Nosebleed

Still suffering from jet lag, I found it difficult to sleep last night. I stayed up the whole night, watching both the Japan - Paraguay match, and the last half hour of the Spain - Portugal match. Stomach felt queasy, another bout of food poisoning-like symptoms were creeping over me, though back then I was unable to pinpoint the actual source of my discomfort, and believed I might be having trouble adjusting to my bed again. (I disregarded the fact that I slept pretty comfortably through the afternoon after I got back from the airport, I thought I was merely too exhausted then to notice the discomfort)

I dozed off finally at 9am and woke up less than 2 hours later, feeling a familiar sensation in my nose. Blood again, was pouring out of my right nostril, profusely. I said 'again', because obviously I am used to this occurrence.

Brest, France. A travelogue of sorts.

Ask me what I thought of Brest, two days earlier, when I was stuck there after missing my flight, I would have launch into an expletive-filled tirade. But now that I've reached Tokyo, and slept through the afternoon, I look at Brest, not with nostalgia, but with acceptance that the place played a rather big role in my latest trip.

My workshop was mostly in Brignogan, which is 30-45 mins away from Brest, by car. But due to circumstances I had never expected, I actually realized I have spent three and a half nights in Brest, compared to the 6 in Brignogan, I ended up becoming quite familiar with the city center. It's unlikely that I would ever return to Brest, it's not one of those places that I would go to for personal reasons. So acknowledging that fact does make me feel a little fonder of the place.

Anyway, a short chronicle of my days in Brest.

In LIMBO!

That was how I felt when I had to stay in Brest for another day.

The initial plan was simple. After writing my last post, I was supposed to go to the Brest station, catch a train to Paris, enjoy the beautiful countryside scenery during the 4-hour train ride, and then after reaching the Charles De Gaulle, sleep at the airport, and take the plane back to Tokyo.

Alas, things didn't work out, I was shell-shocked when there wasn't a train to be caught, and ended up being forced to reschedule my flight. Thus I ended up in Brest for an extra day. It's a frustrating feeling, when all your mind is prepared to go home, and BOOM! Some unforeseeable crap happened, and I ended up being stuck.

Leaving Brignogan, France

Heya folks, I've been in Brignogan, France, for the past week or so. Brignogan is this nice coastal village 30 mins away from Brest. Been so busy with my scripwriting workshop, so no time to really post anything here. I took many pretty photos too, no time to upload either.

It is now 10:53am, a car is supposed to pick me up at 3:30pm and take me to Brest station, where I will have to take a train to Paris (train ride lasts 3-5 hours). After I reach the Paris Airport, I will still wait for another couple of hours before I fly back to Tokyo (the flight is at 7am, next morning). I expect to, well, sleep in the airport.

I brought two books with me for the trip, David Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS, and Vladimir Nabokov's THE REAL LIFE OF SEBASTIAN KNIGHT. I was already in the last quarter of CLOUD ATLAS, so I finished the book while I was still in the plane. SEBASTIAN KNIGHT turned out to be a much breezier read than expected, I finished that during my first two days in France, even before the beginning of the workshop!

I ended up having to download some e-books via Scribd, and was reading Nabokov's PALE FIRE, and Haruki Murakami's HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD. Despite having mixed feelings of Murakami's works (enjoyed NORWEGIAN WOODS, annoyed with WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLES, liked AFTER DARK, indifferent to most stories in THE ELEPHANT VANISHES), many have actually said that some of my works reminded them of his stories. I would say that it's coincidence, since, for the past two years, I live in the same dormitory that he used to live in, go the same university that he goes in. I like listening to jazz too. 9 years ago, when I was studying for SPM, the final government exams for secondary school in Malaysia, I had Duke Ellington blaring from my CD player. Sometimes, I would also humorously liken my improvisational filmmaking methods to those of a jazz musician.

Anyway, I'm enjoying HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD, although I would say that overall, I still prefer David Mitchell as a writer (though he's clearly influenced by Murakami). So yup, another day drifting by while I prepare my long trip back to Tokyo.

Cannes Day 9: Moon Lai's Photoshoot

The last day in Cannes was quite uneventful. All the pressure and stress we had leading towards our screening were finally gone. We could finally just enjoy the festival and the place, it's a little unfortunate that our screening took place towards the end of the festival, otherwise we could have had more relaxing days like this.

VIDEO: Talking about my new short, INHALATION at THE TIGER FACTORY press conference at Cannes Film Festival

Had been shutting myself away from the rest of the world working on a new film treatment.

Then, my comp died.

I ended up doing the writing at Saizerya (a Japanese "family restaurant" similar to Denny's) in the past few hours.

Will continue writing that.

But for now, take a look at a video from THE TIGER FACTORY press conference at the Cannes Film Festival on the 21st of May, 2001, just before its official screening. Jeremy Segay moderated the Q and A, those present were Ming Jin (the producer-writer-director), me (the producer-writer-editor) and Moon Lai (or Fooi Mun, the lead actress).

Cannes Day 8: The Tiger Factory day!

Spent the entire last week trying to finish up my Master's Thesis. It's due end of this month, but I had other things to do, so had to get it done earlier. I succeeded.

Now, on with my penultimate post for the Cannes trip.

Cannes Day 7: Pretty uneventful aside from the Directors' Fortnight Party

Nothing happened on my 7th day in Cannes. That was the 20th of May, just a day before our press conference and screening. We continued going around giving out invitations to friends and people who were interested in catching THE TIGER FACTORY.

After that we bumped into Lee, editor of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's eventual Palm D'or winning 'UNCLE BOONME WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES', and the actress Wallapa (who played the princess in the film). We went off to have some kebab. Lee gave us tickets to the Uncle Boonme gala screening too, awesome!

Cannes Day 6: Lee Chang Dong's Poetry

Been busy writing my masters thesis (due end of June), giving my mid-term thesis presentation in Wednesday (just two days after I got back from Cannes) and being repeatedly pestered to give advice for someone else's graduate film project that I had no time to update my blog.

19th of May. Went to the gala screening of Lee Chang Dong's Poetry. That was probably the highlight of that day, I can't remember anything else from that day.

Cannes Day 5: Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy

After meeting Abbas Kiarostami at MK2's Jia Zhangke party, I knew I had to catch his film.

Nespresso in Cannes Film Fest

At the main Palais building of the Cannes Film Festival, where the Market is held, and just between the theaters showing the competition films and the Un Certain Regarde films, there's a Nespresso Cafe that provides free coffee to people with festival accreditations.