On a lighter note, Sebastian had been pretty depressed about the unanimous love my beloved home country had for TRANSFORMERS 2.
When I saw it on Monday, I immediately predicted that TRANSFORMERS 2 will be the top-grossing film of all-time in Malaysia. It's not that difficult, considering that the current record holder is the first TRANSFORMERS film.
With all these major explosions, tiny Decepticons dry-humping Megan Fox's leg, funny jokes, what is not to love? Here's a Facebook exchange that occurred just now.
Films should only be about entertainment. To have it any other way would be a travesty.
You know what's worthless? Films without explosions.
I shuddered and knew immediately that the following short film had no explosions and scenes of Megan Fox being dry-humped by a tiny Decepticon when I read its synopsis on the Paris Cinema Film Fest website:
Love Suicides brings out one of the unknown faces of Malaysia. Edmund Yeo chose to film silence and frozen time – symptom of a worrying torpor – in a deserted region, spared from industrialization. Inspired by a short story written by Yasunari Kawabata, the film reflects a state of paralysis relayed thanks to a minimalist account given by the two actresses and underlines the dangers of one’s attachment to the past, which is a source of deadly incommunicability. Well-crafted from the point of view of form, Love Suicides is a violent and delicate fantastical short film about the haunted spaces of a world cannibalized by memories.
That Edmund Yeo guy... what a waste of time making films without explosions!
When I woke up this morning and saw the news of Michael Jackson's death, I was quite affected by it. I grew up as a fan. As a child I listened to all the cassette tapes I had with me then, OFF THE WALL, THRILLER and BAD. I didn't know how it all started, I can't remember. The King of Pop then was at the pinnacle of his popularity, television was often dominated by his electrifying performances, or the music videos.
In kindergarten I drew pictures of men grabbing their crotches because that's the pose I remember most from Michael Jackson's dances, to the consternation of teachers.
Watching his Black and White music video in Las Vegas when I was 7, during my very first magical trip to the States with my parents, was a vivid moment of my childhood memory. We were in the hotel room and my dad switched on the TV.
"Look, it's the boy from Home Alone!" Mom said.
That got me glued. After the dad got blasted all the way to Africa by Macauley Culkin's power guitar, I was exhilarated to discover that it was a Michael Jackson music video. And what a music video it was!
The aforementioned trip was magical because I would later visit Disneyland for the very first time, and watched my very first 3D movie, Captain EO.
The Dangerous album came along, and that was the defining MJ album of my childhood. I listened to it over and over again. But most times I tried finding a particular song to listen to since each one gained more significance during different moments. First there was Black And White. Then the awesome Do You Remember The Time music video came along and I listened to that more.
Then came Heal The World. I've been watching the NBA highlights on local TV since as long as I can remember but it was the Bulls vs Suns 1993 Finals that turned me into a fan, especially a Michael Jordan one. So JAM became significant.
I also saw Free Willy that year, I began to listen to Will You Be There more as well.
I guess I'm old enough to live in a time when Michael Jackson was still considered 'great', and that you could say without irony that you were a fan.
I remember attending his concert in Singapore for his DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR. What year was it? 1998? 1999? Growing up with my parents in the music industry, attending concerts was a common part of childhood, I also had the privilege to meet the performers on backstage either before or after the concert. Yet Michael Jackson was a different case, the ticket was a hard-fought one. My parents didn't go, but I went with my father's colleague and his family, I could still remember how festive it was, even though I sat so far from the stage that he was a tiny speck, and I could only look at the big screen. Because I was only look at the big screen, it was an occasionally surreal experience where I wondered whether he was REALLY there. Until I was handed the binoculars, but only for a while, because we took turns using it.
As years went by, with all these accusations of child molestation, and his increasingly bizarre public appearances, a personal life seemingly spiraling out of control, and I, like most people, occasionally followed with morbid curiosity because, well, it was impossible to keep him out of the news, I secretly still wanted to see a comeback from him. A late-career renaissance, some sort artistic redemption, all these allegations meant nothing to me, for me, Michael Jackson was more about the music, that will always be his legacy.
1995. HIStory's release was an exciting moment of my life, when Scream or You Are Not Alone started playing on the radio, I would turn the volume up.
The attachment to him always lingered. In 2001, when I was already finishing secondary school, I still turned on the TV and waited for the local premiere of YOU ROCK MY WORLD. The parents (and I think the sister) watched too.
We decided it wasn't as good as his old classics, but then, what is?
News of Farah Fawcett's death was the last night I read before I slept. Then I woke up to news of Michael Jackson's death from Twitter and RSS feeds I subscribe to. Not entirely a cheery day.
