Singapore’s Nelson Yeo Debuts at Locarno With an Uncanny Love Triangle Inspired by Classic Chinese Cinema
07.08.2023 - 06:43
/ variety.com
Momo Film Co, one of Singapore’s most prominent production-distribution outfits. Indeed, Yeo’s film feels uniquely Singaporean in its reflection of the complex psychic state of the country, which can teeter between a coastal dreamland and a cloistered urban nightmare. Before trying his hand at filmmaking, Yeo studied animation.
“My first project centered on a character of One-Armed Swordsman known from many Hong Kong martial arts films,” he recalls. We can see the influence of the director’s animation background in the film’s plasticity and fluidity, especially in sequences shot in cult Singapore old school luna park – Haw Par Villa – featuring supernatural creatures from Chinese and Western mythologies. “I approached making this film as I would my short films,” Yeo told Variety at Locarno.
Before making his debut feature, Yeo made multiple short films such as “Mary, Mary, So Contrary” (2019) which repurposes and manipulates excerpts from Fei Mu’s 1948 classic “Springtime in a Small Town” to weave a phantasmagoric narrative of a Chinese woman named Ma Li who dreams she is a Caucasian woman named Mary. Since childhood Yeo was in love with classic Chinese cinema and with its story of a middle-aged love triangle “Dreaming & Dying” easily turns into an uncanny contemporary Singapore rendition of “Springtime in a Small Town.” “Dreaming & Dying” stars Yu who returns to Locarno screens after his lead role as a detective in 2018 Golden Leopard winner “A Land Imagined.” The actor proves just how versatile he is, playing a unique new role in which he morphs into a merman. Yu is partnered with Toh and Ko who come from a theater background.
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