China Wife (1957)

In the Mood for Love

In 1962 Hong Kong, neighbors Su Li-zhen (Mrs. Chan) and Chow Mo-wan (Mr. Chow) discover their spouses are having an affair. As they spend time together, they develop feelings for each other, but their relationship remains chaste and unspoken, reflecting societal constraints and their own moral compass.

Return to Paradise

Lewis, Sheriff and Tony are three friends vacationing in Malaysia. Sheriff and Tony eventually leave to pursue careers in New York, but Lewis stays behind to work with orangutans. Two years later, Sheriff and Tony learn that, because of their past actions, Lewis has been arrested for drug possession. With Lewis facing a death sentence, the friends are left with a difficult decision: return to Malaysia and split Lewis' sentence, or let him die.

Canopy

Wartime, 1942. Singapore. An Australian fighter pilot shot down in combat awakens suspended in the treetops. As night devours day, he must navigate through dangerous jungle in search of sanctuary.

Road to Singapore

Two playboys try to forget previous romances in Singapore – until they meet a beautiful dancer.

Romulus, My Father

The story of Romulus, his beautiful wife, Christina, and their struggle in the face of great adversity to bring up their son, Raimond. It is a story of impossible love that ultimately celebrates the unbreakable bond between father and son.

Pulang

In the 1940s, Malays were world-renowned for their seafaring skills. Being of Bugis descent, they navigated the sea with natural ease and were often the favored seamen for international shipping lines. Othman, a fisherman from a small village in Malacca, leaves his family behind to sail the world, with hopes to return home one day with worldly riches and deserved pride. After decades at sea, however, his low wages as a deckhand leaves him disillusioned. He contemplates returning home to his family but ended up settling down in Liverpool, England. 60 years later, his grandson, Ahmad, journeys halfway across the world in search of his grandfather.

The Letter

After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.

A Land Imagined

A cop in Singapore investigates the disappearance of a Chinese migrant construction worker who spent sleepless nights playing a mysterious video game.

The Namesake

After moving from Calcutta to New York, members of the Ganguli family maintain a delicate balancing act between honoring the traditions of their native India and blending into American culture. Although parents Ashoke and Ashima are proud of the sacrifices they make to give their children opportunities, their son Gogol strives to forge his own identity without forgetting his heritage.

Chan Is Missing

Two cabbies search San Francisco's Chinatown for a mysterious character who has disappeared with their $4000. Their quest leads them on a humorous, if mundane, journey which illuminates the many problems experienced by Chinese-Americans trying to assimilate into contemporary American society.

Hang Jebat

Inspired by a Malay legend about two friends whose relationship is tested by conflicting loyalties.

King Rat

When 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.

Be with Me

Three 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.

World for Ransom

In 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.

Long Long Time Ago 2

Zhao Di takes over her family farm with the help of Ah Long after the 1969 floods. After the government started reclaiming land for development in 1977, licensed owners like Zhao Di are compensated but her brother accuses her of having an affair with Ah Long to get the money for himself. Meanwhile, Osman does not approve of his son playing in a rock band as he fears the negative influence, causing his son to run away from home. As for Ah Hee and Rani, they decide to get married but their traditional parents are against it.

15

Five troubled teens, abandoned by society and family, form a bond in a world of violence, drugs, and self-destruction, facing harsh realities of modern Singapore.

Brucio nel vento

For ten years, immigrant Tobias has worked at a Swiss clock factory and, in the relentless ticking, he saw life go by without much expectation. One day, he sees Caroline, a former schoolmate from back in Eastern Europe, and falls in love with her, but she's married and has a daughter.

My Magic

A single dad looks to give up drinking and his bartender job in order to impress his son and find work as a magician.

The Mountain

A couple goes mountain hiking together with friends, unaware of the drama that will unfold.

Torino Boys

A group of young Nigerian friends living in Italy travels to Rome to watch a UEFA soccer match. For Eby this is the opportunity to see Nike, a girl he met only a while ago.

Heaven & Earth

In a small Vietnamese village torn apart by war, a young woman faces unimaginable horrors before deciding to escape to the city. There, she encounters a compassionate Marine who offers her hope and a chance at a new life, igniting the possibility of a future together.

Singapore

After the war, Matt Gordon returns to Singapore to retrieve a fortune in smuggled pearls. Arrived, he reminisces in flashback about his prewar fiancée, alluring Linda, and her disappearance during the Japanese attack. But now Linda resurfaces...with amnesia and married to rich planter Van Leyden. Meanwhile, sinister fence Mauribus schemes to get Matt's pearls.

