. Inside these boxes were the manifestos.

They had constructed an epic-looking screen for the outdoor screening.

It didn't happen to me back then, but as I look at the photos now, I cannot help but remember the Sony Tropfest Short Film Festivals in Australia, which I used to attend during my Perth days. Those played a role in my filmmaking career. 6 years ago I was an earnest university student who dreamed a filmmaking career and went to those screenings at the festival to learn.

Most of us invited filmmakers climbed onto the Jupiter for a better view of the screening, and also to wave hello to audiences prior to the screening.

The screening started. It was freezing.

I was happy to see own film played with music accompaniment, since I made my segment without any sound at all.

After it all ended, and the projector burst into flames, while the sound of excited applause were drowned by fireworks, we left on The Jupiter to the majestic Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour for the closing ceremony.

I was once asked in an interview what I thought about this screening, and how I felt knowing that this experience can never be replicated. My answer was that we will leave this to our memories again. After all, our memories tend to play a big role when it comes to cinema, we associate some films with special moments of our lives, we remember films of our childhood and youth with nostalgia, regardless of the actual artistic quality of these films. (Let's face it, as a child, I thought the two Home Alone films were The Most Important X'mas Films ever). Therefore, perhaps 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE AT YEAR ZERO will be the same for each and every single audience member who were fortunate to attend this once-in-a-lifetime event. Perhaps as this becomes a part of their (and my) memories, we will look back to the screening, to the actual film, through the fog of our memories and feel nothing but nostalgia. It's quite a comforting thought.

Here's the video of the screening again.

Quick Tour in Tallinn Old Town

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:04:45 PST

Merry Christmas.

Having a 7-hour layover in Amsterdam on my way back to Tokyo, so I'll recap my past few days in Tallinn.

On the 21st of December, after a similar layover at Amsterdam, I flew to Tallinn via Estonian Air.

It was midnight when I reached there.

I like hotels that display my name on TV screen. There's a warm fuzzy feeling when you return to a hotel room alone, and you feel that at least the room TV cares for you.

It was 1am when I took a walk.

Saw the Kino Soprus Cinema, which is known for showing arthouse films and being historical.

I then saw the 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE IN YEAR ZERO ad.

(in case you missed my last post, I was in Tallinn because me and a group of directors around the world were earlier invited to participate in an omnibus film project 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE IN YEAR ZERO.)

THE NEXT MORNING (cool transition, no?)

A couple of us directors were taken to a tour at the Tallinn Old Town, which looked medieval. I felt like a character in an Elder Scrolls game.

The Christmas Market had been around since medieval times too. They are good at preserving tradition.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral made me think of Tarkovsky's film, ANDREI RUBLEV. Photography not allowed inside though.

St Mary's Cathedral is also very nice. No photography allowed too.

We went to a viewing platform to look at the entire old town.

Obligatory photo of myself. Naomi Kawase and her family were behind me.

Looking down upon the old town, and an empty park, I thought of more video game references, or something from a fantasy novel that I used to love so much as I was growing up.

Evening came, we made our way to the outdoor screening of 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE IN YEAR ZERO at Port Tallinn.

Off to Tallinn (Estonia) for the 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE IN YEAR ZERO screening!

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:05:42 PST

I'll be flying off to Estonia in a couple of hours. (by the time you're reading this, I'm probably already on the plane).

A month ago, I was invited to participate in the 60 SECONDS OF SOLITUDE IN YEAR ZERO omnibus project with a group of directors from all over the world. Most other directors involved in this are world-famous masters like Naomi Kawase, Park Chan Wook, Amir Naderi, Shinji Aoyama, Kim Ji-Woon, Tom Tywker, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Brillante Mendoza and many others (see full list of directors). Being able to participate in this project with filmmakers whose works have inspired me so much is quite an honour, and also rather humbling. (I'm listed as a representative for both Malaysia and Japan, the other filmmaker representing Malaysia is my regular collaborator Woo Ming Jin).

Each director is supposed to make a 1-minute short film, so that when all our contributions are put together, it becomes a (hopefully awesome) one-hour omnibus film.

And there will only be ONE screening for this omnibus film, in Tallin, on the 22nd of December.

A special construction comprising a 20x12 meter cinema screen and a projector will be built for the event which will allow the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film is shown. The audience will experience the screening and the performance from approx 20 meters from the screen. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us all.

(The most Meta way to deal with this is to film the screening with an iPhone, and then burn my iPhone.)

Here's a teaser video of this project. Ming Jin's name gets to disappear last!

If you were to tell me two months ago that I would be going to Estonia, and spend (most of) my Christmas there, I would have stared at you funny. But I am indeed going there, and hopefully I'll be able to take many photos of the place, and the event. (maybe I try to live-tweet the thing if there's Wi-fi at the outdoor screening venue?) What an adventure!

My segment is called I DREAMT OF SOMEONE DREAMING OF ME. Which I put together using unused rushes from my latest short, LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER, and my Prada short film, starring Arisa Koike ("LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER") and Moon Lai ("The Tiger Factory"). Yes, it's in split screens. It's been more than two years since I used that for KINGYO, thought to use it again since it served my story.

Visiting Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world (so I can be like Tom Cruise)

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:27:55 PST

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't catch MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL at the opening ceremony of Dubai Film Fest. Being filmed in Dubai, the film had caused such a sensation that all the bigwigs and important people and probably even members of the royal family had reserved their places for its world premiere (and catch a glimpse of Tom Cruise).

Wanting to be like Tom, I decided to visit the Burj Khalifa. It wasn't open to public the first two times I went to Dubai (2008, 2010).

The entrance to its observation deck was in the gargantuan Dubai Mall itself. Where a nice mini Burj greeted all of us.

We were also kindly reminded that MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL was shot there.

I made my way towards the elevator. Walking past this really cool video installation/ moving pictures sort of thing on the wall.

There was dramatic music playing with introduction videos of the Burj Khalifa.

Very lofty and grand.

FROM THE EARTH TO THE SKY!!