The news jolted away whatever lingering effects of the sleep, and I tweeted/ posted on my Facebook status before heading off for breakfast.
I don't deify people, so I have made my share of Michael Jackson jokes, and laughed at even more of them. His personal life was more a cautionary tale than anything, and I do think that his decline was mostly consequences of his own actions. Sebastian's contrarian attempts to celebrate Michael Jackson's death was initially deemed classless by me, but ultimately, as I quote from a blog "It's not wrong to reflect on someone's mistakes or misjudgments at the time of their death. That's the way we reinforce our own mortality and reinvigorate lost ambitions."
Yet when someone who had such an immense presence in your life dies suddenly. it's hard not to feel a slight numbness and melancholy.
Today was the last day of the basic cinematography classes I've been attending that were taught by Kenji Takama (cinematographer for the DEATH NOTE films, WELCOME BACK, MR MCDONALD'S etc.). I presented my newest short film 3PM to him, and then KINGYO, the former he enjoyed, the latter he was genuinely impressed with, telling me that it belonged to an international stage.
To be praised by such a respected individual in the industry was a joyous moment, but it was fleeting. As the class ended and my friends dispersed, I found myself overwhelmed by thoughts of mortality again, of 'the one shot in this silly little exercise called life', of its impermanence, of the possibilities of never fulfilling one's own potential, of creating a legacy, and so forth.
Yes. Sitting alone in my room now, I think I feel a little melancholic.
We're on a mission In the everlasting light that shines A revelation Of the truth in chapters of our minds
So long, bad times We're gonna shake it up and break it up We're sharing light brighter than the sun Hello , good times We're here to simulate, eliminate An' congregate, illuminate
- "We are here to change the world" Michael Jackson
Did a quick email interview with the peeps at BMW Shorties two days ago, and the interview was immediately up on their page yesterday. Good job using the cast and crew photo from 3PM too!
An excerpt.
Filmmaking has been around for decades, how do you innovate and make your film different?
Actually, I don’t self-consciously try to be ‘innovative’ and do things ‘people had never done before’. Normally I just find a story I really like to do, and hope that my personal filmmaking sensibilities can do justice to the story, enough to make it unique. I’m not sure whether I am original, it’s really up to my audiences to decide that.
100 HARIJADI (translation: 100 Birthdays) is the latest TV movie from Greenlight Pictures for Astro Ria.
It was aired on the 12th of June, to a somewhat positive reception (message board's in Bahasa Malaysia only).
Aside from the brainstorming and story development sessions I went through with Ming Jin shortly before I returned to Tokyo in April, I was uninvolved in the project.
Of course, I haven't watched the film either.
So it was more than a little surreal to catch it on Youtube this morning. Someone had liked it enough to upload the entire thing. It's definitely not everyday that you watch a production from your own company in such a manner.
100 HARIJADI stars Dira Abu Zahar (she posted some production photos here), Zahiril Adzim, Radhi Khalid, Tony Eusoff. With the band Hujan making a cameo appearance.
Here are the first three parts (in Malay, no subtitles, sorry)
100 Harijadi 1/10
100 Harijadi 2/10
100 Harijadi 3/10
You can catch the rest of it here. Or catch reruns of it on Astro Ria if you are in Malaysia.
So I've wrapped up the shoot for my newest Japanese short film, 3PM last Friday. And had am now editing it.
Here's a photo of the cast and crew sent to me by main actress Yumiko Kitazawa (you can also read about the shoot from her blog, but it's only in Japanese).
From left to right: Yumiko the lead actress, Ko the sound guy, Kabayama the camera assistant turned lead actor, me, Erika the cinematographer and Yuiko the producer/ assistant director
Like I said, I've immediately started work on editing the film the night when I finished the shoot, and things seem encouraging thus far.
It was cool to receive a thank you note from Yumiko over the weekend, and then Yuiko, who told me that she had left some Black Thunder (my favourite chocolate bar that I often have for lunch) in the fridge at the editing lab.
So this morning went I went to the lab to continue my editing, I found the Black Thunders.
Thanks. It was a very fun shoot.
Black Thunder is not just a chocolate bar. It is a way of life.
As a bonus, I'm sharing the video of the June 12th line-reading session we had with you guys (I mentioned the session here).
As I look out through my window right now, the world is absolutely grey, and obscured by the rain. Perhaps I'm going to be stuck in my room the whole day. On the other hand, I checked the weather forecast in Kuala Lumpur and it seems cloudy, and there will be rain too in the afternoon, but the rains of tropical Malaysia are ferocious, but fleeting, often ending in mere hours, while the rain of Tokyo often drag on for days. So rain or not, I doubt it will do much to affect Father's Day for dad.
Yup, that's dad.
