Oct 3, Ying Xian (producer) and I were invited to eFM 90.5, Busan's one and only English radio station, to talk about RETURN OF NOSTALGIA. Ming Jin was only going to arrive a day after, so we had to handle promotional duties :)
Whoa, I was on a radio show in Busan! We are talking about Woo Ming Jin's RETURN TO NOSTALGIA, which is the only Malaysian film screening in Busan Film Fest this year!
Posted by Edmund Yeo on Friday, October 2, 2015
Right after that, I got to catch the restored print of Edward Yang's monumental masterpiece BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY.
I didn't expect this but I finally managed to catch Edward Yang's masterpiece BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY on the big screen just...
Posted by Edmund Yeo on Saturday, October 3, 2015
Yes, I was absolutely excited to catch the film in its full glory, after having already watched it a few times in low-res. So many details missed. Prior to this screening, I already believed that BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY is one of the greatest films of all time, yet improbably, the big screen made me love the film even more. Now I will share the obligatory film excerpts.
I'm at Busan for the Busan International Film Festival. Ming Jin's documentary RETURN TO NOSTALGIA, which I served as executive producer (and final editor, and colorist, among others, as usual), is going to have its world premiere tonight.
Thanks, Malay Mail Online, for sharing the news! Yup, RETURN TO NOSTALGIA by Woo Ming Jin will have its world premiere...
Posted by Edmund Yeo on Saturday, October 3, 2015
So, today's my third day. It wasn't exactly easy to get to Busan this year. On the day of the opening ceremony, there was a typhoon, and our plane was unable to land, so we ended up in Incheon Airport for a while.
Urgh, arrived at Busan. Finally. Flight stopped by at Incheon for a couple of hours because of bad weather. Looking forward to another great festival!!
Posted by Edmund Yeo on Thursday, October 1, 2015
The next day, I decided to catch up with the Cannes films. The first I saw was Jacques Audiard's Palme D'Or winner, DHEEPAN.
I came back from Sri Lanka a few days ago, since then it's back to work for me. The two week break I've taken due to my trips in Nagoya and Sri Lanka have left me with piles of projects to juggle with (treatments to write, music videos to edit, documentaries to finish up)
Nevertheless, like most good film festival trips, I find myself creatively rejuvenated. It happens when you got to watch a lot of different films, experience different cultures, surround yourself with filmmakers, and discover new parts of the world. It's great.
So, back to the Jaffna International Cinema Festival, the screening venues of the festival were in a multiplex, the public library, and the University of Jaffna.
The building has existed for more than two hundred years, and it was converted into a guest house almost a hundred years ago. It's cool that you write your guest registration on a thick book.
My time in Colombo was quite short, I managed to visit the famed Gangaramaya temple. But only for a short while.
I woke up at 4am the next morning, and prepared myself.
My train was supposed to be at 5:45am. I arrived at the station at 5am, I met the famed Sri Lankan director Asoka Handagama, who also taking the same train to the festival for a screening of his film.
While I was in the station, I was reminded of a long train journey I had taken back in 2007, from New Delhi to Bodh Gaya, how long was that ride? I think it was around 15 hours. There were no air-conditioner, the journey lasted from afternoon to the next morning. It was an unforgettable journey. It was eight years ago, but it felt like an eternity.
I didn't mind reenacting such a journey again, until I realized that the train this time was absolutely brand new. (and with air-conditioner!!)
Beginning of a 7-hour train ride. The screen was showing the last Harry Potter film when I got in.
The screen was playing an eclectic mix of films. It was HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 when I got onboard, during Harry Potter and Lord Voldermort's climatic battle.
I drifted to sleep and woke up 2 hours later. This time, it was playing RIO, the very entertaining animated film which I have seen before. So I went back to sleep.
When I got up, I was surprised to see a kungfu scene happening onscreen (with Dutch subtitles!). This time, they were playing the 2010 film IP MAN: A LEGEND IS BORN by Herman Yau, which I have not seen before. Back then, I dismissed it as a cheap cash grab of the previous IP MAN films with Donnie Yen.
Thankfully, I was wrong, and the film turned out to be more entertaining than expected, and more ambitious than I thought. I wonder whether it had anything to do with the fact that I felt a strange warmth watching a familiar Chinese film in a Sri Lankan train. Nevertheless, in the 2 hours that I was awake during the 7-hour journey, it was mostly spent on watching this film.
