The filmmaker and former YouTuber's recent science fiction thriller short film, 'Horologist' has secured the Best Animation award at San Diego Comic Con, becoming the first Malaysian to do so.
By CHIN JIAN WEI
If you’ve spent any time on the Malaysian side of YouTube in the past ten years, you may be familiar with The GRIM FILM. There is a range of content posted on their YouTube channel, from comedy skits to tear-jerking short films. However, the creative mind behind the channel, Jared Lee, has mostly left YouTube behind to pursue further passions. One of these passion projects is Horologist, which received international acclaim recently at San Diego Comic-Con, winning the Best Animation award, becoming the first Malaysian animation project to do so. It was also selected for the Short Film Corner at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
Originally a comic book, Lee managed to adapt it into an animated short film with the help of a grant from Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). Unlike his usual YouTube fare, Horologist (a word referring to a person who makes clocks or watches) is a dark science fiction thriller story about a shopkeeper named Sand who has found a way to sell time to his rich, aging customers. In the short film, Sand is seen taking care of abandoned children and initially seems to be a nice old man. However, when an old woman comes to the shop with payment, Sand transfers the lifespan of the children to her. As the old woman becomes younger, the children rapidly age. “I’m very inclined to darker themes even though most of my videos so far haven’t been very dark,” Lee says.
Horologist is a piece that is deeply personal to Lee. He says, “In 2018 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. And that led me to realise that I could not conceive. We looked into adoption, and you know how Google works, one thing led to another and then I ended up doing research on child abandonment around the world. That strengthened my resolve that it’s okay to adopt. Because of that social issue that I felt really strongly about, I wanted to write something that tackles that issue but not in a preachy manner. Covid came and I couldn’t shoot anything, so I decided to write a comic as it was the most cost-effective way of storytelling. I collaborated with Cross, a local artist.”
After obtaining the grant from MDEC, Lee and animation studio Dino Howl worked on the 6-minute short film for two years. “The biggest challenge was to imagine the world down to the details. I scrutinised the story very closely. I wanted to make sure it at least would stand as a good episode on Love, Death & Robots,” Lee says, referring to the popular anthology of dark science fiction animated shorts. “I feel like I kind of achieved that, at least story-wise, we cleared the bar.”
Time has long been a compelling and popular subject for science fiction stories. From old classics like H.G. Well’s The Time Machine to modern blockbuster movies like Avengers: Endgame, the concept of interacting with the past and future have captivated audiences for centuries. “I think we live with a lot of regrets,” Lee muses. “It’s another theme that I feel very attached to. We always ask ourselves, ‘What if I did this in the past, what could have been?’ But we only live in the present, and we can only make the most out of it.” Lee also opines that the theme of time is also linked to greed, something that audiences are always attracted to. After all, how greedy would a person have to be, to steal time away from others? “When I finished Horologist, I wanted to make three more stories tackling the issue of human greed,” Lee says.
Evidently, the short film is far from the end. “I’m really just waiting for the right doors to open,” Lee says. “It’s been a constant push. I’m still trying to figure out the business side of it, how to make a movie and screen it.” Lee hopes that the recent publicity Horologist has gotten will help him to meet the right people, be they investors, co-production partners, or distributors who would join him on this path.
From the start, Lee had always wanted to be a filmmaker. “It just so happened that my film got views on YouTube and people started calling me a YouTuber. I tried to ride on that wave and started appearing on camera. As I did that every week, when it came to 2015 or 2016, I sat down in the mood to write a script, I couldn’t write. I felt super depressed. I realised I had to choose a path. Do I continue thinking about what’s relatable, what’s funny, what would be shared? Or would I appreciate just digging through stories again? I sacrificed the channel, which a lot of people didn’t agree with. I chose the harder route, starting a production house. The commercials are just to cari makan, (make a living in Malay) and then I would still write scripts.” The Last 7 was a breakthrough short film for Lee, a fantasy short film about grim reapers as office workers with their own KPIs to hit. “It won some awards and then people started to take us more seriously then. Every year subsequently, I would come up with some money to make something.”
Lee delivers advice to aspiring filmmakers with dry wit. “Just give up, it’s such a tough industry,” Lee jokes before turning serious. “You really have to put in the work. You cannot aim for the big goals straight away. You can’t just say, ‘I want to be Christopher Nolan.’ You have to pay your dues. Whether you have to be an intern or production assistant working for free, you need to be on set and experience the whole thing, learn, absorb. Understand the business, we are in a world where we cannot just be creatives anymore. Until the day when you have earned enough, then you can be a ‘full creative’. You’ve made it, that’s the goal.”
Lee also wants to start a film festival in Malaysia. He says, “We don’t have a proper film festival, one where aspiring filmmakers can submit films, screen their films, attend workshops and watch films from around the world. I’m in talks with some people and hopefully, we get to start something.” If all goes well, this could be a big boon to the film industry, allowing young aspirants to meet partners and investors that could help turn dreams into reality.
The original comic version of Horologist is also planned to have a soft-cover reprint run at an affordable price, as the initial 100 copies have all been sold out. The second comic story Lee has written, Omakase, is also up for order here along with the reprint of Horologist. Similarly to Horologist, Omakase too explores the theme of human greed. “If you look into it, we are greedy about a lot of things to a very obscene level. Omakase explores that with a dark twist,” Lee says. Lee is also in talks with local cinemas to screen Horologist locally.
Follow Jared Lee on his Instagram to keep up with his latest projects!
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