Ahead of Time — KMY

by Hla Min

Updated : June 2025

U Kin Maung Yin (A60, GBNF)

• Third batch of Architects
• Classmates include Tin Htoon, Aung Kyee Myint & Victor Pe Win
• Loves Classical Music & Modern Art
• Directed the movie “Hna Ma Let Shawt Nay Lay Dawt နှမလက်လျှော့ နေလေတော့” . The movie was hard to appreciate by most Burmese. It set the record for the first movie not to have Full House at the First Day First Show. Grapevine says that some foreigners tried to purchase the movie. See comments by Uzin Bobby, Nan Khaming & U Wint Khin Zaw.
• His second movie was funded by Collegian Nay Win & Daw Khin Mar Lar. See comments by U Htun Aung.
• He would hang around at “Architects Incorporated” (founded by U Bo Gyi, U Tin Htoon & U Aung Kyee Myint) along with fellow artists U Paw Oo Thet and Director Win Pe.
• He was a friend of Architecture students. U Aung Khin (A69) posted a picture of him and U Tin Maung Hla (A69er, GBNF) with U Kin Maung Yin.

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Uzin Bobby Myo Tun (A69)

U Kin Maung Yin was everyone’s friend – one of the most amicable individuals I’ve ever known. He was mentor to many of us student architects of the late 1960s and of the 70s. His versatile talents extended into move-making, authorship and painting. His avant-garde movie “နှမလက်လျှော့နေလေတော့” made six decades ago remains unrivaled to date in the Myanmar movie industry. He immersed himself in modern painting and writing during the last two decades of his life. An icon of the arts, indeed!

U Htun Aung (EP70)

In 1971, I was waiting for the governmental employment living with Demonstrator (civil) and Inlay hostel hall tutor Saya U Khin Mg Tint. One day U Khin Mg Yin came and unexpectedly invited me to accompany him as his aid in movie-making and shooting a film named “Bahman Bazan Akhyaung” (ဘမှန်ဘဇံအကြောင်း). For that film, he was the Director. I was always near him to help for everything he ordered me to do. In those days, from morning to night I was together with him at film shooting sites, especially at Collegian Nay Win and Dar Khin Marlar’s home where most of the indoor scenes of the film had been shot. Also we had to spend much time in making the film at Film upgrading [processing] Studio. The producer of the film was “Momyint Thawdar Film Production” which was owned by Daw Khin Mar Lar, Actor U Nay Win’s spouse. Time taken to shoot that film was nearly three months. Main actors were Collegian Nay Win, Khin Yu May and Aye Aye Thin.

After that film, I was also with U Khin Mg Yin to help reading and editing the directing schedules of the film named “Thway” the Novel written by Journal Kyaw Daw Ma Ma Lay. But that script was not approved by State Film Editing Committee [Censor Board] due to the Fascism hating point of view of the country at that time.

Nang Khaming (A70)

Most people didn’t like the movie Hna ma let shawt nay lay dawt because there was no dialog in the movie except ‘pea pyout’. Most can’t appreciate that kind of movie, but I like that movie and appreciate.

Ko Wint Khin Zaw (A79)

Architect UKMY must be too advanced for the period. I think he directed another movie called “Ba Hman Ba Zan Akyaung” which was appreciated a bit more by some audience.

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