A Feeling Of Music Playing

As the title (also the moniker of documentary storyteller OKJ's latest work) suggests, the emotions one gets from hearing music are dependent on his own imagination in the documentary's case, it is one of sheer positivity and joy.

- Bryan Goh

Hello OKJ, thank you again for allowing me a first screening of “A Feeling Of Music Playing”. I understand that it came from a place where you want to “meet in the middle” with musicians and people curious about music. What do you think the sweet spot is?

I believe that life has its rhymes — we use analogies of experiences to describe what we are unable to with words. That is the space I wanted to explore.

For “A Feeling Of Music Playing”, my learning journey while researching for the film led me to a hypothesis that the feelings musicians experience when playing music come from the same source of happiness that kids feel when playing games at a playground. That is the sweet spot in this context.

In your opinion, what are you doing with “My Invisible Life”? What do you think you bring to the table and how does a creative dialogue between creatives work for you?

This film is unique for me in terms of casting. Usually for my independent works, my documentary subjects had already been cast as the protagonist, which inspired me to embark on a documentary of their life — such as “Galactic Paint”. As for commissioned works, a cast is often already in mind before I come on board the project.

“A Feeling Of Music Playing” was a mix of the two. I met Jeffrey (the host of the documentary) in January 2021 after being introduced by a friend to visit his shop — as I wanted to explore the world of Chinese orchestras — to one day producing a documentary that would be interesting to my wife, who was a pipa player in secondary school.