RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS @ Singapore Chinese Film Festival 2015 + Films I caught at the festival

Has there not been update on this blog for that long?

It happens, when you are buried with work.

A month ago, RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS was shown at the Singapore Chinese Film Festival.

At the very same festival, I was able to meet Taiwanese directors like the legendary Li Hsing (considered a godfather of Taiwanese cinema), the influential Wan Jen (of the Taiwan New Cinema, a contemporary of Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang's), and the much respected Yang Li-Chou (whose critically and commercially successful documentaries opened the way for Taiwanese documentaries to be shown in their cinemas).

Undercover Barista (Beta version)

Photos from a one-day shoot last week.

The entire album is here.

Photos taken by TK Cheng during a shoot last week.
Posted by Edmund Yeo on Thursday, April 16, 2015

Here are some of my favourites.

RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS 破裂するドリアンの河の記憶 @ Malaysian Film Week マレーシア映画ウィーク

Yesterday (19th April) was the last screening of RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS at the Malaysian Film Week, held in Roppongi. Thanks for organizing the screenings, Malaysia Film Week. And thanks to Ando-sensei for doing the Q and A session after the screening.

Rest in peace, Manoel de Oliveira, the oldest film director in the world

Manoel de Oliveira, the oldest working director in the world, passed away three days ago, on the 2nd of April. He was 106.

Weddings of old friends

During the past two Saturdays, through some stroke of coincidence, or maybe because they were fortuitous days, quite a few weddings were held.

So, for two consecutive Saturdays, I attended weddings of old friends from primary school. One was Jasmine, a dear friend from then to now, another was Iong Ying, a friend whom I kept in touch with intermittently, but he had done a lot trying to keep us all connected.

After all, at this day and age, I guess it's quite rare to still be able to remain connected with friends from primary school! That's even harder than high school! Yet we did, with our teacher Tu Lao Shi (Lao Shi as in "Teacher", Tu as in her family name, although her actual English spelling is Thor, which gives her an even cooler name, Teacher Thor), starting from Friendster groups to Facebook groups to Whatsapp groups, whatever it was, we kept up with times.

It's not that we communicate that much, but the line of communication is still there. No one is lost forever. Perhaps that's the beauty.

On Macbook Pros dying and then coming back to life

My 3-year-old Macbook Pro died last week. It was a major tragedy, it inspired me to write a eulogy.

Back in the day, when my comps died, it would take weeks to get it back. Usually, there wouldn't be any good news, either I've lost all my data, or repairing it would cost more than buying a new computer etc. etc.

My horrible experience with a Lenovo laptop bought in 2010 drove me to the edge. It started having HDD problems a few weeks after I bought it, constantly wiping out whatever I saved. Couldn't even let me get back into Windows etc. It was insane, and I was unable to diagnose what was happening with the computer then. I would have long trips in different places where the laptop was practically useless, couldn't switch on, couldn't get onto Windows, data all gone etc.

Replaced the HDD, other things started falling apart. The fan started making weird rumbling sounds, it stopped detecting Wifi networks, it was a major pain in the ass. After a year and a half, I reached the point where I went "screw this, you know what? Even though I have been using Windows and PC for the past 15-16 years, ever since I first used a comp, and even though Apple fanatics generally annoy the crap out of me, I'm going to make the switch to Apple. And so I bought my Macbook Pro on Valentine's Day 2012. I was making a new film, I needed a new start.

I guess this was my Valentine's Day gift to myself. http://instagr.am/p/G_Z9SipxP1/
Posted by Edmund Yeo on Tuesday, February 14, 2012

3 years later. After writing and editing countless projects with this laptop, it finally bit the dust.

I thought it was over. I knew that all these years of heavy lifting probably murdered it.

So I immediately ordered an iMac. It's been a while since I actually had a desktop anyway. (shifted entirely to laptop in 2004, when I went to Perth for my studies). Needed something strong enough to do my future editing.

Surprisingly, my Macbook came back 2 days after repairs. Before the new iMac has arrived. I was stunned.

RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS Tweetstorms

I've been trying to find the term for this. A series of tweets in a row about the same thing, usually to alleviate the 140-character limit.

Multi-tweet essay? Multiple-tweets?

Apparently it's called a Tweetstorm.

Since RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS' premiere in Tokyo last October, the film has gotten some Tweetstorm from viewers in Japan. Their thoughts had been very insightful and invaluable, so I always wanted to put them here. To help myself remember.