I looked up the sky, through a glass ceiling, and saw the Burj. Which felt even grander because of the grand music playing in the background.

FROM VISION TO REALITY!!!

I felt that exclamation marks should have been added behind these words for more impact.

So, I finally reached the elevator.

Got into the elevator.

(and took a photo of me in the elevator)

And reached the observation deck on the 124th floor. (note: The observation deck isn't at the top of the building, sadly) The observation deck is called AT THE TOP, by the way.

The view from the top was pretty nice. I almost wanted to look at the world with contempt, being so high up in the sky.

Seeing how some people liked sitting by the glass for photos...

I did the same.

The telescope didn't look like any telescopes I've seen before.

In the observation deck, there's a shop selling memorabilia.

I wondered then, that if the observation deck is the world's highest deck, is this shop the world's highest shop?

As I walked around, something caught my eye. I noticed that I could see the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, cast over the city of Dubai.

I reached out my hand, touching its shadow.

Q and A sessions for LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER (at Dubai International Film Fest 2011)

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:03:30 PST

My short film, LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER, was screened on the 11th and 13th of December, 2011 at the Dubai International Film Festival.

It was part of the Muhr AfricaAsia Shorts program 1, along with three other shorts:

The shorts were presented in this order.

1) ALL THE LINES FLOW OUT by Charles Lim Li Yong

ALL THE LINES FLOW OUT is a "short film version" of Charles' video installation. The video installation was in Singapore's Biennale earlier this year, while the short film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and received a special mention.

Take a look at its trailer (it's for the video installation though). Stunning visuals, no?

2) MO-EDON PAE-MIL-LI (MODERN FAMILY) by Kim Kwang Bin

Eventual Best Short Film winner. MODERN FAMILY by Kim Kwang Bin is a pretty hardcore short film that elicited some really strong reactions from the audiences (even though most of the violence happened offscreen and were implied). The gasps and squealing from the audiences during the screening was just as entertaining as the short film itself. I giggled when some of the faint-hearted had to walk out of the cinema.

Sadly, I don't think this film has a trailer. But this is its official site.

During the first Q and A session, there was even an audience member who asked director Kwang Bin whether he thought the (deplorable) actions of the characters in the "ending" of his film were "healthy" or not. Kwang Bin would later tell me during dinner that he had to apologize (a lot) for his film to those who found his film morally questionable. His award is going to silence all that!

3) XIAO TOU (THIEF) by Jay Chern

Jay's THIEF is the recent Golden Horse award winner for Best Short Film. It's a very entertaining film blessed with two pretty actresses, and has a very romantic atmosphere that reminds me of Arven Chen's AU REVOIR TAIPEI. Special points given for using Godard's BREATHLESS theme song as one of the protagonists' ringtone.

Here is its trailer.

And finally, my LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER was the last one, played to mostly befuddled audiences.

I was Number Four.

During the screening, I was very happy to see some of the visuals translating so well on the big screen.

... and then, to my gradual horror, I realized that I had transferred the WRONG VERSION of the film to the HDCam that was screening in the festival.

A few days prior to making the HDCam tape, I had made some revisions on the subtitles, because I knew that the story was rather oblique, and foreign (non-Chinese speaking) audiences may need some help with understanding the narrative. But due to some error on my part. The version of the film shown in the festival had the old subtitles... and one scene even lost its subtitles!

"Stay cool, Edmund!! Pretend that everything is intentional. That they are intentional artistic choices!!" I screamed to myself mentally.

The credits rolled. I then noticed that someone's name was missing. I mouthed another swear word that sounded like "puck" but started with an "f".

(Most of the stuff I mentioned went by unnoticed by audiences, but for myself, it was slightly mortifying.)

But here are videos of the Q and A sessions.

One from the 11th of November, this one, I gave a bit more technical info about the film. Director of BACHELOR MOUNTAIN, Yu Guangyi, along with his family, were actually at the screening, and seemed quite taken in by the snow scenes of the film. You'll see me switching to Mandarin towards the end of the video.

The other from the 13th of November, this one I spoke a bit more about the various interpretations of the film.

After the second screening, I walked past an audience member, who had gushed excitedly over the other three short films in the program and their directors.

"Nice film. Very... pretty to look at." She said, somewhat reluctantly. (understandable though, it's not easy to damn someone with faint praise!)

"Thanks. It's like a postcard." I replied monotonously, accepting the faint praise with deadpan amusement.

(I rank that, along with a guy's "Your film (INHALATION) was good... not great, but good." at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Fest earlier this year, as my top two favourite faint praises of the year.)

Films I saw at Dubai International Film Festival 2011 (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:40:12 PST

Came back from Dubai last night, slept through most of the entire flight. It's a fun feeling.

I'm now going to continue from my previous post, Films I saw at Dubai International Film Festival 2011 (Part 1), by listing out the rest of the films I caught in the Dubai Film Fest, along with some anecdotes if I have any.

DECEMBER 11

12) P-047 by Kongdej Jaturanrasmee

Immediately after the LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER screening (along with the other short films), I chose to go for the late-night screening of P-047, which was screened in Venice Film Fest a few months ago. I was hearing many good things about it, even Ono-san, executive producer of my short film EXHALATION, was telling me back in October that the film's the best Thai film he had seen this year.

Therefore, I walked into the screening, half-excited, but also half-worried that it would be a film of such obliqueness and meditative pacing like most Thai films that I caught in film festivals that I would end up falling asleep.

"Don't fall asleep during the screening, Edmund!" Said the film's producer and 3-time Tiger Award-winning badass (for Aditya Assarat's WONDERFUL TOWN, Anocha Suwichakornpong's MUNDANE HISTORY and Sivaroj Kongsakul's ETERNITY), Soros Sukhum, when he spotted me in the screening hall.

"I won't! I have this!" I said, raising a cup of double espresso.

In the end, I don't think I really needed the double espresso. The film was a mind-bender which necessitated audiences' own attempts to construct the narratives within their own minds. (It's a little like, ah, my own LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER, really. Haha.)

