Free Hugs

When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942, the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. Among the American prisoners is Cpl. King, a wheeler-dealer who has managed to establish a pretty good life for himself in the camp. King soon forms a friendship with an upper-class British officer who is fascinated with King's enthusiastic approach to life.

Two playboys try to forget previous romances in Singapore – until they meet a beautiful dancer.

In 1962 Hong Kong, two neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses.

Suzuki Shizuka is an office lady at a conglomerate who is hypnotized at a local amusement park and left under the spell. Now she is compelled to sing and dance whenever she hears any melody whatsoever. She heads back to the hypnotist for relief, but he is nowhere to be found. So Shizuka sets off on a journey around Japan to find him and break the spell.

Mia, an ex-prostitute, is trapped in a loveless marriage with the abusive Quan (Sunny Pang, who also stars in Headshot in this year’s Festival lineup), a butcher who runs a roast meat shop. When she meets sensitive funeral director Wu, their passion for one another escalates into an affair. But the path to true love is fraught with jealousy, forcing someone to make a deadly move.

After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.

A single dad looks to give up drinking and his bartender job in order to impress his son and find work as a magician.

Michiko Sakuraba (Mami Ogawa), a secretary at the Morio Kikuchi Law Office, located in a corner of the business district, takes out a concert ticket from her handbag and smiles. After her work is finished, she is going to go with Kikuchi. Then a woman around 20 years old appeared. Kikuchi introduced Michiko to her fiancé, who was surprised. That night, Michiko, deeply saddened, drank a glass alone at the cafe bar. The other guests were couples. Some men and women grope each other's bodies. Michiko returns to her room and comforts herself with a hot shower...

Yoko who works at the editorial department of a small publishing company is a weak OL that is not good at communicating with people. Recently, she felt suspicion of being physically attacked by an abnormal sleepiness, but she know that another person = Yoko enjoys a one – night relationship with men at midnight when she fell asleep. The existence of Yoko eventually begins to erode Yoko’s daily life. Yoko thought about trying to communicate with Yoko through the exchange diary.

Fast, frenetic, and furious best describe the story of five teenage boys all but abandoned by the system, estranged from any parents, and discarded by life in general. They build a world of there own in which gangs, drugs, fighting, body piercing, self-harm, and even suicide are considered commonplace. The film highlights their harrowing place in time and this small world; where brotherhood is valued above all else. Impressively acted by actual street kids, the movie highlights a gritty side of modern-day Singaporean life.

In Singapore, a private detective and the British authorities are on the trail of a crime syndicate that kidnaps a nuclear physicist with the aim of selling him to the highest bidder.

An American-born Chinese economics professor accompanies her boyfriend to Singapore for his best friend's wedding, only to get thrust into the lives of Asia's rich and famous.

Three tales of love wrap around the true story of a blind and deaf woman named Theresa Chan. In the first an elderly shopkeeper is devoted to his sick wife. In the second, two teenage girls become soul mates and lovers. In the third a chubby security guard tries to find the courage to woo a beautiful woman who works in his building.

A series of intertwining tales involve "pleasure seekers and pleasure providers" during the course of one night in Geylang, Singapore's red-light district. There are three distinct stories, united only by the presence of characters from all the stories in a streetside eatery:

Naoko Tanaka is a 26-year-old office lady (OL). Her job is typical, but her workplace has fierce fights among different cliques. Other OLs are absorbed in the daily clique fighting. One day, due to an OL at the company, Naoko Tanaka's company is targeted by OL from all over Japan.

A 2006 Singaporean film and the sequel to the 2002 film, I Not Stupid. A satirical comedy, I Not Stupid Too portrays the lives, struggles and adventures of three Singaporean youths - 15-year-old Tom, his 8-year-old brother Jerry and their 15-year-old friend Chengcai - who have a strained relationship with their parents. The film explores the issue of poor parent-child communication.

A fallen woman seeks redemption at a Singapore rubber plantation. Melodrama.

50-year-old Jim (Gerald Chew, "Apprentice", Cannes Film Festival 2016 Un Certain Regard) loses his high-flying job in status-conscious Singapore, but his ego and pride compel him to hide this from his wife (Amy J Cheng, "Crazy Rich Asians") and daughter. His only confidante is his best friend (Sivakumar Palakrishnan, "A Yellow Bird", Cannes Film Festival 2016 Critics' Week). Desperately clinging onto the material symbols of his past success, he unlocks a hibernating malevolent force, with sinister roots in long-buried secrets. As his dream life crumbles around him, worlds collide, the lines between then and now become increasingly blurred, and Jim descends into a waking nightmare. REPOSSESSION is a bold, genre-bending film, with an ever-evolving, haunting soundscape from Golden Horse Award-winning composer Teo Wei Yong ("A Land Imagined").

Two Singaporean girls join together to form the Papaya Sisters, a getai group that sings at performances during the seventh lunar month. Big Papaya is estranged from her mother, who disapproves of her performances, whilst Little Papaya is an orphan who suffers from terminal cancer. The two are assisted by Auntie Ling and her son, Guan Yin. The two soon rise to the top of the Singaporean getai scene singing traditional Hokkien songs, but their fame brings along with it the enmity of the Durian Sisters, a rival group of techno-singing Eurasian girls.

Kok Pin, Boon Hock and Terry are classmates in "EM3" stream. In Singapore, that means that at the age of 12, the government has decided that they are not as academically inclined as their peers. Kok Pin is creative and a born artist but his parents would rather he focus on his Maths and Sciences. Boon Hock comes from a low-income family and needs to balance school and helping out at the food stall. Terry, a spoilt brat is just too lazy a student. While the three children suffer from the pressure of school, their parents have another set of problems - their jobs and careers.