Arrived at Jaffna during the afternoon. I got the director's pass and the festival catalog.
Director pass and Jaffna International Cinema Festival catalog
In the evening, I even took a Tuk Tuk with a large TV on it!
Took the Tuk Tuk to University of Jaffna with director Asoka Handagama ( was going to his screening) There's a TV in the Tuk Tuk! Showing epic Tamil films.
As you can see from my latest barrage of photos, I've been wandering in Japan again. At places I've never been to, Nagoya, Gifu and Okazaki.
I saw a lot of wonderful things, beautiful things, preserved from the past, relics of proud history.
Yesterday I went to Okazaki, an idyllic little city with its own proud history. It is the site of the great Okazaki Castle (birthplace of the famous Tokugawa Ieyasu) and the 1300 year old Takisanji Temple.
The museum had gathered the works of many world-famous artists when they were children, or in their teens.
Aside from that, it was also displaying the (admittedly impressive) artwork of children from nearby schools.
Yesterday was also the very last day of their special exhibition of optical illusion-related artwork.
But what truly fascinated me was their so-called "Do Zone", a place with four different workshops for parents and children to work on drawing, clay modeling, handcrafting etc. It was Sunday, yesterday, so it was crowded.
Entering the zone of parent/children art workshops
It was heartening, and absolutely inspiring, to see the children of Japan being exposed to the beauty of art at such a young age, and also given the opportunity in participating, in creating their own art. That explains why Japanese people in general are more appreciative of the arts and culture. While in Malaysia, "art" is usually used as a dirty word. "Being an artist" is the scariest thing a parent could ever hear from their children. Creativity is often being stifled, having an imagination is often being scoffed at, this is the environment most Malaysian children had to deal with, for generations. No wonder we grow up so cynical and disdainful of things we don't understand.
I am envious of the Japanese children, and in awe of their parents, who would let, or even join their kids in these activities.
Outside the museum is a large park, there are statues, an observation deck, and soothing music blaring from the outdoor speakers. It's almost fantastical, wandering about in such a place.
My photos didn't really do the place justice. This series of short Youtube clips might give you a better idea what the museum and the area surrounding it are like.
I visited the World Children's Art Museum in Okazaki. It's quite a unique museum, collecting paintings from famous...
Malaysia will be celebrating its 58th year of independence tomorrow (August 31st).
But at this very moment, on the eve before our Independence Day, tens and thousands protesters have taken to the streets to call for reforms, flooding the cities with yellow. We have reached the second day of this 2-day large-scaled rally. This time, people are calling not only for electoral reforms but also for the resignation of the current Prime Minister. It's ongoing, but I need to remember this. Perhaps this Bersih 4 of 29th and 30th of August, 2015 will be remembered as a watershed moment in our nation's history, even though, unsurprisingly, and typically, such things will surely be struck off from our history books.
Here's the Great Leader, condemning the people who wanted to march for the good of the country.
Najib said the actions of Bersih were seen as deliberately trying to discredit Malaysia's image at the international level.
Posted by The Star Online on Saturday, August 29, 2015
In the past few decades, the authorities have used numerous questionable methods to spread fear among the people, to divide the nation, to suppress all dissent. Having to go through two generations of this is more damaging than I can ever imagined. The previous generations are constantly living in fear, condemning all kinds of street demonstrations, all kinds of rallies, believing that the known status quo is better than the unknown. This is the upbringing that I have endured. It never failed to baffle me.
It's a faraway possibility, but if I ever have children, I want them to stand up for what they believe in, instead of living constantly in fear. I want them to believe that people have to voice out what's good for the country, and drastic measures have to be taken to let these voices be heard, instead of just being quiet and subservient and letting the words of the the previous generations trample over them.
If this blog can still survive til then, I want to use this post as a constant reminder to myself.
So these are the Facebook posts I have posted leading up to, and during Bersih.
Former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir and his wife Siti Hasmah arrived at #Bersih4 too. It's all for Malaysia.
Posted by Edmund Yeo on Saturday, August 29, 2015
Singing the national anthem at midnight #Bersih4 A day before, our Almighty Leader Najib condemned the protesters for being shallow and not patriotic.
