Da Huang Pictures︱Presents
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'In What City' is still in script development stage. Currently we are looking for fundings and have already applied for a few grants.
This project is going to be interesting and challenging but it will not take place without a proper budget because of its costly happenings and arts. Until we secure some money to get started with, it remains just an idea, dead.
The very first idea of In What City Does It Live? is inspired by a real story of a Malay man who gathered men from his village to carry an abandoned wooden Malay house back to his house as a wedding gift for his daughter. This peculiar method of relocating a house is practiced in some Malay kampungs in Malaysia. Traditional Malay houses are built and raised on stilts. Some are not planted in the ground, thus making it possible of shifting from one place to another. This film deals with the cohesive spirit of the Malay community in a kampong and also touches on the superstitious belief of the Malays, who are in fact staunch Muslims.
A love story. At first sight maybe a simple love story. About how blind a girl in love can be. Slowly but unavoidable the story will become less simple, will raise more questions without giving too many answers.
A special gaze on an ordinary love story....that is director Tan Chui Mui`s gaze on the subtle emotions of love. Aping has moved to Kuala Lumpur from Penang and works at her aunt`s restaurant. She frequently calls her boyfriend in Penang to overcome her loneliness in the strange city. When she starts dating the persistent John she begins to experience subtle emotional changes.
From this moment onwards, director Tan Chui Mui starts analyzing Aping`s complicated psyche. Even after Aping falls in love with John, she still calls her boyfriend and tells him - in front of John - that she loves him. Is love merely an expedient means for Aping to overcome her loneliness?
To express such subtle and complicated moments, Tan Chui Mui embeds painful depictions of Aping`s loneliness throughout the film. Aping`s non-expressiveness has an appealing, listless quality that one sometimes senses in a late afternoon. Can Aping overcome all things through love? The film`s final twist makes us aware of its paradoxical title. This debut piece by a female director is remarkable in its portrayal of the peculiar flow of hushed emotions.
(Kim Ji-seok)
......I understand better now why you told me in Locarno you wanted to explore cinema by many ways... I can't say "Love Conquers All" is completely achieved but I'm impressed by so many things that the film confirms completely the talent shown with the 3 gifted shorts I saw in Locarno.
First of all, your actress encapsulates many emotions emerging secretly as a woman taken by "love". Till the end, we still asking ourselves what means "love", what can be the reasons to research love, to be loved, what to sacrify for love. Thanks to you, we enter the intimacy of that young girl with (almost) no past and with an uncertain future. Love conquers all, or love destroys everything, or love deceives all?
I particularly appreciated your sense of timing. As many filmmakers you probably don't know, you succeed to play with time - and time passing, and waitings - to express different inner feelings. Many shots are still in my memory. If they exist so strongly, it's also because they have the right length, their own identity, sometimes their own violence (particularly at the end). When you shoot for instance your actress accepting to see a man for getting money, we just see her back and the guy, then her shoulders. We guess all. And you cut to her face in/out the car. Impressive! We guess then she was kicked, maybe violated. And again a long shot when she goes with the same famous black dress to the sea. I could quote many other scenes where I feel you are filmmaking with an great sensitiveness and a personal point of view on human beings....
Warm regards
Philippe

As a person, I'm always interested in small stories that are filled with big emotions and complex characters, but as a filmmaker, I don't always choose to present those emotions and feelings in a very direct manner, especially as emotions tend to be very subjective matters that are entirely dependent on personal experience. But I am very interested in complex characters and situations where very little stands between what's right or wrong. I'm most interested in how these characters feel and what they need, especially characters who are guided by desperation, anxiety, passion and love.
In my movies, my characters are always deeply affected by dreams, and so it is again in Before We Fall In Love Again, a film set mostly in the night, and where the journey of the two male leads takes place in both a very familiar and unreal landscape. It's a place where the possibilities of their existences and that of the woman they both love might be nothing more pieces of memories, the dreams of memories. Their search for the truth proceeds only from the information provided by their memories. Trapped in an unreal state, or a state in which reality remains only in its most basic forms, both men need to wake up in order to continue with their normal lives.
Photographed in black and white meant to align the emotions of the characters with the moods and atmosphere of their surroundings, the film allows these characters to remain like beautiful passionate lovers trapped in a bleak black & white film, where only by rediscovering their frozen human emotions will they finally recover the capability to live, laugh and love.
BEFORE WE FALL IN LOVE AGAIN is a movie about dreaming your memories and recovering from betrayal in the strangest possible ways.
James Lee,
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, June 2006.

Amy Len as LING YUE
A contemporary dancer and dance instructor, Amy Len performs with variety of established dance companies in Kuala Lumpur. She's also involved in experimental theatre performances, including the recent "Chicken Parts" series. Onscreen, Len has appeared in several of director James Lee.

