Discoveries from Singapore World Cinema

Watch Gurmit Singh's imperfect journey towards his goals, as told by acclaimed director Royston Tan.

A lonely Singaporean death row guard tries to help a young Australian convicted of drug trafficking accept her fate despite a bizarre contradiction - he is her executioner.

Ah Ma is lying in the hospital, her life hanging by a thread. Her family gathers by her deathbed to send her off. Overwhelmed by sadness, they struggle to find their own way of coming to terms with the impending end.

When Jeff quit his engineer job in pursuit of his dream as a professional chef, he could never imagine his father’s violent objection. By sheer chance, he was discovered by a veteran TV producer, Jia Ying, whose cooking program was facing a crisis after their diva host, Yang Tai, walked out of the production. Jia Ying managed to turn Jeff into an up and coming celebrity chef through professional packaging. In the meantime, Jeff’s father joined force with Yang Tai in a plot to stop Jeff’s dream and resurrect Yang Tai’s dying career.

The sleepy, religious and passionless town of Kampong Bras Basah has suddenly been awoken with the arrival of a lingerie shop called La Luna! But while the villagers slowly begin to welcome the shop owner with open arms, the iron-fisted religious leader of the kampung is hell-bent on driving the shop out of town at all costs!

Inspired by true events, Solos explores relationships among three individuals who are struggling to open up their feelings towards each other. Filmmakers Kan Lume and Loo Zihan co-directed this pathos that dramatizes the selfishness of love and its tragic outcomes. Set in contemporary Singapore, Solos follows the endeavors of Boy, Man and Mother. Having been in a relationship with Man (Lim Yu Beng) for years, Boy (Loo Zihan) eventually grows up and wishes to quit the relationship. Conversely, Man still wants to be with Boy and for them to settle together. Meanwhile, Mother (Goh Guat Kian) is devastated that her son (Boy) has abandoned her and has been in relationship with Man. As the three characters fight their own demons, Solos juxtaposes reality and surreal scenes in order to give clues of each character’s inner desires. The film has minimum conversation to give freedom to the audience's individual interpretation of the film.

Over the course of 45 days, a relationship begins to break apart as confinement tests its bonds.

Let’s Make Money is an Austrian documentary by Erwin Wagenhofer released in the year 2008. It is about aspects of the development of the world wide financial system.

I Want to Remember is about personal memory - the unforgettable moments in our lives, whether sweet, bitter or bizarre. Good or bad, these life moments inform and influence the way we act, giving us strength in adversity and solace in sadness. But most importantly, memories give us hope; the hope to look forward to each coming day, in quiet anticipation of the next unforgettable moment that will add to our life story.

Things get complicated when Amir returns from the city and tells his mother that he's going to marry Aminah a girl from another village not Rosini. THis wasn't accepted by his mother but in the end they got married. Unfortunately the day Amir brings back his new wife to meet his sister, Faridah was caught in a terrible accident and had passed away. His mother has accused Aminah for bringing bad omen into the family.

May knows how to fence, what she doesn't know is how to make a friend. Especially now when she needs one most. Will she let June in or will her ambition and her attraction to her coach get in the way?

After buying a second-hand cab, Da Hua hopes to start afresh — but soon encounters a ghost in the vehicle and becomes a murder suspect.

It mainly covers the Chinese Singaporean experience in Singapore, from the first generation of Chinese immigrants, who arrived to a relatively undeveloped island, through the Japanese occupation periods, and to the Chinese Singaporeans at the present day (1984), who resides in a developed nation that is radically different from the land their ancestors arrived to.

In reincarnated lives from the Three Kingdoms period to the Republican era, a woman becomes torn between two sworn brothers.

Two teens meet late at night to complete a deal, yet it quickly turns into an unexpectedly confusing and awkward interaction.

