Background
Yeo was born in Singapore. His father, Eric Yeo, is a film critic and a former exec of Polygram Records, where he produced the albums of the band Alleycats. His mother, Chik Soon Come, was a popular singer.
杨毅恒
Yeo was born in Singapore. His father, Eric Yeo, is a film critic and a former exec of Polygram Records, where he produced the albums of the band Alleycats. His mother, Chik Soon Come, was a popular singer.
He completed his Bachelor in Commerce at Murdoch University in Perth in 2005, majoring in Marketing and minoring in English Literature. Yeo then chose to enrol in a one-year graduate diploma course in media production at the same university.
In 2007, Yeo joined Greenlight Pictures, the production company of Malaysian filmmaker Woo Ming Jin, and took over producing and editing duties for Woo"s film The Elephant and the Sea during post-production. Yeo began writing and directing short films in 2008. His first short film, Chicken Rice Mystery, was made in March 2008, just before he moved to Tokyo to continue his Masters in Waseda University.
A few months later, Yeo made an experimental short, Fleeting Images, a homage to Sans Soleil by French director Chris Marker.
He began rising to prominence in 2009 by writing and directing Love Suicides and kingyo, two short films loosely adapted from the works of Yasunari Kawabata. kingyo, his first Japanese-language short, was selected for competition at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. Yeo was the youngest Malaysian filmmaker to ever compete in the prestigious film festival.
At the same year, he produced and edited Woo Ming Jin"s Woman On Fire Looks Foreign Water, which was also screened at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. In 2010, Yeo produced, co-wrote and edited Woo Ming Jin"s The Tiger Factory.
The Tiger Factory premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
He directed numerous short films of his own on the same year. Yeo was one of the eight filmmakers for Prada"s Yo Video! Project, directing a one-minute short film called National Organization for Women that was streamed on Prada"s official website. Inhalation was played together with The Tiger Factory at certain festival screenings, like Vancouver, Tokyo, Jakarta and Cinemanila International Film Festivals.
His short film Exhalation premiered in competition at the Dubai International Film Festival and screened at the 40th edition of the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
In 2014, Yeo"s debut feature film River of Exploding Durians premiered in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival. lieutenant was the first Malaysian film in history to be invited to the main competition section of the film festival.