Filmmaker Tan Bee Thiam’s Tiong Bahru Social Club Opens the 31st Singapore International Film Festival

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 25, 2020

SINGAPORE TATLER / HASHIRIN NURIN HASHIMI

The happiest neighbourhood in the world might just be right at our doorstep … or is it? Filmmaker Tan Bee Thiam offers a satirical take on the Singaporean construct of happiness in his solo directorial debut

Happiness can mean different things to different people. For Tan Bee Thiam, it is doing what you love: “Work fulfilment is happiness to me, as well as being around my loved ones.”

But what if happiness becomes a competition? The filmmaker questions the construct of happiness in Singapore—and the country’s obsession with quantifiable results, whether it is the GDP or the happiness index—in his first full-length feature, Tiong Bahru Social Club, which is the opening film of the 31st Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), which takes place from November 26 to December 6 in a hybrid format. Written by Tan and Antti Toivonen, the satirical comedy tells the story of Ah Bee, who takes on the job of a happiness agent in a data-driven programme as per the film’s title to build the happiest neighbourhood in the world, within the idyllic Tiong Bahru district.

(Related: How to Design a Healthier and Happier Space at Home and in the Office)

Interestingly, Toivonen is from Finland, which was declared the happiest country in the world for the third year running in the 2020 edition of the annual United Nations World Happiness Report. Singapore takes the 31st spot. “While we are not very happy, Singapore is the most competitive country in the world. The film is a hybrid of both the Finnish and Singaporean sensibilities, but the idea of happiness as a competition is, of course, absurd because then it becomes ironic,” enthuses Tan.

So even though Ah Bee diligently carries out his tasks at the Tiong Bahru Social Club, from taking care of an elderly resident and her cat to leading group happiness exercises, there is a risk of him losing his job should the “gross community happiness index”, which addresses all aspect of happiness through an artificial intelligence algorithm, fall below par—and thus revealing the fractures of enforced happiness.

Singapore-helmed TV series Food Lore and Invisible Stories score wins at inaugural ContentAsia Awards →

PUBLISHED AUG 31, 2020, 4:40 PM SGT

STRAITS TIMES / JAN LEE

SINGAPORE - Works by local directors won big at the inaugural ContentAsia Awards livestreamed over Facebook on Friday (Aug 28).

Food Lore (2019), a HBO Asia original anthology series centred on Asian cuisine, took home Best Asian Drama for a Regional/International Market, while Erik Matti, the Filipino director of the first episode of Food Lore, titled Island Of Dreams, was named Best Director of a Scripted TV Programme.

The series is helmed by local filmmaker Eric Khoo (7 Letters, 2015), who serves as showrunner. It won against the likes of cop drama The Bridge (2019 to now), led by Mediacorp actress Rebecca Lim.

Another HBO Asia original - Invisible Stories - about stories from a fictional heartland housing estate in Singapore, won Best Drama Series/Telefilm Made for a Local Asian Market.

The six-part series, which stars names like Golden Horse Award-winning Yeo Yann Yann, was created by Singaporean director Ler Jiyuan. It beat fellow HBO Asia nominee Workers, led by actor Christopher Lee, which premiered earlier this year.

The awards, owned and operated by ContentAsia, a 14-year-old information platform which offers insights into Asia's content environment, has awards for several types of content.

This includes Best Asian Horror Series and even pandemic-related categories like Best Covid-19 Factual Feature and Best Quarantine-themed Drama/Feature/Programme.

First Look: Eric Khoo & HBO Order In Some Asian Cuisines-Inspired Food Lore

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This time, it’s… wok. Filmmaker Eric Khoo has two obsessions: horror and food. Last year, the Mee Pok Man director and HBO teamed up on Folklore, a six-part anthology based on popular superstitions and myths in Asia.

This year, Khoo and the cabler are joining forces on Food Lore, an eight-part hour-long series that, according to the press release, “explores human conditions with narratives inspired by Asian cuisines”.

“Because we’re doing an anthology series, I wanted to involve a lot of auteur filmmakers who have a passion for food,” said Khoo in March when the show was first announced at the Hongkong Filmart. The series was shot in eight countries — The Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, and Malaysia.

“What I really felt was important for the series was the diversity of Asian food and different cultures,” said Khoo, who’s no stranger to telling food stories (Ramen Teh, Recipe). “From day one, I had to have all the episodes to have mother tongue — it had to be the language of their country. That’s when you really get the flavour of it.”

