Monday, November 28, 2011

Four Films by Edmund Yeo Shown Online as Part of Yxine Film Fest

by Marc Saint-Cyr

Anyone who visits the Pow-Wow on a somewhat regular basis will probably have noticed our frequently-expressed enthusiasm for the work of Edmund Yeo, a Malaysian filmmaker who is based in Tokyo and has thus far produced an impressive number of moving, beautifully crafted short films. Yeo frequently travels to film festivals around the world to present his work, yet those who cannot attend such events don't have many other options for seeing them for themselves...until now, that is. The Yxine Film Festival is a Vietnam-based online festival which showcases short films from exciting upcoming filmmakers from around the world. This year, it is devoting part of its In Focus section to Yeo by showing four of his films: "Love Suicides" (2009), "Kingyo" (2009), "The White Flower" (2010) and "Inhalation" (2010). Yeo frequently moves between Malaysia and Japan to make his films, and has freely drawn from both cultures in terms of shooting locations, source material and other factors such as actors and production resources. Both "Love Suicides" and "Kingyo" are based on short stories by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, with the latter shot in the Akihabara area of Tokyo. "The White Flower" was inspired by a Kawabata story, was partially shot in Tokyo and features a Japanese actor, Toru Inamura, appearing along with Chinese actress Zhu Dan and Thai actor Kong Pahurak (who recently served as a cinematographer on Yeo's latest effort, "Last Fragments of Winter").

It appears the festival will be wrapping up on December 12th, so make sure to squeeze in some time to catch these fantastic films before then (not to mention the considerable selection from other filmmakers featured on the site)!

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