Lungyin Lim’s “Malice”: Tydal Prods, Aview Images, Lonely Production

In a deal that turns a local project into an international production, Taiwan’s Tydal Productions has inked a co-production deal with Czech Republic’s Lonely Productions to produce “Malice,” a potentially engrossing offshore thriller directed by Lungyin Lim.

Malice was created by Lungyin Lim’s Tydal Productions and Aview Images, both based in Taiwan, and produced by Aview Images’ SheeHeng Kuek and Ivy Shen Yu-hua.

Filming is slated for December 2023 and will now be co-produced by Prague’s Lonely Production, founded by producer and director Michal Sikora.

Lonely Production will oversee the post-production package in the Czech Republic and Europe. Lim has a penchant for shooting in Super 16mm with digital VFX, bringing European know-how to the traditional filming process. This will expand the film’s creative possibilities and production quality, Kuek said.

Kuek defeated “Malice” at the Locarno Pro’s Match Me! where it is one of the buzz titles of the networking event. He said diversity that the partners are now aiming for a co-production with France, Germany, Estonia or Indonesia.

In “Malice”, four years before the action, Captain Fu’s older son died in an accident while hunting a giant swordfish. Nearing retirement and about to give up his boat Victory as younger son Ree plans to transform the family business, Fu is approached by a foreign boy, Ruan, who tells him the fish is still out there.

Fu, Ree and Ruan – a skilled harpooner with a killer instinct haunted by childhood memories as a war refugee – embark on an obsessive journey to capture and kill the giant swordfish. Her obsessions mean her undoing. Only one will return.

“Today we cherish a peaceful civilian lifestyle in which we strive to become our ideal selves, but what if there were an alternative in which we confront and coexist with the killer instincts we are born with and live without prejudice? ” asked Lungyin Lim in a statement from the director.

“‘Malice’ is the story of three men as they embark on a quest to find the long-lost giant swordfish, and sketch the bloodthirstiness and dark side of human nature on a dangerous sea,” said Kuek. “For me, it’s the most intriguing part of ‘Malice’ that also pushes me to embark on a journey with director Lungyin Lim, Ivy Shen and Michal Sikora.”

Writer-director Lungyin Lim has made short films like Ping (2013) and O (2015), and broke through with 2019’s Ohong Village.

Set in an oyster farming village in the farthest reaches of southern Taiwan, it’s again mostly shot in Super 16mm. He received the Ciputti Award at the 2019 Turin Film Festival.