Posted by Edmund Yeo on Saturday, August 29, 2015
The second music video I did with the rock band Alienoid 異種 revolves around a love-hate relationship between a young couple played by renowned actress/ model Agnes Lim 林莉幃 and rising actor Soo Xu Ze 苏熙喆. In which they were willing to do crazy things for love!
I was shooting two music videos of a local Cantorock band Alienoid 異種 earlier this month. Both are in post-production. Music video shoots have a lot of their own pleasures, especially when you get to experiment with new things, new people, new filmmaking styles etc. I even got to test the Ronin-M Gimbal, too bad it worked only for the DSLRs. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera, which was my main camera, was too big for it.
The first music video I shot on the 1st and 2nd of August was more of a heartwarming family story thing, because the song is about the passing of time 時日如飛. It stars local actors Kenji Sawahii (whom I've worked with before in RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS, he played the father of Joey Leong's Mei Ann character), Chythia Tan, Veron Lin and 6-year old Estellis.
While I'm writing this, S.S. Rajamouli's BAAHUBALI: THE BEGINNING is the 4th top-grossing Indian film of all-time. (It's written by Vijayendra Prasad, the director's father)
The first film in a two-part epic, and reportedly the most expensive Indian film ever made, I didn't know about it until the few days leading up to its worldwide release, and was surprised to find out that the film was showing in Malaysia too!
After I saw the film last Friday, I couldn't stop raving about it! And I'm proud to say that I managed to convince some other friends to catch it too :D
Today is Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Eid al-Fitr), and most of our brethren in the country are celebrating.
Aside from being a public holiday, Hari Raya is about seeking forgiveness from family and friends.
These beautiful values of familial love, friendship, forgiveness and compassion are reflected very much from the films of the late filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad.
Last week, for a documentary that Ming Jin's directing (I'm executive producing), we had the pleasure of interviewing Yasmin's parents, Pak Atan and Mak Inom, and sister, Orked. (yup, she's the namesake of the protagonist in the "Orked trilogy")
A few days ago, James Lee shared a link to LAST DAY OF SCHOOL, a short film he did for Singapore's NTUC Income OrangeAid. Along with his 2013 short FAMILY PORTRAIT 全家福, this is possibly his most heartwarming (and most unabashedly tearjerking) work ever.
Starring newcomer Evon Chua and James Lee regular Mike Chuah, this short film tells the story of Siew Fang, who is finishing high school and has big dreams, but she also has bigger responsibilities towards her family.
Having gotten nearly 70 000 views to date (60 000 from yesterday itself!), his short has became viral.
Watch this if you haven't.
Recently, I have been seeing a lot of touching father-daughter short films and commercials online. Despite not being a dad myself, most of these works have left me a little misty-eyed.
Therefore I'm going to share a few that I've stumbled upon in the last few weeks.
The first one's been pretty ubiquitous, not only had it dominate my Facebook newsfeed, it's been airing on TV as well. LOVING EYES, a Japanese Toyota advertisement (for its Safety Sense feature) which came out last month, shows the numerous car journeys taken by together by a father and his daughter, from the time she was a baby to when she had a baby of her own. The ingenuity of this ad is that it was done in first-person perspective, first seeing the events from the father's POV, and then from the daughter's POV. It really gives you the feels.
Another Japanese ad from last year, which I only got to watch for the very first time last week, is from Tosando Music School. During a wedding, the emcee announces that the father of the bride has a message for her. He steps over to the piano, she's confused because he doesn't know how to play the piano! She's fearful that her dad's going to embarrass her in front of public, until we start hearing the first few notes of Canon in D, and a shared memory begins unveiling itself.
Yesterday, during a meeting, I was shown this charming Metlife Hong Kong ad called MY DAD'S STORY: DREAM FOR MY CHILD (Cantonese version is here). I don't want to spoil this. It's framed by a little girl's essay on her dad. Although it's for Metlife Hong Kong, I believe this ad was shot in Thailand with Thai actors, since I recognized the little girl from last year's MY BEAUTIFUL WOMAN Wacoal ad, now, THAT was a great mother-daughter ad!)
There are way more of these touching father-daughter ads out there, but these are the great ones that I had the pleasure to watch recently.
