Film Picks: The Solitary Gourmet, 6 Films by Jia Zhangke, Presence

The Solitary Gourmet (PG)

110 minutes, opens exclusively at The Projector on March 27

The Solitary Gourmet began life as a manga, then was adapted into a popular television show that gained a following in Japan and overseas, and ran for 10 seasons from 2012.

In this feature film spin-off, Yutaka Matsushige reprises his small-screen role of Goro Inogashira, the businessman and nomadic solo diner of the title.

The drama-comedy follows the foodie on a trip to Paris, where he meets Chiaki Matsuo (Anne Watanabe), the daughter of a friend who lives in the city. She tells Goro that her grandfather yearns for a soup he had as a child. Recreating the soup becomes Goro’s mission, causing him to cross Japan and South Korea for the right ingredients.  

The South China Morning Post gives the film four out of five stars, saying: “Fans of the television show will delight in the opportunity to celebrate Goro’s odyssey in shared company on the big screen, where regulars and newcomers alike are treated to a warm-hearted tour of traditional Japanese small-town cuisine in a film certain to raise a smile and whet the appetite.”

Where: The Projector at Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road
MRT: Somerset
When: Opens on March 27, with sneaks on March 21 at 8.30pm and March 22 at 5.30pm
Admission: $16 (standard), $14 (students, full-time national servicemen and seniors)

6 Films by Jia Zhangke

Jia Zhangke, along with other Sixth Generation film-makers who emerged in the 1990s, concerns himself with lives upended by China’s rapid industrialisation.

One highlight in this programme presented by the Asian Film Archive is Still Life (2006, PG, 108 minutes, screens on April 5 at 5pm and April 26 at 2pm). Director and co-writer Jia once more puts the focus on ordinary citizens coping with new economic realities. 

Coal miner-turned-actor Han Sanming – also Jia’s cousin and occasional collaborator – plays a coal miner of the same name who travels to Fengjie, a city moved to a new location after the original site was covered by the waters of the Three Gorges Dam.

Han is searching for his wife, who left abruptly 16 years ago. Another visitor to Fengjie is nurse Shen Hong (Zhao Tao), also in search of a runaway spouse, her husband having departed for Fengjie two years prior. The two travellers, raised to value loyalty and faithfulness, navigate a city ruled by money and influence. 

The film won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. In a review, The Guardian newspaper calls Still Life “a deeply felt and quietly impressive film”.

Where: Oldham Theatre, National Archives of Singapore, 1 Canning Rise
MRT: City Hall/Bras Basah
When: April 4 to 26, various times
Admission: $10 (general), $9 (concession)
Info: str.sg/cGGq

Presence (M18)

85 minutes, now showing

★★★★☆

An American family moves into a two-storey suburban residence occupied by a supernatural entity. Sounds like any haunted house horror film, except the director here is Steven Soderbergh.

Soderbergh has never made an uninteresting movie over a 36-year career stretching from Sex, Lies, And Videotape (1989) to the Ocean’s heist trilogy (2001 to 2007) to the Magic Mike (2012 to 2023) franchise.

The spectre is a captivating presence. It is, from the start, in the house – the single locale in the screenplay by David Koepp, who also conceived Soderbergh’s pandemic thriller Kimi (2022). It free-floats along the empty hallways, and up and down the stairs.

Lucy Liu plays a cold corporate shark and mother of two teenagers. The son (Eddy Maday), a noxious high-school jock, is her golden child. The younger daughter (Callina Liang) is grieving the death of her best friend and she is not the only one in pain. The gentle patriarch (Chris Sullivan), too, weeps inconsolably when alone.

The performances are top-notch, and more unsettling than the paranormal disturbances is the sense of impending tragedy in a very sad domestic drama. – Whang Yee Ling