By now my cute fat-faced little sister had flown back to Malaysia from Perth as a surprise trip for dad. Good work, cute fat-faced little sister!
Dad is celebrating the day with mom and my deceptively pedolicious (deceptive because she is much older than her child-like appearance) little sister at home, and probably also with a film, just the way he likes it.
Just got back from the editing lab moments ago. Managed to wrap up the shoot for my new Japanese short film, 3PM. It was a fun shoot, exhausting it was. It's been a while since I've actually made a comedy (though many argued that CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY is just some some film with some comedic moments, and not really a comedy), I needed to do once since I've been making three consecutive depressing films (four, if you count my little-seen experimental video, FLEETING IMAGES).
Like I said, 3PM is a zero-budget film much smaller in scale than KINGYO, and set mostly in one location. I only had a skeleton crew (Me, Kou-san the sound guy, Erika the director of photography, Yuiko the producer/assistant director) , but just as I've always believed, as long as everyone's passionate, things can run pretty smoothly. That was the case of the 3PM shoot.
Even though we had some cute Waseda University cheerleaders briefly interrupting the shoot with their practice session at our location, but that lasted barely more than half an hour, and although they did their best to distract me, I managed to valiantly relocate the shoot to somewhere nearby.
Spirits were still so high that I immediately started work on putting together a rough cut of the short film in the evening, and worked on it til just now. Things look quite promising, I managed to try some stuff I never tried in previous works, yet I'm a little surprised by its length. The whole thing is nearly 16 minutes. I thought it'll be 10 to 12 minutes. Whoa. I might have some snipping to do.
Here are some stills.
I was shooting this particular scene when I noticed that it looked so silly that I had to take a photo.
Now, here's a proper one of my main actress Yumiko Kitazawa.
I have mentioned this briefly back in April, but I'll mention it again since I've gotten more details now that the official line-up of next month's Paris Cinema International Film Festival is out. So yup, LOVE SUICIDES, my first ever Yasunari Kawabata adaptation before I made KINGYO, is one of the 17 short films around the world selected for competition at the Paris Cinema International Film Fest.
With all the attention that KINGYO's been getting lately, I have to say that poor LOVE SUICIDES is starting to get overlooked. But I'm very happy, nay, totally stunned, that my little film is making its premiere at such a prestigious event. I hope KINGYO will follow its footsteps. If I'm not wrong, LOVE SUICIDES is one of the only two Asian shorts in the line-up, the other being guest-of-honour Tsai Ming Liang's Madame Butterfly.
I've uploaded another scene onto Youtube long ago. This is it.
The mother force feeds the girl
My film won't be the only Malaysian presence at the film festival. Yeo Joon Han's (no relation) SELLOUT! is in competition at the feature film category, while Tan Chui Mui's upcoming THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER is one of the projects selected by the Paris Project.
Not to neglect my current adopted home, Japan, Naomi Kawase's AND PROTECT, PROTECTED (MAMORI, MAMORETE) and Sabu's first planned English feature, ARRESTED MEMORIES, are also in the Paris Project as well.
After finishing dinner yesterday evening, I was gripped by a sudden urge to catch a film. I thought of seeing Ahn Hung Tran's I COME WITH THE RAIN, starring Josh Harnett, Lee Byung-hun, Takuya Kimura and Shawn Yue.
I rushed off to take the train to Roppongi, but despite my best efforts, the film had already started when I reached Roppongi Hills. Even though I told the lady that I didn't mind about missing the first 5 minutes of the film, she told me that only the first two rows of seats were available. I didn't want to subject myself to such exertion of effort when seeing a film, thus I decided not to bother in the end.
Left in Roppongi without anything to do, I decided to take some photos instead.
From Roppongi Hills you can get a decent view of the Tokyo Tower.
That's the huge spider statue in front of the building entrance. I don't know why they want a spider though.
This is the escalator from the Roppongi metro station to the shopping mall.
Just like how I like to slow down the shutter speed when shooting night scenes in a film, I like to do the same with still photography as well.
After I was done with it, I just went to hang out at the Aomori bookshop. Was thinking of buying Akutagawa's short story collection, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Memories of My Melancholy Whores as both were around the same price (1100 yen), but ended up not buying either. I still have David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas to read anyway.
Also checked out some photography books for ideas I can use when I resume the shoot of my new short film '3PM' on Friday.
I went out to Shinjuku last Friday night because I thought it's depressing to stay at home on Friday nights. I had managed to shoot some inserts for my new short film, 3PM, and had an encouraging line-reading session with my new actress Yumiko (read more about the production here) Some self-celebration was a welcome.
So bringing my new and beloved camera, I ran off to Shinjuku to snap photos of its night scenery.