It's very novelistic, like (lazy comparison, I'm sorry) a Haruki Murakami novel, or David Mitchell's NUMBER9DREAMS, stories within stories, fractured timeline, eccentric characters who come in and out, disappearing without any explanation, and this deceptive everyday setting with a rather surrealistic undertone. At times I marvelled at its intricate structure and its poetry, I couldn't help but smile a few times during the film, at some of the artistic risks that Kongdej took with this film.

By the time it ended, a few audience members (from China) remarked (in Mandarin) "I don't even know what the hell was going on, I really couldn't go through it". Yes, it can be divisive, and not really a film for Joe or Jane Popcorn (not that I'm disparaging them or anything...), but for me, it's a pretty fine film. :) Would love to see more people catching the film, and generate some discussions about its mystery.

Here's a 40-minute video of Kongdej, Soros and main actor Apichai Tragoolpadetgrai at the press conference of the Venice Film Festival. Where they got into quite a lot of details about their film.

DECEMBER 12

13)MOTHER'S SOUL by Nhue Giang

Actually, I watched this in the video room a few days earlier. This is a sad little Vietnamese film of a young 12 year old girl whose mom got into a destructive love affair with a driver, and ends up throwing everything away. The girl ends up playing a maternal role towards the orphan next door. Having worked with children before in my own films, I can say that directing them isn't the easiest thing in the world. Therefore, when I see the child actress Phung Hoa Hoai Linh delivering such a heartbreaking and nuanced performance, I quietly wondered whether she would have a chance of picking up a special award in the festival.

(she would end up winning the Best Actress award in the film festival. During the award ceremony, director Nhue Giang said that the child, who has had some financial difficulties at home, will finally be able to pay for her tuition fees in school. It's great to know that this award will help secure her future).

I remember that the Best Actress award winner in Dubai Film Festival 2008 also went to a Vietnamese actress (Hong Anh of MOON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WELL). Based on the handful of Vietnamese films I've seen, almost all of them had a very powerful female performance (while the female characters are usually well-characterized and hold the entire film together). Ninh Duong Lan Ngoc of last year's FLOATING LIVES also left quite an impression for me. It's something I might look into more next time, and to learn from.

14) UNDER SNOW by Ulrika Ottinger

UNDER SNOW (Unter Schnee) is a documentary of sorts (or a fusion film) set in the Japanese region of Echigo, lots of snow, and exotic customs and rituals are depicted in a way that can only be done when a foreigner is doing a documentary depiction of somewhere in Japan. Very fine photography (not surprising, considering Ottinger's personal background in painting and photography).

Here's the trailer.

15) ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

I was first exposed to the works of Nuri Bilge Ceylan at Dubai International Film Fest 2008, when I saw THREE MONKEYS. The director didn't come then, except the young actor. The film was so visually stunning that I would constantly revisit it via staring at the trailers on Youtube. It's one of those films then that left such an impression that I told myself that I had to make sure I would take care of the visuals in my own films. That happened a few weeks before I made KINGYO.

On the morning of 12th December, already psyched that I could finally catch ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (I had also constantly been marvelling at its trailer), I came across an interview with him on THE PLAYLIST from a week earlier at the Marrakesh Film Fest.

An excerpt from the interview that I liked.

From near the beginning of his film career, Ceylan has often had political issues running through his films. These range from small asides such as a landowner in "Clouds of May" burnt out by constant fights with the government to making up an entire premise in "Three Monkeys." Despite issues with his country's officials, the director stresses that these do not necessarily reflect his opinions, and that he personally has no disillusion with the country. "There's nothing political about it. People like to read the films as political, especially in Turkey. But I try to fight that assessment as much as possible. Of course I have my political opinions, but they are not the most important thing to me and I generally hide them. I'm more interested in the inner-world of the characters, and if you talk too much about politics than that's all people will want to talk about," he says.

I have my own political viewpoint too, but I really don't have any interest in marring my film with politics in the foreground and totally overlooking the other narrative elements of my work either. So nope, I'm not the guy to go to when it comes to making activist films.

Assuming that NBC's at Marrakesh, I was really surprised to know that he was actually at the screening of ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA! In the end, he was mobbed by so many that I couldn't take any proper photos of him, or with him.

As for ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA. It's truly a masterful film that, I think, surpassed THREE MONKEYS. I won't go that much into it because reviews of his films are easily accessible. But some of the very Tarkovskian flourishes in his film filled me with excitement and joy. See the trailer.

Yup, I definitely have lots to learn.

16, 17 and 18) HASAKI YA SUDA by Cedric Ido, RAFT by Nobuyuki Miyake and NAUSHNIKI(HEADPHONES) by Baktiyar Seitkaziev

These three are short films, also in the same category as mine.

This is a teaser of Hasaki Ya Suda.

No trailer for Miyake's RAFT, but here's a video interview of him at Dubai Film Fest.

Trailer of Headphones.

DECEMBER 13

19, 20 and 21) TINYE SO by Daouda Coulibaly, MEHFUZ (SAFE) by Rohit Pandey and FEBRUARY 19 by Tamara Stepanyan

Had another screening of LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER on the afternoon of December 13. I'll talk about that in another post.

After my own screening, I decided to catch the rest of the shorts in the AsiaAfrica competition category.

Here's a teaser of TINYE SO.

And another teaser.

Trailer of FEBRUARY 19.

FEBRUARY 19//Trailer from Tamara Stepanyan on Vimeo.

A train between Yerevan and Tbilisi.

Anna and Alex.

And a wall. A cold, white wall.

Unfortunately, I can't find any trailers of Mehfuz. MEHFUZ would end up receiving the second prize for the category, while TINYE SO got the Special Jury Award.

22) ENDING NOTE: DEATH OF A JAPANESE SALESMAN by Mami Sunada

Another Japanese documentary by a female director. And another sublime one. This is a very personal one where director Mami Sunada (who had been filming her family since she was 15) follows her father during the last few months of his life after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The 'ending note' of the title is like a bucket list and a will, written by him that summarized his own life and his final wishes (narrated in first-person by the director). I was reluctant to go to this film because of its depressing-sounding subject matter, but thanks to its gentle humour and sensitivity, the film becomes a very warm and bittersweet experience, as if you are accompanying a man (you gradually get to know well) to the end of his life, and staying briefly with his family after his death.

