Discoveries from Singapore World Cinema

A young man is faced with the option of finishing his parole - or breaking it to see a dying family member.

A heartwarming short film by butterworks.

Originally commissioned for the 53rd Venice Biennale for the artist’s solo exhibitioin Life of Imitation at the Singapore Pavilion, this work is inspired by a scene from the classic Hollywood melodrama by Douglas Sirk, Imitation of Life (1959) where a black mother meets her mixed-race daughter who has been running away from her true ‘identity’. This version features 3 male actors from the 3 main ethnic groups in Singapore (Chinese, Malay and Indian) taking turns to play the black mother and her ‘white’ daughter. The identity of the actor for each role constantly changes with each shot.

A time traveller spends a lifetime loving a woman who has only known him for days. Set against the backdrop of 1930s Singapore.

Imagine buying the works of true masters, like Renoir, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Rembrant, Matisse and Raphael for just thirty US dollars! Welcome to the most prolific copy artists in China. The Dafen Village, in southern China, is best described as the oil painting copy capital of the world. It’s here where the masterpiece meets the mass market, where the world's great and not-so-great oil paintings are copied. Thousands of artists turn out reproductions of famed European masterpieces, and the not so famous, for homes and businesses around the world. Last year, Dafen generated about US$35 million in sales. Thousands of painters supply 600 galleries that fill orders from around the world. This documentary talks to the copy-artists to find out what in the name of art, is going on.

When Emil’s grandfather, Ah Gong, nears the end of his life, he leaves Emil one final request: inherit his sacred duty, photographing the dead and capturing their final words before they move on. Threading the fragile balance of fulfilling this sacred duty and making time for his loved ones, Emil struggles to live in the present as he knows the dead cannot wait, but how much more can the living?

A young man grapples with love - and loss.

In 2020, Zeming receives a phone call in Taiwan informing him that his mother, Jia’en, has passed on. After returning to Singapore, he regrets not spending quality time with his mother and begs for a chance to start over. After meeting with a fateful car accident, he successfully travels back in time to 2015 and is determined to not repeat his mistakes again. However, his attempt later proves to be futile as he is forced to face the reality of fate again.

"System" is a 2D animated film based on the real experiences of a person with a little known mental health condition. It follows the story of a girl who lives with voices in her head as she endures bullying. However, with the help of her internal protector, she becomes strong enough to protect them both.

Using the visual thesaurus, this animation ponders upon the word “Remember” to see where the word trail leads to if we take things to its natural conclusion. “Remember” leads to “Commemorate”, leads to… there are no wrong turns. Explore and see where we take you.

An affectionate but shy father wants his nonchalant 22-year-old daughter to tell him that she loves him one final time. This is during a midnight talk before the morning of her flight to the United States, where she will be working and settling down. The daughter struggles to express herself as she battles anxiety over her impending move overseas.

Singapore's oldest cemetery is in an area known as BUKIT BROWN. In 2011, the Singapore Government announced that the construction of an 8-lane roadway cutting through the heart of the area would begin in two years. In its final year as an intact cemetery - during the grave-sweeping festival of Qing Ming - we speak to the descendants of those buried in Bukit Brown's jungled hills and witness age-old rituals passed down through generations. Through their voices, we see the cemetery, not as a place of the dead, but a site filled with memories and living heritage. Revealed too is the unexpected beauty of a Singapore that visitors rarely see - a secret garden hidden behind the gleaming towers of this Asian metropolis.

Tania, a food facility worker and mother of nine year-old Rayyan, forms a connection with her Malaysian colleague, Johan. Her unexpected pregnancy forces her to explore the possibility of abortion before her husband’s release from prison.

Wryly comical and lo-fi, this vignette focuses on an average working man who is confronted at knifepoint by a shady figure on his way home. However, the confrontation hinges on an unexpected piece from their past.

A commentary animation about how the female body is represented in the media, and how it affects people’s perspective of the beautiful female body. The title refers to both the notion of ‘losing weight’, as well as ‘losing one’s mind and self-identity’.

Stella, a young poet in Los Angeles, lives with three artist friends, their days filled with drunken debates on academic theories. When Stella suddenly vanishes amid a series of mysterious local murders, the trio must put aside their intellectual conflicts. They dive into the clues Stella might have left, racing against time to find her and uncover the truth behind the eerie happenings in their neighborhood.

A psychiatrist who tries to advice her mentally sick patient.