Pleasure Factory

A 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:

881

Two Singaporean girls join together to form the Papaya Sisters, a getai group that sings at performances during the seventh lunar month. Big Papaya is estranged from her mother, who disapproves of her performances, whilst Little Papaya is an orphan who suffers from terminal cancer. The two are assisted by Auntie Ling and her son, Guan Yin. The two soon rise to the top of the Singaporean getai scene singing traditional Hokkien songs, but their fame brings along with it the enmity of the Durian Sisters, a rival group of techno-singing Eurasian girls.

Bleat!

An elderly Malaysian-Tamil couple discovers their male goat, set for ceremonial slaughter, is pregnant. Torn between faith and the expectations of their community, they struggle to decide whether to slaughter it or face the wrath of the gods.

Ice Kacang Puppy Love

Botak, the son of a coffee shop owner, is secretly in love with tomboy Fighting Fish, who has grown up with him since she and her mother came to live with them a decade or so ago. Angry at her mother for deserting her no-good father when she was still young, Fighting Fish sets out one day to find him, with Botak in tow.

I Not Stupid Too

A 2006 Singaporean film and the sequel to the 2002 film, I Not Stupid. A satirical comedy, I Not Stupid Too portrays the lives, struggles and adventures of three Singaporean youths - 15-year-old Tom, his 8-year-old brother Jerry and their 15-year-old friend Chengcai - who have a strained relationship with their parents. The film explores the issue of poor parent-child communication.

Sulaimani

One evening, Alia and Neena, two young Indian women, dine at Sulaimani, an Indian restaurant in Paris. The meal stirs up buried emotions and "unleashes" certain memories that slowly reveal why they left their country.

Wet Season

Wet Season revolves around the life of Ling, a schoolteacher who deals with infertility while having to take care of her infirm father-in-law at home. One of Ling's students, Kok Wei Lun, develops a crush on her during remedial Chinese classes. The two become closer as Wei Lun embraces Ling's extra tutoring.

I'm No Longer Here

In Monterrey, Mexico, a young street gang spends their days dancing to slowed-down cumbia and attending parties. After a mix-up with a local cartel, their leader is forced to migrate to the U.S. but quickly longs to return home.

Desi Standard Time Travel

When a new father suddenly loses his own dad, an opportunity to travel back in time for an evening gives him a chance to end things on a better note.

Singapore Woman

A fallen woman seeks redemption at a Singapore rubber plantation. Melodrama.

Sandcastle

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.

Singapore Dreaming

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.

Asha Black

Five people get murdered in Malaysia and the cop who investigates the crime finds out that they have a common Facebook friend — Asha Black. Meanwhile, a young man from India comes to the country to meet Asha, after she befriends him on Facebook.

Siew Lup

Mia, 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.

Songlap

Brothers Am (Shaheizy Sam) and Ad (Syafie Naswip) are involved in a baby-selling syndicate run by a woman known as Mama. As they progress, a friend's sister, Hawa (Sara Ali) gets involved too and Ad can no longer turn a blind eye. However, his moral struggle starts to shake his relationship with Am.

Crazy Rich Asians

An 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.

Lasting Moments

Aki and Pia are a devoted couple working hard to build a future together. Pia, driven by love and a desire to lift her family from poverty, is offered a prestigious job in Singapore by her boss Carlo—who harbors feelings for her. As Pia’s career flourishes, Aki’s life unravels, leading to addiction and their painful breakup. Five years later, Pia is successful but unfulfilled in a relationship with the controlling Carlo. She returns to the Philippines, rejects his proposal, and seeks out Aki—only to find a man who no longer seems to know her. Faced with regret, Pia must confront the cost of her choices and the love she may have lost forever.

Saint Jack

Jack Flowers is an American hustler trying to make his fortune in 1970s Singapore in small time pimping. His dreams of building a fortune by running a brothel himself and returning to the States is materialized when he is offered the opportunity by the CIA to run a brothel for the R&R activities of U.S. soldiers on leave in Singapore.

Paradise Road

A group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II.

