Congratulations to everyone involved in making the film. Malaysia Boleh!
Back in 2012, Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng published the novel ‘The Garden Of Evening Mists’ that would shoot him to stardom in the internationally literary scene. Following the success of his first novel, ‘The Gift of Rain’ which has now been translated to 9 languages worldwide, his second novel ‘The Garden Of Evening Mists’ was critically acclaimed and won him the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize. We’re so proud of you Twan Eng!
Of course, with the success of the novel and the setting of the story in post-Japanese occupied Malaya, many have courted Twan Eng to adapt the novel into a full-length feature film. Ultimately, a film adaptation was made and it was produced by Astro Shaw and HBO Asia with full support from the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) in association with CJ Entertainment.
Making it debut in the big screen last year, the film was released to critical acclaim as well. The latest accolade that the film received was winning the Best Feature Film at the Asian Academy Creative Awards (AACA) yesterday!
Held online yesterday due to the pandemic, The Garden Of Evening Mists beat out fierce competition from four other films for the award which were:
- Mariposa (Indonesia).
- Stranger’s House (Myanmar).
- Hello Love Goodby (Philippines).
- Dear Orange (Taiwan).
Subsequent to winning the award, Astro Shaw and Nusantara head Raja Jastina Raja Arshad thanked the AACA jury member for the award. As reported by NST, she was quoted of saying,
“Our gratitude also goes out to the novelist Tan Twan Eng who won the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize for the novel which the film had been adapted from. Thanks to Richard Smith for the perfect script, to the cast Lee Sin-je, Hiroshi Abe and Sylvia Chang,”
Awesome! We hope that the Malaysian film scene continue to evolve and receive many more international recognition in the future.
Also read: This Malaysian Film Just Received NINE Nominations At The 56th Golden Horse Awards!