Another feather in Edmund Yeo’s cap

Proud moment: Yeo giving a speech after receiving the Best Director award for his movie ‘Aqerat’ in Tokyo last year. — AFP

Compiled by YIMIE YONG, LOSHANA K SHAGAR and R. ARAVINTHAN 

MALAYSIAN film director Edmund Yeo has won the Best Film award at the 15th Bologna Asian Film Festival in Italy, Sin Chew Daily reported.

He won for the film Aqerat (We, the Dead), about a desperate woman who gets involved in a human trafficking ring.

Yeo, who is busy helming another movie, was unable to attend the event but thanked the jury for the trophy.

Last year, the film earned him Best Director at the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan.

Yeo came up with the story after reading news about mass graves thought to contain Rohingya human trafficking victims, which were discovered near Malaysia’s border with Thailand in 2015.

> The third season of China’s popular reality TV series Sing! China will have four male mentors for the first time.

Oriental Daily reported that Harlem Yu will return to the show to join fellow Taiwanese singer Jay Chou, Chinese singer Li Jian and Hong Kong star Nicholas Tse on the panel of mentors.

Previously, the panel featured a mix of male and female artistes.

An excited Yu, who mentored on the talent contest in the first season, said he is looking forward to collaborating with the two new mentors, Li and Tse.

“They will bring fresh new ideas to the show. I am not too sure what strategies they will use to win,” he said.

The third season premieres on July 13.

> At a funeral in Hebei, China, a car was used as the coffin.

Quoting Sina.com, Sin Chew Daily said the deceased villager, a car lover, had in his will asked to be placed in a car for his burial.

A crane was used to place the vehicle into a specially designed tomb.

Local villagers said it was a 10-year-old Hyundai Sonata worth about 10,000 yuan (RM6,205).

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.