KUALA LUMPUR: Penang-born director Sam Quah was pursuing his master's degree when he came across a news article about a mother's efforts to find her murdered daughter.
The tragic tale inspired Quah to write his inaugural feature film, A Place Called Silence. The film is his second directorial effort following the success of 2019's, Sheep Without A Shepherd, a remake of Indian film Drishyam, which opened at the top of the Chinese box office in late 2019.
The film's box-office collections surpassed the billion yuan mark, and it became one of China's 10 highest-grossing films of 2019, making Quah the first Malaysian filmmaker to achieve such a feat.
The filmmaker then chose to remake his own 2022 film about bullying — an effort that paid off as the film became a box-office hit across East Asia.
A Place Called Silence originally debuted at the Busan Film Festival in 2022, but the 2024 remake has been getting a lot of attention, grossing US$50 million (RM223 million) upon its theatrical release in China.
The film is a tragic tale of a school girl facing bullying on campus, which ends in her death.
A Place Called Silence opened in China on July 3, and ranks second place for the highest collection for the summer season of 2024, raking in 1.29 billion yuan (RM806 million) at the Chinese box office.
The film which stars Janine Chang, Eric Wang and Francis Ng, is now showing in Malaysian cinemas.
Leading members of the cast and Quah will make an appearance at Connection, Level 3, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur at 7.30pm on Friday.