Sinema Weekly Digest: 31 May – 6 June 20218 min read
Reading Time: 6 minutesThe Sinema Weekly Digest presents a weekly roundup of Asian film news and the latest trailers, releases and events to check out over the weekend!
Top Stories
Entertainment group mm2 Asia Reports Net Loss of S$92.7m For FY2021 Due to COVID-19
Entertainment group mm2 Asia posted a net loss of S$92.7 million for its financial year ended March 31, 2021, with its major businesses in movie-making and film distribution taking a severe beating from the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said in a bourse filing.
Comparatively, it reported a net profit of $3.3 million in FY2020, which ended March 31, 2020.
Read the full Business Times report here.
Thai Auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul Latest Film ‘Memoria’ In Competition At This Year’s Cannes
The Cannes Film Festival has announced the official selections for this year’s edition, which includes celebrated Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s latest film Memoria — his first in English. It stars Tilda Swinton as an orchid farmer visiting her ill sister in Bogota. For the full list of selections, check out ScreenDaily’s coverage here.
Viu Thailand Announces New Collaborations with Thailand’s Channel 3 and Amarin TV
The collaborations bring highly-anticipated Thai contents to the streaming service to users across Asia, including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and the Philippines.
Contents include four top dramas from Channel 3, exclusively within two hours after the initial broadcast, including romantic comedy series PraoMook. Furthermore, the new collaboration will make Viu the first OTT video streaming platform to offer Amarin TV’s simulcast content such as The Folly of Human Ambition and Cheating Spouse.
‘The French Dispatch’ To Make Its World Premiere At Cannes
Originally set for release on July 24 2020, Wes Anderson’s next feature The French Dispatch will be making its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in July. Variety reports that the film will be heading to American theatres in October. Local fans should expect to be able to catch The French Dispatch around the same timeframe.
Anderson’s tenth feature film is a star-studded affair featuring Benicio del Toro, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Timothee Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan. The movie brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th century French town.
Events, Festivals and Happenings
Free Webinar: Unpacking Independent Filmmaking – How To Make Monumental Films on a Microbudget
Hosted by Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Film & Media Studies, the free webinar will see the Singaporean filmmakers of local features Konpaku (2019) and Not My Mother’s Baking (2020) — Remi M Sali, Ho Pak Kin and Dzul Sungit — share on their experiences as indie filmmakers and the challenges they faced shooting on a shoestring budget.
The webinar will be held on 8 June (Tuesday), 12.00 – 1.00pm. Make your registrations here.
The Bride Always Knocks Twice – Killer Secrets
This weekend will be your last chance to experience interactive murder mystery The Bride Always Knocks Twice — Killer Secrets! Presented by The Theatre Practice, the production will unfold in four parts from 31 May to 6 June 2021, featuring online performances, live online interrogations, and a virtual presentation of the crime scene.
Grab your tickets to the experience now at https://brideknockstwice.com/. Find out how the genre-defying production was brought to life in Sinema.SG’s interview with the all-star team.
Singapore International Festival of Arts: Singular Screens All Access
Curated by the Asian Film Archive, Singular Screens celebrates diverse and independent visions. If you missed out on the physical screenings of the lineup during the festival period, you can catch the selections and check out theatre and music programmes from the festival through SIFA On Demand streaming from 31 May to 12 June.
New Trailers
A Detective Falls in Love With a Suspected Killer In ‘Rika’
In perhaps the most Japanese (aka off-the-wall) trailer you have seen in quite some time, Rina follows a police detective who, while investigating a gruesome murder, falls in love with the crime’s main suspect while attempting to catch her via a dating app. English subtitles are, unfortunately, unavailable at the moment but how the suspect starts crawling on walls ala Spiderman and soaring through the sky in the trailer has captured our attention. Rina opens in Japan on 18 June 2021.
Patriotic War Drama ‘Railway Heroes’ To Arrive in Chinese Theatres in Time For China’s National Day
Co-produced by Huayi Brothers, the same company behind the smash hit The Eight Hundred (2020), Railway Heroes follows an underground group in Shandong during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and their all-or-nothing fight to defend their home. The film is set to premiere in China on 1 October 2021.
M. Night Shyamalan Returns With Time-Bending Horror Thriller ‘Old’
Every time a new M. Night Shyamalan film is released, the film gods toss a coin and the world holds their breath to see how it will land. His next film, Old, presents an intriguing premise: a mysterious beach that causes denizens to rapidly age. Find out whether the movie will turn out to be horror unlike any other (as his films so often are) or a puzzling mess when Old hits theatres worldwide in July.
First Look: Chinese Romance Drama ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ Looks to Pull at the Heartstrings
Recently premiering in China, Love Will Tear Us Apart has received much positive feedback and rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. The emotionally tender yet heart-wrenching film follows two young lovers, Lu Qinyang and Ling Yiyao, played by Qu Chuxiao and Zhang Jingyi respectively.
Qingyang professed his undying love to Yiyao and promised to marry her one day. But after 10 agonising years, Yiyao is getting married to someone else. What will Qinyang do to get her back? Find out when the heartbreaker reaches local cinemas on 10 June.
New Releases to Check Out On Streaming
National Youth Film Awards’ Film Facilitation Programme on The Projector Plus
The programme presents five spectacular short films from five young filmmakers, each tackling different genres under the mentorship of acclaimed industry professionals from around the world.
The first two films from the programme are now available for streaming on The Projector Plus, with subsequent releases every last Thursday of the month. Henchmen, directed by Alistair Quak, sees two henchmen survive the wrath of an action hero. Traffic Light, directed by Ang Qing Sheng, is a delightful animated short about the zany ongoings at a traffic junction while pedestrians wait for the green man.
Exceptional Malaysian Arthouse Horror ‘Roh’ Now Streaming on Netflix
Selected as Malaysia’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category at this year’s Academy Awards, Roh is a highly atmospheric horror detailing the story of a village family receiving a foreboding visit from a stranger. Stream Roh now on Netflix.
Revisit Malaysian Action Classic ‘Bukit Kepong’
The digitally-remastered version of 1981’s Bukit Kepong is now streaming on Netflix. The Malaysian war film, directed and starring legendary local actor Jins Shamsuddin, is based on an armed encounter on 23 February 1950 between the Federation of Malaya Police and the gunmen of the Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan Emergency.
Opening in Theatres This Week
In lieu of the increase in community cases, Sinema.SG would like to remind readers to stay safe and observe social distancing measures if they decide to head to the theatres over the weekend.
Seo In-guk and Lee Soo-hyuk Stars in Explosive Heist Film ‘Pipeline’
Critically-acclaimed Korean director Yoo Ha returns to the crime genre with Pipeline, telling the story of six misfits looking to steal gallons of oil worth millions of Wons from South Korea’s pipeline. The film released in South Korea on 26 May, ranking number 1 in its first week of release among Korean films. Pipeline is now screening in select theatres in Singapore.
Tempestuous Drama ‘Under The Open Sky’ Sees An Ex-Yakuza Find Redemption
Adapted from award-winning novelist Ryuzo Saki’s book Mibuncho, Under The Open Sky details the struggles of an ex-yakuza member, who has spent most of his life in prison, as he attempts to integrate back into Japanese society while looking for his estranged mother. The tempestuous drama, now in theatres islandwide, looks to be an affecting treat for fans of Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda, who the film’s director Miwa Nishikawa trained with.
Banner image credit: Fox Searchlight
