Remaining notes and photos from Busan International Film Festival 2015

All right, I'm so lagging behind that even though I'm already in Tokyo for the Tokyo International Film Festival, I'm still trying to wrap up my Busan Film Fest experience.

Okay, this will be my last post about this year's Busan Film Fest!

[VIDEOS] Buskers in Tokyo

During my time in Tokyo from 2008 to 2013, I had enjoyed walking about at night, and stopping to watch and listen to buskers performing at the streets. I have shot a few videos, and posted all of them on this blog back then. Sadly, I've not shot any videos of them since 2011, I think. I guess once I picked up the habit of wearing my earphones all the time outside, I ended up walking past these performances without noticing. And mostly because I stopped carrying my Canon 7D with me all the time.

My Youtube account had been abandoned for quite a while, but nevertheless, looking through it a few days ago, I had a lot of fondness of these busker videos that I shot, so I decided to compile them into a playlist. Some of these musicians are still active, and it's worth rediscovering them.

Woo Ming JIn's RETURN TO NOSTALGIA @ Busan International Film Festival 2015 + its media coverage

Been back from Busan for more than a week, and immediately dove into the production of a music video (well, if you are still following this blog, or my Instagram feed, you'll see the photos), hence the lack of recaps.

On the 4th of October, Ming Jin's documentary RETURN TO NOSTALGIA finally had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival.

RETURN TO NOSTALGIA is part of the POWER OF ASIAN CINEMA program, in commemoration with the 20th anniversary of the Busan Film Fest, 10 Asian directors were each commissioned to make a 50-minute documentary about their own cinematic history.

Ming Jin chose to make a film about the search for SERUAN MERDEKA, the very first post-war Malay film which is missing.

Before the screening of RETURN TO NOSTALGIA, however, I went to catch the first two volumes of Miguel Gomes' sprawling three-part ARABIAN NIGHTS. The films began with a disclaimer that they are not adaptations of the novel (more like a film that's very loosely inspired by the novel)! Structurally they are similar, they are mostly tales of modern-day Portugal, being told by Scheherazade to the Sultan. So there are least 3-4 different stories of different genres in each film, done in very different styles.


If it weren't for the RETURN TO NOSTALGIA screening, we would have been able to finish Volume 3! (or go to the gala screening of Hirokazu Koreeda's OUR SISTER) Never have I felt so sad during a screening of my own production.

I jest.

The screening of RETURN TO NOSTALGIA went on pretty smoothly. It was good to present a small glimpse of our country's cinema history to a foreign land.

The local media had kindly covered this documentary since then.

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

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Monday, October 5, 2015

感恩中国报的报导。 希望有那么的一天能与马来西亚的观众们分享《眷念重来 RETURN TO NOSTALGIA》。

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Many thanks to THE STAR for covering Woo Ming Jin's RETURN TO NOSTALGIA. It's the documentary that was in Busan last...

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Monday, October 12, 2015

Busan International Film Festival 2015 Day 2 recap: Experiencing the past, present and future of Taiwanese cinema

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.

Busan International Film Festival 2015 Day 1: Catching up with the Cannes Films

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.

River of Exploding Durians @ Jaffna International Cinema Festival 2015

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 journey to the Jaffna International Cinema Festival in Sri Lanka

After I returned from Japan, I immediately flew off to Sri Lanka the next morning.

My film RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS had been invited to the Best Debut Film competition section of the inaugural Jaffna International Cinema Festival.

Naturally, I was excited.

Jaffna is at the northern part of Sri Lanka, so when I arrived at the capital city of Colombo, it was necessary to take a 7-hour train ride to Jaffna.

But before that, I was able to rest for a night at the YWCA International Guesthouse.

Arrived at the YWCA International Guest House Colombo. Building's been around for 200 years!

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Thursday, September 17, 2015

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.

Buddhist statues in Gangaramaya Temple

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Friday, September 18, 2015

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.

Colombo train station at 5am

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Friday, September 18, 2015

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.

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Friday, September 18, 2015

I slept through most of the journey, but sometimes I got to admire the nice scenery outside.

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Friday, September 18, 2015

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

Posted by River of Exploding Durians 榴莲忘返 on Friday, September 18, 2015

Director pass and Jaffna International Cinema Festival catalog

Posted by River of Exploding Durians 榴莲忘返 on Friday, September 18, 2015

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.

Posted by Edmund Yeo on Friday, September 18, 2015