Ah Girls Go Army

WHAT IF, in the unforeseen future, when there are not enough boys in Singapore? If Girls have to serve National Service also, what will happen? The story will focus on the first batch of female recruits, a bunch of Gen Z teens and youngsters with different backgrounds and education. As they trained under the fierce leadership of Sergeant Chow and Lieutenant Roxanne, they find themselves being pushed to the limit of their potential. Together, they overcome hardship and initial resistance to serve NS and discover newfound abilities, using it to solve and mend relationships in their personal life as well.

Spinning Gasing

Members of a Malaysian band must overcome their racial, religious and cultural differences to overcome the difficulties of love, relationships and day to day issues in modern day Malaysia.

Repossession

50-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").

Across to Singapore

While Joel and his older ship's captain brother Mark are at sea, the latter is abandoned in Singapore by devious ship's mate Finch who, upon their return, convinces the townspeople that Joel abandoned his brother. Joel, determined to not only find Mark but to see justice done, returns the ship to Singapore.

Vesna Goes Fast

Czech immigrant Vesna arrives in Italy and is forced into casual prostitution by poverty. The encounter with a kind construction worker could help change her situation.

In the Room

This sensitive and sensual film draws together several narratives spanning several decades, all of them transpiring in the same room of the same Singaporean hotel — and all of them involving sex.

Five Breakups and a Romance

Even if two people are on the opposite sides of the universe, once the connection is made, they're basically one.

Chennai 2 Singapore

An aspiring filmmaker, who is also down on luck, goes to Singapore to meet a producer, but what follows is misadventure after misadventure, with a dash of romance thrown in.

Ramen Shop

Masato is a young ramen chef in Japan. When he finds his late mother's journal after the sudden death of his emotionally distant father, he takes it with him to her native country, Singapore, hoping to piece together the story of his family and his life.

12 Storeys

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.

Mee Pok Man

A painfully shy noodle-shop owner and a prostitute have a chance encounter when destiny arrives in the form of a car accident.

Tourism

When Nina wins free airline tickets, she leaves her dingy apartment and part-time factory job in Yamato City, Japan for Singapore with her friend Su.

The Leap Years

Li-Ann, a dreamer, is a strong believer of the soul mate theory and rejects all men, especially her best friend KS, until she falls in love with Jeremy, at first sight. They tour Chinatown, Singapore, together on February 29, 1980. Unfortunately, she is heartbroken when he tells her he is engaged. He decides to make up to her by meeting her at the same time, same place, every leap year. Their love spans 20 years, as they realize the pain of love until they take the leap of faith...and the leap of love...

Claypot Curry Killers

Mrs. Chew and her three daughters run a small but flourishing restaurant. Most of the customers come for the house specialty: Homemade Curry - cooked from an old family recipe. Nobody suspects that the special ingredient that turns Mrs Chew's curry from standard fare into a gourmet's delight is human flesh!

Kabali

A gangster in Malaysia goes in search of his family after 25 years of imprisonment.

The Virgin Soldiers

The core of the plot is the romantic triangle formed by the protagonist, a conscripted soldier named Private Brigg, a worldly professional soldier named Sergeant Driscoll, and Phillipa Raskin, the daughter of the Regimental Sergeant Major. The location is a British army base in Singapore during the Malayan Emergency.

Sal of Singapore

SAL OF SINGAPORE was nominated for an Oscar for achievement in Writing during the second year of the Academy Awards. The film, being a part-talkie, nearly disappared from view. However, a preservation print does exist at UCLA, although it is unavailable for public viewing, awaiting restoration.

Don’t Cry, Butterfly

Tam, a diligent wedding venue staffer, discovers her husband’s affair on live TV. Rather than confronting him, she enlists a powerful spell master to win back his love. Tam’s daughter, Ha, pours her frustration into vivid fantasies of a brighter future abroad. Meanwhile, a mysterious House Spirit, visible only to the women, lurks beneath their cracked, leaky ceiling.

Granny

An elderly widow finds an unexpected visitor, a young asylum-seeking girl, in her home during dinner. Inspired by a 2012 event, whereby 40 Burmese Rohingya asylum seekers arrived in the port of Singapore.

The Jungle Princess

Christopher Powell is in Malaysia with his fiancée and her father, capturing wild animals. While out hunting, he is attacked by a tiger, and his native guides run away, leaving him for dead. But the tiger is the pet of Ulah, a beautiful young woman who grew up by herself in the jungle. She rescues Chris and takes him back to her cave, where she nurses him to health and falls in love with him. When he eventually returns to camp, she follows. The fiancée is jealous, and the natives don't like Ulah or her pet tiger either, all of which leads to a lot of trouble.