
Disappointed by his failed dreams, Loh Poh Huat visits his frustrations on his family. So when he wins the lottery, everyone believes the money will deliver them from their struggles. However, Loh dies abruptly and his elaborate and surreal Taoist funeral pitches the family into a battle where the stakes are the very meaning of life itself. Singapore Dreaming is a poignant yet darkly humorous story which follows the lives of six individuals as they navigate the rapidly changing conditions experienced in today’s modern South-East Asian cities.
Loh Siew Luan ('Ma')
Irene
Seng
Pinky
Michelle Tang
Simon Koh
Mrs. Koh
6.9Tells the story of prosecutor Han Ming who is involved in a difficult case where the intentional injury of people is turned into a legitimate defense.
7.4Pao Lung Sing, a descendant of the legendary Judge Pao Ching Tin, is a 9th degree corrupt judge who changes his tune when he tries to champion a woman Chi Siu-Lin, who was framed for killing her husband. As a result, Pao is forced to flee and through a series of events becomes a 1st degree judge and comes back to wreak havoc and justice on the guilty.
5.8Set in 1958, the coming of age story follows four lower middle-class Brooklyn teenagers known as The Lords of Flatbush. The Lords chase girls, steal cars, shoot pool, get into street fights, and hang out at a local malt shop.
6.6Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.
7.4An international culinary competition becomes a battleground between rival cooks, one famous for his Cantonese street food and the other a Michelin-starred chef trained in France. But their rivalry takes an unexpected turn when they discover a common foe and combine their skills in a fusion of East and West.
7.6Told through the eyes of sticky-fingered eight-year-old boy Big Ears, Echoes of the Rainbow takes place in a close-knit grassroots community in 1960s Hong Kong. Big Ears' mother and father run the neighborhood shoe store, and his older brother Desmond is every family's dream son - an outstanding athlete with grades worthy of Hong Kong's best school.
7.5A simple technician at a rural factory is mistakenly promoted to a high-level managerial position at corporate headquarters due to a series of clerical errors and a bribery scheme gone wrong.
6.2Jon Katz is close to burnout. He's a writer with writer's block; his wife has left for her sister's because he's emotionally distant; he rarely answers his phone. A kennel sends him a border collie that's undisciplined because of abuse. Despite a series of mishaps, Jon decides to keep trying with the dog, and he rents a dilapidated farm house to give the dog room to run. A local handyman refers Jon to a woman who might be able to help him train the dog. Reluctantly, Jon gives her a try. Is the dog the problem, or the owner?
6.4A father comes to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding through the prism of multiple relationships within a big, sprawling Cuban-American family.
7.8The daughter of a right-winger, schoolgirl Jing Qiu is sent to the countryside for reeducation, and tasked to help write a textbook. There she meets Lao San, a young soldier with a bright future ahead. Despite the class divide and parental disapproval, romance blooms against turbulent times.
6.9A stunning cancer diagnosis spurs Abbie to seek a future girlfriend for fiancé and childhood sweetheart Sam, who's clueless when it comes to dating.
7.3A black comedy about a farmer who tries to bring home the body of his friend, who died far from their town.
6.4Xiaoxian's life falls apart when she discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend. Heartbroken, she struggles to move on, but her tough co-worker Jian steps in with a tough-love approach to help her heal.
6.4When Jiajia, a young woman in Beijing who lives a luxurious life provided by her wealthy boyfriend, gets pregnant, she goes to the United States, hoping that the baby will be born an American citizen. There she meets Frank who offers help and makes her think twice about who her Mr. Right really is.
6.3In a small coastal California town, Henry and Nicky are pals from blue collar families with only a short time before they ship off to World War II. Henry begins romancing new-to-town Caddie Winger, believing her to be wealthy. Mischievous and irresponsible, Nicky gets into trouble which forces the other two to become involved, testing their relationship, as well as the friendship between the boys.
6.7A young American woman is sent by her parents to a cultural immersion program in Taipei where she begins a new journey of self-discovery and romance.
5.8A conservative lawyer named Diane takes her two teenage children Jake and Zoe to meet their estranged, hippie grandmother in Woodstock after her husband asks for a divorce.
5.8Hollywood beckons for recent film school grad Nick Chapman, who is out to capitalize on the momentum from his national award-winning student film. Studio executive Allen Habel seduces Nick with a dream deal to make his first feature, but once production gets rolling, corporate reality begins to intervene: Nick is unable to control a series of compromises to his high-minded vision, and it's all he can do to maintain his integrity in the midst of filmmaking chaos.
