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https://scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3043299/garden-evening-mists-film-review-malaysian-historical-drama
Lifestyle/ Entertainment

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
Angelica Lee Sinje and Hiroshi Abe in a still from The Garden of Evening Mists.

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.

Adapted from Tan Twan Eng’s Man Asian Literary Prize winning novel, The Garden of Evening Mists won the 2019 Golden Horse Award for best make-up and costume design, and weaves a complex tapestry of grief, prejudice, romance and artistic escape.

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.

Hiroshi Abe in a still from The Garden of Evening Mists.
Hiroshi Abe in a still from The Garden of Evening Mists.

Yun Ling reluctantly agrees and, in spite of her deep-seated hatred for the Japanese, eventually becomes romantically involved with the reclusive artist.

A further layer of flashbacks depicts the trauma endured by Yun Ling and Yun Hong during World War II in a Japanese internment camp situated where the tea estate now stands. While Yun Ling is forced into manual labour, Yun Hong is selected to become a “comfort woman” or sex slave, an ordeal she ultimately does not survive.

Richard Smith’s screenplay transposes the novel’s dense, triple-tiered narrative with assured clarity.

Sylvia Chang in a still from The Garden of Evening Mists.
Sylvia Chang in a still from The Garden of Evening Mists.

Chang proves a dead ringer for Lee, and both actresses do a commendable job steering Yun Ling through an ocean of conflicting emotions. Abe’s performance is hindered by his limited English, but Arimoto’s relationship with Yun Ling always feels authentic, fuelled as much by admiration for each other’s philosophies as by a desperate need to escape the tumultuous violence.

Unfortunately, the central relationship between Yun Ling and Yun Hong gets little screen time, as though being sisters should be sufficient reason for audiences to be invested in them. Likewise, Frederick and the rest of the English-speaking characters are left hobbled by some poor dialogue and mannered overexpression.

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