FILMS/
FLOWER IN THE POCKET
New Directors
Malaysia, 2007, 97 minutes
SHOWTIMES
Sat, May 3 / 3:00 / PFA / FLWR03P
Mon, May 5 / 3:45 / Kabuki / FLWR05K
Thu, May 8 / 6:00 / Kabuki / FLWR08K
CREDITS
- dir
-
Liew Seng Tat
- prod
-
Michelle Lo Yen San
- scr
-
Liew Seng Tat
- cam
-
Albert Hue See Leong
- editor
-
Liew Seng Tat
- mus
-
Arif Rafhan Othman
- cast
-
James Lee, Wong Zi Jiang, Lim Ming Wei, Amira Nasuha Binti Shahiran
- source
-
Da Huang Pictures Sdn Bhd, 118A, Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad, Off Jalan Tun Sambanthan, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. FAX: +603 2274 9496. EMAIL: info@dahuangpictures.com
Young Chinese brothers Li Ohm and Li Ah spend their time underperforming in school, playing with a puppy they find in the street and befriending a tomboyish Muslim girl named Ayu. What’s missing from their lives is parents. Their absent mother has separated from their remote and taciturn father, who frets about his medical condition, generally keeps to himself and seems more concerned with the mannequins he makes and repairs than with his real life sons. But he is not uncaring and, in his idiosyncratic way, comes to assume his parental responsibilities in the end. In his first feature, director Liew Seng Tat again exhibits the quirky humor that marked his short films, while using the longer format to develop his talent for observation. Building on the basic contrasts in multiracial Malaysian society, Liew carefully distinguishes Ayu’s warm and loving household from the Li family’s barren lives. Meanwhile, leading Malaysian indie filmmaker James Lee (Beautiful Washing Machine) reminds us of his acting roots by turning in a superbly nuanced performance as the brooding, darkly eccentric father, given to moments of compulsion and perplexity as he swings between rejection and need. This may be a film about sons, but it’s the father who faces the fear of growing up.
—Roger Garcia
In Malay and Mandarin with English subtitles. Presented in association with the Malaysian Professional and Business Association. New Directors Prize contender. West Coast Premiere. Sponsored by Hotel Adagio.