6.2One year after their royal wedding, King Edvard and Queen Paige of Denmark receive an invitation to attend the wedding of Princess Myra of Sangyoon. Upon their arrival, Paige finds Myra is unhappy with her arranged marriage to the brooding and sinister Kah and is secretly in love with a young elephant handler named Alu.
7.1When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942, the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. Among the American prisoners is Cpl. King, a wheeler-dealer who has managed to establish a pretty good life for himself in the camp. King soon forms a friendship with an upper-class British officer who is fascinated with King's enthusiastic approach to life.
6.0Three tales of love wrap around the true story of a blind and deaf woman named Theresa Chan. In the first an elderly shopkeeper is devoted to his sick wife. In the second, two teenage girls become soul mates and lovers. In the third a chubby security guard tries to find the courage to woo a beautiful woman who works in his building.
0.0In 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.
7.1An American-born Chinese economics professor accompanies her boyfriend to Singapore for his best friend's wedding, only to get thrust into the lives of Asia's rich and famous.
5.0A single dad looks to give up drinking and his bartender job in order to impress his son and find work as a magician.
7.0Set in Singapore in 1979, A Year Of No Significance chronicles the gradual disintegration of a middle-aged architect as changes rock the 45th year of his life. Sidelined in the office because of his inability to speak English, Lim Cheng Soon is cut further adrift when his wife leaves him inexplicably one day. His elderly father moves in, forcing him to confront the fact that the former has always preferred his younger brother. Robbed of his identities as architect, husband and son, Cheng Soon struggles in the dusk of his life, raging against the dying light.
5.1In Singapore, a private detective and the British authorities are on the trail of a crime syndicate that kidnaps a nuclear physicist with the aim of selling him to the highest bidder.
John despises his father for being a failure in life. When John returns home to facilitate his father's funeral, his life comes to a turning point, as he discovers the true motivation of his misjudged father.
6.5Two playboys try to forget previous romances in Singapore – until they meet a beautiful dancer.
0.0This short film was commissioned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of May 13, 1954, in which a peaceful assembly of more than one thousand boys and girls in Singapore was brutally broken up by riot police. The students had gathered to seek exemption for classmates affected by a new conscription law. To continue their protest, 800 students proceed to occupy Chinese High School. The film depicts a possible day in the occupation.
7.550-year-old Jim (Gerald Chew, "Apprentice", Cannes Film Festival 2016 Un Certain Regard) loses his high-flying job in status-conscious Singapore, but his ego and pride compel him to hide this from his wife (Amy J Cheng, "Crazy Rich Asians") and daughter. His only confidante is his best friend (Sivakumar Palakrishnan, "A Yellow Bird", Cannes Film Festival 2016 Critics' Week). Desperately clinging onto the material symbols of his past success, he unlocks a hibernating malevolent force, with sinister roots in long-buried secrets. As his dream life crumbles around him, worlds collide, the lines between then and now become increasingly blurred, and Jim descends into a waking nightmare. REPOSSESSION is a bold, genre-bending film, with an ever-evolving, haunting soundscape from Golden Horse Award-winning composer Teo Wei Yong ("A Land Imagined").
8.1Two neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.
7.3After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.
3.5Mia, an ex-prostitute, is trapped in a loveless marriage with the abusive Quan (Sunny Pang, who also stars in Headshot in this year’s Festival lineup), a butcher who runs a roast meat shop. When she meets sensitive funeral director Wu, their passion for one another escalates into an affair. But the path to true love is fraught with jealousy, forcing someone to make a deadly move.
6.6A fallen woman seeks redemption at a Singapore rubber plantation. Melodrama.
8.5A Youtuber posts an irreverent video trolling a megachurch pastor, in defence of his gay twin brother. He is vilified by society, tried in court, and pitted against a culture that threatens to destroy his family.
4.3A series of intertwining tales involve "pleasure seekers and pleasure providers" during the course of one night in Geylang, Singapore's red-light district. There are three distinct stories, united only by the presence of characters from all the stories in a streetside eatery:
After a family patriarch's passing, mother and son set off on different paths to cope with the loss. While the mother finds solace in religion and prayers, the son expresses himself through art. Unbeknownst to them, they are set on a collision course with one another, with life-altering consequences.
6.8Kok Pin, Boon Hock and Terry are classmates in "EM3" stream. In Singapore, that means that at the age of 12, the government has decided that they are not as academically inclined as their peers. Kok Pin is creative and a born artist but his parents would rather he focus on his Maths and Sciences. Boon Hock comes from a low-income family and needs to balance school and helping out at the food stall. Terry, a spoilt brat is just too lazy a student. While the three children suffer from the pressure of school, their parents have another set of problems - their jobs and careers.