BUSAN, South Korea (AP): The adage 'actions speak louder than words' not only refers to the emptiness of promises in real life, but is also a useful principle in film-making.

Why have characters who ramble on about eternal love and devotion when they can more subtly convey their feelings through simple, subtle actions?

That's the philosophy 28-year-old Malaysian-Chinese film-maker Tan Chui Mui employs in Love Conquers All, which shared the New Currents prize for best new Asian film-maker at the Pusan International Film Festival yesterday.

feature film debut

China's Heng Yang, who directed Betelnut, the story of Chinese youths who spend an aimless summer together, was the other winner of the prize.

Love Conquers All is no epic, but Tan, in her feature film debut, crafts a quiet, engaging romance between a working-class young woman and an apparent gangster.

Peng (Coral Ong) moves from the northern Malaysian city of Penang to the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, the country's main city, to work at her aunt's restaurant. She tries to stay in touch with her boyfriend back home by phone, but an aggressive suitor, John (Stephen Chua) soon starts to interfere.

Ong, who resembles another Malaysian-Chinese performing artist, Fish Leong, is impressive for her minimalist but nuanced portrayal of the emotionally ambivalent Peng.

At the outset, Peng is indifferent and even repels John's advances. But she gradually allows him to hang around and, eventually, she caves in.

Tan portrays Peng's transition not through theatrics or passionate love scenes, but with a silent observation of the minute changes in the dynamics of Peng and John's interaction.

spontaneous road trip

Initially, Peng threatens to get out of the car when John takes her on a spontaneous road trip. Then Peng mellows, allowing John to tug her hand.

Tan adeptly structures some of the innuendo around a public telephone booth, where Peng and John first meet.

Peng ignores John at first. But then she allows him to stare at her while she calls her boyfriend in Penang, even when she says "I love you" on the phone. As the couple become physically intimate, even while on the phone with her boyfriend, Peng allows John to snuggle up to her neck.

Soon she stops calling her boyfriend altogether.