Chai Yee-Wei’s “Wonderland” comes to the Singapore International Film Festival after debuting at the San Diego Asian Film Festival where it won the audience award.
Chai’s credits include “Blood Ties” (2009), “Twisted” (2011) and “That Girl in Pinafore” (2013), which premiered at the Shanghai International Film Festival. “Wonderland” is his fifth feature. He is the founder of Singaporean post-production house Mocha Chai Laboratories.
Set in 1980s Singapore, “Wonderland” follows two middle-aged fathers – Loke, who owns a joss paper shop and lives with his daughter Eileen, and Tan, a lonely church pianist and recovering alcoholic-gambler. They become friends after Loke sells his house to fund Eileen’s studies abroad and moves next to Tan. Filled with regrets over his own estranged daughter, Tan offers to translate and transcribe the illiterate Loke’s correspondences with Eileen. When Tan learns about a tragedy, he constructs an elaborate lie to protect Loke from the truth.
Chai’s credits include “Blood Ties” (2009), “Twisted” (2011) and “That Girl in Pinafore” (2013), which premiered at the Shanghai International Film Festival. “Wonderland” is his fifth feature. He is the founder of Singaporean post-production house Mocha Chai Laboratories.
Set in 1980s Singapore, “Wonderland” follows two middle-aged fathers – Loke, who owns a joss paper shop and lives with his daughter Eileen, and Tan, a lonely church pianist and recovering alcoholic-gambler. They become friends after Loke sells his house to fund Eileen’s studies abroad and moves next to Tan. Filled with regrets over his own estranged daughter, Tan offers to translate and transcribe the illiterate Loke’s correspondences with Eileen. When Tan learns about a tragedy, he constructs an elaborate lie to protect Loke from the truth.
- 12/5/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Combining comedy with melodrama in a film about middle-age fatherhood is not exactly an easy feat to undertake, but it is exactly what Chai Yee Wei chose to do for his first feature after ten years and ”That Girl in Pinafore”.
Wonderland is screening at Singapore International Film Festival
Set in 1980's Singapore, the movie revolves around Loke, a single father who is trying to ensure the best future possible for his only daughter Eileen, through his incense-selling shop. When Eileen gets a scholarship to study in the US, Loke lies to her that he has enough savings to sustain her life there, and eventually proceeds into selling his house to help her financially. At the same time, though, she also lies to him about her life there, and the fact that she has to work part-time in order to survive. Loke eventually meets Tan after moving to a cramped apartment next to him,...
Wonderland is screening at Singapore International Film Festival
Set in 1980's Singapore, the movie revolves around Loke, a single father who is trying to ensure the best future possible for his only daughter Eileen, through his incense-selling shop. When Eileen gets a scholarship to study in the US, Loke lies to her that he has enough savings to sustain her life there, and eventually proceeds into selling his house to help her financially. At the same time, though, she also lies to him about her life there, and the fact that she has to work part-time in order to survive. Loke eventually meets Tan after moving to a cramped apartment next to him,...
- 11/30/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Yeo Siew Hua, the Singaporean director whose “A Land Imagined” won the Locarno Film Festival’s top prize in 2018, has cast acclaimed Taiwanese actors Lee Kang-Sheng and Wu Chien-Ho (“A Sun”) in his new “Stranger Eyes.”
The film, a thriller with domestic surveillance at its core, is currently shooting. It is set to wrap post-production by early 2024 and start a festival run thereafter. International sales are handled by France’s Playtime.
The Golden Horse-nominated Wu plays Darren, a struggling young father whose baby daughter has gone missing. When mysterious footage appears of his private and intimate life, Darren suspects that his neighbor Goh, a supermarket supervisor, is the voyeur linked to his daughter’s disappearance. Goh is portrayed by Lee, who is best-known for his three-decade-plus collaboration with Golden Lion-winning director Tsai Ming-liang. Increasingly frantic, Darren takes it upon himself to stalk Goh, meaning that the hunted becomes hunter.
“It...
The film, a thriller with domestic surveillance at its core, is currently shooting. It is set to wrap post-production by early 2024 and start a festival run thereafter. International sales are handled by France’s Playtime.
The Golden Horse-nominated Wu plays Darren, a struggling young father whose baby daughter has gone missing. When mysterious footage appears of his private and intimate life, Darren suspects that his neighbor Goh, a supermarket supervisor, is the voyeur linked to his daughter’s disappearance. Goh is portrayed by Lee, who is best-known for his three-decade-plus collaboration with Golden Lion-winning director Tsai Ming-liang. Increasingly frantic, Darren takes it upon himself to stalk Goh, meaning that the hunted becomes hunter.
“It...
- 8/18/2023
- by Patrick Frater and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
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