Yesterday afternoon was the opening of the Tokyo International Film Festival 2011.
Like last year, I got to walk the green carpet again. Awesome!
Last year, I was at the festival for Woo Ming Jin's THE TIGER FACTORY (which I co-wrote, produced and edited), and my own short film INHALATION, a spin-off of THE TIGER FACTORY. THE TIGER FACTORY ended up receiving a special jury mention.
This year, my short film EXHALATION was part of the SUGINO KIKI: MUSE OF THE ASIAN INDIE CINEMA program アジアの風-女優＝プロデューサー杉野希妃 アジア・インディーズのミューズ (Kiki was both the producer and star of EXHALATION).
EXHALATION is played before fellow Malaysian filmmaker Lim Kah Wai's feature film MAGIC AND LOSS. (disclosure: I edited the trailer.)
Kiki, Lim Kah Wai, Ono-san (he's one of the executive producers for both our films) and I were supposed to walk the green carpet together. But it was raining heavily from the day before to the afternoon, so the event got postponed.
We were in the waiting room for a while.
The rain stopped, miraculously! So we began the green carpet event.
Here's me getting out of the car, being greeted by the film festival heads! (video)
We then started walking. (video)
And then, many started asking for Kiki's autographs.
The green carpet was really long!
Narcissist that I am, I cannot help but start taking a video of myself.
Actually, I got to sign a lot of autographs too. But because I cannot take photos of myself WHILE signing autographs, there weren't any photos of me signing autographs. It was a highly bizarre experience, being asked by the people to sign autographs, I almost forgot that I was an obscure, nobody filmmaker! I was so moved that I gave everyone different variations, writing my name in Chinese, Japanese or English under my signature.
I think it was almost 15 minutes before we reached the end of the green carpet.
Or was it half an hour?
You can see the sort of exhaustion on Kiki's face.
Kah Wai had a horde of autograph seekers too!
We entered the Roppongil Hills cinema after that for the opening ceremony, where, to my surprise, Jackie Chan (his film 1911 was a 'special opening film' of the festival), the prime minister of Japan, Milla Jovovich and her husband Paul WS Anderson (their film THE THREE MUSKETEERS was the official opening film) would make their appearances. But that's a story for the following post.
Like last year, I got to walk the green carpet again. Awesome!
Last year, I was at the festival for Woo Ming Jin's THE TIGER FACTORY (which I co-wrote, produced and edited), and my own short film INHALATION, a spin-off of THE TIGER FACTORY. THE TIGER FACTORY ended up receiving a special jury mention.
This year, my short film EXHALATION was part of the SUGINO KIKI: MUSE OF THE ASIAN INDIE CINEMA program アジアの風-女優＝プロデューサー杉野希妃 アジア・インディーズのミューズ (Kiki was both the producer and star of EXHALATION).
EXHALATION is played before fellow Malaysian filmmaker Lim Kah Wai's feature film MAGIC AND LOSS. (disclosure: I edited the trailer.)
Kiki, Lim Kah Wai, Ono-san (he's one of the executive producers for both our films) and I were supposed to walk the green carpet together. But it was raining heavily from the day before to the afternoon, so the event got postponed.
We were in the waiting room for a while.
The rain stopped, miraculously! So we began the green carpet event.
Here's me getting out of the car, being greeted by the film festival heads! (video)
We then started walking. (video)
And then, many started asking for Kiki's autographs.
The green carpet was really long!
Narcissist that I am, I cannot help but start taking a video of myself.
Actually, I got to sign a lot of autographs too. But because I cannot take photos of myself WHILE signing autographs, there weren't any photos of me signing autographs. It was a highly bizarre experience, being asked by the people to sign autographs, I almost forgot that I was an obscure, nobody filmmaker! I was so moved that I gave everyone different variations, writing my name in Chinese, Japanese or English under my signature.
I think it was almost 15 minutes before we reached the end of the green carpet.
Or was it half an hour?
You can see the sort of exhaustion on Kiki's face.
Kah Wai had a horde of autograph seekers too!
We entered the Roppongil Hills cinema after that for the opening ceremony, where, to my surprise, Jackie Chan (his film 1911 was a 'special opening film' of the festival), the prime minister of Japan, Milla Jovovich and her husband Paul WS Anderson (their film THE THREE MUSKETEERS was the official opening film) would make their appearances. But that's a story for the following post.
