The Singapore Film Society (SFS) and Centre for Chinese Studies, Singapore University of Social Sciences (CCS@SUSS) announced on Monday the 6th edition of the Singapore Chinese Film Festival (SCFF2018) which will be held from 27 April to 6 May at Golden Village Suntec City, Golden Village VivoCity, Capitol Theatre, The Projector, National Museum of Singapore and LASALLE College of the Arts.
This year's selection consists of 58 films in four main sections: Chinese Panorama (25 narrative feature films), Documentary Vision (12 documentaries), Chinese Shorts Showcase (17 short films) and a Tribute to Leslie Cheung (4 classics).
Among the 58 films, a total of 44 will be making their Singapore Premiere, of which four will be presented in original Cantonese-dialogue for the first time in Singapore. SCFF2018 will also feature panel talks with international festival guests and local filmmakers.
开幕片：《曼菲》
OPENING FILM: MANFEI
Manfei is a biographical documentary film on late Taiwanese dancer and choreographer Lo Man-fei. Through the lens of veteran cinematographer and director En Chen (A City of Sadness, A Life That Sings), Lo Man-fei’s life story and her dedication to her chosen art form are vividly captured for the cinema. The film captures the legacy and impact that she has had on many people, including her friends, family, and student dancers who today still speak fondly of her. Manfei made its world premiere at the 19th Taipei Film Festival’s closing film. Director Chen will be present for both screenings on 27th April (opening ceremony) and 29th April.
华夏风情画
CHINESE PANORAMA
Every year, SCFF features a selection of socio-realist dramas by young directors that reflect current social issues and political climate. The artistic integrity of these films have been recognized by prestigious film festivals and awards from around the world. This year's selection includes:
- From China: Old Beast (54th Golden Horse Best Actor Award – Tu Men), Walking Past the Future (70th Cannes Film Festival – Un Certain Regard), Last Laugh (First Youth Film Festival 2016 – Best Feature, Best Director), and The Foolish Bird (67th Berlinale);
- From Taiwan: Missing Johnny (54th Golden Horse Best New Performer – Rima Zeidan), The Island That All Flow By (19th Taipei Film Festival Best Actress – Ivy Yin), The Last Verse (22nd Busan International Film Festival – New Currents);
- From Hong Kong: The Empty Hands, Adieu, In Your Dreams, Somewhere Beyond the Mist, Tomorrow Is Another Day – these indie feature films have received multiple nominations at the upcoming 2018 Hong Kong Film Awards.
This year, several neo-noir crime thrillers are presented, including:
- Taiwan’s darkest and most highly regarded drama this past year The Bold, The Corrupt and The Beautiful. The feature makes its Singapore premiere at SCFF2018 after sweeping major accolades at the 54th Golden Horse Awards, including Best Picture, and Best Actress for Kara Hui’s uncanny performance as a political fixer;
- Stained, original mini-series-turned-movie, is from Hong Kong, which has a long tradition of investigative crime drama. This also marks the festival’s acknowledgement of hybrid formats between cinema and television.
- From China: Ash, The Looming Storm, and Wrath of Silence.
Other Chinese Panorama highlights include:
- First-time inclusion of a new wuxia feature film – Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield, winner of the Best Action Choreography at the 54th Golden Horse Awards;
- Malaysian director Saw Teong Hin’s autobiographical family drama You Mean the World To Me in original Hokkien dialect. The film is an adaption of a stage play and was shot by renowned cinematographer Christopher Doyle;
- On Happiness Road (Taiwan), which was the Closing Film at the 54th Golden Horse Film Festival, and winner of Best Animated Feature at the recent Tokyo Anime Awards 2018.
Visiting Chinese Panorama filmmakers will participate in the following panel talks:
To Dub or To Sub: The Importance of Presenting Original Dialogue and Local Dialects in Film
1 May, 4:30pm @ LASALLE College of the Arts, Block F, Room F202
Speakers: Cheong Keat Aun (Cemetery of Courtesy), Saw Teong Hin (You Mean the World to Me), Sung Hsin-Yin (On Happiness Road)
Young Writer-Directors: Crafting Your First Feature
(In partnership with Programme Partner SCAPEmedia Hub)
5 May, 2pm @ SCAPE Gallery
Speakers: Chapman To (The Empty Hands), Rita Hui (Pseudo Secular), Tseng Ying-Ting (The Last Verse)
纪录片视角
DOCUMENTARY VISION
The two main areas of focus in SCFF2018's documentary programme are “Bio-Documentary” and “Eco-Documentary”. The Bio-Documentary segment includes opening film Manfei, followed by I’ve Got the Blues, where filmmaker Angie Chen interacts with Hong Kong artist Yank Wong. Singaporean filmmaker Lei Yuanbin takes an experimental approach in portraying our home-grown artist Tang Ling Nah in Dreaming in Black and White.
In the Eco-Documentary segment, tribute is paid to the legacy of director Chi Po-Lin, and his unfailing spirit and activism for environmental causes. Director Chi passed away last year in a helicopter crash while filming the sequel to Beyond Beauty: Taiwan From Above (50th Golden Horse Awards Best Documentary). In addition to re-screening Beyond Beauty at GVmax VivoCity, the programme consists of documentary films that touch on environmental themes and issues, including Black Bear Forest, Ocean, The Disappearing Hills and Plastic China.
