Malaysian star Lee Sinje has two jobs at the 10th Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival. She co-wrote and co-produced “Dead Tide,” which world premiered in the Hidden Dragons competition for Chinese-language films, and she sits on the jury for the Crouching Tigers international competition. Lee, who also acts on stage, returns to theater after the festival closes on Sept. 30 in Edward Lam’s musical “The Xue Baochai Moments,” adapted from “Dream of the Red Chamber.” It runs in Hong Kong Nov. 13–15.
In December, she heads back to Malaysia to star in a horror film. Directed by Kethsvin Chee, who co-wrote the script with Lee, “Dead Tide” is a bleak story of a sudden romance between a woman driven to madness by abuse and a man just released from prison. The project was selected for the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), where it won the La Fonte Award.
In 2023, Lee and Chee each directed an episode of the education documentary series “Dear Child, How Are You?” Chee’s passion for filmmaking and his earnestness drew Lee into a second collaboration. Lee grew up in a small town, where she saw people with mental illness struggle without access to medical care. So when this story came, I realized it could be a great opportunity to talk about them,” she says.
Chee says he took on much of Lee’s advice at the script stage, along with her challenges. She led me like my tutor,” he tells Variety. Lee describes her job as a screenwriter as “just to assist [Chee] to refine it, adding layers to the protagonists.
We balanced each other very well.” She says the two never fought, and that she plans to use her resources to nurture more new Malaysian talent. Lee’s first feature as director, “Wanita” – Malay for “woman” – wrapped shortly before Pingyao. Oxide Pang edited the film in parallel with the shoot.
Now in post-production, with no AI assistance, it is expected to be completed next spring in time for festival submissions. Directing has been Lee’s dream since her 20s, and she has written four or five scripts, but the decision took her a long time. So, there must be fears and struggles when I wanted to start a new position,” she says.
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