Introducing "Autumn Di Hatiku", a web series I wrote and directed

This is the story of how I got this beautiful Autumn Di Hatiku pillow.

When cast members constantly live-tweets your film shoot...

On the 28 and 29th of June, I was shooting my new short film, FLOATING SUN, which is part of the HUNGRY GHOST FESTIVAL: 3 DOORS OF HORROR omnibus project produced by James Lee.


The other two directors, Ng Ken Kin and Leroy Low had long finished their segments, so it was up to me to ensure that I wouldn't screw up.

Once again, my cinematographer was Lesly Leon Lee, who shot my first two short films CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY (2008) and LOVE SUICIDES (2009), and later, my one-minute Prada short film "NOW". Because of this, I couldn't help but find myself comparing the current film shoot with those from 5 years ago.

One of the biggest differences nowadays is the advent of social media and smart phone technology. Cast and crew members can now easily live-tweet/ live-blog/ live-facebook/ live-whatever the entire process of the shoot. Of course, being generally open to such things, I agreed to let everyone post up videos or photos of the shoot as long as I look flattering, and as long as they don't spoil the story.

FLOATING SUN, which is loosely based on a Kanai Mieko story, stars Emily Lim 林佩琦, Daphne Low 刘倩妏, Candy Lee 李佳洁 (whom I last worked with in last year's short film DOUBLE which I produced), Steve Yap 叶良财, Candy Ice 林冰冰 and Azman Hassan (who had appeared in almost every single important Malaysian independent film out there).

It revolves around a drowned corpse.

Ranking the Pixar Movies

It's most likely that the next movie I'm catching is MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, the prequel to the wonderful MONSTERS INC.

Last night, after reading The Playlist's "From Worst To Best: Ranking The Pixar Movies", I decided to come up with my own list as well.

More photos from my "Floating Sun" location scouting

I got myself a Blackmagic Cinema Camera recently for two TV shoots. (one of them is BUDDYZ Season 2, which is currently airing on Astro Ria every Wednesdays and Fridays at 8:55pm, each 5-minute episode is available on Youtube a few hours after it's on TV, here's episode 3)

One of the most convenient things about the camera is that I could just re-use my old camera lenses from my Canon 7D, even got myself a new Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 lens to help with wide shots. This morning, while doing some location scouting for my new short film Floating Sun, I managed to put the lens to good use.

Location scouting for my new short film "Floating Sun"

As I prepare to shoot my new short film "FLOATING SUN" at the end of June, I traveled early this morning for a round of location scouting with James Lee the producer, TK the production manager and Lesly the cinematographer.

Armed with my new phone, the Huawei Mate (technically, with its 6-inch screen, it's really a "phablet" and not a phone), I traversed into a place which was absolutely wonderful (and photogenic) for my film, taking some photos.

Excerpt from my new short film, SPRINGTIME NOSTALGIA 残香

A new short film of mine, SPRINGTIME NOSTALGIA, is premiering at next week's Shanghai International Film Festival, followed by a screening at the Taipei International Film Festival in early July as part of an "in focus" program for actress/producer Kiki Sugino.

This Ikebana-themed short that was commissioned by Kao last year

The kind folks of Taipei International Film Festival posted a one-minute excerpt of the short film on Youtube which featured the three main cast members, Kiki Sugino (who did EXHALATION with me back in 2010), Qyoko Kudo (who did KINGYO with me back in 2009) and Eriko Ono (who was probably a baby when I collaborated with the aforementioned two actresses in my previous works).

Mieko Kanai 金井美恵子

You might not have heard of the Japanese writer Mieko Kanai (金井美恵子), but she wrote the short story "The Moon" that inspired my short film "LAST FRAGMENTS OF WINTER".

I stumbled upon her works by accident. It was September 2010. My uncle (father's younger brother) passed away suddenly, my parents, who were in Tokyo with me for my graduation ceremony, had to fly back to Malaysia immediately.

I was left alone in the hotel that my parents were supposed to stay for a few more days. Overwhelmed by solitude, I went to my favourite Aoyama Book Center in Roppongi, hoping to distract my mind with literature.

Going through the shelf, "THE WORD BOOK" by Mieko Kanai, a collection of her short stories, caught my eye. Maybe it was the cover. THE WORD BOOK came out in the 70s, but it only just got translated into English that year.


I flipped through the book, went through some stories, and found myself captivated by the imagery of her dream-like tales. I didn't buy the book immediately, but her words lingered. (I bought the book a few days later on Amazon)

This is the opening paragraph of "The Moon":