Other documentary highlights include:
- Inmates (China), a five-hour long magnum opus that offers deep psychological insights into the lives and experiences of patients in a mental institution in Northeast China. The film won Best Documentary at the 54th Golden Horse Awards, and director Ma Li will be in attendance for the post-screening Q&A
- Snuggle (Hong Kong), by director Wong Sui Pong, touches on issues facing an aging urban population in Hong Kong;
There are two panel talks on documentary filmmaking:
Bio-Documentaries: Exploring the Relationship Between Subject and Filmmaker
28 April, 2pm @ LASALLE, Block F, Room F202
Speakers: Angie Chen (I’ve Got the Blues), En Chen (Manfei), Lei Yuanbin (Dreaming in Black & White)
Eco-Documentaries: A Tribute to Chi Po-Lin
6 May, 2pm @ National Museum of Singapore, Gallery Theatre
Speakers: Amy Tseng (producer of Beyond Beauty: Taiwan From Above), Ke Chin-Yuan (Ocean), Yeo Kai Wen (The Disappearing Hills)
华流短片展
CHINESE SHORTS SHOWCASE
There are three sections in the Chinese Shorts Showcase, including:
Chinese Shortcuts
This well-loved section features award-winning Chinese Short Films from various territories. The selection this year includes Qiu Yang’s A Gentle Night- 70th Cannes Film Festival – Palme d’Or, Short Film; Jovi Lee’s Babes’ Not Alone (54th Golden Horse Awards – Best Live Action Short Film); Lu Po-Shun’s Wild Tides, which won him Best Director at the 19th Taipei Film Festival, a rare achievement for a short film director, and Malaysian-radio-DJ-turned-filmmaker Cheong Keat Aun’s experimental short film Cemetery of Courtesy which was selected from last year’s Busan International Film Festival (Wide Angle).
Singapore Shorts
Five short films recently made by home-grown talents will be screened. These include Rehearsal – Jonathan Choo’s latest collaboration with his father, veteran actor Choo Houren, in an experimental treatise on screen-acting; Shoki Lin’s Changi, which touches on the dilemma of a new immigrant mother. Changi was awarded Best Picture at the National Youth Film Awards 2017; Melodi, by film lecturer and director Michael Kam, touches on the special friendship between a bullied foreign domestic worker and her would be rescuer, a young 10-year-old neighbour; Liao Jiekai’s Nocturne (film still below), commissioned as part of the 667 omnibus and recently in-competition at Hong Kong ifva Awards, and Eva Tang’s well-received The Veiled Willow, also a part of the 667 omnibus
Animated Shorts
For the first time in SCFF, Animated Shorts from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore are presented. The selection of eight shorts includes Stories About Him (19th Taipei Film Festival – Best Animated Short); Losing Sight of a Longed Place (54th Golden Horse Award – Best Animated Short); Between Us Two (28th Singapore International Film Festival – Best Singapore Short Film); Singlit adaptations Loop by Chong Jia En, Tiger Baby by Sarah Cheok and The Giant by the Zhuang brothers.
挚爱张国荣
LOVING LESLIE – A TRIBUTE TO LESLIE CHEUNG
This year, SCFF pays tribute to Hong Kong cinema legend Leslie Cheung, who passed away 15 years ago on 1st April 2003. Relive four of Leslie’s iconic roles in A Chinese Ghost Story (director Ching Siu Tung, producer Tsui Hark), Rouge (director Stanley Kwan, producer Jackie Chan), A Phantom Lover (director Ronny Yu) and Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together, selected as the closing film.
Co-Director of the SCFF2018, Professor Foo Tee Tuan (Director, CCS@SUSS) notes the especial significance of screening Happy Together at the Capitol Theatre: It will only be its second public screening since 1998, when it rounded off the Singapore International Film Festival at the same venue. Caution about the film's homosexual content had prevented its commercial release in Singapore two decades earlier.
A sign of the times!
电影节票价
GENERAL TICKETING INFORMATION
Advance sales starts from 12th April 2018.
S$13*: General Public
S$10*: SFS Film Addicts and SUSS Members
(Only for tickets purchased over the counter with presentation of valid membership card)
* SISTIC booking fee of S$1 per ticket will apply.
Tickets for sessions at GV Suntec City and GV VivoCity are available at the GV box office and www.gv.com.sg
Tickets for sessions at the Capitol Theatre, National Museum of Singapore, The Projector, and LASALLE are available at all SISTIC outlets and www.sistic.com.
Admission to all panel talks is free. Reservations can be made at www.scff.sg.
电影节套票
TICKET PACKAGES
SCFF CINEPHILE: Catch any six films presented at Capitol Theatre, The Projector, National Museum of Singapore, and LASALLE for S$60. The pass and more information can be purchased at www.singaporefilmsociety.com.
There will also be three (3) ticketing packages that can be purchased from SISTIC:
- LOVING LESLIE PACKAGE
Purchase tickets to any two films from this package and enjoy a 20% discount
A Chinese Ghost Story, The Phantom Lover, Rouge, Happy Together
- INDIE TRIO PACKAGE
Catch all three films to enjoy 20% off
Inmate, Pseudo Secular, The Last Painting
- ECO DOCUMENTARY PACKAGE
Catch both screenings to enjoy 20% off
Black Bear Forest, Ocean + The Disappearing Hills