But what truly drew my attention then were the street musicians. A decent-sized group was gathered around this guy, Shotaro, some of them were even swaying and dancing when he was singing his mid-tempo and somewhat catchy songs. I managed to shoot three of his songs, but I'll post only his last one.
Yes, I know it's kinda dark and he's only a silhouette, but I liked the shot because of the cars passing by in the background and occasionally flooding everyone with light.
Shotaro singing
Then, there was also this jazz band performing in front of the Shinjuku Station South Exit. A couple of other musicians were also gathered there to watch. I think the band's name is Wing Five, but I might be wrong.
Jazz band in Shinjuku
I have a much longer performance of them, where they went off for a 7-8 minute improvisatory jazz piece, but the file was too big for me to upload on Youtube. Maybe I'll do some resizing in the near future.
The first musician I filmed that night was actually Yuri, who performs in a tunnel and has a really nice voice.
Yuri performing
I actually met her twice exactly a week earlier.
It was the 5th of June and there was the Kingyo test screening at the Fuyajo Cinema Festival in Shinjuku Wald 9. I walked through the tunnel and saw her performing then, and thought she picked a pretty cool place for her performance.
I would meet her again hours later, when Maiko the Producer introduced me to her at the Kingyo test screening as one of her friends. But that night, it never occurred to me that Maiko's friend who so nicely attended the screening would be the exact same singer I walked past in a tunnel earlier.
So after Yuri finished singing and I switched off my camera, she came over and spoke to me, asking me whether I was filming her and I said yes, and then she laughed in surprise. Then she told me she really loved Kingyo and I realized immediately that she was Maiko's friend. I made a suggestion that we would swap, a Kingyo DVD (when I'm done with the film) for her CD.
She gave me a CD of hers that she performed with her band Soraai. You can check out their website here.
I'm actually quite fascinated with street musicians in Japan, and it feels good to see them occasionally drawing an appreciative crowd. Last year I would sometimes pay for an album that I like, I guess my interest in them is one of the reasons why I put them in Kingyo.
Was more than a little surprised when Nico of Fleishman-Hillard (organizer of BMW Shorties) told me yesterday that CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY will be airing on Astro Citra tonight at 8:30pm.
Happy, of course, that my short film will be on TV. But more than a little mortified because the version that's being aired will be the cut I submitted to BMW Shorties last year, and not the final version that went to the Dubai and Naoussa International Film Festivals.
Nonetheless, if you are still interested, you can catch Chicken Rice Mystery tonight (17th of June, Wednesday!!). Once again, it's at 8.30pm on Astro Citra.
On the other hand, if you are curious about the difference between the BMW Shorties version and the final one. Here are the changes I made:
1) Final version begins and ends with Debussy music
2) Mom's (Kimmy Kiew) cooking disasters were shown as cutaway sequences peppered between a conversation between Dad (Chye Yang) and The Boy (Lim Ming Wei) while they were playing video games. In BMW Shorties, the disasters were played out in one continuous sequence.
3) In some scenes, different takes were used because there were some slight directing, acting and camera mistakes. It was my first non-student short film, so I made some silly mistakes, and wasn't anal enough to notice some other stuff either. Most people told me it's unnoticeable, but they made me cringe, hence I made those changes.
Hello. My name is Edmund Yeo and I think I'm addicted to Abura Soba.
Abura Soba, which means "oil noodles", is essentially ramen and toppings served without the soup, but with a small quantity of oily soy-based sauce instead.
There is a bloody awesome Abura Soba shop near the place I'm staying (it's on the way to Edogawabashi station) that's open until 3AM.
Even when it's hours after midnight, people tend to line up outside the place. Fellow addicts.
This deceptively peaceful looking shop is the root of my problem.
My Japanese dorm mate Kawabe goes there every night, and he invites my Hong Kong dorm mate Jason, who in returns invites me too.
I always look at my bowl of noodles with a mixture of fear and bliss. Fear for becoming fat and ugly again thus shallow women who care more about looks than the beauty of my delicate soul and the joy of my comedic wit will turn away from me.
Yet my newfound addiction had been too strong. There was no way to stop.
In mere moments I find myself staring at a half-finished bowl of noodles. I have turned into something that I myself can barely even comprehend.
It's just so bloody good that I can't quit you, damn it!
Behind me is Kawaba-san, the one covering his face is Jason, who went nuts when he knew I took the photo and told me to remove him from it, and I said "don't be an idiot, removing you means that I'm removing two thirds of the picture, suck it up!"
I now try to limit my visits to once a week. Maybe I can handle it. I dare not imagine what will happen if I can't.
