Bitterness between sisters

MALAYSIAN filmmaker Edmond Yeo will be premiering his third feature film Malu at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) taking place in Japan from Oct 31 to Nov 9. Then on Nov 13, his film will open in Japanese cinemas.

This is not the first time he has created waves in Japan. In 2017, he became the first Malaysian to walk away with the Best Director award for his second feature film Aqerat, which focuses on human traficking, at the same festival.

Malu, a Malaysian-Japanese-French co-production, deals with similar dark themes. It follows the turbulent relationship between sisters Hong and Lan (played by MayJune Tan and Sherlyn Seo).

Their grandmother wanted to take the young sisters from their unstable and destructive mother, but she only managed to rescue the older one.

Years later, after the death of their mother, the separated siblings reunite as adults. The elder sister is now a filmmaker, while the younger sister works in a hair salon as a shampoo girl.

Unfortunately, the reunion is not a happy one. It stirs up some bitter memories and creates hostility between the sisters.

Explaining the philosophy behind his movies, the 36-year-old filmmaker says: “My films are like my diaries. I am just expressing my emotions in my films. I usually ask questions in my films. But I do not necessarily provide the answers to those questions.”

He is fully aware that the themes he tackles in his films are not commercial enough to be accepted in this country.

“Personally speaking, I never differentiate between an art movie and a commercial movie,” he says.

“I watch and enjoy all kinds of films, including the Avengers film series.”

His biggest challenge in completing Malu was the logistics. During the 20-day film shoot, he spent seven days shooting in Malaysia, and the rest of the time in Japan. Shooting between Japan and Malaysia was an arduous process, and required a lot of detailed planning.

His next film will be a Japanese film, featuring a cast and crew that is more than 90% Japanese. Currently, he is not at liberty to discuss his new movie at length.

The only information he is willing to share is that the movie will be adapted from a novel by prolific Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto, whom Yeo admires and respects.

“The theme of the film deals with the death of a loved one,” he says.

“This time around, my movie will be a little more hopeful.”

He is also in the midst of developing a script that focuses on the formation of Malaysia in 1963. He intends to tell this historical story of our country with fantasy elements. There will be vampires (pontianak) and a talking mouse deer.

“It will involve magical realism,” he says.

His concept for the film is similiar to Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.

Since his youth, Yeo has wanted to be a filmmaker, telling stories to the world. His father, who was a music producer, and his mother, who was a singer before becoming a housewife, did not object to his dream.

He says: “Of course my mother would prefer for me to choose a more stable career. Jokingly, I told her that it was her fault that I became a filmmaker because her artistic blood runs in my veins.”

As a young adult, he was forced to hide his ambition from his friends, his relatives and even strangers.

“I could not express my dream freely,” he says.

“There is little appreciation for the arts in this country. They kept asking me if I could earn enough money as a filmmaker.

“They kept asking if I was making the right career choice. They put doubts in me for choosing filmmaking as my career.

“But I am rebellious by nature. The more that people asked me to stand down, the more I wanted to do it. I learned to block all negative thoughts.

One advice he would like to give to other young filmmakers is to never self-censor.

“I get extremely disappointed when I hear of a young filmmaker who wouldn’t dare touch a certain subject because he or she is afraid of censorship,” he says.

“You should think outside of the box. You should believe that you are a citizen of the world, and that your film belongs to the world.”

His other advice is to read as much as possible.

“Some of the best directors in the business are ardent readers, and they get their inspiration from literature,” he says.

“If you cannot read a book, how are you going to read a script? I have lived many lives through reading. I believe reading gives you imagination.”