When the Road Meets the Sun
Mun Chee Yong’s film directing debut, “Where the Road Meets the Sun”, part of the Maya Indie Film series has already won a total of 5 awards from Worldfest Houston 2011 and the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival for its great performances, directing, and cinematography.
“Where the Road Meets the Sun” is about four men who gather at a rundown hotel after moving to Los Angeles from different parts of the world– New York, Japan, London, and Mexico. Although from different cultures and speaking different languages these men form a friendship and learn to support each other.
Takashi (Will Yun Lee of WHAT’S COOKING? and most recently seen in HAWAII FIVE-O) moved from Tokyo to L.A. similarly escaping a love lost. A brooding drifter, Takashi has forgotten much of the painful details of his past after suffering a serious accident that caused him to go into a coma for several years. Like Takashi, hotel manager Blake (Eric Mabius, UGLY BETTY’S Daniel Meade), is also searching for the meaning of life after a love lost, though his is through divorce. Julio, (Latin T.V. star Fernando Noriega) just wants to work and earn enough money to send to his wife and kids in Mexico. Guy, a Londoner who overstays his tourist visa, seems to cruise along while never failing to get himself and his hotel mates into trouble. Despite being fiercely independent characters, Takashi and Blake forge a deep friendship as Blake is intrigued by Takashi’s ability to forget his past and start over. Meanwhile, Julio and Guy manage to get into all kinds of trouble, betray each other’s trust and then realize that they’ve formed a friendship borne out of shared experiences.
While all four characters don’t want to get “stuck”, it’s hard for them to get out of their current limbo, since they don’t know quite where they’re headed. Their aimless drifting, temporarily stilled by the fragile bonds of friendship, seems befitting of the lyrics from the iconic Leslie Cheung song that Takashi shares with Blake: “The wind continues to blow…I don’t want to leave.” (from Cheung’s 1983 Cantopop hit, The Wind Blows On.)
Director Mun Chee Yong was born in Singapore. She applied for, and won, a scholarship to the London School of Economics where she graduated with a degree in Monetary Economics. She returned to Asia and worked as a broadcast journalist covering stories in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and China. She co-produced and directed “Extraordinary People”, winner of an Asian Television Award for Best Documentary Series. Later she came to the US to study film directing and cinematography.
When the Road Meets the Sun opens in San Francisco this weekend at Opera Plaza Cinema and in Dallas at Studio Movie Grill Royal for one week only.
“A well-acted, street-poetic fusion of action-thriller, immigrant drama and unconventional buddy movie… fuses various genre and stylistic elements together in a way that defies expectations” – Reed Johnson, LA Times
AWARDS
Special Jury Award, Worldfest Houston 2011
Best Director, Worldfest Houston 2011
Best Supporting Actor, Worldfest Houston 2011
Special Jury Award (Best Acting Ensemble), Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2011
Special Jury Award (Outstanding Cinematography), Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2011
iTune MOVIE TRAILERS
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/wheretheroadmeetsthesun/
MORE INFO
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Where-The-Road-Meets-The-Sun/101679913227639
http://mayaindieseries.com/films/where-the-road-meets-the-sun
(Picture above: Director Mun Chee and the award winning cast of Where the Road Meets the Sun, Eric Mabius, Will Yun Lee and Fernando Noriega at the screening on Opening Night.)