When the screening ended, not a single eye was dry. And everyone stayed for the Q and A session.

Here's the trailer.

(the film did surprisingly well at the Japanese box-office).

That's me and Mami after the screening.

Mami Sunada and Yoko Ide (director of documentary, SHOJI AND TAKAO) have both devoted many years of their lives to shoot footages that become part of their films. Their films are both illuminating and personal, gentle and thought-provoking, I feel as if I have immersed myself into a part of their lives when I was watching their films.

They make greatness seem effortless, but only if you overlook the amount of efforts they have actually put in their works. FILM BUSINESS ASIA had a great interview with both of them regarding the business of Japanese documentaries.

Sunada would end up winning the Second Prize in the AsiaAfrica Documentary category. Ide won the Human Rights Network Award.

The funny thing was when I mistyped EHDING NOTE as CLOSED NOTE (which is a different film starring Erika Sawajiri a few years ago, which, ironically, caused quite a stir because of Sawajiri's behaviour during the press screening, but that's a wholly different story...)

ENDING NOTE was the last film I saw at the Dubai International Film Festival 2011.

Films I saw at Dubai International Film Festival 2011 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:29:30 PST

This is my last night in Dubai. The past week had been a blur. I didn't get to camwhore that much. Just one photo at the red carpet of a red carpet event that I didn't really attend.

I spent most of my childhood and teenage years being reminded of my physical shortcomings (in the looks department). I'm the ugly kid on the left of the photo below. I was 9 then.

Therefore, I cannot help but marvel at how photogenic I am now.

But I'm not that narcissistic, so I will go on with this entry..

Now, being in a film festival can be rather tiring, and it's becoming increasingly unlikely that I could chronicle my daily adventures on this blog like I did before. (The days when I can churn out 2-3 posts a day are long gone.)

In a film festival, aside from hanging out with filmmaker friends (old or new), getting to know other industry people, I care most about catching the films.

After all, what I do primarily involves creativity. Creativity and inspiration are often sparked when watching the works of other people. The motivation to raise my own level of output, and also to know what's going on around me. I'm in the film industry, It'll be silly if I stop caring about films.

I love coming to the Dubai International Film Festival because of the quality of its selection. Aside from films that were played in this year's Cannes, Berlin, Venice Film Festivals, the recent Oscar contenders, I also get to watch little films that I wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. It'll be stupid to pass up such an opportunity.

The closing and award ceremony is tomorrow. It is unlikely that I will catch more films. For the sake of refreshing my own memories, or generating any discussions of sort, I will list out all the films that I've seen in this festival during the past week.

I'll list them in order, and include some anecdotes:

DECEMBER 8

1) SEEDIQ BAAL by Wei Te-Sheng

Wei Te-Sheng's SEEDIQ BAAL was the first film of the festival I saw. SEEDIQ BAAL was the Golden Horse (Chinese equivalent of the Oscars) winner for Best Film and Best Supporting Actor. I was at this year's Golden Horse Ceremony, which I realized I didn't write about in this blog at all. Gah!

One day after the Golden Horse, I ended up in the same bus to Taipei with director Wei Te-Sheng, and congratulated him for his victory.

I was surprised to meet him again a week later in Dubai.

I even got him to autograph a Seediq Baal flyer.

2) LE HAVRE by Aki Kaurismaki

After the hardcore brutality of Seediq Baal, I opted for something gentler. So I went to Cannes favourite LE HAVRE by Aki Kaurismaki, a Cannes favourite. I've seen some of his short films, but none of his features. Seeing a Kaurismaki film for the very first time was quite an illuminating experience. His unique dry humour made me (and the rest of the audience) giggle a lot.

I will look out for his previous works.

3) CROSSFIRE by Arnel Mardoquio

Arnel's CROSSFIRE is a Filipino film making its world premiere at the Dubai Film Fest. At the screening, I cannot help but notice how rowdy the Filipino audiences can be. CROSSFIRE is far from what you would consider an accessible cinema, yet the audiences in the hall were just as into the film as locals would be with a crowd-pleasing Hollywood film. Young girls gasped and sighed at the subtle romance in the film, lots of sighs when the main male character takes hold of the female character's hand. It was pretty fun. This film had a lot of nice lyrical moments, especially the magic hour shots. I'm a sucker for that.

DECEMBER 9

3) THE MUPPETS by James Bobin

I think THE MUPPETS were before my time, they never really played a particular big role in my childhood compared to the Ninja Turtles. However, despite the sort of films I make, I'm not really the type who condemns all things Hollywood. I needed something entertaining and less demanding before I plunge into the rest of the other films in the festival, so I chose THE MUPPETS, I really enjoyed it, but would probably enjoyed it more if I were an actual MUPPETS fan.

I like this song a lot though.

4) REALTOR by Adilkan Yerzhanov

I first met Adilkan back in Dubai International Film Fest 2008, his short film "Bakhytzhamal" was in the short films section with my short, "Chicken Rice Mystery". (note, Dubai International Film Fest 2008 was the first ever film fest I attended as a director, with Chicken Rice Mystery being my first ever short film after I finished uni)

Here's a photo of us back in 2008. He's the one in red shirt.

I'm very happy to see him again. 3 years have passed, he had graduated into making his very first feature, REALTOR.

Due to the fact that I missed Madonna's W.E. screening, I decided to watch REALTOR in the video room, not knowing a single thing about it. And how bizarre the experience was!

Having seen a few Kazakhstan films, including the recent, rather brilliant FIRST RAINS OF SPRING by Shinju Sano and Erlan Nurmuhambetov at October's Tokyo International Film Festival. My impression on Kazakhstan cinema is that they're rather... er, miserable, and exotic, and takes place in grand-looking countrysides or within cities with interesting architecture, with the use of cinematic languages rather foreign to me.

