7 Letters
An emotive anthology by seven of Singapore's most illustrious filmmakers, celebrating SG50 through the lives and stories of Singaporeans. Directed by Eric Khoo, Jack Neo, K. Rajagopal, Royston Tan, Tan Pin Pin, Boo Junfeng, Kelvin Tong.
Eric Khoo
Royston Tan
Kelvin Tong
Jack Neo
Boo Junfeng
Tan Pin Pin
K. Rajagopal
Casts & Crew
Nickson Cheng
Juliette Binoche
Rianne Lee
Lydia Look
David Chua
Nadiah M. Din
Hamidah Jalil
Lim Poh Huat
Brien Lee
Josmien Lum
Sebastian Ng
Yan Li Xuan
Zheng Geping
Jin Hua Zhang
Hong Huifang
Liang Yu Ray Tan
J. Rosmini
Also Directed by Eric Khoo
Masato is a young ramen chef in Japan. After the sudden death of his emotionally distant father, returns to his birthplace, Singapore.
A painfully shy noodle-shop owner and a prostitute have a chance encounter when destiny arrives in the form of a car accident.
The film depicts 24 hours in a HDB block of residential flats in Singapore. There are three main storylines. San San, fat, silent, and alone, hears the ghost of her mother constantly upbraid her. Ah Gu, a tofu soup vendor, is at odds with Lily, his materialistic immigrant wife, who longs for something he cannot provide. Meng spouts every moralistic bromide of the striving middle class, but is unhinged by his teenage sister May ("Trixie" to her boyfriend) who won't study, parties all night, and seems doomed by youth culture.
This program features three digital short films by Asian filmmakers. Singapore veteran filmmaker Eric Khoo's NO DAY OFF (39 min) records the life of a maid who leaves her husband and baby for Singapore. Darezhan Omirbayev's ABOUT LOVE (38 min) is a bitter love story based on Anton Chekhov's novel, in which a lonely math teacher falls in love with her married university classmate. Pen-ek Ratanaruang's TWELVE TWENTY (30 min) depicts the encounters of a man and a woman on a long haul flight, where they spend the next twelve hours and twenty minutes reading, drinking, eating and watching movies and sleeping by each other's side, as if they are a married couple.
The film deals with a young man, following his “endeavors” in the city he lives in, which mostly comprise of him roaming the streets aimlessly. In the beginning, he seems peculiar but still normal, but as the story progresses, the portrait of a sadomasochistic man is revealed quite eloquently.
The film is a collection of one-minute short films created by 60 filmmakers from around the world on the theme of the death of cinema.
Eric Khoo's tv-movie about the relationship between a young girl and her mother with dementia.
"Be with Me" consists of three stories of love vs. solitude: (1) An aging, lonesome shopkeeper doesn't believe in life any more since his wife died. But he is saved from desperation by reading an autobiographical book and meeting its author, a deaf and blind lady of his own age. (2) Fatty, a security guard in his fifties, lives for two things: good food and love for a pretty executive living in his block of flats. But, if it is easy to satisfy his first need winning the heart of the distant belle is a horse of another color. (3) Two teenage schoolgirls get to know each other on the Internet. Soon they fall in love.
Five award-winning ASEAN film directors celebrate Southeast Asian art through this collection of short films. As an omnibus of short films, is inspired by the art collection found at the National Gallery Singapore, Each of the five directors – Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Brillante Mendoza, Eric Khoo, Ho Yuhang and Joko Anwar – handpicked a masterpiece from the 19th and 20th century as inspiration for their short films.
A single dad looks to give up drinking and his bartender job in order to impress his son and find work as a magician.
Also Directed by Royston Tan
In D.I.Y, the squeak of dirty plates, the tap of a finger against a seafood restaurant aquarium, the thump of feet inside a cargo lift, and many other disparate sound, all come together into a quirky and funky piece of beat science, a human – and humane – music.
1999 short film by Royston Tan
2002 short film by Royston Tan
1998 short video work by Royston Tan
Parking attendant Fei Fei has always dreamed of becoming a singer, like her famous namesake – the legendary Taiwanese singer Fong Fei Fei. Fei Fei decides to follow her heart and joins a national talent contest. Her voice and sincerity captures the nation's heart, pushing her to the finals! But on the final day, her dementia-stricken father disappears…
Good Morning in Singapore.
