Discoveries from Singapore World Cinema

A group of studio executives cast for the replacements of a band gone missing.

A young woman with a full body rash is driven to violence during a forbidden encounter with her sister’s boyfriend.

MINDS Perform is a performing arts group consisting of members with learning disabilities. As they rehearse for a new song, they are transported into a kaleidoscopic world of music and dance. Commissioned for the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore.

Thaiyal revolves around the difficult life of a single mother and her son. With the very little that she has, she helps him the most that she can.

Maung Okkar grew up in a film studio compound amid a family of filmmakers. Reminiscing on the involvement of his family, grandparents and uncles in the Myanmar film industry of the 1980s, Okkar reflects on both the intense creativity of the period and the political conditions against which artists struggled.

Best friends Ariel and Olivia’s getaway to Johor Bahru takes a turn when Olivia’s boyfriend Jiawei decides to tag along. As the trio explore the city with Ariel’s young cousin Bob, their emotions come to the fore, and they are forced to grapple with the magnitude of their decisions.

1956 / Keluarga Tolol / Foolish Families / S. Ramanathan / Malay Film Productions

Longing for a life beyond her hometown in the Thai province of Buriram, Ploy moves to various Southeast Asian cities in search of work. She ends up in Singapore as a sex worker at an illegal, makeshift brothel operating under the cover of a jungle’s leafy darkness that is eventually turned into a public park.

A closeted gay teen in an attempt to confront his sexual identity finds himself in a strange man’s house, while trying to make peace at home with his only family.

In this anthology of short films, the phrase "Gay Agenda" is reclaimed from the religious right and transformed into a celebration of gay culture. Sit back and enjoy "Don't Be a Dick!", "I Am Désiré", "After Noon", and "Upside Down Revolution".

Steph Chan is leaving Singapore for good. Yokes struggles to say goodbye. The two girls spend their last moments together before they begin their separate journeys on the pursuit of a happy human life.

Selvam is an ex-CNB (Central Narcotics Bureau) officer, who resigned after losing faith in the death penalty. Just as he believes he’s distanced himself from the system, some of his past accused gets murdered one by one. He then assists his old friend Jollyn in the case. However, the deeper he involves himself, the more he realises the ties between the murders and his own past.

After Hou Yao moved to Singapore in 1940, he continued to work for the Shaw Brothers and made a handful of films, including Full Moon Over Malaya, before being murdered in 1942.

An experimental film that investigates the act of perception and the limits and possibilities through vision. Accompanied by an omniscient narrator and the conjuring of striking imagery, the film examines various conceptual underpinnings of what it means to "see" and what our eyes can truly do. A 2K restoration was made possible using a sole-surviving 16mm colour positive print from the Asian Film Archive Collection (AFA) in 2021.

In the forest of copper columns, a man performs a ritual of cleansing.

Seeking to reach out to his son, a father expresses his wish to fix a relationship that has become cold and distant.

A professional hitman who, despite his "deadly" profession, finds himself in increasingly absurd and mundane situations. Unlike the cool, calculated assassins of Hollywood, Neo’s character is a reflection of the "everyman" -- struggling with ethics, bad luck, and the bureaucratic frustrations of life in Singapore.

A Balinese housemaid works in a home that is not her own.

After Hou Yao moved to Singapore in 1940, he continued to work for the Shaw Brothers and made a handful of films, including Tiga Kekasih, before being murdered in 1942.

A personal, unwavering documentary of a dialogue between mother and son regarding his sexuality.

Cahaya, a 10-year old trash-picker from the slums of North Jakarta dreams of owning a bicycle. One day, while searching for recyclables, her wish comes true through an unexpected, fantastic find. Yet soon enough, the other children see her treasure and want it too - especially a neighborhood bully named Hasan, who corners Cahaya and steals the bike.

A short retrospective documentary on the struggles of eating disorder.

