A Man Trembles

Mark CHUA, LAM Li Shuen

Singapore〡2021〡Fic〡Color〡23 min〡English, Cantonese〡Taiwan Premiere
✧ 32nd Singapore International Film Festival 2021 – Best Director Award (Southeast Asian Short Film Competition)
✧ 18th FEST – New Directors New Films Festival 2022 – Honorable Mention, Silver Lynx Fiction Short Film Competition
✧ 65th BFI London Film Festival 2021

In 1998 Singapore, at the peak of the Asian Financial Crisis, a man and his family spend their final day on Earth at Sentosa island. There, he comes to confront the peculiar closeness between salvation and terror.

Director

Mark CHUA, LAM Li Shuen
Mark CHUA and LAM Li Shuen are Singaporean independent filmmakers. Their short films have screened at international film festivals including the 65th BFI London Film Festival (2021), 51st Tampere Film Festival (2021) and International Film Festival & Awards Macao (2020). In 2021, their short film A MAN TREMBLES was awarded Best Director (Southeast Asian Short Film Competition) at the 32nd Singapore International Film Festival. Their second experimental feature REVOLUTION LAUNDERETTE screened at the 30th Singapore International Film Festival (2019), Asian Film Festival Barcelona (2020), Mammoth Lakes Film Festival (2020) etc., winning the Spirit Award at the Eastern Oregon Film Festival (2020).

09.16 ㊅ 14:00〡透南風咖啡聚場
同場放映:《記憶拆除 》《直到海裡長出森林》《K 的房間——關於世界的創造與毀滅》
9月後Coming Soon〡臺南大學 戲劇系
同場放映:《島影》《陸橋下的客廳》

以節制的表演、鏡頭語言,組成一部壓抑的寓言故事。試圖逃離被物質控制的生活,究竟是得救還是下一個苦難的開始?

What inspired the story of this film was the accounts of our parents about their worries during the Asian Financial Crisis in the 90’s, when we were children. Considering the uncertainties and anxieties of the hard times then, there seemed to be a familiarity to the emotional climate of today and we set out with this film to reflect on a fear and trembling in the face of uncertain times and with it, the desire for unburdening. Exploring the soul of a man and his attachment to this material world and its signs, who becomes so terrified, unable to believe in the salvation he desperately desired. In recent years, we have been thinking about the sites in Singapore that have borne witness to trials and tribulations that go back over different eras. One such site is Sentosa island, a popular vacation island for locals and tourists which usually strictly controls in the media, its image as the “State of Fun”. Historically called Blakang Mati (Island of Death Behind), it was formerly used as a military base during the British colonial period and afterwards a POW camp under the Japanese Occupation. Setting this film and actually having production take place on the rapidly redeveloping Sentosa island was something we felt was really important, personally and historically, to the notions we were trying to pursue. Especially with its interesting analogues to a Singapore that is constantly changing and layering veneers of leisure, capital and forgetting over its dense grid.

11.04 ㊄ 13:00〡台南新光影城 4 廳
11.12 ㊅ 19:50〡台南新光影城 4 廳〡 Q&A session with the Director
同場放映:《直到海裡長出森林》《島影》《屯門往事》
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