In a hotel overlooking the Sea of Japan, six disparate stories inter-connect giving time a shape, like a series of liquid transparencies, one laid on top of another. Murder, sacrifice, betrayal, longing and regret weave into a tapestry of souls remembering and forgetting.
A sequel to Old Places, Old Romances is a collective documentary of personal stories voiced by fellow Singaporeans about the nostalgic places in their hearts.
Also Directed by Kelvin Tong
When taxi driver Ah Huat's son is kidnapped, he resorts to extreme measures to raise the $1,000,000 ransom. But when the kidnapper reneges on the exchange, Ah Huat takes the most extreme measure of all: he kidnaps the kidnapper's child.
A romance between two opposites, Eating Air follows the lives of two teenagers during the hottest month in the history of Singapore. For Boy, breaking into bridal shops under the moonlight is as wildly exciting as Girl on her first motorcycle spin through the binding fluorescent tunnels of the CTE. About the joys and pangs of teenage love, Eating Air seeks the delirious madness that makes 18-year-olds invincible to low fuels, fists and oil-puddles on the road.
On the 60th anniversary of World War II, Boku Films presents 1942, a suspenseful horror movie set against an unforgettable war. The year is 1942. The setting - Malaya.
It’s A Great Great World is set in Singapore’s legendary amusement park Great World, which was also affectionately known in Hokkien as Tua Seh Kai or 大世界. Spanning the 1940s to the present day, the film tells the stories of a multitude of characters who lived, worked, played, sang, danced and fell in love in Great World.
Four people from Singapore die on the same day and return to Earth as ghosts.
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.
Narrated by a teenage boy, he brings us through to the various sights, sounds and characters ranging from a coffeeshop, to a Chinese wedding dinner in a traditional Chinese restaurant.
A group of quarrelsome recruits endures a gruelling week of training. Will they get to book out?
Rookie Sergeant Lee is injured in a shoot-out and is assigned to the dubious-sounding Miscellaneous Affairs Department (MAD). There, he is paired up with Inspector Wong, a jaded and alcoholic veteran who explains that MAD’s role is to answer supernatural calls. Wong explains MAD’s rule number one - there are no ghosts. For every seemingly inexplicable phenomenon, there is a corresponding scientific and rational explanation.
Young journalist Thea Hartley travels to Singapore to investigate the mysterious death of her sister and discovers a string of bizarre killings involving a cursed email.
Also Directed by Jack Neo
A movie about growing up in Singapore, which focuses on the lives of two families where the oldest children gets involved with the local mafia.
Ah Boys to Men (新兵正传) is a 2012–2013 Singaporean two-part comedy film produced and directed by Jack Neo, written by Neo and Link Sng and starring Wang Wei Liang, Noah Yap, Joshua Tan and Maxi Lim. It revolves around a group of army recruits in National Service in Singapore.
Ken is quick to adopt a change in personality by becoming an "on-the-ball" recruit, even more so than "Wayang King" Aloysius. Differing viewpoints sour the friendship between Ken and Lobang. Meanwhile, Ken's father has become partially paralyzed because of his stroke but is determined to make a recovery. After booking out, Aloysius seeks advice from his parents as he feels excluded from the group; his father (Chen Tianwen) tells him the best solution is not to do anything. Back at Tekong, Recruit IP Man learns about "Real Bullet" Zhen Zidan (Benjamin Mok), an "Ah Beng" who stole his girlfriend Mayoki (Sherraine Low). IP Man hits back by criticizing Mayoki for her inferior qualities.
Singapore, the present day. Mai Wei (Mark Lee), a successful branch manager for slimming company Natural Beauty, is sacked for cutting corners in the name of profit and attracting the ire of customers. Enraged, he sets up a rival company, My Way Slimming Centre, with several Natural Beauty employees, including Jie (Jeremy Chan), younger brother of his wife Zu Er (Yeo Yann Yann). As Natural Beauty continues to expand, Mai Wei goes on the offensive, licensing a herbal slimming pill, Dadavianxiaovoo, that contains a banned substance. As his company's image representative he chooses the massively overweight Wang Yao Yao (Tay Yin Yin), daughter of his favourite wonton noodle stall owner (Wang Lei), and feeds her the pills in large doses. Meanwhile, Zu Er, who's desperate to have a child after eight years of marriage, starts believing the gods have cursed them because of her husband's unscrupulous business practices.
