{"id":2500,"date":"2026-06-19T10:41:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2500"},"modified":"2026-06-19T10:41:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:41:44","slug":"anthony-chen-and-yeo-yann-yann-on-14-years-of-growing-up-trilogy-and-new-korean-project-a-comic-take-on-a-tragic-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2500","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Chen and Yeo Yann Yann on 14 Years of \u2018Growing Up\u2019 Trilogy and New Korean Project: \u2018A Comic Take on a Tragic Story\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tSingaporean director Anthony Chen, whose producing credits include the Singapore-Korea co-production \u201cAjoomma,\u201d is returning to Korean-connected territory with a new project. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2498\">\u2018Dear You\u2019 Director Credits Overseas Chinese Letter-Writing Tradition for Sleeper Hit\u2019s Emotional Power<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tSpeaking at a Shanghai International Film Festival masterclass alongside frequent collaborator Yeo Yann Yann, Chen revealed he has been collaborating on a script with a Korean writer for about two years \u2013 as the two reflected on the 14-year journey through his \u201cGrowing Up\u201d trilogy of films \u201cIlo Ilo,\u201d \u201cWet Season,\u201d and \u201cWe Are All Strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tTogether with actor Koh Jia Ler, the trio have formed a cinema family of sorts across the three films, with the bond seeing all three through different seasons in their lives. When Chen shot \u201cIlo Ilo,\u201d he was in his 20s and Yeo was just about to become a mother. By \u201cWe Are All Strangers,\u201d he has also become a father and is 40; she is almost 50.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cIn these three movies, it recorded our different age groups, our experiences, our dreams, our hopes, and our anger,\u201d said Yeo.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tYeo revealed that Chen had strong reservations about her playing the lead in \u201cIlo Ilo\u201d when she told him she was having her first child. Chen eventually rewrote the role to accommodate her pregnancy, and got her consent to film it for the final film. By \u201cWet Season,\u201d she was coming out of postpartum depression.<br \/>\u201cIt had already started to get better, and I could start working. So to me, it was also a very big turning point in life, because postpartum depression almost crushed me, almost making it impossible for me to live on,\u201d Yeo said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tChen acknowledged how much of that lived experience had found its way into the work. \u201cWhether it is her, or me, or the combination of the three of us, actually we have thrown the things we experienced, including emotions and feelings, into the movies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe masterclass also highlighted Chen\u2019s exacting approach to directing performances. He recalled Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien telling him: \u201cWhat you didn\u2019t shoot won\u2019t be in the film.\u201d \u201cIf you did not capture that emotion in camera, it will not present itself on the editing table,\u201d Chen added.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2497\">Pearl River Film Launches Studio With Author Guo Ni, Sets Eight-Franchise Slate<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tFor Chen, all performance exists within pauses and breaths. \u201cA lot of times, what I am directing is the breathing and pauses, and I am particularly sensitive to this truth and falseness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tClosing out the session, Chen, who is serving this year as the head of the Shanghai Asian new talents jury, urged younger filmmakers to shoot short films \u2013 and a lot of them \u2013 pointing out that he completed roughly 10 before ever attempting a feature. Short films, he said, teach directors how to coach actors, establish a directing style, and learn how to place the camera.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cWe Are All Strangers,\u201d which premiered in competition at the Berlinale earlier this year, follows two Singapore families \u2013 strangers gradually forced to become one \u2013 in an intergenerational story of found kinship. It is a theme Chen has returned to across all three films.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOn his Korean project, which was previously announced with the title \u201cSunset Park,\u201d Chen said: \u201cIt\u2019s a Korean movie and it is also cross-cultural, in both English and Korean. It\u2019s a comic take on a tragic story and again talks about strangers with no relations becoming family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cSunset Park\u201d recounts a surprising journey in the U.S. made by a Korean father with his son\u2019s room mate, after the man receives tragic news about his son.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cIt is that kind of story again. I feel I didn\u2019t choose it, but my subconscious keeps coming back to the theme,\u201d Chen said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2495\">Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Chiefs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca to Speak at Toronto Market Summit<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director Anthony Chen and actor Yeo Yann Yann reflect on 14 years across three films and a new Korean-English project in development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[811,813,2127],"class_list":["post-2500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-anthony-chen","tag-shanghai-international-film-festival","tag-yeo-yann-yann"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Anthony Chen and Yeo Yann Yann on 14 Years of \u2018Growing Up\u2019 Trilogy and New Korean Project: \u2018A Comic Take on a Tragic Story\u2019 - 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