A person spends most of their life mourning the things they have lost, unable to move on. They frequent a silent but helpful medium and embark on a spiritual journey where they linger among their past lives.

Nusantara Films' Latest Malay Film! "NORMA" Produced in Singapore

Opening with a nostalgic karaoke repertoire, Everybody Wins the Lottery delves into the dynamics of a Singaporean family as they deal with the effects of the father’s retrenchment. To keep her family afloat, the mother resorts to extreme financial measures until they miraculously win the lottery. However, this sliver of hope is soon threatened when the ticket mysteriously disappears.

In 1960s South Vietnam, an eight-year-old boy finds refuge in his family's cinema, drawing hope from the films he watches as he comes of age amid a divisive war.

Ikram brings home his classmates to feed Julia, his blood-sucking stepmum. When Julia starts flirting with a classmate Ikram has been secretly admiring, he flies into a rage of jealousy.

Kassim (P. Ramlee) returns to Singapore after finishing his studies in London and is thrust into a betrothal with the daughter of his father’s benefactor, Salmah. However, Kassim has already met and fallen in love with someone who shares his interest in Persian poetry. She is Rahimah, a flower salesgirl in Singapore. They go on dates to the nursery, and spend time together (dancing) in a paradise-like garden (Alkaff Gardens). Even after Kassim returns to Kuala Lumpur to work in his benefactor’s rubber plantation, he never forsakes Rahimah and has a rendezvous with her in Singapore when the opportunity arises. Together again, they watch movies at the Rex Theatre, and vow to get married. Unfortunately, Kassim’s father insists on him marrying his benefactor’s daughter, Salmah, who is a rich and cultured girl. Kassim decides to fulfil his father’s death wish and marries Salmah. Eventually, fate brings Kassim to reunite with Rahiman again in their twilight years.

Singapore production featuring music and songs by P. Ramlee

Blinded by vengeance, a rogue hitman seeks to destroy his own organisation that has the power to manipulate time within 24 hours.

1954 / Jasa / Good Deeds / S. Ramanathan / Malay Film Productions

Pachar Puteh / White Pimpernel / Naz Achnas / Nusantara

The film follows Grace and Eden, two girls who have been best friends since they were young but have drifted apart as they grew older. After they are caught playing with tarot cards by the nuns, Eden comes up with a plan to retrieve them from the chapel but Grace is hesitant. Through flashbacks of Grace's memories, the reason for their strained relationship is slowly revealed. Grace eventually reluctantly agrees to Eden's plan, but once they are in the chapel, she backs out — which starts a long overdue argument between the two of them.

"Joy and sorrow share the same water"; Waves explore one's struggle through grief and loss using the motif of water. Through her intimate and forced interaction with various mediums of water, our protagonist begins to viscerally experience new layers - or waves - of grief.

What does it mean to declare or even whisper: I have loved? In Siem Reap, a young woman, haunted by loss, mourning, melancholia and the imperfections of memory, dances with two men–one of whom she is married to, while the other is engaged to be married.

Chen Zhuang plays an elephant in the troupe, the prop master’s inadvertent words are misunderstood by him, the flowing sincere feelings suddenly stop, and he has fallen into memories since then. On a windy day, he decided to finish the date with himself, and it was also a final farewell.

A rich man has two wives and two brothers-in-law, each of them related to one of the wives. When he decides to go to England, he takes his first wife's brother with him. During his absence, his second wife, with the help of her brother, treats the first wife badly, eventually trying to get rid of her after she gives birth to a baby boy. The first wife, to save herself and her baby from being burnt, is forced to leave the house.

A documentary that looks at the anti-homosexuality law in Singapore, section 377A, which criminalizes male homosexuality with up to two years of a prison sentence. A British colonial law, it is based on the Victorian era Labouchere amendment, the same law which criminalized Oscar Wilde in England a century ago. This film looks at two constitutional challenges being taken by Tan Eng Hong and Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee between 2010 and 2014, one resulting from a conviction as the result of sex in a public toilet, the other brought by a couple who have been together 16 years.

