A Japanese man lovingly tends to a house full of plants. A Chinese immigrant wears a penguin costume at work due to social anxiety. A kidnapper bonds with the hostage she keeps locked up in a suitcase. Three portraits of loneliness in an unnamed western city.

Director’s Vision for ‘Me & Mazzy Melancholy’

Ideas of isolation, loneliness and anxiety are now being looked at more thoughtfully in a post pandemic world but they are thematic ideas that are rarely afforded to Asian characters in western media. I wanted to capture these ideas that are often explored in Asian cinema but put them in a different geographical context.

Themes of solitude and longing have long been of interest to me. For much of my early life I struggled to connect with others because of anxiety and I felt very alone because of it. I still feel that it’s greatly influenced my worldview and art. Being half Chinese in a country like Australia has always given me the sense of being between two worlds, one of which (China) I have had no connection with. There’s a certain level of dislocation that comes with identifying more heavily with the Asian side of yourself whilst being raised in the western world with western sensibilities.

The characters in the film are all of an Asian background and struggle to connect in a foreign land. They’re adrift and in between worlds. I find that in between state to have a sad but dreamy quality. We chose to shoot the film primarily locked off and on 16mm to give it a real sense of place, hopping between intimate close ups and expansive wides that leave the characters feeling alone in their respective environments. The work is a love letter to the Hong Kong and Taiwanese directors that I grew up with and a personal ode to isolation.