After a delay of nearly a year, Malaysian director Kethsvin Chee’s (池家慶) first feature film, Hello! Tapir, hit the big screen in Taiwan on Tuesday.
The launch of his first film represents a significant professional milestone for Chee, yet stands out even more as the conclusion of a deeply meaningful personal journey that the director embarked on when he undertook the project.
“I thought a lot about my memories of my father while making the film,” Chee said.
Photo: CNA
The movie tells the story of a boy named Ah Keat who sets out to find a nightmare-eating creature that his father had told him about before dying from an accident at sea.
Ah Keat hopes the beast can help him find his father.
His sense of longing and the difficulty he has in accepting the loss of a loved one mirror Chee’s own difficulty finding closure.
Chee said in an interview with the Central News Agency that his father died in 2015 within three days of contracting dengue fever, and a conversation he had with his cousin before the funeral inspired him to write the film.
As Chee’s family was busy making the funeral arrangements, the eight-year-old cousin asked him: “Is uncle coming back?”
Chee said the question made him realize that children notice many things, but adults might not consider talking with them about death and how to say goodbye.
Making the film took Chee through a process of remembering and healing.
Six years have passed since Chee first began to write the script, and he said that he felt a sense of loss knowing the film had been released.
“I feel that the story is coming to an end, and I no longer have a reason to continue creating for my father. I can’t miss him in this way anymore,” he said.
Hello! Tapir was nominated in the Best Visual Effects category at the Golden Horse Awards in 2020 and was expected to be released last year, but a local outbreak of COVID-19 delayed the film’s premiere in Taiwan.
Although the release of Hello! Tapir stirred emotions as his journey ended, Chee said he was happy that audiences could finally experience the film, and would hopefully be healed and comforted by it.
“I think that if my dad were still here, he’d be proud of me,” Chee said, confident of how his father would feel about the film’s premiere.
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