12 Mar - Wee Li Lin is no ordinary shopaholic. There is more to this short fimmaker behind the exuberant, happy disposition. At the press conference of her first feature film "Gone Shopping" held in GSC, Mid Valley on 6 March 2009, Cinema Online was lucky to get the bubbly director to sit down and talk about the movie, her future projects and also her love for the departmental store Tangs.
Q: First thing first, are you a shopaholic? A: I'm afraid so (laugh). I AM a shopaholic. Q: What's your favourite shopping mall here in Malaysia? A: Here I usually go to 1 Utama. I also went to the Twin Towers (Suria KLCC) but it's quite pricey. And I love going to Pavilion because they have Tangs. (laughs) Q: Other than directing, you also produce and write the script. What inspired you to write it? I mean, why the subject of shopping? A: I looked at my life in Singapore and realised that all the pivotal moments in my life often seems to happen in shopping malls even when I'm not there to shop - just to go see someone, or see the doctor or the dentist, so I really wanted to look at the space of shopping centre and how it influence people's lives. That's where my inspiration comes from. Q: You've done almost everything - associate producer, production manager, TV program director, corporate directing, commercial, other than directing short films. Why haven't you try directing a feature film even then? A: I made ten short films and I thought I should have made my feature film. I made my first short film when I was 22 or 23 years old. I took my time. It took me a long time to write it and a while for me to raise the money. The script took me two years to write. Q: Can you tell us about the cast? How did they came to be? A: For me, when I started writing, I wanted it to be very multicultural and I was interested in the different types of shopping centres. I knew I wanted a Chinese lady to play a tai tai (leisurely woman with rich husband) and I wanted an Indian girl to play this character set in a shopping centre called Mustafa in Little India, Singapore's only 24hours shopping centre, and I believe is the only 24hours shopping centre in Asia. I was also interested in the twentysomethings, the generation-Y that largely 'inhabit' shopping malls. So when I was looking for the character Clara, I wanted someone who can be the Asian version of Audrey Tautou. I met Kym Ng, a popular show host in Singapore, but she usually plays happy-go-lucky characters. However, the chemistry is very strong and she really understood the character. And she IS the character as she is a really private person and quiet in real life. She has a lot of "soulful-ness" in her that is very much like Clara and she was also a stewardess, which is similar to Clara's back story. For Sonia Kaur who plays Renu, we actually looked at 60 to 70 girls. Sonja was only 6 years old when I first met her and what surprised me is that she really memorises her lines and she gave such a natural performance, not self conscious at all. Her parents were not just very supportive but they even had cameo roles in this movie. Aaron Kao who plays the twentysomething cosplayer was my student in La Salle and I really wanted him to be a part of this film although he never acted before. Q: I heard that Yasmin Ahmad has actually seen the movie. How did you get to know the prolific director? A: I'm a huge fan of Yasmin. I actually emailed her after the theatrical release of "Gone Shopping" because I intended to do a director's cut of the film. I asked her for some advise and she invited me to come visit her here in KL. I showed her the original theatrical cut and some deleted scenes of this film and she gave me some advice. She really enjoyed it and we started to share ideas about filmmaking. Interestingly, my husband and I have just seen "Mukhsin" (Yasmin's movie) and my husband was so inspired by it that he made a short film that was inspired from a scene in "Mukhsin".