In 1965, an Indian family, whose men have been loyal servants of the British Royal Air Force, are faced with a life-changing offer of British citizenship as a reward for their years of service. The anglophone father is determined to follow his colonial masters back to England, while his newly-wed son yearns to build a new life in Singapore with his pregnant wife. Their conflict studies the notion of state and identity in a time of post-independence uncertainty.

A theatre usher looks for love and finds it in a library book. A cop chases a killer only to wind up at the end of her own gun. A pulp-romance writer confuses fact with fiction and learns that true love comes only after a great loss. The stories that flows from this ebb of desire to find true love leads us various stories that will be amalgam of time, space, consequences and fact and fiction often are not easily identifiable.

Set in a modern day local culinary school, "The Lying Theory" is a comedy drama between the world's most mistrustful girl and the world's most honest boy.

Life on a conveyor belt seems great for Sushi and his Topping friends. But as he begins to contemplate his existence, Sushi wonders if there’s more to life than pimping himself out to savage consumers.

In Baghdad lived Ali Baba, the pauper, and his brother, the rich man Kassim Baba. Ali Baba earns his living by collecting firewood, but due to his working nature, he is not able to earn much, so he frequently asks his brother for help with money and food once in a while. His wealthy brother always looks down on him, saying that he lacks ambition to improve his life if he continues doing the same work. One day, while Ali Baba is collecting firewood near a cliff as always, he spots a group of thieves heading toward a nearby cave. The third installment of the 'Bujang Lapok' series based on the 1001 Arabian Nights tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. This film chronicles the adventures of Ali Baba with generous twists of Malay humor and general hilarity.

A lone Commuter trapped in a speeding MRT train has to push against the force of the speed and escape before it crashes into the LAST STOP.

From the music of Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski, Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen crafts a story that imagines spending the burning time of a cigarette between the sheets, interlocking smiles and touches with your loved one. This short film is part of the 2x25 Project of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards. The project commissioned 25 composers to compose a short piece of music, after which 25 filmmakers made short films that are the ultimate symbioses of music and cinematography, fitting completely within the DNA of the festival. The result: 25 exceptional films where the music inspired the form, narrative and texture.

Porcupine evokes the fragmented tale of a young man who breaks into an empty hospital to set up his online broadcast of poses and provocations; his audience includes real-life participants with anonymous tags like ‘bigballnz’ and ‘romeoazteca’.

"Homecoming" is about three stories of three different individuals going home for Chinese New Year. A major highlight of the movie is that Jack Neo, who will be cross-dressing on the big screen again after eleven years since "Liang Po Po The Movie" back in 1999. He will be playing mother to Ah Niu's character. It is said that he was told to lose at least 5kg for his role. Jack Neo long time collaborator Mark Lee and Malaysian multi-talented writer-director-comedian Afdlin Shauki are among the cast.

Dawan is a young village girl who harbours the dream of getting out of her village in the lure of the bright lights in the big city, and to do so, has to fight customs and tradition that girls are meant to be bethroned away early at a young age to someone they loathe, and schools for them are an unnecessary part of life. In order to fulfill her dream, she has to go against the wishes of her dad, as well as irk her brother as she out-scores him in a local examination to clinch a scholarship. Also, their village is under threat of an unscrupulous landlord trying to bulldoze his way into profits by driving everyone out of his land.

The young son of a poor "rag-and-bone" man aspires to draw superheroes but goes about it the wrong way by stealing a comic book from the gentle owner of a small Indian provision ("mama") shop. When fate brings them together again, they each discover something much more important...

An unlikely hero's journey into his own memories becomes a vehicle for reconciliation and healing for himself and his sibling.

A mother, trapped in the comfort of memory and mourning, confronts her grief when she is invited to the wedding of her late son’s childhood sweetheart.

Ten people gather in an old mansion to find out who will inherit the money ($10 million) left by a recently deceased tycoon.

