Edmund Yeo's "Kingyo" to compete at the 66th Venice Film Festival

by Chris MaGee

Okay, better late than never, I guess. I could go on and blather about how busy I've been getting the Shinsedai Cinema Festival ready for its opening this weekend, and yadda-yadda-yadda, but there's really no excuse for waiting so long to report on such a big development for one of the longtime friends of the J-Film Pow-Wow.

25-year-old Malaysian-born, Tokyo-based filmmaker Edmund Yeo is having a dream come true next month when his half-hour short film "Kingyo" will be in competition at the 66th Annual Venice Film Festival. "Kingyo", which is Japanese for goldfish, is Yeo's contemporary take on the classic short story "Canaries" by Nobel Prize-winning author Yasunari Kawabata and follows a teacher who is looking back on his affair with a female student and the gift of a pair of canaries she gave him. Yeo swapped out goldfish for canaries, but masterfully explored the guilt of the main character who must now decide what to do with these pets after his wife, who cared for them, passes away.

We at the Pow-Wow were honoured when Yeo agreed to let us screen an early cut of the film here in Toronto in May (read Marc Saint-Cyr's review of "Kingyo" here) and we're all overjoyed at Edmund's latest success. Best of luck, Edmund! Here's hoping you bring a trophy home.

Read our full interview with Edmund Yeo about his work and "Kingyo" here.