1954 / Perjodohan / Matchmade / B. N. Rao / Malay Film Productions

A man searches around Singapore to find the key to satisfaction in life to appease his unhappy wife. Shot on an iPhone and inspired by the silent comedies of Charlie Chaplin, Complacency was screened at The Substation’s First Take in 2011.

A filmmaker recalls a unique outing with his parents in Singapore on February 2020. A contemplation on life, death and the ever-changing landscape on this small island.

Singapore: a bustling metropolitan city-state. In a staggeringly short timespan, it has become a ‘first world’ nation despite its geographical and historical limitations. But what does this mean to the people who live within her borders?

Buah Dahsyat (Fantastic Fruits) is a short film capturing the veiled and coded lives of residents in Boon Lay, Singapore through enigmatic fruits acting as multifarious symbols for intersecting themes including everyday rituals, desire, social mobility and labour. Anchored by the voice of drag queen Luna Thicc, the fruits’ behaviour and habits become enmeshed with found footage, smartphone videos and kitsch popular culture imagery.

A son struggles to overcome his grief when he loses his father during the COVID-19 pandemic and has to make peace with his brother.

An eccentric young girl, terrified of growing up, tries to stop her older sister’s wedding.

A bunch of social outcasts decide to band together and make sense out of their meaningless existence.

In this nature series, tiny creatures ranging from bullfrogs to praying mantises play out daily dramas of survival, mostly unseen by human Singaporeans.

“The Monster in the Mirror Musical” is a comical but touching 90-minute original pop musical film that aims to empower the youths of today by addressing important and relevant issues like self-love and identity-building. An insecure teenage girl uses a magic mirror that extracts all her insecurities into a monster girl in order to win a boy’s affections, only to learn the true value of self-love and compassion.

”Unite In Laughter’ is a documentary film that explores the uncomfortable side of the Singaporean identity, through the lens of three comedians who take a leap of faith in their own identities.

"Sunshine Singapore pairs lurid, dream-like visuals of 1970s Singapore with music which leads the viewer through a variety of moods – oscillating between the languid and exotic, to the unfailingly upbeat – embodying the contradictions facing a nation on the cusp of modernity. In a departure from the detached quality of black-and-white archival footage, Gour offers a hopeful imagination of Singapore then and showcases his playful infatuation with its urban environment. A 4K restoration of Sunshine Singapore was made possible using the surviving 16mm film print preserved by the Asian Film Archive and restored by Cineric Inc. in 2018." (Asian Film Archive)

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By trailing a solitary character who roams the land and communes with the dead, the film serves as an elegy to a richly layered site on the verge of rupture.

In some mystically-inclined literature from the Persianate world, individual letterforms, words, the reed pen of calligraphy and other calligraphic-related elements have been used as metaphors to explain the unexplainable secrets of the universe. This film is inspired by some of those metaphors and is a celebration of the beauty of the art of calligraphy.

Awaking trapped, a young woman has to rapidly research her own extreme medical situation.

With a little help from a friend, an adventurous cat embarks on what might be a long journey.

Ting’s first feature is a monumental documentation of a large-scale HDB (Housing and Development Board) flat in Jurong by portrayal of its corridors and interior balconies. The film seamlessly scales the building from bottom to top, traversing every available 'public' space in its ascent. Shot just before sunrise with few inhabitants to be seen, the film becomes solely occupied with the interplay between camera and architecture – the shifting tones, lights and shapes that emerge from movement. The soundtrack is derived from a live performance by Balbalab during the world premiere of the film at the Singapore International Film Festival on 28 November 2016. Balbalab is a collective of experimental musicians from Singapore exploring a variety of strategies toward electroacoustic improvisation. Their sonorous response uses field recordings mined from the same HDB block and then cut up, processed, and reassembled.

Through a montage of transcripts, infographics, and portraits of the developing city soundtracked by interview recordings and enthusiastic national songs, Singapore… Dream scrutinises the imagined communities, majoritarian narratives, oppressiveness, and what it means to be distinctly Singaporean.

Ninh is a mechanic that installs decibel meters in public spaces. Sound levels rise in his work and life, becoming a warning for matters of the heart.

Hong Kong veteran dancer Mui Cheuk-yin’s defining solo dance Awakening in a Dream, inspired by Pai Hsien-yung’s 1966 story about Kunqu opera actress Lan Tianyu, spanned three decades of performances. This film captures multiple incarnations of the dance as it is performed, filmed, discussed, and taught.

