User:RQ113/The Story of Southern Islet

The Story of Southern Islet（Chinese: 南巫; pinyin: Nán Wū）is a 2020 Malaysian Film. It tells the story in the 1980s, in a village along the Malaysia-Thailand border, a husband falls suddenly falls sick after a row with his neighbor. His wife is forced to embark on a journey into the world of mysteries, legends and shamanism, desperately into look for a remedy to cure her husband. The film was released in Taiwan on April 1, 2021.

The film is written, directed and performed by Chong Keat Aun, who won Best New Director in the 57th Taipei Golden Horse Award for the film, which was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay. At the same time, the film is also awarded the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Prize, the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) and the Asian Cinema Observer Recommendation Award.

Plot
Set in the background of Malaysia in 1987, Yan (Jojo GOH) born in Johor Bahru, lives with her husband Cheong and their two young sons in a village in northern Malaysia, close to the Thai border. Cheong accidentally damages the neighbor’s fence trying to catch a snake, which triggers a series of mysterious events.

After a few days, Cheong suddenly fainted while fishing and was carried home by a villager. Cheong was very ill and kept vomiting. What was baffling is that he even spits out a bloodied rusted nail from his mouth. Cheong believes he has upset the Malay god Datuk Gong, but Yan, who wasn’t raised on this popular belief, has her doubts. She’d rather take Cheong – who has become ill in the meantime – to hospital than to the shamanic healer.

Cast

 * Jojo GOH as Yan
 * Pearlly CHUA as Aunty Kaew
 * HOON Mei-Sim as Princess Keriang
 * Season CHEE as Cheong
 * TANG Ling
 * WONG Hong Herr
 * TEOH Wei Hern
 * KUAN Kok Hin

Production
This is Chong Keat Aun's first feature film, who was previously a former radio broadcaster at Ai FM, the national Chinese radio station in Malaysia and now an important figure to the local cultural scene and heritage preservation in Malaysia, known for his decade-long work in recording and promoting the disappearing Chinese dialect folksongs in Malaysia. The story of the film is loosely based on his own childhood memories back in his hometown in Kedah.

The film was selected as one of the projects for the 2018 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP), a Chinese-language film project matching platform, and it won Content Digital Film Award. The main cast are Malaysian actors, Jojo Goh, Pearlly Chua, Hoon Mei-Sim, Season Chee and Tang Ling. Filming began in Kedah in November 2019 for about a-month long, which includes the important scene of Gunung Keriang, and used hundreds of locals as cast extras.

The original theme song of the film named 《出山关》（pinyin: Chū Shān Guān, literal translation: 'Out of the Hill's Border'）is performed by Hoon Mei-Sim, with music composed by Colbie Ong and lyrics written by Chong Keat Aun.