Roulette City3 min read
Reading Time: 3 minutesMacau | Drama | 2010 | 75 minutes | Cantonese (with English subtitles) | PG | $10
Director: Thomas Lim
Premieres 17th July 2010
Tak, from Mainland China, goes to Macau with his uncle Wai, hoping to win money to pay for his ill mother’s operation. They win big at their initial tries, but loses it all when Wai runs into Tak’s old lover, Wynnie.
Misled to believe that he had killed Wai in a furied brawl over Wynnie, Tak is lured into a gamble that he cannot refuse: Wynnie’s freedom in exchange for information known to a local policeman, Kin.
To gain Kin’s trust, Tak befriends Kin’s sister Armanda and unexpectedly starts to fall for her.
But as Tak grows closer to Kin and Armanda, and Kin gets closer to discovering Tak’s true intentions, Tak must decide where his true loyalties lie.
About the Director
A native of Singapore, Thomas Lim began his career as a theatre actor in 1999. He then moved to London in 2002 where he earned his Masters degree in Acting, and relocated to Beijing in 2004 where he became a TV and film actor. Most notably, Thomas was a lead actor in a Chinese TV series “˜The Game’, which received nationwide broadcast in China on CCTV8. This series also aired in Malaysia in June 2010, and will be airing in Singapore in July 2010.
After four years in Beijing, Thomas moved to Macau with the sole purpose of making a feature film. Under Island Man Pictures, Thomas produced and directed his first feature film “˜Roulette City’.
In order to survive while still providing room to devote his spirit and time into making ‘Roulette City’, Thomas set up a Japanese cake shop with his Japanese girlfriend, a pastry chef. They ran this cake shop for the two years that he spent making the film in Macau.
Roulette City premiered at the Singapore International Film Festival in April 2010.
Since then, he has also made three short films. Thomas has recently moved home to Singapore in 2010 to make films that in his own words, “speak the Singaporean voice” in him.
Director’s Statement
As suggested by the title of the film, “˜Roulette City’ is a story about gambling in the casino capital of the East ““ Macau. However, gambling with money is just a small part of it, the film is more about the gambles we take everyday with the decisions that we make.
Although Macau has been handed back to Mainland China, a tight border still separates the two places, and many people from the mainland cross this border everyday to try to turn their fortunes around by gambling at the Macau casinos.
I’ve heard stories of people gambling with their life savings, losing everything, and finding themselves stuck in Macau without money or proper identity. Interestingly, casinos carry a different meaning for the Macau locals. It provides them with well paying jobs and an increasingly comfortable life.
The story of “˜Roulette City’ was built on these observations I’ve made and the film was shot completely in Macau, headed by Singaporean producers, with most of the cast and crew coming from Macau/Hong Kong. It is also my first film of any length, and the only feature film made locally in Macau since 2007.
Hope you’ll like it.
Roulette City will be screening at Sinema Old School from 17th July. Director Thomas Lim will be present at the 17th July screening to conduct a Q&A session after the film.
Visit the official website: roulettecity.islandmanpictures.com