Picking up from where the two Long Long Time Ago films (2015 and 2016) left off, this much-anticipated follow-up features Ah Kun (Mark Lee) and the rest of the Lim clan facing the social and political changes happening in Singapore from the 1980s.
This is the second short film directed by Jack Neo, who created it as an unofficial music video for the Singapore Video Competition in 1988. Neo used musician Lee Wei Song’s original song from his 1987 debut album and also casted Lee in the film. Lee Wei Song is one half of Singapore’s most prolific song writing and music producing twins. Lee won the male category in the singing competition “Talentime 1985/1986” and when offered his first recording contract, he wrote this upbeat title track that describes how a jaded man loses his way in life and conforms to the behaviour of a materialistic and pretentious society.
Lion Men 2 picks up after Mikey’s superb performance. Shi Shen becomes jealous of Mikey, especially after he discovers Mikey’s feelings for Xiao Yu. Determined to succeed, Shi Shen spends more time training, neglecting Xiao Yu. Situation worsens when Xiao Yu is kidnapped, forcing Shi Shen and Mikey to choose between the competition and their love for Xiao Yu. Who will step up to save her?
Hornet (played by Jay Shih) and Mark (played by Nadow) decide to end their careers as assassins with a final mission. Along the way, they meet their former classmate, Sha Bao (played by Gadrick Chin), a drug lord's god-daughter Talia (played by Amber An), and her friend Ira (played by Apple Chan) from the Philippines. Things get complicated as they are each hunted by their own enemies. Action ramps up as they begin their hilarious adventure in Taiwan.
"Where Got Ghost?" is a Horror-Comedy Chinese Movie. 3-in-1 Horror tales told in a good old comedy fashion.
A freak accident causes a blue collar worker (Gurmit Singh) and his supervisor (Fann Wong) to swap souls.
Also Directed by Boo Junfeng
En is an 18-year-old who has lost his father to cancer. As his family is drawn together in a sudden tragedy, he has to decide what he believes in. But in a country where ideologies are forged on constantly shifting sands, he struggles to stay true to what he knows to be right. And in a family that prefers to forget, the sandcastles of all he holds dear seem doomed to be washed away by the tides of time.
The year is 1985. The first cases of AIDS have been found in Singapore. With so much stigma attached to the disease and so little information available, health worker Iris Verghese has no way of knowing what her patients are going through. So when one of them stops coming to the clinic, she decides to pay him a visit.
Seven young directors from Singapore produce a cinematic cadavre exquis.
Aiman is a 28-year-old Malay correctional officer who is recently transferred to the territory’s top prison. Aiman lives with his older sister Suhaila in a modest housing estate. At his new workplace, Aiman begins to take an interest in a 65-year-old sergeant named Rahim. Soon, it is revealed that the charismatic Rahim is actually the long-serving chief executioner of the prison. Rahim also takes notice of the principled and diligent Aiman. When Rahim’s assistant suddenly quits, he asks Aiman to become his apprentice. Aiman tells Suhaila of his new job position, but Suhaila becomes upset, as their father was actually executed by Rahim. Aiman knew this all along. Can Aiman overcome his conscience and a haunted past to possibly take over as the next chief executioner?
Sergio is a seventeen year-old photographer who is aroused by black-and white encyclopedia diagrams of the female genitalia. When his little sister asks him about sex one day, he revisits a memory years ago, in which he discovers a sexual secret amongst his family members.
Johnny, a popular megachurch pastor, adopts Chinese Confucian values into his sermons and performs Shaolin-esque stunts as testimony of his strength from God. When Johnny becomes infatuated with Yang, his new disciple, it disturbs those around Johnny. Until one day, Yang goes missing.
A former military officer makes a film about a man he encountered in Tanjong Rhu, a secluded cruising ground.
