When asked about his Golden Horse nomination, Tan says, “It was totally unexpected since we were such a small production and I take it as a validation of my acting.”

He was more verbose about working with Chang and Wu. “On the first day on the set, Chang asked to see my hands and found them to be too clean for someone doing manual labour. She immediately got make-up to make them dirty. She was very detailed and attentive.”

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Tan spent a few months ‘taking care’ of Wu when he was in Kuala Lumpur to establish chemistry. “[Wu] was very committed to his craft. We worked in the pasar (wet market) selling and slaughtering chickens. We talked to stateless people to understand more about their lives. It was during this period that I understood what it meant to survive in order to live.”

Wu worked hard to transform himself physically, going from a fair-skinned movie star to a tanned, skinny man on the street who had endured much hardship. 

Tan recalls, “When he first arrived, he stuck out among the local crowd. We knew that changed when the aunty who cleaned the public toilet we were using dared to scold him for dirtying the place—she wouldn't have been so bold if she knew he was a foreigner!”

The 33-year-old also admires Wu's precision. “He knows exactly what he wants and would give the same brilliant performance no matter how many takes.”

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His next film, Gold, will see him portraying real-life paralympic athlete Cheah Liek Hou, a demanding role that requires the right-handed to learn how to play badminton with only his left hand.

However, the success of Abang Adik in Taiwan, where it broke box-office records, has resulted in more opportunities for Tan in the country. “I have gotten a lot more jobs since and will be spending more time there.”

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Tan only wants to focus on giving his best in every project. “I hope to get to act until I’m old,” adding that he has no desire to be a director or a producer. If he had one wish, it would be to work in a movie about motor racing, preferably with him doing his own driving because he loves the sport. 

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Stellar Debut

Tan has only good things to say about Ong as a first-time director. “He may be directing for the first time but he is very experienced in the industry [as a producer of numerous TV shows and movies]. He put together a good team. He also wrote the screenplay, which was an advantage.”

Switching roles on a film set took some getting used to for Ong. “On my first day, I kept forgetting to yell ‘Cut!’. My AD (assistant director) had to keep reminding me,” he laughs. 

A music lover, Ong had always dreamed of becoming an MTV director. And while he did work in the music industry for some time, first in promotions at Sony Music and later at 988 radio station, it was during the pandemic that he eventually got serious about realising his dream to go behind the camera. Passionate about social issues, he started writing a script, with Adik being the central character before the Abang role was fleshed out. 

“In the beginning, Abang wasn't mute and deaf. But then I thought if he couldn't speak or hear, on top of his stateless situation, [the character] would have a greater impact,” Ong shares. While he always had Tan in mind, the name Wu was merely a suggestion to play Abang when the script was presented to potential investors. But one of the producers ended up passing the script to Wu who, after reading it, wanted to be a part of the movie. 

Ong’s next task was assembling a team. “I wanted an international crew because I wanted to be able to learn from each other,” he says. Kartik Vijay from India was the cinematographer while Penny Tsai from Taiwan handled the art direction.

“It was a joy working on the set,” he muses. 

Abang Adik won the Audience Award at the Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland and the Golden Mulberry Audience Award at the Udine Far East Film Festival. The film was nominated for five Golden Horse Awards, including Best New Director for Ong, and won for Best Actor for Wu. The film's success emboldens Ong to be more courageous on his next directorial project.

“I want to tell stories I’m passionate about, especially the hidden parts of life in Malaysia,” says Ong, who cites Ang Lee as one of his favourite filmmakers. “For me, a Malaysian film is very simple: It’s the story of the people living here.”

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