18 Jan – Despite the great reception it had in Taiwan, Malaysian director Jin Ong has no plans to make a sequel to his movie, "Abang Adik". The filmmaker, who spoke about the movie, which has won its lead actor Wu Kang-ren Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards earlier, stated that he would rather the movie retains its originality, rather than continuing the story. At the same time, he would also like to focus on other things, including trying to get the movie to represent Malaysia at the Oscars next year.
As to why it didn't make it as Malaysia's entry to the Best International Film category for the Oscars this year, he said, "As we all know, the Oscars have a lot of rules to follow. Some said the movie has to be submitted before November last year. But the movie was released in December. So, we will see about it this year." Jin Ong would also like to submit the movie for the upcoming Malaysian Film Festival, having won the Jury Prize as a producer for "Shuttle Life" in the festival's 29th edition.
As for the movie's success, including in its home country Malaysia, the director said that he hopes that Malaysian movies will continue to win attention overseas. It is noted that the film made RM 5.2 million at the Malaysian box office in 24 days. Lead actors Wu Kang-ren and Jack Tan have been nominated in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories respectively at the upcoming 2024 Asian Film Awards.