Ernest Chong Shun Yuan and Susan Lee Fong Zhi in INHALATION
It's been nearly 3 nights since I got back from Europe, yet I still feel a little jetlaggy, a little worse for wear. Despite recovering from a bad cold while I was in Clermont-Ferrand, I ended up with another bad case of diarrhea (happens every time I go to France, really, 3 times in the last year. Maybe me and French food just don't mix, maybe I had too much French fries, maybe I shouldn't eat train food, maybe I shouldn't have airport food etc.)
It's now 8.25am, February 14. I've just spent a night in Paris and am heading to the airport in less than an hour.
Yes, I'm aware that it's Valentine's Day, but since the day had never really meant much to me, aside from having some nice chocolates to eat (they were never meant for me, alas.
I rather just spend the day thousands of feet above the ground. It's been a long trip.
The stars will wheel forth from their daytime hiding places; and one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over
I've gotten sick the past three days (a usual occurrence whenever I'm abroad). I guess being on the road for more than two weeks had taken its toll.
Anyway, this is my last night in Clermont-Ferrand, the past week had been fun. Screenings of INHALATION occurred every night. Always to a full house. Twice, my screening had happened in the Cocteau hall, which has a capacity for 1200 people.
In other days, film is screened in smaller halls that still hold 600+ people.
For the past 3 days, ever since CINEMA TODAY's article of my short, EXHALATION, actress Tomoe Shinohara had remained one of the 3 most talked-about artistes on MSN, along with Nicholas Cage and Ai Hashimoto.
For a guy who had spent nearly a third of his life living abroad, it's still kinda strange to think that this was my first Chinese New Year spent out of Malaysia, the first time I didn't have the usual Steamboat CNY's Eve reunion dinner with family.
So my Chinese New Year's Eve was rather interesting. I started out seeing one of the Tiger Competition films by Iranian filmmaker Majid Barzegar called RAINY SEASONS. Then I ended up having lunch in a Chinese restaurant with Kiki, Hospitalite director Koji Fukada, and a pair of Koji's Japanese friends who live in Paris.
It's still 6:25pm here in Rotterdam, gonna head off for my 'reunion dinner' with a bunch of Korean folks.
Anyway, haven't been able to post anything on the blog despite a whirlwind of stuff happening.
But here you go, videos from the Q and A sessions of EXHALATION on the 29th and 30th of January. They are both pretty long videos (especially the second one, since Sherman Ong was there as well to talk about his short film).
Had been trying to upload the videos from my screening Q and A sessions in International Film Fest Rotterdam the past few days, but they're taking quite a while to compress.
So I'll just share an article with you about EXHALATION that was on Cinema Today yesterday (which was then syndicated on MSN and Yahoo). Click the link below!
I always have an obligatory McDonald's breakfast meal before a flight. The Mega McMuffin owns. So, when I arrived at Narita Airport, I had it again.
I then slept through more than 7 hours of my 11 hour flight to Amsterdam. Waking up only for the two meals, and watching I AM LOVE, starring Tilda Swinton (it was in competition at the Venice Film Festival 2009, the same year Kingyo was shown).
Nice film.
I then caught maybe half of MEGAMIND, but got interrupted when the plane arrived at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam.
A car picked up and took me to Rotterdam, it was a 1-hour journey.
When I reached the main film festival building, I picked up my bag, and ensured that the press desk was covered with promotional items for THE TIGER FACTORY and EXHALATION.
Chinling, one of the festival programmers, brought us to the Wuxia-themed WATER TIGER INN, where me, Matthieu (Bratislava Film Fest director, and many others) and Jessica Kam (PIANO IN THE FACTORY producer) could have a quick bite.
It was to my amusement that after serving us drinks, the waitress got into a heated encounter with a beggar who just walked into the place. And then they got into some martial arts stuff, and me and the customers were instantly turned into extras of a wuxia film!
It's funny, realizing that this will be the first time when I'm actually not returning to Malaysia for Chinese new year. Even all my years in Perth, and the past few years in Tokyo, I always managed to be at home for the reunion dinner and all.
For this year's, I'll still be in Rotterdam. Perhaps I'll be celebrating it with other filmmakers in some Chinese restaurant over there, if I'm not wrong, there's also gonna be a screening of The Tiger Factory on either Chinese new year eve, or the first day itself.
Perhaps I myself should try to catch a Chinese film or something cheerier as well at the film festival. I'm superstitious, I wouldn't want to watch dark depressing films of woe and death to start my Chinese New Year!
In exactly 12 hours I'll be flying off to Rotterdam. Aside from my own short film EXHALATION, I'm also there for Ming Jin's THE TIGER FACTORY, which is the feature film spin-off of my short, INHALATION (hah). Since he can't make it to the festival, it's all up to me to handle his Q and A sessions as well after each screening. Fun.
![[INHALATION] Seng (Ernest Chong) and Mei (Susan Lee) share a quiet moment at the dock](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/4983629544_9a8122cc8f.jpg)
![[Exhalation] Naoko (Kiki Sugino) and Sayuri (Tomoe Shinohara) brooding](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/5135866294_3d4bb74c33.jpg)
