Logline:
Gain an insight into the lives of a Mother and Son as they embark on their "Road to Harvard" journey. When setback arrives, only perseverance and dedication will bring them across their finishing line, years from now.
TECHNICAL SPECS
Country : Malaysia
Running Time : 14 minutes
Language : English, Mandarin, Hokkien
Cast : Paige Chan / Aloysius Looi / Samuel Lee / Iski Senna / Grace Ng / Clara Liew
Director : Dan Chong
Producer : Joey Lim
Scriptwriter : Dan Chong , Joey Lim
Cinematographer : Bryan Ho
Editor : Dan Chong
TRAILER
The Team
JOEY LIM (PRODUCER / WRITER)
Joey has more than 10 years of producing commercials, long form features and corporate videos. In recent years, Joey has also started to produce short films. She believes this is the stepping stone towards her ultimate goal: to one day produce a thought provoking feature film that can truly reflects the cultural landscape of Malaysia.
DAN CHONG (DIRECTOR / WRITER)
Dan is dedicated into telling stories that he finds interesting through the language of cinema. He has directed several short films and documentaries, some which had won and nominated for multiple awards in Malaysia. But his dream has always been to write and direct a feature film which is close to his heart.
BRYAN HO (CINEMATOGRAPHER)
Bryan is an award winning cinematographer who has shot multiple short films, music videos and commercials in Malaysia. His style is versatile, as he tweaks his visual flair accordingly depending on the project needs.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
ROAD TO HARVARD is inspired by the 2023 news of 6 Malaysian students who were accepted into Harvard. This is a record number for Malaysians and all the major news publications were rushing to report the news. However, I realised this will inevitably create a huge benchmark for Malaysian parents, especially the Chinese Malaysian community, whom by our cultural and social history, have a tendency to be very competitive.
Back in the days, parents of Chinese Malaysia descents love to compare their children accomplishment. Usually by how much money they are making, what kind of cars they are driving, or even sillier, by how many kids they have. Today, the situation has evolved to something different yet similar. Parents no longer have to wait until their children grow up before they start comparing or brag about their child accomplishment. The comparison starts as soon as they enter school.
As this practice takes place, the entry age of parents sending their children to different classes are also getting younger and younger. Because they don’t want to lose out to other parents. And they don’t want their children to enter the “academic race” with any disadvantages. This even extents to parents communicating to their children in only English to ensure they can master the language as earliest as possible, paving way to a new generation of Chinese Malaysians who can no longer converse in their own mother tongue.
This short film captures the essence of issues relating to today’s parenting. Instead of letting our child roam free to search for their passion and interests, we mould and shape them into an ‘idealised’ version of what we aspire them to be. Because today’s education and parenting has been too obsessed with the concept of ‘never too young to learn’. But is it really for the betterment of the children?
As parents, we hope to make our children evolve into a better version of ourselves.
As children, broken dreams and abandoned passion are all parts of our so called ‘growth’.
But more often than not, children EVOLVE rather than GROW, because while they always change, it might not necessarily be for the better.
GALLERY
