Celebrating Mid-autumn Festival 2011 at Tsukuba Science City

The last time I wrote about the Mid-autumn Festival (or Mooncake Festival) was in 2006.

It's pretty unbelievable that half a decade had gone by. I was in Perth then. On that day, I was shooting my final student film, GIRL DISCONNECTED. So confident with my talents back then, that I thought I was shooting THE definitive Mid-autumn Festival short film.

It was a fantastical tale of a girl who took a train to the moon to seek her love (whom she met on the internet), accompanied by a friend who secretly loved her. Mooncakes appeared in the film. So did Chang-er, and other mythological beings of the moon.

"I want sensuality and sheer sexiness!"

Hopefully you've seen Kenny's photos of my latest film shoot that I posted last night. If not, go see it now!

Now, my own photos of the shoot... (not that many, of course, when you're directing, you only whip out your iPhone occasionally to capture magic)

Photos from my latest film shoot

Returned to Tokyo last night. Prior to that, I was, as usual, in a two-day film shoot on the 4th and 5th of September. (yes, I'm always shooting something in Malaysia just before I return to Tokyo, this sense of urgency adds more to my desperation, and desperation leads to more creativity). Assistant cinematographer Kenny Chua had posted a number of great stills of our epic production.

These are our three main actresses.

Was in Hong Kong for the InDpanda International Short Film Festival 2011

I was in Hong Kong from the 24th to the 28th of August for the InDpanda International Short Film Festival, where my short films, INHALATION and EXHALATION, were part of the opening and closing programs. Here's me with the festival founders Henry Chan and Jonathan Hung.

My short film AFTERNOON RIVER, EVENING SKY screening at Thai Short Film & Video Festival 2011

My rarely-seen short film AFTERNOON RIVER, EVENING SKY will be screening at the Thai Short Film and Video Festival in Bangkok next week, on the 23rd and 27th of August.

VCinema interviews Kiki Sugino. She thinks I should be an actor. (for my looks, I guess)

VCinema had just posted up Marc Saint-Cyr's interview with Kiki Sugino (actress and producer of my short film Exhalation) regarding both our collaboration and also HOSPITALITE by Koji Fukada, which she also produced and acted.

Editing GIRL IN WATER, the Danish-Malaysian short film co-production

Back in June, I was involved in a Danish-Malaysian short film co-production tentatively titled GIRL IN THE WATER. (read about the film shoot here and here)

83-year-old Yut Kee Coffee Shop

One of the icons of Kuala Lumpur that I probably never heard of until yesterday (yes, I'm embarrassed). I have returned briefly from Japan, my high school friends, Woan Foong (she's the composer of my short films, notably Inhalation and Exhalation, based in the States for the past few years), and Yuan Yue (based in Singapore since 3 months ago), were also back in Malaysia for a short while, so we went to the Yut Kee Coffee Shop for lunch.

The conversation prior to lunch was like this:

Moments in RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES that lingered

Yes, I'm still slightly shocked, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is actually pretty good. Possibly one of the best of the year.

WU XIA is a remake of some film by some Canadian director...

A day before I saw Peter Chan's Wu Xia last Sunday, I was having dinner with a bunch of other filmmakers. AT THE END OF DAYBREAK director Ho Yuhang, who had seen the film, said this:

"Wu Xia is sort of like a remake of a famous film by a Canadian director, but I won't tell you which one since it'll spoil you."

NOW - Short film I did for Prada

Almost a year ago, I mentioned about shooting a 1-minute epic here and here, and ended this:

We finished the shoot almost by midnight. By having such a long and ardous shoot with a child actress, it's most possible I'll be accused of child labour. In fact, because it's supposed to be an epic compressed into a single minute, it was one of the toughest and most challenging shoots I've ever endured.

Yet I soldiered on, and the end product is most probably awesome.

If it's really awesome, you'll be seeing it soon.

If not, well, I'll probably just pretend that this shoot never happened.