Besides being the showrunner, Khoo also directed one of the episodes, 'Tamarind', a love story between a French female chef (Valentine Payen) and a Malay hawker (Apprentice's Fir Rahman) who sells mee siam, which happens to be a favourite dish of Khoo's.

The other stories to look out for are Vietnam’s ‘He Serves Fish, She Eats Flower’ and the Philippines’ ‘ Island of Dreams’ — they will make their world debut at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival on Oct 30 and 31, respectively. Another episode, India’s ‘A Plate of Moon’, will premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival on Nov 24.

This is the first time an HBO Asia Original will be presented in either festival.

Buffalo Boys Trailer: Mount Up for a Brutal Indonesian Western Thriller →

In 19th century Java, two exiled brothers who grew up on the plains of the American Wild West, return to their rightful home to unravel the mystery of their past and avenge the brutal death of their parents. Today, we have the trailer and poster for Buffalo Boys, which hits the high plains of home entertainment today.

Buffalo Boys stars Yoshua Sudarso (TV's Power Rangers: Dino Chargo and Pretty Boys), Ario Bayu (Java Heat), Pevita Pearce (The Sinking of Van Der Wijck), Tio Pakusadewo (Letters from Prague), Conan Stevens (The Hobbit), and Reinout Bussemaker (Flight HS13). The film will be released in theaters and on Digital this January 11, 2019.

In 19th Century Java, a brutal massacre and the murder of Sultan Hamza by Captain Van Trach and his Dutch soldiers force Arana, Jamar and Suwo - the sultan's brother and infant sons - to flee the country. Together, they travel halfway around the world to the American Wild West. After working the railroads and learning the cowboy way of life, Arana tells the boys it's time to return to their homeland and avenge their father's death.

Back on Indonesian soil, the hunt for their father's killer begins. Along the way, they meet some villagers including Kiona, the rebellious and beautiful headman's daughter who Suwo falls for, and soon find out that the treacherous Van Trach still rules the area. Their presence puts the village in danger, quickly turning their quest for revenge into a fight for freedom. With the odds stacked against them, Arana, Jamar and Suwo use the skills they learned from the wilds of America to face Van Trach and his army in a showdown for justice.

Buffalo Boys was directed by Mike Wiluan and co-written with Raymond Lee and Rayya Markarim. The film was produced by Mike Wiluan, Huang Junxiang, Tan Fong Cheng, Rayya Makarim, and Kimberly James. It was executive produced by Natalya Pavchinskaya, Freddie Yeo, Eric Khoo, Kris Wiluan, Huang Junxiang, Christopher Smith, Michy Gustavia, Mo Shuyi, Sukdev Singh, Wicky Olindo, and Bert Tan.

Samuel Goldwyn Films is a major, independently owned and operated motion-picture company that develops, produces and distributes innovative feature films and documentaries. The company is dedicated to working with both world-renowned and emerging writers/filmmakers and committed to filmed entertainment that offers original voices in uniquely told stories. This is best exemplified by the Academy Award nominated Super Size Me; Sundance winner Gook written and directed by Justin Chon; the critically acclaimed feature debut by Francis Lee God's Own Country; SXSW winner Most Beautiful Island; LGBTQ musical drama Saturday Church; Allure starring Evan Rachel Wood; the Wim Wenders film, starring James McAvoy and Academy Award winner® Alicia Vikander, Submergence; the family film Zoo; Nancy, a psychological thriller starring Andrea Riseborough; Cold Skin from director Xavier Gens; and A Boy, A Girl and a Dream starring Omari Hardwick and Meagan Good. Upcoming films include Alex Pettyfer's directorial debut Back Roads co-starring Jennifer Morrison, Nicola Peltz and Juliette Lewis; and Mapplethorpe directed by Ondi Timoner and starring Matt Smith.

'Buffalo Boys': Film Review | Palm Springs 2019 →

Singapore’s Foreign Language Film Oscar entry is an action-adventure that reinvents colonial Indonesia as the equivalent of a lawless Western frontier region.

Indonesian expats of noble lineage learn the cowboy ropes in California before returning to their homeland on a mission seeking revenge against the island nation’s colonial rulers in period actioner Buffalo Boys. As Singapore’s official Oscar submission, Mike Wiluan’s distinctly Asian riff on the classic Western should grab attention for its inventive interpretation of familiar genre themes, even if it doesn’t pose much of a threat to the acknowledged frontrunners in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

After serving as a producer on a variety of regional and international titles (including Crazy Rich Asians), Singapore-based Wiluan has crafted a debut feature that’s well attuned to international genre preferences, but seems tonally less assured. As a result, Buffalo Boys ends up somewhat awkwardly caught between mainstream glorifications of violence and more restrained cultural norms emphasizing respect and harmony.