I was surprised when REALTOR turned out to be SO DIFFERENT from all the other Kazakhstan films I've seen, in fact, it's a rather surrealistic time-travelling film shot in a somewhat 'trashy' (Adilkan's own word) manner that reminds me of Shinya Tsukamoto's earlier Tetsuo films. Yet this one's pretty redemptive and hopeful. It also reminds me of genre-mixing Hong Kong films of the late 80s to 90s, which is unsurprising, since Adilkan is a fan of Johnnie To's.

I definitely hope that more people would catch his film.

DECEMBER 10

5) THE DESCENDANTS by Alexander Payne

I caught wind of a secret morning press screening of the film, and I went immediately. Alexander Payne is one of my favourite American filmmakers, moments from his last two films ABOUT SCHMIDT and SIDEWAYS still linger. Few years ago, when I was a mere university lad, I felt nothing but blind disdain towards the elitist friends of my friend Sebastian when Sebastian told me that he wouldn't want to watch SIDEWAYS because his friends didn't like it.

THE DESCENDANTS doesn't disappoint, I loved the film. And towards the end, I heard many sniffles in the hall. Frankly, I coulnd't keep my eyes dry either.

6) BACHELOR MOUNTAIN by Yu Guangyi

Aside from Adilkan, another reunion I had with someone I met at DIFF2008 was documentary filmmaker Yu Guangyi. This is us, 3 years ago. He won the Special Jury prize for his last film, SURVIVAL SONG (which also won awards at the Seoul CINDI Festival and Tokyo Filmex).

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After we took that photo, he told me that 'my time will come soon', and as we both took the taxi to the airport after the award ceremony. He reiterated his own belief on how our own exposure to literature can influence our filmmaking. I never forget his words. Few weeks after Dubai International Film Festival 2008, I would make KINGYO, and continue my own growth as a filmmaker. So many things had happened to me since then, so many film festivals I had the honour of being invited to, the awards that I was lucky to win, I think meeting Yu Guangyi then was a primary source of why I am where I am now.

Here's us. 3 years later.

BACHELOR MOUNTAIN is another documentary by Yu Guangyi which he spent 3 years to shoot in his hometown. It chronicles a middle-aged man living in a mountainous village where most single women are gone. The only single woman in the village owns an inn and the man had been in love with her for ten years. Going to her inn almost every day to help her, seeking to win her love, or maybe he only wanted to use those rare moments with her to take his mind off other aspects of his life. It's pretty heart-wrenching. Unrequited love is something that happened much too often in my own life. It's almost a tragicomedy.

I also got to meet Yu Guangyi's wife and daughter (who is around my age) who were both also in Dubai. It was only now that I knew his filmmaking was a family affair, with his wife serving as producer and his daughter working as both as assistant cameraman and co-editor.

I imagined what would it be like if I ever had a family that joined me in my filmmaking. Perhaps it would be very fun.

Yu Guangyi's a lucky guy.

7) CARRIERE 250 METERS

Jean-Claude Carriere was Luis Bunuel's screenwriting collaborator. This is a travelogue similar to the likes of SANS SOLEIL by Chris Marker, where it follows Carriere's 7 different letters written in 7 different countries that ruminates in all sorts of things about time, space, existence etc. It's like my own short film FLEETING IMAGES too. But, ah, longer, with awesomer images?

DECEMBER 11

8) SHOJO & TAKAO

The crazy thing about documentaries is that some are projects that lasted for many years. When SHOJI & TAKAO director Yoko Ide told me that her film took 14 years to shoot. I was immediately hooked, and wanted to witness her epic undertaking with my own eyes.

It's a tale of false conviction. She followed two men, Shoji and Takao, who spent nearly 30 years in prison after being falsely accused for a crime they didn't commit, from the day they were released on parole to 14 years later, when they managed to appeal for a retrial and establish their innocence. For nearly 3 hours, the film showed these two men re-adjusting to their lives, retaining a cheerful attitude towards everything, watching how they literally aged on screen, and people coming in and out of their lives, I felt I had known them for many years.

That's the funny thing about documentaries, the finest ones not only educate, but also allow you to immerse yourself completely in another world.

This is Yoko Ide (in white) during the Q and A session.

9, 10, 11) ALL THE LINES FLOW OUT by Charles Lim Li Yong, MO-EDON PAE-MIL-LI (MODERN FAMILY) by Kim Kwang Bin and XIAO TOU (THIEF) by Jay Chern

These three are short films that are in the same program as me. 11th December was the world premiere of my short, LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER. I'll leave this for a different entry. But knowing that you're in the same program with a Venice Film Fest award winner, the Golden Horse Best Short Film award winner and a Korean short that competed in this year's Busan Film Fest, I cannot help but notice the high quality of works that Dubai Film Fest had managed to attract nowadays, even in the short film section.

(TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2)

My new short LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER having world premiere at Dubai International Film Festival 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:27:55 PST

So... I'm announcing the world premiere of my latest short film LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER less than a week before it is happening at this year's Dubai International Film Festival. My publicity skills have gone down the drains. It's hard, juggling my responsibility as a filmmaker, creator, producer and, er, self-promoter. In an ideal world, someone else would have been promoting me instead of me doing all these myself, but the world isn't ideal, and my films are probably not the type that people would jump in to promote, so... there you go.

I have a very nice poster though.

LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER was shot earlier this year. You can see me, being all awesome and cool, commanding a massive film crew of 3 members under the snow, and having this formidable job of directing a huge amount of... one teenage actress.

Anyway, my seemingly cheery and flippant demeanour hides a sensitive soul, brimming with romanticism and poetry. As you can see in this broody photo taken by my crew members while I wasn't looking.

And me, composing shots that came straight from my SOUL.

You can read about my account on this highly challenging, life-threatening film shoot.

I even blogged about the meticulous detail I put in the sound mixing process.

