HBO to make screen adaptation of Malaysian award-winning novel The Garden Of Evening Mists
Hiroshi Abe and Angelica Lee Sinje will star in Tan Twan Eng’s acclaimed novel, which was shortlisted in 2012 for the Man Booker prize and won the Man Asian Literary prize. It is scheduled for release in 2019
Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden Of Evening Mists put Malaysia on the literary map when it was shortlisted in 2012 for the Man Booker prize and won the Man Asian Literary prize. Now, it has a chance to repeat the same success for the country in the movie world as the acclaimed novel is being adapted for cinema.
The announcement was made at a press event recently with the cast and crew in Kuala Lumpur’s colonial hotel, the Majestic. Built pre-World War two, it’s a stately structure rich with pedigree and taste, not unlike the romanticism and elegance the book conjures.
Financed by HBO Asia and produced by Malaysia’s Astro Shaw and Finas (National Film Council of Malaysia), the project boasts a star-studded international cast including John Hannah, David Oakes, Julian Sands and Sylvia Chang Ai-chia. In the romantic leads are Japanese superstar Hiroshi Abe and actress Angelica Lee Sinje.
“The novel is very in-depth in describing my character including her life from the Japanese war camp all the way to her 60s,” says Lee, who plays the title role of Yun Ling, a young Chinese-Malaysian law student who endures an emotionally scarring experience in the occupation. After the war, she retreats to the tranquillity of the Cameron Highlands and develops a complex relationship with a Japanese gardener, played by Abe, exiled from his country.
Given the task to distil the engrossing book into a film is Taiwan director Tom Lin Shu-yu, whose sensitive handling of deeply emotional and personal movies like Zinnia Flower and Starry Starry Night suggest he’s a pretty good fit to bring this Asian tale to an international audience.