Pete Teo as TONG
One of the foremost outspoken young musicians in the Malaysian indie music scene today, Pete Teo is (in the words of Marco Werman)not your typical singer-songwriter. He's composed theme music for Channel 4 TV in London, taught Social Theory at the London School of Economics, and led a Cantonese pop band in Hong Kong. Then he gave up music and became a financial analyst in Kuala Lumpur, and later, a project manager. Then his marriage ended and old friend and record producer, Leo Fung, came to visit. The result was a sensational indie record by the name of Rustic Living For Urbanites, which has since spawned a Top-10 single in Malaysia and received glowing reviews all over the world.
Teo caught the acting bug when he was invited to play a cameo role in director Ho Yuhang's section of the anthology ghost film, Visits. Teo has also appeared in a number of recent Malaysian short films, including director/producer Tan Chui Mui's award-winning A Tree In Tanjung Malim, which sees him effectively playing a beautiful loser, and in Ho Yuhang's new feature, Rain Dogs. Pete is currently in the midst of preparing for his second solo album, TELEVISION. For more information about Pete Teo click here.

Chye Chee Keong as CHANG
A versatile actor whose work appears in many TV dramas, Chye Chee Keong is also quite active in Malaysian independent short films. Before We Fall In Love Again is his first venture into indie features, and provides him with a very challenging and twisted role.

01. INT. CHANG'S APARTMENT (BEDROOM) NIGHT:
Chang is lying on the bed. A woman whispered; 'Hey...' Chang turns and sees Ling Yue next to him. Chang just looks at her with a calming smile. Ling Yue says; 'I love you.' Chang is still lying on the bed like from the beginning, his eyes close. He slowly opens his eyes. He is alone on the bed in the room. Chang is now seated on the bed. He's looking at the wardrobe that is open. Inside we see Ling Yue's dress hanging neatly.
02. INT. CHANG'S APARTMENT (DINING AREA/BEDROOM) MORNING:
The bread pops out from the toaster. Chang is dressed up for work. He had prepared breakfast for two. Chang takes the bread buttered it and ate it. He takes a sip of coffee. He then walks to the bedroom door and peeks into the room. There is no one in the bedroom. The bed is properly made.

12. INT. HOTEL ROOM, NIGHT:
Tong is standing near the door. Ling Yue is standing in the middle of the room with her back to Tong. Then she turns and face Tong. They both just stand there and look at each other sometimes with glances that indicate that both of them are nervous and embarrassed.
Ling Yue walks to Tong and hugs him. Ling Yue gives a sigh of relief. Tong embraces her too. They stayed there for a while with no movement.
They're now slowly touching their lips to lips. They kiss passionately.
Now they're both seated on the bed. Both look uncomfortable and unsure.
They kiss again. They end up lying on the bed and continuing kissing. They're not stopping this time.

06. EXT. STREET, NIGHT:
Chang is now walking back to his apartment. It's quiet and empty like every usual night. He passes to the sky bridge. Chang wanders around in the neighborhood. It's quiet. The street is empty.

08. INT. CHANG'S APARTMENT (DINING AREA) NIGHT:
Both Chang and Tong are seated on a sofa. In between them is the coffee table and two cups of coffee. Tong takes a sip. Tong explains to Chang the whole story about his relationship with Ling Yue.

31. INT. HOTEL ROOM, NIGHT:
Tong is buttoning up Ling Yue's shirt. Tong is in his underwear.
TONG: 'Why did you love me?'
LING YUE: 'I don't know.'
Silent

From left: Chye Chee Keong, Amy Len and Pete Teo
More photos on doghouse73 flickr.
Get Before we fall in love again's DVD here!
Date: 17th September 2006 ( Sunday )
Time: 3:00pm
Venue: KL PAC Indecine
Ticket Price: RM10 (Student RM5)
How to get to KLPAC?

DA HUANG PICTURES SDN. BHD.
Da Huang Pictures Sdn Bhd
No 4, Jalan SS1/20A,
Kg. Tunku,
47300 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia
Tel:+603-2273 9496*/ +603 7877 1064
Fax:+603-2274 9496*
*to be changed on 14 July 2008
Email:
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Assistant Producer:
Nikki Tok (Admin & Film Festival)
nikki@dahuangpictures.com
Allie Chan (Marketing & Publicity)
allie@dahuangpictures.com
Filmmakers:
Amir Muhammad
kancah2001@yahoo.com
Liew Seng Tat
liew.sengtat@gmail.com
Tan Chui Mui
tanchuimui@gmail.com
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Synopsis:
It has been a month Chang's wife Ling Yue has been missing. With no reasons one fine day she went to work as usual and then never returns. No one knows where she went or what had happened to her. Chang could not figure out why she disappears out of the sudden. She left no message of whatever kind or clues. One day a man named Tong shows up and claims to be Ling Yues lover. Apparently Tong is looking for Ling Yue too. In a turn of event both men formed an uneasy alliance in order to find Ling Yue.
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