Here's the synopsis of my film, fittingly mysterious:

A dreamlike cinematic poem about a family. A boy runs an errand for his mother and realizes that she is dying. A man attends the funeral of a former lover and speaks to her ghost. A woman learns to appreciate the little things around her in everyday life.

4 of my short films online now thanks to Yxine Film Fest's Mini-Focus on me.

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 03:41:30 PST

The YxineFF is an annual online short film festival that focuses mostly on Vietnamese short films, and also some South East Asian ones.

I met its founder Marcus Manh Cuong Vu at last year's Hamburg International Film Festival, when he moderated the question and answer for THE TIGER FACTORY screening (Ming Jin the director couldn't go, so I went on his behalf as the immensely cute producer). He also later did a short interview with me about Malaysian Independent Cinema and other stuff.

I'm very honoured that this year's Yxine Film Festival is doing a mini-focus on me. For a temporary amount of time, four of my previous short films are uploaded online for the viewing pleasure of audiences, all of them except INHALATION are actually loose adaptations of Yasunari Kawabata's works.

They are: (click links of titles to view them)

One of my earlier short films, LOVE SUICIDES (2009). It premiered at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival in 2009 and won Best Director awards in Shenzhen's China Mobile Film Festival 2009 and Doi Saket International Film Festival 2010.

My rather popular KINGYO (2009). Which premiered at Venice Film Festival in 2009.

My little-seen experimental short THE WHITE FLOWER (2010), which is definitely worth a watch.

And finally, INHALATION (2010), which won the Best Asian Short Film in last year's Pusan Film Festival (now Busan) and also competed at this year's Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. It is actually a spin-off of THE TIGER FACTORY.

So, if you are interested in catching my films, please check them out!

You can join Yxineff's Facebook page.

Off to Taipei for the Golden Horse Film & TV Film Project Promotion (FTPP)

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:47:03 PST

It's 6:07am while I'm writing this. In a few hours, I will be hopping onto a bus to Narita Airport and catch the flight to Taipei for the Golden Horse Film & TV Film Project Promotion (FTTP), a project market similar to the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) in March, or the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF) in July.

Characteristic of me, I have yet to sleep at all. I guess I wanted a better sleep in the plane.

I'm shopping a feature film project of mine called REINCARNATED DREAMS OF DEER, which I've spent the last few months in seclusion trying to write (aside from the span of time during Tokyo Film Festival, I was really just writing this screenplay since I came back to Tokyo in September). If everything comes together, this would become my debut feature-length film.

Back in March, I was shopping a different project around at HAF in Hong Kong called IMPERMANENCE, which was something I wrote after attending the Torino Film Lab last year. (you may remember me attending these workshops at Bratislava last March, Brest/ Brignogan last July and Torino last November, which was filled with beautiful photos that I took)

I had only attended Project Markets as a producer (accompanying Ming Jin's projects), so being in Torino exactly a year ago, and then HAF, were invaluable experiences for me.

Therefore I spent the entire Sunday trying to prepare some materials that I have to bring to Taipei with me. I remember the nightmare I had in Hong Kong, when my constantly unreliable laptop died right before I went for the trip. It also died when I was in Torino. It was very difficult for me then. I still shudder at the memories.

Lying right before me now are a pair of DVDs. One contains a collection of works I did beginning from KINGYO to the current EXHALATION/ INHALATION pair. The other is my upcoming LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER. I had to say that my DVD design skills isn't too shabby!

Aside from a brief rain, it was a nice Sunday afternoon.

The golden tree leaves seemed more golden than I last noticed.

Scattered all over the ground, and whirling about whenever there was a breeze.

The last time I went to Taipei was a family trip in October 2007. Four years ago felt so different, I had yet to make a single short film, I had yet to move to Tokyo, I had yet to see the films of Edward Yang that would influence me so much now.

A business trip is different, but I still look forward to being able to have some nice Taiwanese food, enjoy its 24-hour bookshop, soak in the city.

Also, having spent half of my life watching the Golden Horse Awards (Chinese equivalent of Oscars) on TV, I'm a little curious how the ceremony is like when you attend it in person (which I'm doing on the 26th).

Yurakucho Winter Illumination

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:30:25 PST

Was at Yurakucho just now for dinner when I ran into a huge crowd, and saw a group of women singing on a makeshift stage. I realized that it was the opening ceremony for the Winter Illumination.

Sadly, the iPhone doesn't really work too well with night photography, so I was incapable of capturing the beauty of the night decoration in Yurakucho.

Besides, I was rushing to meet up with people so I couldn't stay around to take more photos.

Since I rarely go to Yurakucho except during Tokyo Filmex, it never ceases to amaze me. Its feel is different from the likes of Shinjuku or Shibuya.

Speaking of Tokyo Filmex, it's beginning tomorrow, but for the second straight year, I won't be able to make it. (going to Taipei on Monday, was at Torino last year). It's a shame, I had caught many good films in 2008 and 2009.

Here's a video of people singing on the stage.

Happy birthday, Mom. She has a fan-made music video (not done by me)!

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:00:05 PST

Today (November 17th) is my Mom's birthday.

That's her during Mother's Day.

These are albums of hers during her singing days before she married Dad.

This was an April 2011 special feature by Malaysian Chinese newspaper China Press where they interviewed me and Mom (sorry, in Chinese only), which basically focuses on how she ended up raising, horrors of horrors, a filmmaker. (she and Dad did numerous film marathons when pregnant)

It seems that her birthday is pointed out every year on this blog, even though I didn't notice it.

Last year, I noted that her birthday (and a few of my dear cousins) occur in successive days. (the parallels between this year and last year were striking. Last year, a week before her birthday, I suffered an epic food poisoning. This year, a week before her birthday, I had a rather bad flu. Last year, on the days leading up to her birthday, I was rushing on a feature-length script for a pitching session at Torino. This year, on the days leading up to her birthday, I was once again rushing on a feature-length script for a pitching session at Taipei. Both cities start with 'T')

Two years ago, I talked about how Mom endorsed an Organic restaurant (it's not everyday you walk into a restaurant and see newspaper clipping of your own mom framed on the wall).