Singapore's first full-length English language film, released in local cinemas in November 1991. Loosely based on the Adrian Lim ritual murders in the early 1980s, the film was shot and produced in Singapore. It was the debut filmmaking effort for its executive producer, Errol Pang, and it has been credited with reawakening Singapore's local film scene. In the movie's ending, the main character based on Adrian Lim escapes from prison and runs into an incoming truck, where Satan catches him and subjects him to eternal torture – this was said to be added to suggest to the audience that crime does not pay.

"Happy Go Lucky" seeks to tackle the issue of gambling in a light-hearted yet touching manner. Hardcore gambler, Hock Lee Poh (Richard Low) is an ardent believer of Feng Shui, but is always down on his luck. His eldest daughter Donna (Patricia Mok), though petty and calculative, spends all her time and money on lavish nightlife and hunky social escorts - till she loses everything in the end. Fu Xin (Fann Wong), Poh's illegitimate second daughter is born at an extremely inauspicious hour and thus labeled as the "jinx" of the family. However, Fu Xin actually is a surreptitious 'Lucky Star' who always manages to turn unfavourable conditions into favourable ones. Fu Xin sacrifices a lot for the family. And in a twist of fate and luck, she unexpectedly helps Poh to win a hefty sum of money. Meanwhile, Poh and Donna find themselves stranded along the streets of Cambodia in a failed attempt to recoup their losses at the gambling tables.

Alisa is a beautiful runway model but she is also a snob. Because of a curse, her body becomes overweight overnight. With the help of her obese mother and her love interest Nathan, she must find a way to lose weight and save her modelling career.

Dare to do it. If you fall, get back up. If you are held back, break free. Just find the way.

Stan and Jenny have been each other's secret crush since high school. When they meet again years later, the fantasy of first love may keep them apart.

Hollywood actor Jason Scott Lee, actor in The Bruce Lee Story and himself an expert developed by Bruce Lee's fighting style "Jeet Kune Do" fulfilled his lifelong dream: In an intensive two-week Kung Fu boot camp, Jason is in the centuries introduced ancient secrets of Shaolin Kung Fu. Bei Shi Yongxin, the highest monk of Chinese Kung Fu Temple, learns Jason how the human body into the ultimate martial arts weapon you transformiert.Erleben highest martial arts, combined with mental abilities, according to the traditional teaching of Zen Buddhism, through which generations of fans around the world were inspired. Using the latest 3D technology combined with high-speed mobile 3D slow motion hand-held cameras for the first time it was possible to capture breathtaking images in Kung Fu and its full dynamic range.

This film is about Osman that accuse his wife dishonest with him after been slander by his own cousin. Does he overcome the matter at the end?

A young female ex-convict tries to put her life back together again and keep her anger management issues in check, by plunging headfirst into the adrenaline-pumping sport of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts).

You. Have. Only. 72 Hours. A sudden collision in outer space caused a meteorite to head towards Earth and its impact will annihilate the whole mankind. In the sterile state of Singapore, any apology from the government is deemed irrelevant and for once its people are urge to go ahead and do whatever they want and leave behind no regrets. A newscaster decides to profess her secret love for her superior to her husband. A married man decides to tell his family that he actually wants to be a woman. An old cop shares with his subordinate that he had taken a bribe 20 years ago... But what if the world does not end? For the honest ones, it is their end of their previous world.

Grace Lee, an overworked mom in Singapore, collapses at work. She gets admitted into the hospital, where she finds newfound freedom as a patient.

When Marie takes a job as a maid in Singapore to support her family in the Philippines, she trades one set of hardships for another. Betrayed by her husband, she begins to build a new life for herself. As she gets caught up in the new life she is building in Singapore, she is forced to choose between her personal aspirations and family responsibilities back home.

On the eve of a new millennium and a looming eclipse, 9-year-old May tries to make sense of her mother’s difficult pregnancy while a neighbour plays a sinister speech on an endless loop.

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Tells the story of two warriors, Mahfuz and Mahadi who survived when their ship was attacked by pirates. They are both stranded on a beach and later meet a fortune teller. The fortune teller told them that Mahfuz would be a powerful man in the state. Mahadi, on the other hand, will have descendants who will be from the royal family from time to time even though he is just an ordinary citizen.