No, it's unlikely that I'll pull off what Tan Chui Mui did last year by making 7 short films in 7 months, but I'm trying to shoot at least one short film every 2-3 months. January I shot KINGYO (which you should know by now, is a Japanese production), April I shot AFTERNOON RIVER (Malaysian), and now, in June, I shoot my newest short film called 3PM at Waseda University.
This is supposed to be coursework for the basic cinematography class I've been attending that's taught by Kenji Takama (director of photography for the DEATH NOTE films, WELCOME BACK, MR MCDONALD'S or SUMMER VACATION 1999, the latter I wrote about last month) We were divided into three groups and each of us given a simple 2-3 page long script to work upon.
Of course, we were all given the creative freedom to expand upon the script however we want to. So I just decided to use this opportunity to shoot a new short film by completely revamping the script, and adding more than 7-8 pages to it. It's a light-hearted romantic comedy set in Waseda University.
Being a zero-budget film, and having only a skeleton student crew, of course I don't have the privilege I had with Kingyo by hiring AND PAYING pro actors (.. and crew members) But then, this is a much simpler film in terms of logistics and scale. It's good to go back to basics.
Yet because I had so little time for pre-production, I had some difficulties securing actresses. I was supposed to shoot the film last Friday, but we couldn't get anyone on Thursday, so I brought the entire group (which includes Yuichi the Producer-in-training, Erika the Cinematographer, Kabayama the assistant cameraman turned main actor, and Koh-san the sound dude) around the campus of Waseda University, asking attractive young women to act for us. Some actually said yes and gave us their email addresses.
But in the end rationality prevailed, I sifted through my memory banks to find possibilities of actresses. I thought of a student film called Sketchbook I saw last year. And remembered one of its main actresses.
Yumiko Kitazawa's the chick in the cover
I mentioned her. Erika the Cinematographer immediately said that the actress, Yumiko Kitazawa, is her friend. She made a phone call and asked for help. Yumiko said yes. I met her the following day for some line-readings as the protagonist Mika. Kabayama, the supposed assistant cameraman is cursed with pretty boy looks, I relieved him of his crew duties so he could act for the film as Terada the love interest, which he accepted happily. Then I got lab mate An-chan, who was a production assistant for KINGYO, to take the role as Mako, the protagonist's best friend.
(from left to right) An-chan, Yumiko and Kabayama at the one and only line-reading session of the short film 3PM)
Often before working with an actor or actress, I do my homework by studying their previous performances. In SKETCHBOOK she played a meek and introverted high school girl with long flowing hair. In this Youtube clip (she appears from the 0:06 to 0:15 mark) she looks very angstful too.
I always want to give them a look different from their previous works. thus I decided to have her dress up like a guy, to increase more comedic value as a tomboy.
The shoot finally started today. Last night and this morning, I was in a state of simmering anger because I can't believe that weather forecast said it was going to rain again. The raining season had started in Japan, and I realize that I had been fighting against the rain in 4 out of my 5 short films, including this one. LOVE SUICIDES was the only exception. Most of the time I incorporate the rain into the script, like I did with CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY and AFTERNOON RIVER, and often they make things much better. Then there was also KINGYO, where there was a rare winter rain I was forced to endure, and delayed the shoot for half a day. Thankfully the wet surface increased the beauty of the night sceneries.
Rain, my eternal enemy, all the time I elude its grasp.
I wonder what I had to do this time. Find a new place? Incorporate it into the script?
Yet by the time the shoot began, the rain had yet to start. So I just shot the bloody film.
An-chan was only available for one day. So my first priority was to complete all her scenes today. There was so much desperation that sometimes I even operated the camera myself, something most people who had worked with me on film had never seen before. (... because I'm actually kinda technically incompetent)
After making three depressingly heavy films in a row, LOVE SUICIDES, KINGYO and AFTERNOON RIVER, I was relieved to do something comedic again.
I even tossed in a climatic catfight scene.
Poor Yumiko had to stay on the ground a lot.
The joy about shooting comedies is that people usually have a lot of fun doing it. At the same time, I have to go through much more takes than usual because the cast members sometimes burst into laughter.
Well, it WAS hard to keep a straight face when they were subjected to all kinds of crazy stuff I asked them to do.
Despite numerous delays, filming ended at 5pm, just as planned.
Just when I announced that we were done for the day, a few raindrops trickled upon me.
After returning from last Saturday's Fuyajo Cinema Festival in the morning, I had a quick nap before getting up for an interview with Chris Magee of Toronto J-Film Pow Wow.