The Chew family is one of 55,000 Singapore families forced to relocate the remains of their relatives to a columbarium as the gravesite is needed for urban redevelopment. The picnic mood of the family outing to move the remains belies the sadness and confusion everyone feels.

Faced with a looming exhumation of a loved one, a father and son contemplate their mortality. But in land-scarce Singapore, even the dead must make way for the living.

A young merchant learns the art of transforming himself into a tiger, on condition of him adhering to some rules. Using his skills, he takes revenge on those who had tortured and attempted to harm him. However, as he breaks the rules he had promised to observe, he pays the ultimate price.

In an endeavour to reconnect with nature, a field recordist inadvertently documents the audible effects of climate change.

The movie portrays the relationship between overseas Chinese and Singaporean Chinese through intricate love stories.

A portrait of 14-year-old Wen Bin and a Sri Lankan monk. They walk different landscapes of their residences - a temple, a home, a body.

A woman and a little girl find solace and joy during secret stairwell meetings, bonding over playful games.

One night, 4 friends are on a video call when a stranger joins their Telegram group. When he begins to send cryptic threats, things start to go wrong. Will the group of friends have the guts to uncover the mystery? Will this mysterious stranger execute his plan? Or, is it just a hoax?

A man looking to find peace is interrupted by a quirky astronaut's journey to find home. Their brief encounter leads to them inadvertently helping each other find what they were looking for.

Inspired by the short poem "Howl into the Abyss" by Damien Sin, a pill addict experiences an episode of disassociation that forever alters his sense of reality.

A Singaporean production in Malay by B.S. Rajhans.

A kindergarten teacher who is used to caring for the hopeful young, searches for the meaning of decay when she takes on the role of a caregiver for her father who lives with dementia.

A lady confides on her fate to a stranger.

One of the first made-in-Singapore movies by Shaw Brothers

The film takes the notion of harmony in China as a site of creative manifestation, and draws from footage shot in 1993 and 1994, in Eastern and Southern China, specifically from provinces Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangxi—linked to the remote origins of Chinese civilisation.

Wayang, or Chinese Street Opera, has become a dying art in Singapore. Grace, a millennial filmmaker, visits her larger-than-life Aunty Maggie, who used to be an amateur Cantonese Wayang actress. Together, the charming duo reminisces and recreates the thrills of donning traditional embroidered costumes and performing together—a bridge between generations.

An animated short that follows 2 children and their pregnant mother as a typhoon descends on their home. As the storm worsens around them, the family responds to it as a divine test, and are challenged to protect each other in their own ways.

Colonialism and modernity, tropics and the arts. In 1955, Ho Kok Hoe, then president of the Singapore Art Society made a months-long journey to the UK, Europe and the US. An artist and architect of local repute, curatorial legend has it that he embarked on the journey with over 200 pieces of artworks by him and 6 other Singaporean artists. His search for an exhibition venue began only upon his arrival in London, which by some minor miracle culminated in the first exhibition of Singaporean art in Europe.

Originally trained as a graphic designer and having worked in advertising for a number of years, Mun Foong's story is one about childhood interests - cutting up living room curtains to make cloths - to switching careers to follow a passion, even if it means having to teach herself all the skills needed, right from scratch.

Hui works with her autistic-brother at the supermarket. Her husband is always away, so she constantly asks for the proof of his love. When she can't get it, she turns to her brother. The shocking ending makes us wonder what love means.

Rachel and her two friends explore an abandoned railway track that runs through a dense forest, but an unforeseen incident brings their little adventure to an abrupt end. Elsewhere, 26-year-old Rachel rekindles an old friendship with a high school friend. When a little boy from her past reappears, Rachel finds herself retracing a trail of iron and wood. Wistful and mysterious, the film depicts a world littered with incongruity, absences and traces of childhood dreams.