Official Hello

I'm officially saying Hello to all here on AnD. I'm very excited to be releasing my second film "The Drummer" in October all over Asia and sharing the process here with you all. For those who have not read my blogs, the germ of the film arose at the end of the year 2000 when I saw a performance group from Taiwan called U Theatre. The performance so shook me that I had to find out everything about them. I did and now I have a film to show for it. There are many element taken from their lives albeit now fictionalised and dramatized. In the end, the story is not just about them but about what they mean...

The reason I made this film is so personal. After the performance where the drummers only drummed and didn't say a word, I felt as if they said so much to me. I liken it to a martial arts master coming into a room full of sloppy young people and he stands there without saying anything but deadly serious, the vibe will get across to the young people and they would be prompted to stand up as a sign of respect simply because of his presence.

I felt the urge to stand up but when one has been sitting for many years, it's hard getting used to standing up and looking at yourself. The scrīpt was a result of that. It is the most perosnal and ambitious film I've done so far.

It stars many friends of AnD, Jaycee Chan, Josie Ho, Eugenia Yuan, Phat from Hardpack as a brief appearance at the beginning of the film.

The Drummer had a tremendous reception at the Locrano International Film Festival about 2 weeks ago. Aside from the crowd loving Jaycee Chan, the film got second place in the audience award. Audience awards are usually given comedies. In this case, first place was black comedy Death at the Funeral by Frank Oz, 2nd place, The Drummer and 3rd place Hairspray. We were sandwiched between two comedies. It was highly unexpected that a serious Chinese drama almost won the audience award and we were very close to winning, so the festival decided to announce The Drummer as the second place.

I'm not one to keep tabs on these things but I was genuinely shocked that so many people voted for us.