Los Angeles Film Festival

Woman on Fire Looks for Water

(Malaysia, South Korea, 2009, 97 mins, 35mm)

Producers: Woo Ming-jin, Edmund Yeo
Screenwriter: Woo Ming-jin
Cinematographer: Wan Chun-hong
Editor: Edmund Yeo
Cast: Ernest Chong, Chung Kok-keong, Foo Fei-ling, Jerrica Lai
Music: Isabel Lam

The repressed longings of two men living in a small Malaysian fishing village are delicately rendered in Woo Ming-Jin’s Woman on Fire Looks for Water. Young Ah Fei pines for his true love Lily, but his meager earnings from selling frogs are not enough to win her heart. In an effort to raise money, he takes a job with a local shellfish processing factory, where the owner is convinced Ah Fei should marry his daughter instead. Meanwhile, Ah Fei’s equally lovesick father, worried that death is near, sets off to a neighboring village to pursue a long lost love.

This drama of quiet poignancy juxtaposes the stories of father and son as they both stoically balance the daily rituals work with the enigmatic and unpredictable workings of their hearts. With a keen eye and a gentle touch, Woo underscores his characters’ yearnings with the meditative rhythms and lyrical beauty of life on the river—where cross-currents of fate and regret lie just beneath the surface.

Matt Cornell

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