Review | The Garden of Evening Mists film review: Malaysian historical drama starring Hiroshi Abe, Angelica Lee Sinje
- Adapted from a prize-winning novel, this story of a woman’s attempt to preserve the memory of her sister is a multilayered affair spanning three decades
- Sylvia Chang Ai-chia and Angelica Lee Sinje, who play the main character Yun Ling in different eras, convey with conviction her emotional turmoil
2.5/5 stars
The struggle of a Malaysian woman to preserve the memory of her younger sister, who died at the hands of Japanese colonial forces, propels Zinnia Flower director Tom Lin Shu-yu’s lavish drama covering three dramatic decades of Malaysia’s history.
In the 1980s, Teoh Yun Ling (Sylvia Chang Ai-chia) returns to the Sevenoaks Tea Estate, a British-owned retreat run by a family friend (Julian Sands). A successful judge poised for the Supreme Court, Yun Ling is searching for Nakamura Aritomo, a former resident who is being hunted for war crimes.
This is not the first time she has come looking for Aritomo. Yun Ling (played by Lee Sinje) previously visited in the 1950s, when the country was being terrorised by communist guerillas.
Aritomo (Hiroshi Abe) was a renowned Japanese gardener, who had lived in seclusion on the estate since before the war. Yun Ling commissions him to build a memorial garden for her sister, Yun Hong (Serene Lim Shyi-yee), but he refuses, inviting her instead to learn his craft for herself by working on his garden.
