The production of my upcoming Malay-language sci-fi epic, Aisyalam, will most likely be postponed to next year as the end of the semester is near, and everyone will be too busy to get involved in such a massive project.
Besides, I have just survived three assassination attempts by four highly-trained ninjas last night, who crashed into my bedroom, and got a brief scare when I thought that the ice maiden had been devoured by purple dinosaurs, or kidnapped by samurai midgets envious of her beauty when she didn't return my calls for the past two days. Fortunately, my pink elephant trampled all of them to death, and I cooked them all for dinner. (my pink elephant ate them, not me)
Although shelving this massively ambitious project was of my own decision, I was dissatisfied with the fact that I wasn't going to complete another short film this semester. I tried to raise 200 million dollars to shoot the film adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, but realized that I haven't read the book, so abandoned the idea. I also wanted to do a documentary about Malaysian bloggers, but remembered that I was in Australia, thus it would be impossible for me to buy tickets for everyone to fly over here to accept my interview.
Thankfully, last week, while I was in the library, scouring the DVD shelves for some family-friendly affairs to soothe my senses (I ended up borrowing the controversial Japanese sex flick, 'In The Realm Of Senses, which grossed me out with the part where the gal cut off the guy's genitals after killing him during a passionate session of sex), I was approached by Jith Joseph, who had a role in my short film, Forced Labour. (he's the Indian guy protecting the pregnant woman from the heroine before she went into labour) Jith intends to audition for a leading role in a big-budget Bollywood film, opposite Aishwarya Rai, but before he can do that, he has to develop his acting skills by capturing a role in this TV drama. However, for his audition, he needs a tape to showcase his acting skills, therefore, he asked whether I could develop a solo project for him. Something simple and easy. I agreed, knowing that it would be good to add another short film under my belt.
The idea didn't come until last night, where various events (from my fight with those ninjas to the trauma of watching that 'ass-to-ass' scene in Requiem For A Dream, from my shocking realization that I shouldn't use 'good-looking' to describe myself as my looks have transcend simple descriptive terms for mortals to my reference to the great series of graphic novels by Grant Morrison called The Invisibles) that happened to me culminated into me unleashing a heartwreckingly touching story that would serve as the basis of this Hindi film.
This Hindi film is actually a spin-off of Aisyalam, thus it will retain the intended mood of being both noirish and sci-fi-ish, with the story focused upon one of the minor characters in the upcoming Aisyalam, a palace guard of the Sultan. It is a touching tale of courage and self-sacrifice, where I will show that even a minor character such as he is just as much as a flesh-and-blood human being as anyone else. It will also serve as a teaser or prelude to prepare everyone for Aisyalam.
But why is it in Hindi? As Aisyalam is originally a Malay-language film, it would be natural for its spinoff to be in Malay too, right? Well, Jith, being a bonafide Indian from India, certainly does not speak Malay, and neither do I want it to be in English (even though the original story typed out by my godly fingers is in English) because I still want to preserve some sort of exoticism for the world of Aisyalam.
... besides, not every single Chinese filmmaker out there can proudly proclaim that he has made a Hindi film.
Once again, I will not try to divulge too much of the plot for this new short film project of mine (which is tentatively titled 'The Short Happy Life Of A Palace Guard In Aisyalam'), besides, it doesn't have much of a plot since it is mostly about the life of an outsider trapped within a claustrophobic futuristic city that isn't like what he has initially thought, and his love for his blind younger sister, who is inspired by this blind samurai who once engaged me in combat two years ago before I awed him with my swordsfighting skills.
I am excited.
Besides, I have just survived three assassination attempts by four highly-trained ninjas last night, who crashed into my bedroom, and got a brief scare when I thought that the ice maiden had been devoured by purple dinosaurs, or kidnapped by samurai midgets envious of her beauty when she didn't return my calls for the past two days. Fortunately, my pink elephant trampled all of them to death, and I cooked them all for dinner. (my pink elephant ate them, not me)
Although shelving this massively ambitious project was of my own decision, I was dissatisfied with the fact that I wasn't going to complete another short film this semester. I tried to raise 200 million dollars to shoot the film adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, but realized that I haven't read the book, so abandoned the idea. I also wanted to do a documentary about Malaysian bloggers, but remembered that I was in Australia, thus it would be impossible for me to buy tickets for everyone to fly over here to accept my interview.
Thankfully, last week, while I was in the library, scouring the DVD shelves for some family-friendly affairs to soothe my senses (I ended up borrowing the controversial Japanese sex flick, 'In The Realm Of Senses, which grossed me out with the part where the gal cut off the guy's genitals after killing him during a passionate session of sex), I was approached by Jith Joseph, who had a role in my short film, Forced Labour. (he's the Indian guy protecting the pregnant woman from the heroine before she went into labour) Jith intends to audition for a leading role in a big-budget Bollywood film, opposite Aishwarya Rai, but before he can do that, he has to develop his acting skills by capturing a role in this TV drama. However, for his audition, he needs a tape to showcase his acting skills, therefore, he asked whether I could develop a solo project for him. Something simple and easy. I agreed, knowing that it would be good to add another short film under my belt.
The idea didn't come until last night, where various events (from my fight with those ninjas to the trauma of watching that 'ass-to-ass' scene in Requiem For A Dream, from my shocking realization that I shouldn't use 'good-looking' to describe myself as my looks have transcend simple descriptive terms for mortals to my reference to the great series of graphic novels by Grant Morrison called The Invisibles) that happened to me culminated into me unleashing a heartwreckingly touching story that would serve as the basis of this Hindi film.
This Hindi film is actually a spin-off of Aisyalam, thus it will retain the intended mood of being both noirish and sci-fi-ish, with the story focused upon one of the minor characters in the upcoming Aisyalam, a palace guard of the Sultan. It is a touching tale of courage and self-sacrifice, where I will show that even a minor character such as he is just as much as a flesh-and-blood human being as anyone else. It will also serve as a teaser or prelude to prepare everyone for Aisyalam.
But why is it in Hindi? As Aisyalam is originally a Malay-language film, it would be natural for its spinoff to be in Malay too, right? Well, Jith, being a bonafide Indian from India, certainly does not speak Malay, and neither do I want it to be in English (even though the original story typed out by my godly fingers is in English) because I still want to preserve some sort of exoticism for the world of Aisyalam.
... besides, not every single Chinese filmmaker out there can proudly proclaim that he has made a Hindi film.
Once again, I will not try to divulge too much of the plot for this new short film project of mine (which is tentatively titled 'The Short Happy Life Of A Palace Guard In Aisyalam'), besides, it doesn't have much of a plot since it is mostly about the life of an outsider trapped within a claustrophobic futuristic city that isn't like what he has initially thought, and his love for his blind younger sister, who is inspired by this blind samurai who once engaged me in combat two years ago before I awed him with my swordsfighting skills.
I am excited.
