Chui Mui Tan

San Francisco International Film Festival wrote:
Director Tan Chui Mui returned to her birthplace, a quiet and remote Malaysian fishing village, to film Year Without a Summer, a story of boyhood friends who reunite after a long separation. Steeped in the rhythms of the sea, their story develops slowly and mysteriously, in a meditative tone that illuminates the poetry and emotion of their lives. Beginning with the arrival of Azam, now an adult on the tail end of a successful singing career in Kuala Lumpur, the film weaves together flashbacks to reveal the circumstances of their relationship, as Ali and his wife take Azam on a nighttime boat trip to an uninhabited island. Read More »

Divorced and exhausted, retired actress Moon Lee is offered the chance of a comeback as the lead of a do-your-own stunts martial arts film.Read More »

Zi Kien and his mother Ah Lin have only each other in their life until one day Ah Lin has a new boyfriend. Zi Kien feels that his place in Ah Lin’s life is threatened, and he starts to change himself.Read More »

Quote:
Like that famous saying, Tan Chui Mui speaks softly, but she carries a big stick. Her films are quiet little affairs, but boy, do they pack an emotional wallop. She has a knack for easing you into a situation, and getting you deeply involved with her characters. I liken it to Nabokov, who can say a thousand things in one sentence. Tan can create such emotional push-and-pull between her characters without them saying much. It’s all in the doing, not the uttering. Show, not tell. And she does it beautifully.Read More »