A Tan of success

TAN Ce Ding was one decision away from missing his true calling. Nominated for eight awards, his short film Hawa snagged the grand prize as well as the Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Sound Design awards at the 2016 BMW Shorties, a prestigious local short film competition.
Hawa narrates an interracial friendship between a zombie-infected young Malay girl and a carefree Chinese boy in a post-apocalyptic Malaysia. Emblematic of the journey human relationships go through and the threats they face, this zombie-themed film showcased Tan’s ability as a director. Yet these accomplishments would not have happened if he did not persist in his studies.
“Even though I’ve always loved watching movies, when I was younger I never imagined that I would end up in the film industry. I only took up performing arts in university because it sounded fun. However, the syllabus covered both theatre and film, whereby we had to study the theory and history of the former in our first semester.
“It was a culture shock, and needless to say, I fared badly to the point where I even considered switching course. Luckily I didn’t because I discovered the magic of film-making in the subsequent semester,” the 26-year-old elaborated.
From then on, he developed a passion for making films and became an ardent participant of BMW Shorties. Tan and his team were shortlisted in the top 10 for five years before finally winning it.
“I am happy that Hawa won because BMW Shorties is the first competition that I joined since I started making films, so winning it has always been a goal. Now that I have achieved this, it’s time to aim for something bigger,” expressed the freelance commercial director.
If you’re given a chance to change one thing about Hawa, would you revise anything?
Yes, but I’ll add scenes rather than alter it. Up until today, I still have a strong desire to develop Hawa (the protagonist)’s background – what her life is like before the apocalypse, her relationship with her family, etc.
The premise of Hawa resembles the late Yasmin Ahmad’s Sepet. Do you agree with this observation?
We love Yasmin Ahmad a lot, and she inspires us tremendously. However, there’s no such thing as pure and original ideas anymore – everything has been done, so the emphasis is actually on how you make these ideas your own. Sepet is not the first movie on interracial relationships, and neither is a post-apocalyptic world a fresh topic, but by combining these two themes in Hawa, we created something that has not been done before.
In your opinion, are Malaysians appreciative of home-grown films?
If we compare with other Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, or the Philippines, then our local support is definitely lagging behind. Nonetheless, we need to keep in mind that our film industry is not as developed as theirs and we can’t expect the audience to blindly support if the film’s quality is not up to par. Having said that, I’d still encourage Malaysians to support local films by watching them at the cinema.
From the perspective of a film-maker, how do you define a good film?
I think there’s no objective answer to this, as films are very much subjective and dependent on the person watching. We can, of course, judge it from many factors, including acting skills, plot, camera works and more. But an excellent movie usually has a fine combination of these elements, with its storyline being a vital aspect.
Basing off the positive momentum that Hawa has created, what can we expect from you this year?
Besides my usual commercial work, my two main projects are the BMW-funded film and developing Hawa into a feature-length movie. These are my priorities for now, and while I’ll definitely finish the former by the end of the year, the latter is more of a long-term project with an indefinite deadline.

TRIVIA
Favourite films: Alien, The Lord of the Ring series, and Old Boy.
Favourite local film-makers: Yasmin Ahmad and Dain Said.
Dream cast: Matthew McConaughey, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Jessica Chastain.
Hardest genre to make: Dark comedy.
Film-making style: Sci-fi and futuristic