Remembering Abbas Kiarostami and rediscovering his films

Ever since the passing of the Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami, I've found myself remembering the brief personal memories I have of him. They were all very fleeting.




Cannes Film Festival 2010
Merely that Ming Jin and I, along with Fooi Mun, our The Tiger Factory lead actress saw him at the MK2 party and had to hurriedly (and politely) stop him to take these photos before he was about to leave.

WATCH: Woo Ming Jin's 2005 short film CATCHING THE SEA

Once again I've been restoring and uploading some of the old short films that Ming Jin and I had made over the past decade onto the Greenlight Pictures Youtube channel.

My latest upload is Ming Jin's 2005 short film CATCHING THE SEA, which stars Pete Teo and Liew Seng Tat and served as a precursor (or spin-off) for his feature film THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA.

WATCH: Woo Ming Jin's really funny IT'S POSSIBLE YOUR HEART CANNOT BE BROKEN starring fellow filmmakers Tan Chui Mui and Liew Seng Tat

This 2005 short film by Woo Ming Jin was made during the height of the period which some had referred to as the "Malaysian New Wave". It was a time when a tight-knit group of filmmakers in the country started making films together, or helping each other by taking different roles in the production. It was the rise of DV cameras and digital filmmaking, which gave many the chance to make their own films.

The two leads of this short film are actually fellow filmmakers Tan Chui Mui and Liew Seng Tat, who were a year or two before they each made their breakthrough feature debuts, LOVE CONQUERS ALL and FLOWER IN THE POCKET.

Here's the synopsis:

In this black comedy about the disintegration of a love affair, a young woman's (Tan Chui Mui) loneliness in the midst of Kuala Lumpur's metropolitan sprawl triggers a tenuous relationship with a naïve salesman (Liew Seng Tat) who has a tendency to please and over-emote.

个人觉得不能错过的大马中文电影

前几天在脸书发的帖， 今天再补充。 希望可以与大家分享。

7部不能错过的大马中文电影。 之前都一直不知道自己的River of Exploding Durians 榴莲忘返也列在名单里。 因为想到被点名的都应该是院线播放了的作品。 谢谢 The Rakyat Post对本片的注意与欣赏。其实马...

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Wednesday, March 2, 2016

7部不能错过的大马中文电影。 之前都一直不知道自己的《榴莲忘返》也列在名单里。 因为想到被点名的都应该是院线播放了的作品。 谢谢人民邮报对本片的注意与欣赏。
其实马来西亚中文电影电影还有很多不能错过的。 例如几位马来西亚新浪潮前辈们的作品。

胡明进的《大象与海》， 《遗情》， 参与康城的《虎厂》， 《The Second Life of Thieves 偷·情》 （他的作品我是当制片以及剪接， 所以推荐比较多啦！）








陈翠梅的《爱征服一切》

刘城达的《口袋里的一朵花》

林丽娟的《理发师的女儿》 （片子没预告片， 我还是分享导演另一部短片好了）

何宇恒的《太阳雨》

李添兴的《美丽的洗衣机》， 《黑夜行路》与《当我们同在一起》， 等等



这些作品都比较文艺， 节奏， 风格与一般的商业电影不一样， 但也值得去看吧。

A 3-minute excerpt from Woo Ming Jin's THE SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES

While I'm hanging out at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Ming Jin is in Taipei for the Taiwanese premiere of THE SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES tonight at the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival.

To commemorate that, we have uploaded a 3-minute excerpt from the film, which shows the beginning of Lai and Mrs Tan's steamy love affair.

More related videos of THE SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES can be found on this playlist.

Woo Ming Jin's SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES (I co-wrote and produced) is going to Busan International Film Festival 2014

The Busan International Film Fest lineup came out yesterday. So I can announce it now. Woo Ming Jin's new film SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES, which I co-wrote and produced (and, of course, edited) will be having its world premiere there. Quite an honour, being one of the three Malaysian films there. The others being Liew Seng Tat's LELAKI HARAPAN DUNIA (which just premiered in Locarno and will go to Toronto in a few days) and Bradley Liew's (no relation) short film XING.

就在这里跟大家分享好消息吧！

由本地导演胡明进执导， 杨毅恒（我）编剧／制片，本资深演员钟国强，联同李承运Berg Lee、陈美君MayJune Tan、林佩琦Emily Lim Pey Chi、丁仕匀JiYun Teng、叶良财Steve Yap主演的剧情片 Second Life of Thieves《偷.情》 成功入围第19届釜山影展“亚洲电影之窗”( A Window on Asian Cinema)观摩单元。

电影讲述村长陈叔接连遭遇妻子和老友赖叔忽然失踪、村里外劳离奇死亡的连串打击，在与赖叔女儿Sandy一同追查至亲下落的同时，却揭露了彼此埋藏已久的伤疤，被迫重新省思什么是爱与悔……

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

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

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

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

Post by Edmund Yeo.

