A haunting new trailer has been released for Mother Bhumi, the latest feature by Malaysian filmmaker Chong Keat Aun, marking the highly anticipated return of Fan Bingbing to international cinema. The film will make its world premiere in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Set against the backdrop of political unrest in late-1990s Malaysia, Mother Bhumi tells the story of Hong Im, a widowed farmer and ritual healer who must defend her multi-ethnic village from creeping land seizures by day and restless spirits by night. Fan leads a cast that includes Hong Kong’s Natalie Hsu, Taiwanese-Japanese actor Bai Run-yin, and Malaysian stage veteran Pearlly Chua.
Chong’s meditative drama blends magical realism with Southeast Asian history, exploring how colonial-era conflicts resurface through supernatural events in the fabled Bujang Valley. “The legacy of colonialism persists in ongoing land and border disputes, some of which trace back to the 1909 Anglo-Siamese Treaty,” Chong said. “‘Mother Bhumi’ follows women from the margins, quietly wielding their feminine power to confront hatred and injustice rooted in borders, ethnicity, politics, and patriarchy.”
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The film’s multilingual dialogue in Mandarin, Hokkien, Malay, and Thai reflects the layered cultural identities of borderland communities along northern Malaysia. This linguistic richness underscores the director’s personal connection to the story—Chong himself grew up in a rice-field village near the Malaysia–Thailand border.
For Fan Bingbing, Mother Bhumi is a continuation of her artistic resurgence following her acclaimed turn in 2023’s Green Night, which bowed at the Berlin International Film Festival. The actor previously won Best Actress at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the Asian Film Awards for her role in I Am Not Madame Bovary.
A Malaysia–Hong Kong–Italy–Saudi Arabia co-production, Mother Bhumi is produced by Janji Pictures Production, Volos Films Italia, and Southern Islet Pictures, with support from the Hong Kong–Asia Film Financing Forum and the Red Sea Fund. Key collaborators include cinematographer Leung Ming Kai, costume designer Elaine Ng, sound designers Tu Du-Chih and Fiona Chang, and composer Yii Kah Hoe, who worked alongside Chong on the original score.
Mother Bhumi reaffirms Chong Keat Aun’s vision of cinema as a vessel for cultural recovery—where language, memory, and myth converge to confront the lingering ghosts of empire.
