Early career

Woo Ming Jin was born and raised in Malaysia. At 19 years old, he went to the United States to study business in Boston but he had always wanted to be a filmmaker.^[1] He was then accepted to San Diego State University and earned a Master's degree in Film and Television Production.

Monday Morning Glory

His first film Monday Morning Glory (2005) screened at the Berlin and Locarno Film Festivals, while his second, Elephant and the Sea (2007), won awards in Torino,^[2] Cinema Digital Seoul, Portugal and Spain film festivals. Woman on Fire Looks for Water (2009) premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, and has played in Busan, Rotterdam, Los Angeles and the Pompidou Center in Paris, among many others. The film is about a group of men arrested for the terrorist bombing of a nightclub have to reenact their actions for the police and media.

The Tiger Factory

The Tiger Factory (2010), only the third film in Malaysian history to be selected to the Cannes Film Festival, premiered at the Directors' Fortnight, and won the Special Jury Mention at the Tokyo Film Festival in 2010.^[3][4][5] The film is about a girl named Ping Ping who wants to go to Japan to start a better life. She shuffles between two jobs; working in a pig farm, and cleaning dishes in a rundown restaurant. The film is described as a "rather uplifting tale about a young girl who is forced to rely on herself because she has no real support system".^[6]

KL Zombi

In 2011, he conceived the idea for a zombie horror thriller titled Zombijaya. The book, which was written by Adib Zaini for Buku FIXI, tells the tale of a slacker who becomes a reluctant hero when a zombie outbreak robs him of the only life he knows. It would later evolve into a film in 2013 titled KL Zombi, in which Woo became the film director. The film adaptation became a box office success^[7] and one of the highest VOD films of the year. The film was also screened at the 18th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival from the 17th until the 24th of July 2014.^[8]

The Second Life of Thieves

His most recent film, The Second Life of Thieves (2014), premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and has been supported by the Hubert Bals Fund of Rotterdam,^[9] and the Vision Sud Est Fund.^[10] The film is about Mr. Tan, the village chief, discovers his wife has disappeared with his good friend Mr. Lai. Forming an unlikely friendship with Mr. Lai's daughter Sandy, both of them embark on an emotional journey that will open old and new wounds alike. Juxtaposing between present day and 30 years in the past, the film is a meditation on love, lost, and regret.^[11] The story is inspired by Woo's late uncle and the secret life that he reportedly led.^[12]

Return to Nostalgia

In 2015, he was commissioned by the Busan International Film Festival and KBS Studios to make a documentary on Malaysia's cinematic history. The resulting film, Return To Nostalgia,^[13] premiered at the festival, and was the opening film for the “Power of Asian Cinema” Series.^[14]

Woo and his crew travelled across the peninsula of Malaysia and Singapore in search of the lost film Seruan Merdeka (1947). Seruan Merdeka is the first post-World War II film made in Malaya. It is also the first film in the history of Malaysian cinema to feature a biracial cast of Malays and Chinese. While gradually uncovering information about the lost film, a doorway into one of Malaya's most turbulent times – the Japanese Occupation – is revealed.

Selected filmography