After all, recent years have brought the country a fair bit of fame with Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar win and Amanda Nell Eu’s “Tiger Stripes” being featured at Cannes.

Now, Malaysians have another reason to celebrate as yet another locally-made film received a prestigious award last month.

On July 7, the supernatural family fantasy film, “Hungry Ghost Diner”, won the prestigious Netpac Award at the 27th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

Directed by Cho We Jun and produced by Benji Lim, the film is set in Behrang Stesen, a small town in Mualim District, Perak.

“Hungry Ghost Diner” tells the story of Bonnie, a food truck operator played by Chen Keat Yoke, who discovers her deceased relatives are visiting the family’s old kopitiam on Hungry Ghost Festival.

The story and its themes of family and tradition wowed the festival’s jury committee, which consisted of members of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Netpac).

In the wake of this great achievement, FMT Lifestyle met up with Cho, Lim and Chen to congratulate them on their success and to find out how they felt about it.

“Worried, actually!” said director Cho. “We weren’t in Korea during the awards ceremony and we were already back in Malaysia by then. We really hadn’t expected to win! When we found out about the award, Benji got a call asking if we were still in Korea.”

Lim chipped in, pointing out that by sheer coincidence, he got that call while visiting the exact same Starbucks where FMT Lifestyle caught up with the crew.

Of the trio, Lim was selected as the film crew’s representative and he rushed off to Korea just in time to attend the awards ceremony.

“I was very clueless as to what was going on,” admitted Lim. “Everything happened very fast from the time we got the call. The moment I touched down in Korea, I was whisked away to the festival grounds and next thing I knew, I was on the red carpet!”

Although Chen was still in Korea when Lim was there, she couldn’t attend the ceremony due to conflicting schedules. That said, she remains happy “Hungry Ghost Festival” was favoured by the critics.

“It has been surprises after surprises,” she said. “This was the first time a film of mine was featured at an international film festival, and I thought that was high enough an accomplishment!”

The film is mostly in Cantonese and Hakka, making it rather amazing as Cho is a “banana” who doesn’t speak any Chinese dialects.

“My paternal grandmother recently passed away and I had to return to my hometown of Slim River,” he shared.

“As my family’s only ‘banana’, I felt awkward going back to my hometown. I thought it would be very difficult, but I was surprised that I was readily accepted and embraced by my family.”

Cho observed the traditional funeral rites and it was then that he noticed it felt more like a family gathering, albeit with a deceased person involved.

“Even though it was a very sad occasion, I felt that there was a communal spirit,” said Cho, adding that this experience encouraged him to write what would become “Hungry Ghost Diner.”

But how did Cho communicate with his Chinese-speaking actors? “It was a case of ‘chicken meet duck’,” he laughed.

While Cho did learn some rudimentary Mandarin, he sought help from fellow filmmakers in translating his English script into Mandarin.

In the end though, Mandarin would be swapped out with Cantonese as Cho felt that the dialect was more “naturally informal”.

The film’s production was not a smooth ride though as the film was shot during the pandemic.

“There was constant anxiety regarding whether we were going to be able to shoot or not. If a prior production was delayed, we too would be delayed due to the shared production crew.”

Despite the difficulties, the crew pressed on, and it helped that Chen, the film’s star, connected well with her character.

“Bonnie’s relationship with her dad is not very good. Truth is, Bonnie is more similar to her dad than either of them wants to admit.

“When they talk to each other, it gets a little fiery. Deep inside though, they mean well and family comes first for both. Problem is, they don’t know how to express it,” Lim said.

“Everything about this film is Malaysian-made,” added Cho. “Malaysia has a lot of talents which go unrecognised. Why do we wait for them to be recognised overseas before we start to appreciate them? That’s what we hope will change here.”

‘Hungry Ghost Diner’ will be released in Malaysian theatres nationwide on Aug 10.