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Malaysian star Lee Sinje has two jobs at the 10th Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival.
She co-wrote and co-produced “Dead Tide,” which world premiered in the Hidden Dragons competition for
Chinese-language films, and she sits on the jury for the Crouching Tigers international competition.
Lee, who also acts on stage, returns to theater after the festival closes on Sept. 30 in Edward Lam’s musical “The Xue Baochai Moments,” adapted from “Dream of the Red Chamber.” It runs in Hong Kong Nov. 13–15. In December, she heads back to Malaysia to star in a horror film.
Directed by Kethsvin Chee, who co-wrote the script with Lee, “Dead Tide” is a bleak story of a sudden romance between a woman driven to madness by abuse and a man just released from prison. The project was selected for the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), where it won the La Fonte Award.
In 2023, Lee and Chee each directed an episode of the education documentary series “Dear Child, How Are You?” Chee’s passion for filmmaking and his earnestness drew Lee into a second collaboration.
“The origin of the story is the director, of course,” Lee tells Variety.
Lee grew up in a small town, where she saw people with mental illness struggle without access to medical care. “I felt for these people who were trapped in the mental prison. So when this story came, I realized it could be a great opportunity to talk about them,” she says.
Chee says he took on much of Lee’s advice at the script stage, along with her challenges. “Sometimes we wrote from night until early morning, scrapping the previous draft and restarting. She led me like my tutor,” he tells Variety.
Lee describes her job as a screenwriter as “just to assist [Chee] to refine it, adding layers to the protagonists. We balanced each other very well.” She says the two never fought, and that she plans to use her resources to nurture more new Malaysian talent.
Lee’s first feature as director, “Wanita” – Malay for “woman” – wrapped shortly before Pingyao. Oxide Pang edited the film in parallel with the shoot. Now in post-production, with no AI assistance, it is expected to be completed next spring in time for festival submissions.
Directing has been Lee’s dream since her 20s, and she has written four or five scripts, but the decision took her a long time.
“It’s also struggling [because] I’m a, you know, experienced actress and I have some reputation in this industry. So, there must be fears and struggles when I wanted to start a new position,” she says.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee read Abbas Kiarostami’s books and found courage in them. “Men just take action, so that’s why I made the decision,” she says.
Lee co-wrote “Wanita” with Malaysian writer Ang Siew Hoong. Of the two stories she weighed for her debut, “one was my own story, the other is about other women. I chose the other women’s story because I think it’s very important to [speak] up for them. They have difficulties and I hope that I can create some awareness [for] the new generation’s women to make a change.”
Lee says she doesn’t set out to tell only women’s stories, aiming instead for convincing, nuanced characters.
“At least for my first or second [feature], I still focus on women’s issues. It’s something to do with my own growth and life experience. But every time when I write about a female story, it gives me an opportunity to really delve [into myself],” she says. “And I’ve always tried to balance the existence between female and male characters in my story.”
Of her jury duty, Lee says: “It’s very important to know how [new filmmakers] tell stories, keeping me updated with the business’ newest vision. There were quite a few experimental films this year that broke the traditional method of storytelling, and they helped open my mind, too.”
