
Singapore Film Database
Timeless
K Rajagopal
2010
(
(
Told through 4 different time periods, Timeless is a film about the frailty of human connections in which Siva, the main character, appears interacting with the characters in different states of existence but in the same temperament. In each of the situations, including facing a murder in 1875 and the racial riots in 1969, fear consumes him and he walks away. The overarching theme of the film is how little people had change over time, as the cycles of violence and pain are repeated.
The Gang
Kelvin Sng
2010
(
(
"After his father was murdered, 18-year-old Hao Nan is emotionally torn. As he copes with his loss, his desire to seek out the murderer also deepens.
Driven by naivety and his shallow understanding of secret societies, Hao Nan's chance encounter with Ming of Red Luck Gang inspires him and makes him realise that there is a more effective way of dealing with injustice in life, including classmates who are constantly jealous of Hao Nan and always bully him. Soon after, Ming introduces Hao Nan to Hei Ge, the leader of Red Luck Gang. Impressed by ethics and philosophy of the gang, Hao Nan secretly hopes to join it in order to use its influence to avenge his father’s death. However, Hei Ge is reluctant to accept Hao Nan as yet, at least not until he can first prove himself worthy of the gang.
As Hao Nan gets closer to Red Luck Gang with each passing day, he soon discovers that beneath the façade lies brutal violence and betrayal that are contrary to the glorious and dignified image of the gang.
Will Hao Nan’s deepened desire to avenge his father outweigh his innermost conscience and dictate his actions?"
The Glare
K Rajagopal
1996
(
(
A woman who has to single-handedly raise a young daughter and suffer abuse from a drunk husband, finds solace in watching television and drumming up elaborate fantasies. Her compulsive television viewing habit escalates until the day her husband brutally smashes her dreams of a glamorous life and she descends into madness.
Kopi Julia
Tan Bee Thiam
2013
(
(
Ikram brings home his classmates to feed Julia, his blood-sucking stepmum. When Julia starts flirting with a classmate Ikram has been secretly admiring, he flies into a rage of jealousy. An adaptation from a short story by Faizal Sulaiman, Kopi Julia is a film tribute to the Malay horror films made in the 50s in Singapore.
garden girls
Ric Aw
2009
(
(
A troubled man crosses paths with a pair of star crossed teenage girls, each struggling to come to terms with the loss of love. After chancing upon them sunbathing intimately, he follows them with his camera and captures their last moments together in the garden. This unlikely journey of the characters may just save or break them but it is hard to say if they will truly find the salvation that they’re looking for.
On Memory
Liao Jiekai
2021
(
(
After two decades of avoiding the Qing Ming festival tradition of grave-sweeping, Liao Jiekai visits the graves of his ancestors. Here at the cemetery, everything looks different: the Singaporean mass exhumation programme has transformed the landscape, and Liao has no coordinates anymore. Lost in that space, he finds an old man from the future: his future self. Together, they embark on a journey of retracing the places their family would visit during the festival. Along the journey, they re-enact and contemplate their ancestral roots and redeem the ravages of time. Stones – an anthology of poems by the Singaporean writer Yeng Pway Ngon – inspires and haunts this film, building a multi-layered meditation on the passage of time. Death and the transference of spirits appear within a film that confronts both tradition and modernity.