You'll get to read about a childhood incident that might have started my filmmaking dream.
it was how his parents approached the films that set Yeo on the path he's on today. "There was a time when I went to watch "Tremors" with my parents in the cinema when I was really young," Yeo remembers, "I was freaking out. Mom thought the best way to calm me down was to totally deconstruct the illusion of films, like pointing out how some stuff was just props, how they were just acting, how the guy didn't really die, how the monster was just a construct. Perhaps that deconstruction led to the whole discussion about how films were made." Yeo's mother explained that the person in charge of the props, actors and the monster worms in "Tremors" was called a "director". The lightbulb went on for Yeo.
The 4th Annual Foreigner's Traditional Japanese Dance Exhibition (第四回外国人日本舞踊大会) was held in my university earlier this evening. I didn't know a thing about it until the night before when Niklas showed me a website.
I was curious, so I decided to tag along, immerse myself more into Japanese traditions! I will remain an ignorant foreigner no more!
The event was held in the famed Okuma Memorial Hall, which, to me, is by far the most recognizable building of Waseda University. I guess that's the point of the building.
It was the first time I've ever entered the hall!
I needed to take a photo of myself to commemorate this historic event, not the exhibition, but me, entering Okuma Memorial Hall for the very first time.
Niklas was next to me. The photo was pretty blurry, but I still look pretty, so I decided to keep it. Ah, such vanity.
I didn't get the best seats since the dude in front of me with the camcorder was quite an annoyance (for me to get a good picture or video of the performance).
The first dance performance used the famous Japanese folk song SAKURA SAKURA. (pardon the shakiness)
I realized that foreigners can still look indescribably fetching in kimonos. Ah, the glorious beauty of kimonos, I rank it up there with qipaos as the best traditional outfits ever!
Of course, I enjoyed the performance. The group followed it with the 'ehigasa' 絵日傘(parasol dance). Then another team came in to do the 'tenaraiko' 手習子 dance. I was feeling pumped!
Then another team came in to do the 'sakura sakura dance', followed it with the 'ehigasa' dance. And then another team came in and did the 'tenaraiko' dance.
This went on and on. Until I realized that this was the point of the exhibition. Different teams were supposed to give different interpretations of these 3 famous dances. And because I am an ignorant foreigner incapable of spotting the subtle differences of each performance, I thought I was stuck in a time loop. Which was bemusing and amusing at the same time.
But then, there were some vocal performances of traditional Japanese songs, performed by a woman, and then a man, with piano music in the background. I only have video of the lady's performance. Her name is Hiroko Sato, from Tokyo University of Arts. And no, the reason I have only a video of her performance and not the guy's has nothing to do with her being cute, I'm not that shallow, I was just too tired to film the guy as well!
So this is Hiroko Sato singing 'kono dou' (translated as 'this path' or something like that).
Oh, and here's one of the rare photos I took of the performance. As much as I loved my new camera, the Panasonic DMC-LX3, the 2.5 zoom is quite a limitation. Hope they'll come up with a lens to rectify this problem.
That was the furthest I could zoom in.
This is the ending of the performance, almost all team members went on stage to do that last dance, with the audiences joining in for the fun. As I was filming, I noticed that the lady in red sitting few rows behind me (who appeared at the 17-second mark) is quite pretty too. But that's irrelevant. This video is just an attempt for me to share that experience with you.
After spending an entirely sleepless night at Shinjuku, I caught a few hours of sleep before Maiko's call woke me up. (read more about it on my previous blog post) After that I got ready and headed off to Yoyogi Park for a picnic with Niklas, Lia The Artist and her friends: Jennifer and Yuu The Installation Artist.
Not a fan of summer afternoons, as the weather had turned a little too hot for my liking. Yet being at Yoyogi Park, bathed in the glow of the glorious summer sunlight would have been great for me to test my new camera.
Happily I took out my new and very beloved Panasonic DMC-LX3 and wanted to see what sort of masterful photography I could conjure in such an environment.
... then I realized that I forgot to bring the batteries.
"Eeeeeyaaaaaaargh!" I eeyargh'd in shock.
I decided to go back to my roots and snap photos with my cellphone instead.
Picnic food, my contributions were the least healthiest.
We waited for Jennifer to come. She left a couple of cryptic phone calls to Lia The Artist.
After we dined, we were supposed to play the Hanafuda cards. (translated as 'flower cards'. Did you know that long before video games, Nintendo were manufacturers of Hanafuda cards?)
Lia and Yuu pored through the instruction manual for games we could play with the Hanafuda cards. Turned out that things were too complicated, and we needed a dice as well.
... so we ended up playing with normal cards instead.
Jennifer joined us some while later. Here's a photo of her blowing bubbles.
Immediately after that, my cellphone ran out of batteries.
We left in the evening. Before that I made a remark that this was probably the first time I've ever had a picnic in a park. It was meant to be a random throwaway remark. But with slight wistfulness I realized I was probably speaking the truth and all my life I've actually missed out simple pleasures like this.
