Film Picks: Dress up in cheongsam to get In The Mood For Love in 4K
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Maggie Cheung (left) and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in In The Mood For Love.
PHOTO: JET TONE FILMS
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In The Mood For Love 25th Anniversary Special Edition
This achingly romantic portrayal of unconsummated love returns to the big screen, restored in 4K and in its original Cantonese, 25 years after its 2000 release.
Acclaimed Hong Kong film-maker Wong Kar-wai examines the lives of two neighbours – Mrs Chan (Maggie Cheung) and Mr Chow (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) – whose spouses are having an affair. Their shared betrayal unites them as friends. Feelings develop.
(From left) Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung in In The Mood For Love.
PHOTO: JET TONE FILMS
The film is celebrated as a near-perfect representation of yearning, captured in the actors’ gestures and the sensuous photography of Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle and Taiwanese cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bing.
Hong Kong designer William Chang’s elegant cheongsam wardrobe – Cheung wore more than 20 examples in the film – gave voice to Mrs Chan’s unexpressed feelings.
This restoration contains a new nine-minute post-credits sequence, excerpted from a 2001 Wong Kar-wai short film.
At the gala screening on Nov 1, women are invited to wear cheongsam or modern Chinese outfits, while men can wear Western suits or traditional Chinese clothing.
Where: Shaw Lido 1, Shaw House, 350 Orchard Road shaw.sg
MRT: Orchard
When: Limited screenings from Nov 1 to 16, various timings
Admission: $25 (standard)
Info:
Perspectives Film Festival 2025
Singapore’s longest-running student-run film festival, organised by undergraduates of Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School Of Communication and Information, returns with seven films exploring themes of tradition and modernity.
Ahead of the Nov 20 release of the musical movie Wicked: For Good, Perspectives Film Festival presents a 2K restored version of visionary American director Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz (PG, 134 minutes, screens on Oct 24, 7.30pm). The festival’s opening film – a 1978 reimagining of the classic 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by American author L. Frank Baum – features an all-African-American cast and is set in an urban Oz.
(From left) Ted Ross as the Lion, Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow and Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man in The Wiz.
PHOTO: PARK CIRCUS
The Wiz was a box-office flop, but has become a fan favourite, partly because American singer Michael Jackson, who stars as the Scarecrow, would later rise to superstardom.
American singer Diana Ross, who was in her 30s then, lobbied hard to play Dorothy, despite criticism of her age. Fans love its 1970s quirks, the chemistry between Ross and Jackson, and the music, which includes the funk earworm Ease On Down The Road (1978).
Where: Oldham Theatre, National Archives of Singapore, 1 Canning Rise perspectivesfilmfestival.com
MRT: Dhoby Ghaut/Clarke Quay/Bras Basah
When: Oct 24 to 26, various timings
Admission: $16 (opening film), $14 (standard), with bundles available and concessions for students, full-time national servicemen and others
Info:
Black Phone 2 (M18)
114 minutes, now showing
The Black Phone (2021) featured kid heroes teaming up to defeat serial killer The Grabber. The coming-of-age elements are gone in the sequel, set four years after the events of the first film, says returning director Scott Derrickson (Sinister, 2012; The Gorge, 2025).
Survivor Finney (Mason Thames) is now a 17-year-old high-school student, so the horror needed to grow up as well by becoming more intense and gory, adds the American film-maker.
Mason Thames (left) and Ethan Hawke in Black Phone 2.
PHOTO: UIP
The action has moved to the freezing confines of a Christian winter camp. Finney struggles with memories of his abduction and imprisonment. His sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is haunted by visions of mutilated children. The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), killed by Finney in the last film, returns from the grave, eager for vengeance.
Critics have praised Black Phone 2 for advancing the story into new, grimmer territory. Entertainment magazine Variety says it “ultimately succeeds by devising a formula where two threats – ghosts and serial killers – come calling”.
