Singaporean director Anthony Chen, whose producing credits include the Singapore-Korea co-production “Ajoomma,” is returning to Korean-connected territory with a new project.
Speaking at a Shanghai International Film Festival masterclass alongside frequent collaborator Yeo Yann Yann, Chen revealed he has been collaborating on a script with a Korean writer for about two years – as the two reflected on the 14-year journey through his “Growing Up” trilogy of films “Ilo Ilo,” “Wet Season,” and “We Are All Strangers.”
Together with actor Koh Jia Ler, the trio have formed a cinema family of sorts across the three films, with the bond seeing all three through different seasons in their lives. When Chen shot “Ilo Ilo,” he was in his 20s and Yeo was just about to become a mother. By “We Are All Strangers,” he has also become a father and is 40; she is almost 50.
“In these three movies, it recorded our different age groups, our experiences, our dreams, our hopes, and our anger,” said Yeo.
Yeo revealed that Chen had strong reservations about her playing the lead in “Ilo Ilo” when she told him she was having her first child. Chen eventually rewrote the role to accommodate her pregnancy, and got her consent to film it for the final film. By “Wet Season,” she was coming out of postpartum depression.“It had already started to get better, and I could start working. So to me, it was also a very big turning point in life, because postpartum depression almost crushed me, almost making it impossible for me to live on,” Yeo said.
