Film Picks: Bad Education, Past Lives, Nordic Film Festival 2023
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Berant Zhu in Taiwanese crime drama Bad Education, about three maladjusted students on the night before high school graduation, looking to make it memorable.
PHOTO: THE PROJECTOR
Bad Education (M18)
77 minutes, limited screenings at The Projector
This Taiwanese crime drama earned six nominations at the 2022 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, with actor Berant Zhu winning the Best Supporting Actor award.
Actor-turned-director Kai Ko, working with a screenplay from award-winning film-maker Giddens Ko – who wrote and directed the hit drama-comedy You’re The Apple Of My Eye (2011) – explores the coming of age of three students over a single tumultuous night.
Kent Tsai, Edison Song and Zhu play the disgruntled teens determined to make the hours just before high-school graduation a time they will never forget.
After both screenings, on Saturday and Sept 3, Kai Ko and Tsai will speak at an online question-and-answer session moderated by the Singapore Film Society’s secretary and head of partnerships Sally Wu.
Where: The Projector, 05-00 Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road theprojector.sg/films-and-events/bad-education
MRT: Nicoll Highway/Lavender
When: Saturday and Sept 3, 5pm
Admission: $15 for standard ticket prices
Info:
Nordic Film Festival 2023
(From left) Gustav Lindh, Bill Skarsgard and Asta Kamma August in the Swedish historical drama Burn All My Letters.
PHOTO: NORDIC FILM FESTIVAL/THE PROJECTOR
Presented jointly by independent cinema The Projector and the embassies of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, the festival features five films spanning genres from comedy to historical drama.
Sweden’s contribution is the drama Burn All My Letters (M18, 119 minutes, Sept 8, 8pm), starring Bill Skarsgard (John Wick: Chapter 4, 2023), which concerns itself with choices not taken and their effect on the psyche.
Director Bjorn Runge came to this project after helming the Oscar-nominated drama The Wife (2017). Adapted from the 2018 Alex Shulman semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, it tells the story of Karin (Asta Kamma August), the wife of a celebrated but cruel author, Sven (Skarsgard), who falls in love with a young writer, Olof (Gustav Lindh). The consequences of their 1930s affair will resonate for decades to come.
When: Sept 7 to 16 theprojector.sg/themes/nordic-film-festival
Where: The Projector, 05-00 Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road
Admission: $15 for standard ticket prices
Info:
Past Lives (PG13)
106 minutes, now showing, 4 stars
Teo Yoo (left) and Greta Lee star in romantic drama Past Lives.
PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION
This was the romance drama that moved even stone-hearted critics to tears at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
Past Lives
Twelve years later, circa 2012, Na Young with the Westernised name Nora (Greta Lee) is studying writing in Manhattan when she chances upon Hae Sung’s (Teo Yoo) Facebook post. They excitedly reconnect online until she decides to move on with her life.
Another dozen years pass. Nora is a playwright happily married to an American novelist (John Magaro) – and then Hae Sung visits.
South Korean-Canadian playwright Celine Song’s intimate writing-directing debut, an autobiography, is less about what the lovers do or say than the looks exchanged and the silences where reawakened feelings amass.