After having complained endlessly about my old camera, and also NOT having a camcorder for the past 6 months, I've decided to rectify all these issues by buying a new camera that could serve as both. So I went off to buy myself a Panasonic DMC-LX3. As I was buying it, I realized how outdated I've been, I was offered to buy a 16GB memory card, and all these while I've been stuck with a 1GB one.
With the new camera, I headed off to Shinjuku Wald 9 again for the Fuyajo (Sleepless City) Cinema Festival, preparing for another sleepless night, and hopefully to catch some other films, and also visit my friends from my uni lab, who had offered to look after the cup noodles booth (free cup noodles were given to everyone who came for the festival).
When I arrived, they were watching the football match between Japan and Uzbekistan of the World Cup qualifiers. Japan had already scored, so they were happy.
Game was being watched on An-chan's mobile phone.
Then Kobayashi-sensei came and showed the capabilities of her phone camera. I didn't know why the others were reacting so strangely.
The girl on the right in the pic below is Ayako, also a filmmaker. She had a film screening at the festival called BABY COMPLEX. I caught it, it was a good film (around 50 minutes long, has only 2 actors, great performances, very well-shot, and she has a good eye for visual composition) and I asked whether we could swap DVDs later.
They continued watching football as I continued fiddling with my camera.
We were all in the cafe of Wald 9 cinema.
One of the main reasons why I bought this camera is because it shoots HD videos. And this is what Shinjuku Wald 9 is like at 11pm.
This is Kobayashi-sensei returning to her booth outside the screening hall.
And I started to play around with the focusing of the camera. It took quite a while to get used to.
Decided to take the very first self-portrait with the camera.
After that I took a walk outside to see how good the night photos would look. (no, bicycle ain't mine)
Hours went by during the festival.
As you can see, by the time it was around 3, the sky was starting to light up.
Seki-kun had fallen asleep. But remained vigilant in his efforts to promote Kawahara-san's film "Aho Whisky". (Even though he didn't really know it)
By the time it's half past four in the morning. The sun has already risen.
Check it out on video!
I left at 5am, catching the first train home. I was too tired to really stay on for Tokyo University of Arts' screening. I then woke up to the sound of my mobile phone ringing. It was Maiko, she had tried calling me a few times. She told me that Waseda University, which was represented by KINGYO and Kawahara's 'Aho Whisky', had gotten the silver prize for the festival's competition. I didn't even know there was really a competition. But it was a joyous news.
The work-in-progress version of Kingyo finally had its test screening at the Fuyajo Cinema Festival in Wald 9 last night (or technically, this morning, since it was screened at 12am)
A couple of the cast and crew came.
I was happy to see main actress Luchino Fujisaki again. We just ran into each other at the elevator.
Here's a photo of her with Maiko the Producer and I.
(Luchino also had a brief blog entry about her thoughts just before the screening. It's in Japanese though)
We then took a group photo, this time with Lia the Artist/ Asst Director/ Production Designer's much nicer camera.
(back row from left to right: Maiko the Producer, the musician Koh Ishibashi who played the street musician in KINGYO, and Kawamura-san who generously lent us his house for the shoot.
front row from left to right: Luchino the star, me, and Lia the Artist/ Asst Director/ Production Designer)
It was also a pleasant surprise to see many others attending the screening for support, like Keiko, whom I haven't met for a year, and also the elderly Tatsumi Dorm manager (I thought he was kidding when he said he would come, he wasn't) Jason was there too, along with his friend Alex. Maiko had many friends who came along, even her mom and sister were there. Of course, the entire gang from Ando's Lab (that's where I'm in at Waseda) were present too.
I guess the screening went pretty smoothly. Spotted some stuff that we had to work on with the sound, but other than that, I was really surprised to hear the sound of applause during the end credits since audiences were quite silent during the films that aired before KINGYO.
The festival ended at 6:30 in the morning. I went back with Maiko so I could say hello to her mom, who left after the KINGYO screening.
Maiko's Mom gave me her homemade cookies.
They were mindblowingly delicious! (finished eating the entire packet before I started to type out this blog post)
(I hope I can get my hands on the photos of me during the Q and A session)
It's a little sad that I learned of both deaths within minutes of each other. David Carradine was found hanging in his hotel room at Bangkok (article here, either it was suicide or a sex game gone wrong). He was 72.
Shih Kien (or Shek Kin) died of kidney failure (Chinese article here). He was 96.
David Carradine is remembered by most as the star of the 1970s TV show KUNG FU, but I've never seen that, I only remember him more for the mid-90s 'sequel' KUNG FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, and of course, the KILL BILL films.
