Discoveries from Singapore World Cinema

A Japanese boy in a Singaporean food court bonds with a local boy from the universal language of food.

This is the story of waste. This film opens our eyes to the simple truth hidden in plain sight: What we throw away, doesn’t go away. Everything we consume has a lifespan we never see. Wasted calls on us to shift our perspective and open our eyes to the reality of our trashed planet in this new era of the Anthropocene.

1954 / Dahlia / – / B. S. Rajhans / Keris [f]

Untok Sesuap Nasi / For A Mouthful of Rice / L. Krishnan / Rimau

As two old men fish by the jetty, they begin to remember their kampong days.

Shot on a handheld Mini DV camera, Still or Sparkling explores the way light dances with water, harnessing the expressive, imperfect qualities of early digital technology to create images akin to impressionist paintings.

Completed during the residency, Russell Morton‘s latest short film revolves around the eclectic and versatile figure of Mohammad Din Mohammad (1955 – 2007). Artist and mystic, traditional healer and idiosyncratic collector of Southeast Asian cultural items, Mohammad Din Mohammad was also an actor and a silat master. Playfully disclosing the production limitations imposed by the pandemic, the film evokes Mohammad’s multifaceted personality through the faces, voices, and memories of the artist’s family members and an experimental process where affects and sounds are mediated by technology. As it unfolds, the film grows into an upbeat stream of visuals and sounds mixed by Momok, a computer algorithm created by artist bani haykal.

Dependency; Interdependency

Singapore production directed by A.R. Tompel.

A man meets with his friend and reminisces on the last few years of his life, unable to cope with the past breakdown of his relationships with the people around him.

Proximities focuses on the trope of the Malay Boy found in the works of Singaporean artist Cheong Soo Pieng (b. 1917-1983). It attempts to locate the Malay male in art history while unpacking underlying systems of power that have shaped and naturalised the understanding of difference.

A young photographer, desperately looking for the perfect moment, falls prey to a supernatural camera.

A young religious woman gets married to a discreet gay man.

On the shores of solipsism, Luis interrogates the impulses that led him into an affair with his married supervisor at work, to face the emotional absences driving his actions and the uncertainties of moving on.

A man sentences himself to death, and then tries to escape his fate.

Ah Ma, a lonely elderly woman suffering from dementia longs for her family to be united again. But when her children stop visiting her, she wonders if her family has forgotten her.

A grandfather's story unfolds into a nightmare when the narration of the tale brings about a certain existence only known through myths.

Saodat Ismailova looks back at the history of female heroines over nearly a century of Uzbek cinema in order to chart the changing perception of women and the state of the film industry more widely. Commissioned as part of Asian Film Archive’s Monographs, a series of essays on Asian cinema.

Slowed down field recordings of wildlife from places under threat by development are the foundation of this visual soundscape.

Ah Ma, a lonely elderly woman suffering from dementia longs for her family to be united again. But when her children stop visiting her, she wonders if her family has forgotten her.

Fear and panic descend upon the city when a couple fell to their deaths from a tall building. The perpetrator was discovered to be Kalsom, a ghost spirit, who is seeking vengeance for a series of cold-blooded murders the couple committed. This is probably the first supernatural horror film made in Singapore-Malaya.

The forced closure of the Sungei Road flea market in 2017 leaves evicted hawkers like Fook Seng, in his 70s and with a variety of ailments, with little recourse. in his 70s and with a variety of ailments, with little recourse. For him and his partner, negotiating is imperative to their survival—beyond their informal trade, it is also the way they wend their way through the thicket of bureaucracy to access financial aid.

When their family reaches its breaking point, 8 and 4 year old sisters Aster and Jasmine find themselves forced to protect each other from the harsh reality of their parents looming divorce.

Meet line-dancing fanatic mister COWBOY who has to work on the night of the largest line dancing party. Our night watchman escapes the dread of working the graveyard shift by conjuring doubles of himself. Yet this imagination takes a life of its own and begins to haunt and condemn him to a journey of self-discovery.

A 35 year old aspiring actress addicted to facial silicon injections does anything she can do to prove to her mother she is not worthless.

Cecilia gazes longingly at a birthday cake in the midst of her classmate’s birthday celebration. She asks her grandmother later when her birthday is. Only to be told that she was born in a rubbish bin and that she has no birthday. Not satisfied, she decides to invent a birthday for herself.

Cecilia, an introvert preschooler, is selected to represent her school in a storytelling competition. But first, she has to present the story to her classmates. Excited by the opportunity, Cecilia is determined to shine despite the many obstacles in her way.

From the void of space, a cube structure comes to life in this experimental visual music film.

Directed by S Saravanan, the movie is a Singapore-Malaysia collaboration that stars Arvind Naidu, Dato` Shasha Sri, Haydon Roy and more.

Adolescence is a particularly intense moment in the exploration of the self. Doubt, anxiety, the search for one’s identity and one’s relationship to the world give way to a discomfort typical of the passage from childhood to adulthood.

74% of radio listeners had experiences related to the mystical realm. Several of them shared the experience through the programme Mister Jam 12. Radio personalities were not spared either. What you are about to see are based on real experiences.

Lim Poh Huat is a simple man who lives alone. He has no car, washing machine, refrigerator and no girlfriend. He’s a full-time security guard, he’s published a book, modeled nude, donated blood and sperm. He has also been a TV extra for 14 years… The film "Lim Poh Huat" is a diary of a simple man; you don’t have to be in high places to make your life worthwhile.