A look at life’s bittersweet simplicity as we follow a boy and a girl from childhood to old age with their years marked by Singapore playgrounds from days gone by.

A young man embarks on a quest for Buddhist enlightenment that was the last wish of his dying father.

A small rural hospital in Japan battles an international cybercriminal gang that is holding them ransom with their stolen patient data.

In a world where food has been outlawed, a small band of food lovers risks their skins to defy the authorities and feast on contraband food.

Based on a Malay folklore, it tells the story of a King who carve the blood of men after his chef accidentally cut his finger and mixed the blood into the King's meal. The King was satisfied with the meal and promoted the cook of rank. The chef honestly tell the King that his blood got mixed up into his food due to chopping ingredients. From that moment he began to indulge with the taste of human blood and grew fangs; thus his own people soon become his next victims.

In Frankfurt, Lailani, now 65, awaits a plane to Manila. She's returning home to the Philippines for the first time in 30 years. En route, she delays her return by stopping over in Singapore. Her interactions with her fellow Filipinos help her reflect on the nature of her loss, the cycle of sacrifice and longing that marks them all. Gripped by the fear of returning home to a life she has left behind but is still intricately connected to, she finds moments of enchantment among other lost souls. They've created their ways of living with disenchantment through a Dreamtime that shelters them from the storms of trauma.

The film tells the story of a young Javanese man, Ahmad, who leaves his village with a magic protective dagger given to him by his mother. He takes to the seas, eager to discover the world. He reaches the exotic Arabian coast, and travels all the way to Egypt, encountering belly dancers, harem women, etc. He meets Princess Nilam and falls in love. Nilam's father will allow Ahmad to marry her only if he brings back a blue diamond guarded by monsters at a faraway location.

A son leaves his widowed poor mother to make a fortune and promises to return for her. He rises up the ranks and even marries royalty but his promise is soon forgotten. When he returns to his homeland, he refuses to acknowledge her and his callous ways leads to tragedy.

An exploration of aspects of love: a married couple constantly meeting for rendezvous; a middle-aged man who insists on his dates wearing something from his deceased wife wardrobe; and a poor foreign girl who dreams of settling down with “the right man”.

The first feature-length film entirely produced in Singapore.

After the countdown to the new millennium, stranger Ke Qing bumps into Zhu Er (Joanne Peh) as they fight for a cab. They end up sharing the same cab but the drunken Ke Qing (Julian Hee) accidentally throws up all over Zhu-Er. This episode begins their oddly fated encounters whenever they wait for cab. After a decade of fated encounters and missed opportunities, will Ke Qing and Zhu Er finally realize that the love they have been waiting for has always been around them?

Uncovers the remarkable story of how this small nation has made an indelible mark on Asian cinema in the past five years. Through exclusive interviews and captivating scenes across seven countries, we learn the rich diversity of Singaporean stories, and cast a forward-looking gaze towards an exciting cinematic future. A documentary commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Singapore Film Commission.

DJ is haunted by the very stories he is telling will he find the truth before the haunting before it is too late?

Three mothers, each facing their own hardships, find strength and common ground in each other as their lives converge at a local social service center.

A pain management specialist in a Berlin hospital laments how difficult it is to see if black skin has turned blue. The patient, 15­year­ old Arlette, doesn’t understand German. Her knee was injured in the war, and unknown wealthy Germans have helped pay for her trip to have surgery in Europe. The camera follows Arlette on her journey, from her worried family in Central African Republic to the desolate rooms of the hospital and the rehabilitation centre. The girl’s gaze is captivating but impenetrable, and the easily bored teenager surrounded by adult strangers is only cheered up by an interpreter who knows her mother tongue. The story takes a gloomier turn when it transpires that rebel forces have taken up arms in Arlette’s home country.