Indonesian historical drama This City Is A Battlefield (M18, 119 minutes, screens at GV Vivo Max on Dec 5, 7pm) comes from film-maker Mouly Surya, whose previous work, the neo-western thriller Marlina The Murderer In Four Acts (2017), was selected for the Cannes Film Festival and was Indonesia’s entry to the 2019 Academy Awards.
With City, her focus shifts to the heady time just after World War II. The people of Jakarta yearning for freedom after the departure of the Japanese invaders, only for their dreams to be crushed by the brutal Dutch colonial authorities.
Teacher Isa (Chicco Jerikho) is a freedom fighter. In the midst of a dangerous mission, his guerilla group finds itself torn by conflicts born of romantic jealousy and family demands. This adaptation of Mochtar Lubis’ 1952 novel A Road With No End was chosen as the closing film for the 54th International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The Dec 5 screening includes a question-and-answer session with Surya and actors Jerikho, Ariel Tatum and Jerome Kurnia.
Where: Events for the festival will be held at various venues, including Oldham Theatre, National Archives of Singapore, 1 Canning Rise; Golden Village Bugis; Golden Village Cineleisure; Golden Village Suntec City; Golden Village VivoCity; Marina Bay Sands’ Sands Theatre; and National Gallery Singapore’s Gallery Theatre
MRT: Dhoby Ghaut/Clarke Quay/Bras Basah (nearest to Oldham Theatre and central venues)
When: Nov 26 to Dec 7, various timings
Admission: $25 (festival opening film), $15 (general film ticket), $20 (special presentations); festival passes and concessions available for students, full-time national servicemen and others via Sistic.com
Info:
sgiff.com
By the time the drama Bugis Street was released in 1995, the real Bugis Street – an area notorious for nightlife featuring transgender personalities – was already a nostalgic note in Singapore’s history.
Hong Kong film-maker Yonfan’s movie, starring Vietnamese-American actress Hiep Thi Le, immortalised the area, and the movie has since been recognised as not just a record of a Singaporean subculture, but also as a landmark in Asian LGBTQ+ cinema that arrived before Western drag culture became mainstream entertainment.
Matthew Foo in the 1995 Singapore drama Bugis Street.
PHOTO: FAR SUN FILMS
It tells the story of Lian (Le), a chambermaid who takes a job at the Singapore hotel that opens the sheltered girl’s eyes to a community – one with light and dark sides – that becomes her second family.
The film has been restored in 4K and the screening will feature a question-and-answer session and meet-and-greet with cast members such as Ernest Seah, Maggie Lye, Maria Jaafar and Matthew Foo.
Where: Golden Village Cineleisure Orchard, 8 Grange Road
MRT: Somerset/Orchard
When: Nov 15, 3pm
Admission: $22
Info:
str.sg/B4MR
Apple TV
★★★★☆
There is a philosophical thought experiment which asks: If a happiness pill existed that would rid the taker of hate, anger, greed and sadness, should one take it?
Vince Gilligan, the American creator of the Emmy-winning dramas Breaking Bad (2008 to 2013) and Better Call Saul (2015 to 2022) considered the question, hence the science fiction-tinged dark comedy Pluribus, which has the tagline: “The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.”
(From left) Sharon Gee, Darinka Arones, Rhea Seehorn, Amarburen Sanjid and Menik Gooneratne in Pluribus
PHOTO: APPLE TV
Novelist Carol (Rhea Seehorn) is that miserable person, one of a few immune to the happiness virus that has swept the world. The disease makes the infected empathetic and blissful; all wars have stopped and hunger has vanished.
Here lies the suspense: Carol might just be the only sane person left in a world gone mad or she could be in an earthly paradise, but is just too angry to realise it.
Gilligan’s new show is more openly comedic than either Better Call Saul (which also featured Seehorn) or Breaking Bad, and presents compelling characters, from the sharp-tongued Carol, the unwavering misanthrope, to the playboy Koumba (Samba Schutte), ecstatic at having his every lascivious desire fulfilled.
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