In a world where every decision feels overshadowed by her older sister, a frustrated younger sister hopes to escape the labels of imitation and forge her own identity.

Bonda is a mothers day telemovie about Suzana who is living with bipolar condition that pushes her to self-harm and threatens to derail her relationship with her mother and daughter and eventually deals with it after a series of lapses.

In the heartfelt Hari Raya telemovie 'AROMA SYAWAL,' a daughter's love revives her father's fading memories, reignited by the evocative aroma of cherished recipes. Family secrets are revealed, all against the backdrop of the enduring Hari Raya spirit.

Ah-Lim has been selling Bak Kwa (barbecued pork slices) for twenty-five years. His greatest hope is that his only child, Jason, will elevate the business to another level someday. But Ah-Lim will soon be forced to re-evaluate his relationship with his son and the future of his business when the latter brings an unexpected guest home for dinner.

Waiting for an old friend’s phone call, the lonesome Uncle Goose has not left home for days. But when food runs out, Uncle Goose decides to go to literal great lengths in order to keep the telephone by his side! Whatever it takes to be in time to pick up that call, because a promise is a promise.

First officially screened as an anthology film in August 2018 in Seoul International Animated Film Festival, featuring 6 animated short films about life, love and the landscapes of Singapore past and present. With virtually no dialogue, each film is accompanied by a musical score and aims to show how our living landscapes and surroundings intertwine with our memories and imagination. Stories are based on Singapore’s past that spans 80 years. The latest addition is "Erhu", premiered on 5 Feb 2019. ​

Erisudar pits predeterminism against free will. The constant battle between these two concepts is a lifelong experience for the conscious mind, which yields no peaceful conclusion.

A rare document of Singapore cinema, Spirit of the Overseas Chinese was made by pioneering female Chinese filmmaker Wan Hoi-Ling, who had directed films in Singapore for the Shaw Brothers. Her partner Hou Yao, who tragically died during the war, collaborated with her on her films. Made just a year after World War II ended, the film begins before the war comes to Malaya and reflects upon the struggles of newly-emigrated and affluent Chinese immigrants who have to choose between the comfortable luxury of their lives in Singapore and returning to their motherland to fight the enemy.

Justice Devil follows the harrowing yet empowering story of Ellen (played by Ris Yin Min), a mother who escapes the clutches of gang life only to be thrust into a brutal quest for justice after her daughter’s tragic murder. The film delves into themes of resilience, vengeance, and the unbreakable bond between mother and child. With its intricate narrative and raw emotional depth, Justice Devil offers a fresh perspective on the intersection of familial love and societal undercurrents in Southeast Asia.

The video uses as its basis found footage and material of the artist’s time as a preteen TV actor in the early 2000s in Singapore, a time of an unregulated internet and nascent image distribution. Through the use of a deep-fake, the video resurrects the series character, E-Ching, to address the politics of the gaze, the femme-presenting body, and agency. By compressing time and space, the eternal 12-year-old E-Ching offers a revisionist narrative that holds a yearning for freedom.

With a failing relationship at stake, Karter Thevar searches for the infamous Grand Wizard for his aid. However, he quickly discovers the true cost of troubling the all powerful Grand Wizard.

A young boy believes his father is on a faraway space station. But AI technology will alter the father-son relationship in ways he could never have imagined.

There is a schism between the capacity to understanding and the necessity to simply observe. As one of the most famous ethno- and anthropologist in the world, Claude Lévi-Strauss battled for this. While he was travelling in the 1950s to meet very different cultures and people, he has always refrained from establishing judgments based on his own comprehension of things, a philosophy that would be very well welcomed in the everyday life of all of us. Mostly, he was the first to coin the notions of the denaturation of culture - in reference to the predominance of western culture over more traditional ones.

An animation film that explores what it means to experience loss, yet never lose the love given to you when it is shared, keeping the legacy of a loved one alive.

This animation short is born out of James Teo's experience when his mother passed away after suffering from a stroke.

Inspired by the enigmatic specimen ZRC_1_3200:3203 at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, the film delves into the recursive nature of memory and meaning-making. Abstract realities unfold through observation, dialogue, and human interaction, unearthing deeper dimensions within the worlds of artist-jeweller Shing of Argentum, taxonomist Dr Tan Swee Hee of Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum and conductor Jason Lai of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

In 2035 Singapore where dialect has been formally reintroduced to Chinese schools, Kun is an English-educated teacher who transfers to a Chinese school. He is assigned Dakota, a dialect tutor, to assimilate into the dialect-speaking institution. Kun needs to prove his dialect proficiency or risk losing his job as the sole provider of his family.

In 1980s Singapore, Yu Qi abandons her fellow gang members after a failed hit. As discord brews, Yu Qi undertakes a job as a penultimate act of loyalty. With her worlds colliding, Yu Qi’s devotion is put into question — between her blood-forged family or her estranged mother.

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, under China's strict one-child policy, an unknown number of baby girls were abandoned by their parents who wanted to have a son. Tens of thousands of these unwanted girls were brought to Putien, Fujian, where they were raised by foster families. But their foster parents didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts. Instead, they had a clear goal: one day the girls were to marry their sons. Decades later, the women have grown up, and they want answers: where did they came from? And why were they traded like a commodity?

Tables ”act” funny as their movements synchronise with the soundtrack of a kungfu movie.

1955 / Kasih Menumpang / Loving Another / L. Krishnan / Keris, Shah Film

Kampong Nelayan (or ‘Nelayan’) / Fishermen’s Village / Jaafar Wiryo & S. Roomai Noor / Keris