Discussing the short film medium

Back in January, I was on Kenneth Chaw's The Star article "Short Films starting to appeal to a bigger audience", discussing about my thoughts on short films. Filmmaker James Lee and Youtube sensation Jinnyboy were interviewed too.

Prior to that, Kenneth had actually done a very lengthy email interview with me in preparation for his article. While a number of my quotes were in the final article, I thought I would like to share our entire discussion with everyone. I'm doing it now, with Kenneth's permission. (In truth, I have wanted to do this since January, but, ah, I never had the time.)

So, here we go.

Kenneth's questions are in bold.
My answers will just be... normal text.

I talk about horror films, ghosts, and Woo Ming Jin's short film DOUBLE (The Star, 26th of October, 2012)

Last week, just before I returned to Tokyo, I did an email interview with Phyllis Ho of R.AGE (the weekly youth section of The Star) about Woo Ming Jin's DOUBLE (which I co-wrote, produced and edited), and also horror films in general. I assume it's for Halloween. The article came out a few days ago.


Here's my part:

Woo Ming Jin answers questions about his horror short, DOUBLE

In the past week since our horror short film DOUBLE was posted on YOMYOMF, the responses had been surprisingly positive. I liked reading the speculations from the viewers. (watch it if you haven't done so already)

Watch this: DOUBLE by Woo Ming Jin (co-written, produced, edited by me)

Back in August, I did a short film called DOUBLE with Ming Jin, serving as producer, co-writer and editor.

10 great Father's Day films that you might not have seen

Today is Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, dad. Dad is going to be at a TV shoot today, accompanied by Mom and my sister, it's going to be a good one. (my dad is a judge in a AMERICAN IDOL-like Chinese singing show, however, unlike idol, the contestants are restricted to 45 and above. Quite a popular show that recently turned my dad into a celebrity of sorts)

Since my lifelong love for cinema was influenced by Dad, and I would never been a filmmaker if he were indifferent towards films, I think it's fitting that I try to commemorate this day by listing out a number of great Father's Day films that you might not have seen (I know I haven't).

To make things simpler for me, I'm restricting this list to only Asian films. (I'll do another list if this goes well, haha)

Why film festivals matter to me

(UPDATED: This blog post was initially a repost of an email on the Malaysian Cinema mailing list from Venice Film Festival programmer Paolo Bertolin asking for the means to contact FINAS (the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia). Was hoping that posting this in public would help him get a reply.

He got it, problem solved, so as per his request, I'll remove his email exchanges in the mailing list. And expand more on my last few paragraphs regarding my thoughts about film festivals. It's sort of a love letter for film festivals, perhaps.)

Happy 80th birthday, Andrei Tarkovsky

I was quite surprised when Radoslav Sharapanov left a comment on my recent Andrei Tarkovsky Facebook post that today is actually Tarkovsky's birthday.




Tarkovsky died in 1986 at the relatively young age of 54, when I was only 2. He would have been 80 years old this year. Same age as my grandmother.

Some nice scenery during my TV shoot

I've been doing my TV shoot since the 10th of March (hence the lack of updates).

The majority of the shoot took place in Sekinchan. This marked my 4th shoot in that location, from my short film LOVE SUICIDES in 2008, to Woo Ming Jin's WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER (which I produced) in 2009, to last year's LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER.

It's unsurprising that this region had became quite a popular place for film and TV shoots, the scenery had often been stunning.

These are some of the sights I saw early in the morning, just before camera rolled.

EMPTY KINGDOM interviews me

The very awesome arts and culture website Empty Kingdom had just posted an interview they did with me.

In this interview, I discuss why I stick with short films, and mostly on my latest short LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER.

Rest In Peace, Aunty Mak Fong 楓姨，一路好走

Yesterday, I found out with sadness that the veteran actress Mak Fong 麦楓 had passed away after a brief battle with lung cancer. She was 77.

Jeppe Ronde and Woo Ming Jin's GIRL IN THE WATER (which I helped produce and edit) wins Best Short Film at Danish Oscars

Last night, I received this very unexpected and wonderful news that Jeppe Ronde and Woo Ming Jin's GIRL IN THE WATER, a 20-minute short that I helped to produce and edit, had won the BEST SHORT FILM Award at the Robert Awards (the Danish Oscars)!

Talking about the short films LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER and GIRL IN THE WATER @ International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012

I got back from Rotterdam yesterday after spending three nights at the festival. Everything was like a blur, my stay there was so brief (last year, I spent a week in Rotterdam before heading off to Clermont-Ferrand for another week). Already, I'm prepping for a short film shoot in the next few days.

Arriving at Rotterdam in the early morning of Jan 26th, I immediately had to prepare myself for the first festival screening in the afternoon. Not a lot of rest there.