'Moonlight Shadow' director Edmund Yeo praises the Japanese work ethic and the dedication of producers

CULTURE / Film

‘Moonlight Shadow’ director Edmund Yeo praises the Japanese work ethic and the dedication of producers

One of the films that captured Edmund Yeo's heart as a child was Studio Ghibli's 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky.' He spent three days watching it over and over again.

By Florentyna Leow
Contributing writer

Apr 4, 2022

Malaysian director Edmund Yeo would rather get a 9-to-5 job than be a boring, corporate filmmaker.

“The films we’re exposed to in Malaysia are so limited that people can only accept a very narrow idea of what cinema is,” he says. “You can’t challenge or question anything. There’s a shortage of what you can express through cinema.”

Yeo seems to be accomplishing what he set out to do, his body of work — far from being boring or corporate — includes 2017’s “Aqerat” (“We, The Dead”), which won him the best director prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and 2020’s “Malu,” which landed Japanese actors Kiko Mizuhara and Masatoshi Nagase as part of the cast. Most recently, Yeo helmed a full-length adaptation of the Banana Yoshimoto short story “Moonlight Shadow.”