{"id":659175,"date":"2026-10-28T02:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T02:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/659175\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T02:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T02:32:09","slug":"acrobatic-pastor-drama-trinity-heads-to-tokyo-gap-financing-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/659175\/","title":{"rendered":"Acrobatic Pastor Drama ‘Trinity’ Heads to Tokyo Gap-Financing Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA celebrity preacher who performs daredevil stunts for his congregation while hiding his fixation on a young follower sits at the center of \u201cTrinity<\/a>,\u201d the new feature from director Boo Junfeng<\/a>, which is among the projects at this year\u2019s Tokyo Gap-Financing Market<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tStructured in three chapters modeled on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the film follows Johnny, a pastor from Taiwan whose sermons have built him a large Singaporean following at a popular megachurch. The faithful also turn out in large numbers for the elaborate acrobatic shows he stages in the vein of Cirque du Soleil.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough publicly known for his conservative stance, Johnny grows infatuated with Yang, a newcomer to his training program, and his preferential treatment of the young man soon becomes hard to miss. It unsettles his wife Ruth, and David, his leading disciple and his daughter\u2019s husband-to-be, both of whom share in running the church.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Yang vanishes, a frantic Johnny starts his own inquiry. The clues point toward the people in his inner circle, with tragic results. Johnny and Ruth later relocate to rural Taiwan, where they keep a low profile and worship at a modest local congregation \u2013 until Johnny glimpses an enigmatic stranger who may yet bring the couple divine grace.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always been very interested in the subject of sexuality and faith, and I wanted to make a film that dives deep into the psyche of these characters within a church,\u201d Boo said.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoo, a Singaporean filmmaker, made his feature debut with \u201cSandcastle\u201d (2010), which became the first film from Singapore to be selected for Cannes Critics\u2019 Week. His follow-up, capital punishment drama \u201cApprentice,\u201d played in Cannes\u2019 Un Certain Regard section in 2016. He has also served as creative director of Singapore\u2019s National Day Parade, including the 2025 edition marking the country\u2019s 60th anniversary, and currently serves as chair of the Singapore International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tProducer Raymond Phathanavirangoon, whose credits include \u201cApprentice,\u201d co-wrote \u201cTrinity\u201d with Boo and has been involved since the idea first took shape. He has also produced Pen-ek Ratanaruang\u2019s \u201cHeadshot,\u201d Ron Howard\u2019s \u201cThirteen Lives\u201d and Pang Ho-Cheung\u2019s \u201cDream Home\u201d and \u201cAberdeen.\u201d His earlier career included stints as an international programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival and a program delegate for Cannes Critics\u2019 Week, and he co-founded the Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPersonally, I have had people close to me convert to Christianity due to Evangelism, but this is seldom seen in Asian films,\u201d Phathanavirangoon said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added that the way some Asian churches build spectacle into their services is what sets the story apart. \u201cSome are surprised that churches can host Cirque du Soleil-style performances like in our film, but just earlier this year in Korea, a stunt sent a man dressed as Jesus into the sky, and that went super viral.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTrinity\u201d is now in post-production. Both Boo and Phathanavirangoon said the team is coming to Tokyo with a small gap in its financing left to close before the film can be completed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI hope people will empathize with the characters, despite them being flawed human beings,\u201d Boo said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe project is produced by Peanut Pictures, Filmagic Pictures and Ga\u00efjin, and is listed as a co-production spanning 11 countries: Taiwan, France, Singapore, Poland, Greece, Japan, Germany, Brazil, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Tokyo Gap-Financing Market runs as part of TIFFCOM, the content market attached to the Tokyo International Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A celebrity preacher who performs daredevil stunts for his congregation while hiding his fixation on a young follower…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[296714,146,85,46,397,66939,1776,10947],"class_list":["post-659175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-boo-junfeng","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies","tag-tokyo-gap-financing-market","tag-tokyo-international-film-festival","tag-trinity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}