Three years ago, I posted numerous videos of my mom, including a rare video interview that I managed to dig out by accident.

This year, again, I managed to dig out a recently-uploaded fan video of one of my mom's songs.

Happy birthday Mom.

Jimbocho, treasure trove for book lovers!

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:11:00 PST

When I went to Jimbocho almost two weeks ago, towards the end of the Tokyo Film Festival. A book festival was being held, so there were numerous stalls at the streets, selling books.

It was blissful experience, being in such a place. It was unbelievable that after more than 3 years in Tokyo, this was the first time I've visited Jimbocho, definitely a treasure trove for book lovers!

Using CNNGO's THE LAST ENGLISH BOOKSTORES IN JIMBOCHO article as my guide. I ended up at the famed 100-year old Kitazawa Bookstore (it's been around since 1902), and bought a number of books for around 1700 yen!

As I held on to Harold Pinter's unproduced screenplay adaptation of Marcel Proust's IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME (earlier translated as REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST, which I preferred more), I found my own memories scattering to the past again.

6 years ago when I was in Perth, a guy named Vicks (not his real name, but sounds close enough) stepped into my apartment, looked around, and remarked that I looked like someone who wasn't into reading (nor writing). That was only the second time I met the guy, and he came to my place while tagging along with a friend of mine. I was momentarily outraged, wondering who he was to make such bold assumptions considering that I was doing a minor in English Literature (out of passion for literature), harboured dreams of publishing a novel (out of passion for writing) and had a shelf of novels in my room (collecting novels had been a lifelong thing) that was right in front of his face.

I pointed at the shelf of novels.

He said that his shelf was bigger.

I pointed out that I was doing a minor in English literature.

He said that it was 'merely a minor'.

And he then promised me that he would start recommending books to me that could make me write like a professional (like him).

I was momentarily repulsed, it's not everyday that you have someone march into your room, come up to your face and points out that you are semi-literate.

A few months later, Vicks ended up in the hospital because he circumcised himself with circumcising tools that he bought from a dodgy Korean dealer.

We Malaysians have quite a sense of humour. Growing up in secondary school, aside from having people make fun of me for having an oversized head, a supposedly large mouth ("you are an IBM, International Big Mouth, teehee!" was one of the more creative insults I heard when I was 13) puffy pouty lips (gorilla-esque, they said, Angelina Jolie-esque, I thought), I was also made fun of for always burying my head in my sci-fi/ fantasy books.

Now, having people joke of your physical shortcomings isn't a big deal, kids were kids. Why bear grudges, right? You have be an very sensitive (artistic!) individual to still remember all this, and write about this on your blog more than a decade later... oh, wait.

But one thing that bothered me a lot during my secondary school days, was the fact that it was illegal to bring a novel to school. Prefects were asked to confiscate novels, whatever novels they saw. At first I thought it was merely harlequin/ Mills and Boons romance that were being banned, but turned out that novels in general weren't allowed too.

So a couple of times, while reading a book quietly during recess, I would have some prefect snatch the book away from me.

"It's just a book!" I protested.
"It's fiction." The prefect shrugged.

The prefect ran off. And I would have to go home and write a letter (in my parents' names) to get my book back.

So, having people make fun of my physical shortcomings is one thing, to be PUNISHED for loving literature was another. I felt that I was living in the dystopian world of FAHRENHEIT 451, where the school's role wasn't to cultivate any love for the arts and culture, but merely to make students perform well academically. Clearly that wasn't what the Malaysian education system is about, right? Right? Oh, wait.

Meanwhile, girls flocked to the 'cool' kids. Meanwhile a birthday present I gave a girl was rejected (or rather, she passed it to my class monitor, my class monitor insensitively returned it to me in front of the entire class. Well, at least my classmates were mostly sympathetic of my plight).

I digress again. I was visiting Jimbocho with the smash hit Taiwanese film YOU'RE THE APPLE OF MY EYE by Giddens Ko still fresh in my mind. (one of my favourite films from this year's very stellar Tokyo Film Fest), hence I allowed myself to indulge upon memories of my own high school and university.

High school is joyful... when you're the hero in the story. Not me.
University was fine... when you don't run into people who circumcised themselves with cheap circumcision tools and end up in hospitals.

I returned to Jimbocho again a few days later with my dad. My dad was visiting Tokyo during the film festival, and it was his last day here.

The Disk Union in Jimbocho, apparently, was a great place for him to look for CDs, and as he was doing that, I walked past a few of the stalls at the streets again. Picking up numerous books. I then saw a stall that seemed to specialize mostly in Nabokov books.

When I flipped through one of his biographies, I saw an old newspaper cutting kept between the pages, folded nicely, and already turned yellow due to age. It was his obituary from 1977.

I bought the book. It was only 500 yen!

Two months ago, the death of Borders made me reminisce about my childhood experience hanging out in the mega stores . But then, maybe the book business is really going full circle, from small-village bookshops to big-box bookshops, then back again. Just like those the small, old bookshops that populate Jimbocho. It's a comforting thought.

'LADYBIRD'S TEARS' by Kong Pahurak wins award at Sichuan TV Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:28:37 PST

You probably don't remember Ladybird's Tears, an experimental short film directed and narrated by Kong Pahurak (who was one of the two cinematographers of LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER, my last short). I've only mentioned it once, last year in April, before it made its world premiere at the Singapore Film Fest 2010.

In January 2010, while editing EXHALATION (... argh, I thought I wouldn't be talking about it again), i saw the footage of Kong's unfinished sci-fi short film starring my friend Zhu Dan (pictured above), and decided to salvage it by rewriting and editing the thing. I rearranged the narrative, Kong and I then had some major brainstorming sessions, together we wrote his voiceover narration (I wrote in English, he translated it to Thai), it became a somewhat meta-film about a filmmaker ruminating over an unfinished sci-fi short film. It felt like a jamming session that took us a few days to complete (or was it a week?).