Dewi, an accomplished dancer, struggles with grief after her mother’s passing and feels overshadowed by her younger sister, Adelina, who inherits their family’s sacred tusuk rambut. Believing it to be her rightful legacy as the firstborn, Dewi grows resentful. As jealousy takes hold, she is haunted by a mysterious presence and turns to forbidden practices to reclaim the heirloom. Her desperation blurs the line between tradition and darkness, pushing her to make irreversible choices.

An overworked Entymologist's obsession with moths leads to the ingestion of a mysterious mould, catalysing a surreal descent into self-annihilation through futile attempts at purification.

Alex, a struggling actor and part-time taxi driver, dreams of stardom while being ensnared by financial woes and familial duties. Balancing on the delicate edge between his own aspirations and his responsibilities towards his wife and son, Alex finds himself at a pivotal crossroads.

After the death of his father, Masaki, a Japanese man, travels to Singapore in search of closure. Following clues from old letters his father wrote to a woman he once loved, he finds her sister, Yu Lian. Through their quiet conversations, Masaki confronts his grief and reflects on lost love.

A fragmented collection of private home video footage, interwined with the moon and stars.

A young conscript seeks shelter at an abandoned resort in Brunei and finds his wildest fantasies fulfilled, only to receive more than he bargained for.

Determined to marry her son off, a fengshui master conducts increasingly elaborate rituals to make their house more inviting and receptive to feminine energy.

Perched on a bridge overlooking the Kamo River in Japan, a filmmaker imagines what their conversations would be if they were all Singaporeans like him.

After taking on a new role as her father’s caregiver, a kindergarten teacher learns to confront the quiet, irreversible decay that is part of life.

When Wei Ming’s beloved adoptive grandmother Saroja dies days before his wedding, he is torn between grief and tradition, fighting to perform her last rites despite cultural objections.

Just One More follows the life of a young boy caught in the grip of an unusual addiction—potato chips. What begins as a harmless craving slowly spirals into something more insidious.

As a storm of violence sweeps through the Philippines under President Duterte's drug war, Martika helps her employers adjust to parenthood abroad. Haunted by guilt over the inability to be there for her son, her two worlds intertwine.

'Dry Market' is a mixed-media animation film. This story follows the narrator growing up in a traditional dry market, surrounded by the musky aroma of mushrooms and the salty tang of preserved goods. It follows the journey from playful childhood antics to reflections on changing times, family duties, and the transition to online commerce, capturing the essence of nostalgia amidst evolving scents and landscapes.

[Bunny.] is a 2D animated film that explores the love story between a bunny and a wolf.

In the vast, snow-covered village, the cold wind howls, and a white blanket of snow stretches over the endless northern plains. Amid this frozen land, the story of a hawk and an aging couple glows like a flickering ember, adding a touch of warmth to the serene beauty.

As two elf siblings venture through a swamp, they stumble upon a portal, leading them into a beautiful realm. However, strange things begin to unfold...

In this dream-like romantic drama, recently dumped Owen reflects on his failed relationship, and on Betty and Suki, the two very different women in his life. Set in the neon-cityscape of Singapore, the film explores hope, regret, isolation and connection as these disparate souls navigate love, loss and friendship in the city at night.

no matter what, i want to be next to you captures the filmmaker’s intimate experience as the primary caregiver of his mother, illuminating the daily routines and emotional labour involved as their bodies gradually yield to the march of time.

Siti has devoted herself towards preparing her 7-year-old son Aqil - who has autism - for an upcoming psychology assessment; this assessment will dictate if Aqil will qualify for a mainstream primary school. Her family has also been dealing with a bedbug infestation. Despite her husband’s financial worries and her mother-in-law’s frustration at Aqil’s inability to speak Malay, Siti is bent on sending Aqil to a mainstream primary school. However, Aqil fails the assessment despite his savant-like memory. Compounded with the recurrent bedbug infestation, Siti loses her temper at a distressed Aqil. It is only when Aqil makes a small act of kindness towards her and the bed bugs that Siti is touched by his empathy, finally putting down her pride as a mother and deciding to send Aqil to a special education school.

In a city where success is measured by your proximity to the Central Business District, Straightfaced Nonsense offers a playful act of rebellion. Lines between memory, myth, and mischief blur as childhood is reimaged through absurd imagery. After all, we try our best to fit into a mould never made for us.