Fan Bingbing’s ‘Mother Bhumi’ Unveils Trailer Ahead of Tokyo Competition Bow (EXCLUSIVE)

A trailer has been released for “Mother Bhumi,” the latest feature from Malaysian director Chong Keat Aun, starring Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing in her return to international cinema.

The film has its world premiere in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

The drama, which also stars Hong Kong’s Natalie Hsu, Taiwanese-Japanese actor Bai Run-yin, and Malaysian stage veteran Pearlly Chua, is set in late-1990s Malaysia amid political unrest. Fan plays Hong Im, a widowed farmer and ritual healer who struggles to protect her family in a multi-ethnic rice-farming village while resisting land seizures by day and performing exorcisms by night.

The film explores how colonial-era conflicts resurface through supernatural events, with spirits returning and black magic stirring as the legacy of empire haunts the land and its inhabitants in Bujang Valley.

Chong, whose previous film “Snow in Midsummer” won the Musa Cinema & Arts Award at Venice and the Firebird Award at Hong Kong, brings personal history to the project. The director grew up in a rice-field village on the Malaysia-Thailand border.

“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.”

For Fan, the role marks a continued comeback following her appearance in “Green Night,” which premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin in 2023. She previously won best actress at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the Asian Film Awards for “I Am Not Madame Bovary.”

The production is a Malaysia-Hong Kong-Italy-Saudi Arabia co-production between Janji Pictures Production, Volos Films Italia and Southern Islet Pictures. Wong Kew Soon, Stefano Centini and Zoey Teng serve as producers, with support from the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum and the Red Sea Fund.

The film features cinematography by Leung Ming Kai, costume design by Elaine Ng, and editing consultation by Walter Fasano. The original score is composed by Yii Kah Hoe and Chong himself, with sound design by Tu Du-Chih and Fiona Chang.

Dialogue is in Mandarin, Hokkien, Thai and Malay, reflecting the multi-ethnic setting of the story.

Rediance is handling international sales.

Watch the trailer here: