Back for its 28th edition, this year’s Singapore International Film Festival goes back in time to honor local gems like Jack Neo’s I Not Stupid and TalkingCock The Movie by Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen. In honor of the 15th anniversary of the two made-in-Singapore films — which are considered pioneers in the social satire genre here — both will be showcased under the Singapore Panorama category.
Box office success I Not Stupid — which went on to receive international recognition around the region — revolved around the lives of Primary 6 pupils in the academically inferior EM3 stream; while TalkingCock The Movie — a comedy fleshing out TalkingCock.com’s satirical spirit with farcical sketches of stereotype characters — won a couple of awards at film festivals across the globe.
But besides featuring films poking fun at Singaporeans (all in good fun, of course), the fest will also spotlight Asian spy flicks as part of its first themed Classics section. Titled “Secret Spies Never Die!”, the segment will focus on films from the years between the ’50s and the ’80s, before kung fu stars came and swept away audiences’ attention.
The line-up features titles like Korean director Hang Hyeong-mo’s The Hand of Fate (1954), local film Gerak Kilat (1966) by Jamil Sulong, Thai director Ubol Yugala’s Operation Revenge (1967), and the first Australian-Hong Kong production, The Man from Hong Kong (1975).
For more details on the festival, check back in at the end of October.
The Singapore International Film Festival is on from Nov 23-Dec 3 at various venues, including Marina Bay Sands, Shaw Theatres Lido, and National Museum of Singapore.
