2019 Golden Horse Awards

The News Lens
Date: 2019/12/16
By: Daphne K. Lee

Could all wounds be healed by the passage of time?

Adapted from Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng’s award-winning novel, The Garden of Evening Mists brings to life a poetic love story against the backdrop of a war-ridden British Malaya both during and after the Japanese occupation.

At a cozy dinner, Magnus Gemmell (John Hannah), an expat who has settled in Malaya’s Cameron Highlands, gushes over his love for Chopin’s first piano concerto, a record that never leaves his record player. He refers to the piece as “the impression of someone gently looking at a spot that brings to mind a thousand happy memories,” describing Chopin’s loving gaze at the soprano Konstancja Gładkowska.

The Garden is the embodiment of such a fond impression, intertwined with the trauma of loss and wartime atrocities. Throughout the film, Taiwanese director Tom Lin Shu-yu (林書宇) indulges us with the ethereal sights of the Japanese garden and the beauty of Cameron Highlands but also forces us to confront excruciating flashbacks where the women in captivity were raped and tortured by Japanese soldiers.    [FULL  STORY]