Two days ago, Kong received an email notification from the 2011 (11th) Sichuan TV Festival that Ladybird's Tears had won a Special Jury Award for Experimental Film. I think neither of us can make our way to the award ceremony next week to pick up the award, I'll be curious to see how the trophy will look like. I'm happy that Kong's film is getting some recognition!

Here is a mini-review of Ladybird's Tears (along with my Love Suicides and Kingyo) at Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal.

EXHALATION (and MAGIC AND LOSS) begins theatrical run in Cinema Rosa, Ikebukuro

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:05:59 PST

Tokyo Film Festival 2011 ended exactly a week ago, but I continued promoting EXHALATION with Kiki.

Just two days after Tokyo Film Fest's closing ceremony, on the evening of November 1st, Kiki and I presented EXHALATION to a group of students at a class in Waseda University taught by WINDS OF ASIA director Kenji Ishizaka. (a year ago, I presented LOVE SUICIDES and INHALATION to the same class).

It was fun!

(looks like a presidential candidate photo, no?)

A few hours after that, I got sick. Struck down by a bad cold while I was swiftly editing a video message for my high school's 10th anniversary reunion dinner that I myself wasn't attending. I guess the non-stop activities at TIFF had taken its toll.

Luckily, I recovered yesterday, just in time for the first day of EXHALATION's limited theatrical run at Cinema Rosa in Ikebukuro. (Actually, EXHALATION, being a 21-minute short film, is merely opening for the feature film MAGIC AND LOSS by Lim Kah Wai, but please, allow me to indulge myself for a while!)

MAGIC AND LOSS trailer

((For the schedule of post-screening Q and A sessions, please check the Cinema Rosa website (Japanese only). Kiki and/or director Lim Kah Wai will appear on the 9th, 12th and 18th of November.))

So, there I was, before the very first screening of EXHALATION (and MAGIC AND LOSS), with Kiki, greeting the audiences. Shin Hayasaka the cinematographer was there, and I made sure everyone knew that because my film would never had worked without his cinematography.

When it ended, I sneaked into the last row of the theater to watch a little bit of my own film on the big screen. The experience was just like a film festival screening, but without the clapping when the end credits started rolling.

I left and walked back to my place alone. It was raining a little, and I listened to the melancholic songs of Lisa Ekdahl's SINGS SALVADORE POE album on my iPhone. I couldn't help but feel a little wistful, when the realization that a short film that I directed was actually having a limited theatrical run in Japan. It was a little surreal. The first time that something I myself directed would actually play in the cinemas.

The EXHALATION shoot felt so long ago, as if it was from another lifetime. It was December 2009, the last few days of the year. (production photos here, here and here) It was shot before 2010's TIGER FACTORY, before my other shorts INHALATION and NOW (the 1-minute short film I made for Prada), before this year's LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER, before GIRL IN THE WATER (the Danish-Malaysian co-production I produced and edited in June, which is actually premiering at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival 2011 in a few hours).

The film was left in the can for more than a year before it finally made its world premiere at the Dubai Film Festival last December. Since then, I felt as if I've been talking quite a bit about this little short film of mine, isn't it? With this theatrical run in Ikebukuro, and later in Osaka, I know that its festival run is coming to an end, what a journey EXHALATION has had. Rotterdam, Jeonju, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Curtas Vila Du Conde... I was in every single festival screening aside from the one in Curtas Vila Du Conde (in Portugal), even the famous film critic Jean-Michel Frodon, former editor-in-chief of Cahiers Du Cinema, had screened the short film at a Parisian Cafe. What more can I ask for?

(Considering that just a year ago, I was fretting over whether EXHALATION would ever see the light of the day.)

I think this post will be the last I speak of EXHALATION. Time for me to move on, time for me to share my subsequent works with all of you. At this very moment that I'm writing this blog post, I am in my editing room, editing some new project. At the end of the month, I will be going to Taipei for the Golden Horse project market to shop my feature film project around. By next month, a new short film of mine will be making its world premiere at a film festival. You don't want to hear about EXHALATION anymore, I don't want to talk about EXHALATION any more either.

I never believe in clinging on to past glories, to be self-congratulatory over something that happened in the distant past. That would be much to sad to comprehend.

The joy of filmmaking is mostly in the process for me, of connecting with a group of like-minded people, and also this great sense of accomplishment upon the film's completion, then there's slight relief and comfort that audiences were able to connect emotionally with my little efforts of artistic self-expression. Just ten years ago, I was this fat weirdo nerd boy who went around in my high school, asking people to read pages of my (never-finished) fantasy novel, usually in vain. Just five years ago, I was a fat weirdo student going around the university student village in Perth, asking people to watch birthday party videos that I shot and edited with my camcorder, usually in vain. The rejections, which were usually the majority, had always been stinging, despite being understandable (people have better things to do). I rather just move on, and continue creating more. If my works can stand the test of time, I will be happy, but I rather believe that my next film will always be my best, therefore that is why I keep on creating. Just to learn from my mistakes and continue improving.

Therefore, this is all I have to say about EXHALATION on this blog.

Thank you very much to the cast and crew of the film for being part of this wonderful journey.

EXHALATION trailer 1

EXHALATION trailer 2

Waseda Festival 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Edmund Yeo) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:00:51 PDT

It's Sunday. Thought it would be a nice and quiet day for me to head to the editing lab and continue editing my top secret one-minute long epic project.

When I woke up, I finished watching the first episode of Torchwood that I dozed off watching the night before (nothing to do with the quality of the show, I was tired). There was a power outage at my place scheduled from 10am to 3pm, figured it was a good time to leave once the power went out.

I walked past Waseda University, I realized that Waseda Festival 2011 was ongoing. The place was utterly crowded. I forgot that the festival was happening throughout the weekend, not just one single day.

I wrote about the festival in 2009 and 2010. In 2010, a maid interviewed me.

This year, there were still people in costumes.

A hot Korean model Kim Young-A was scheduled to make an appearance.

Very festive indeed.

A group of buff, muscular men walked past me. Part of the Mr Waseda Bodybuilding contest.

And on, and on.