A boy returns to Singapore from his studies in Europe, two days before he is enlisted into the army. A sensitive depiction of an 18-year-old’s struggle between national duties and personal liberty.
A boy with a hidden life and a mother desperately trying to reach out.
Also Directed by Tan Pin Pin
Singapore GaGa is a 55-minute paean to the quirkiness of the Singaporean aural landscape. It reveals Singapore's past and present with a delight and humour that makes it a necessary film for all Singaporeans. We hear buskers, street vendors, school cheerleaders sing hymns to themselves and to their communities. From these vocabularies (including Arabic, Latin, Hainanese), a sense of what it might mean to be a modern Singaporean emerges. This is Singapore's first documentary to have a cinema release. With English and Chinese subtitles.
Tan Pin Pin employs a strictly external perspective for this portrait of her hometown, the tropical economic powerhouse of Singapore, interviewing political exiles in London, Thailand and Malaysia, who are to this day unable to return home.
Between the opening and sealing of two time capsules in Singapore lives a city in limbo, visited by its own past, present and future.
Chronicling the ways people attempt to leave a mark before they and their histories disappear. Invisible City director Tan Pin Pin interviews people – photographers, journalists and archaeologists – who are propelled by curiosity to find a City for themselves.
The connections between three strangers living in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood are explored in this short film.
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.
The Impossibility of Knowing documents Tan Pin Pin's attempt to capture the aura of spaces in Singapore that have experienced trauma.
Also Directed by K. Rajagopal
Seven young directors from Singapore produce a cinematic cadavre exquis.
Rosie Wong, a blind woman, shares a retrospective account about the three lives which shaped her life. Taking inspiration from ‘The Giving Tree’, her life is significantly changed by a kind stranger, Pak Cik Tubi Moh Salleh, who helped her get to work everyday for 5 years. Pak Cik Tubi continued this good deed for the next few years, tirelessly helping Madam Rosie.
Paul and Anita who are in a long-distance relationship are finally back together. But how do they manage their desires while in quarantine when they have to keep a safe distance from each other?
Sean and Meera meet in the supermarket during Circuit Breaker and begin a charged romance one metre apart from each other. But what happens to the young couple when the Circuit Breaker un-trips?
A father obliges a young boy and takes him to watch movies at New World, Singapore’s iconic entertainment venue of the 1960s and 1970s. The boy is enthralled, growing up on a gamut of film genres. He loves both the comedies and tragedies. He laughs and cries with the characters, experiencing their joys and sorrows, and even falling in love with some of them. The line between reality and flimsy film is marred even, when unwittingly he allows a merging of his life with what goes on in the film world. Oblivious to the real world at times, he is forced to face harsh reality with the unexpected death of his father. Distraught, his escape into his make-believe world also ends suddenly when he stops watching films at the New World.
It is an unwelcome homecoming for Siva, a Singaporean-Indian ex-convict, haunted by a tragedy in his past. Released after eight years behind bars and dejected by his mother’s coldness, he leaves home in search of his ex-wife and daughter. His old friend denies any knowledge of their whereabouts and instead leads him back into crime. Finding him sheltering in ‘void decks’ (the open public access corridors found beneath government-built residential housing in Singapore), the police force him to meet with a social worker; a woman also dealing with her own fears.
Inspired by the first English-language novel "Inheritance" of acclaimed Singaporean novelist Balli Kaur Jaswal about Singapore's Punjabi-Sikh diaspora, the film surrounds the story of a Punjabi family and the characters' struggles against traditions and belonging. The project involves the local Punjabi community, who has often been left out of the larger Singaporean narrative even when they are such an important part of our cultural landscape.
This is a love story adapted from JM Sali’s tale of an Indian man who meets and falls in love with a Chinese woman in Singapore by chance, but she discovers that he is actually married back home in India. Told from the perspective of the writer—who is played by more than one actor, and who also plays the character—the film blurs the lines between roles, reality, time and space. The words and text of the writer also interplay with the sound of silence and the actions of the actors and characters.
The dance of life is one we dance alone but with many silent and invisible partners. Meena celebrates the lives she lived and the people she loves in a film about the rejuvenating power of time.
Minah left before Rizal could say goodbye. The distance between them is vast, but can their love transcend space and time?