Bill's Superman speech in Kill Bill
As for Shih Kien, he's a HK screen icon who was known for playing villains. Western audiences may remember him more for playing the last baddie, the claw-wielding Han, in Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon.
Enter The Dragon final fight
I remember reading a tweet last night regarding Carradine that said "Kung Fu masters don't die, they just kick ass in a different realm of existence." But for me, I'll apply the line to both Carradine and Shek Kin.
I was taking a walk around Bic Camera Yurakucho, checking out cameras and stuff when something in the distance caught my eye. I saw an old man sitting before one of the electronic pianos, pounding the keyboard relentlessly, and some shop assistants were looking at him.
Curious, I approached the scene and started hearing a complicated classical piano piece being played by the old man, his hands rising up and down swiftly, his fingers a flurry of motion. A young woman stood nearby, taking one photo after another.
I wondered whether the old man was a famous pianist, because the young woman seemed like a reporter. She was snapping photos, asking the old man to pose, and there was also a notepad in her hand. Or could the young woman be an enthusiastic relative? A daughter? Or granddaughter? Trying to cajole the old man into action?
Suddenly the 1996 film SHINE crossed my mind. The one which Geoffrey Rush won an Oscar for playing real-life pianist David Helfgott, who suffered a mental breakdown during a piano performance and spent years in institutions, slightly crazy, until during his latter years he got his crap together with the help of his love and had a comeback concert.
A scene from SHINE
Then I thought it wasn't cool to think that the old man's a reclusive crazy piano genius, and because everyone except the young woman were keeping a respectful distance away from the two, I didn't dare to venture too close as well. The photo taken above was done secretly, as the old man continued playing the piano, I merely sneaked a peek, and pretended to be examining the Optimus Prime toys nearby. But he was playing for only a few more moments before leaving with the woman.
Machine Girl of TWITCH had a very nice write-up of KINGYO.
His latest effort, Kingyo (Goldfish), is based on Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata’s 1924 short story, Canaries, and boy, has Yeo improved by leaps and bounds. That poetic mood that Yeo was reaching for two years ago (in student film Girl Disconnected) is very strongly realised in this poignant 25-minute short film, which cleverly uses split-screens to tell its story of two former lovers who meet again to discover a shared guilt.
If the work-in-progress cut which Yeo kindly unveiled to me is anything to go by, I think it’s safe to say that Kingyo might be the breakthrough film for him. Already, Marc Saint-Cyr of Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow calls Kingyo “a rich and stunning film that chooses to approach emotionally complex themes from a strictly cinematic standpoint and emerges triumphant.”
Kingyo will definitely be a worthy addition to Yeo’s growing body of work - Chicken Rice Mystery (2008) went to the Dubai International Film Festival and the Naoussa International Film Festival, while this year’s Love Suicides will be heading to the Festival Internazionale del Cinema d’Arte in Italy and the Paris Cinema International Film Festival. He’s also known as the associate producer of Woo Ming Jin’s award-winning The Elephant And The Sea, and is producer/editor for Woo’s upcoming Woman On Fire Looks For Water.
Edmund Yeo ('Swifty') is a Malaysian filmmaker. He has written and directed a few short films that were screened in numerous film festivals, like CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY (winner of two awards at BMW Shorties 2008 and selected for competition at the Dubai International Film Festival 2008), FLEETING IMAGES (Grand Prix winner of Japan's CON-CAN Movie Festival 2009), LOVE SUICIDES (selected for competition at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival 2009 and Split International Film Festival 2009) and KINGYO (selected for competition at the Venice Film Festival 2009). He also produced telemovies like CINTA TIGA SEGI and KURUS (DAYS OF THE TURQUOISE SKY), and the films THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA and WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER. He currently lives in Tokyo. (read more about me here)
When I woke up this morning and saw the news of Michael Jackson's death, I was quite affected by it. I grew up as a fan. As a child I listened to all the cassette tapes I had with me then, OFF THE WALL, THRILLER and BAD. I didn't know how it all started, I can't remember. The King of Pop then was at the pinnacle of his popularity, television was often dominated by his electrifying performances, or the music videos.
![[3PM] Mika hiding from Terada](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3614/3641238691_8b70a3183e.jpg)
![[3PM] Mika hiding from Terada 2](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3316/3642048434_1b2c05691e.jpg)
![[3PM] Mika (Yumiko Kitazawa) listens to music](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3662/3641239969_d976925f0f.jpg)
![[Love Suicides] The girl (Arika Lee) looks at the sea](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3390/3180113882_157f234c0a.jpg)
![[kingyo] Standing on the bridge of Akihabara](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3662/3317506223_21b5ff9464.jpg)