This inherent creative conflict however remains mostly obscured by the action-oriented plot, which gets off to a rousing start after colonial officer Van Trach (Reinout Bussemaker) murders Hamza (Mike Lucock), the hereditary ruler of an Indonesian sultanate, and places his territory under brutal Dutch control. On the run, his brother Arana (Tio Pakusadewo) flees with the sultan’s two infant sons, raising them as his own children in distant California.

By 1860, easygoing Suwo (Yoshi Sudarso) and his rather taciturn older brother Jamar (Ario Bayu), have achieved recognition as formidable brawlers and gunfighters while working on the Pacific railroad. Now that they’ve come of age however, Uncle Arana decides that they should all return to Java so that the brothers might reclaim their rightful heritage from Van Trach.

Wiluan perhaps shortchanges audiences with these brief English-language opening scenes, where the Indonesians demonstrate their affinity for six-shooters, cowboy hats and Western drawls, as well as their familiarity with a certain universal type of frontier justice. A bare-knuckle boxing match followed by a shootout aboard a speeding train don’t do much to establish the trio’s expertise as would-be revolutionaries, but the setting conveys sufficient context to set them on their mission, however far-fetched it may be. 

Arriving in Java, they travel overland incognito hoping to avoid detection by Dutch soldiers and soon encounter some ruffians attempting to rob a merchant and ravage his pretty young granddaughter Sri (Mikha Tambayong). The three quickly intervene, dispatching the attackers and in the process blinding hired thug Fakar (Alex Abbad), who just happens to be one of Van Trach’s henchmen. The travelers continue on to the locals’ village, which lies within the boundaries of their ancestral domain, where headman Sakar’s (Donny Damara) daughter Kiona (Pevita Pearce) treats them to a remarkable display of skill with bow and arrow as she rides aback a galloping water buffalo.

Soon enough though, Fakar catches up with them, accompanied by Van Trach’s lieutenant Drost (Daniel Adnan), who summons the villagers to a meeting with his boss. When the rendezvous turns out to be a trap and Van Trach executes the clan’s leaders, Arana, Jamar and Suwo have no choice but to side with the locals, thrusting themselves into direct confrontation with their Dutch oppressors.

Leveraging highly polished production values evoking the Old West with detailed sets, authentic weapons and period costumes, Wiluan gets enough of the details right so that the genre’s typical characteristics blend fairly seamlessly with the Indonesian adventure yarn. So when events inevitably lead to a final shootout on a nearly deserted frontier town Main Street, Buffalo Boys offers up all of the action beats expected from any decent Western.

While these stylistic accomplishments are impressive, the fairly basic plot doesn’t demonstrate a similar level of sophistication. Rooted in a simplistic revenge narrative, developments progress with familiar predictability, embellished by a couple of romantic subplots, as Suwo and Kiona develop a mutual attraction and Arana unearths a surprising discovery from his past.

Similarly, performances across the sprawling cast remain fairly one-dimensional, with the exception of Bussemaker, standing out as the nefarious colonialist, and Indonesian veteran Pakusadewo, who dominates his scenes as iron-willed, warm-hearted Uncle Arana.

Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Production companies: Infinite Studios, Bert Pictures, Zhao Wei Films
Cast: Yoshi Sudarso, Ario Bayu, Pevita Pearce, Tio Pakusadewo, Reinout Bussemaker, Daniel Adnan, Mikha Tambayong, El Manik, Alex Abbad, Mike Lucock, Daniel Adnan, Donny Damara
Director: Mike Wiluan
Screenwriters: Mike Wiluan, Raymond Lee
Producers: Mike Wiluan, Huang Junxiang, Tan Fong Cheng, Rayya Makarim, Kimberly James
Executive producers: Eric Khoo, Natalya Pavchinskaya, Freddie Yeo, Kris Wiluan, Huang Junxiang, Christopher Smith, Michy Gustavia, Mo Shuyi, Sukdev Singh, Wicky Olindo, Bert Tan
Director of photography: John Radel
Production designer: Pawas Sawatchaiyamet
Costume designer:  Preeyanan Suwannathda 
Editor: Natalie Soh
Music: Yudhi Arfani, Zeke Khaseli 
Venue: Palm Springs International Film Festival

103 minutes

Review: Ramen Shop is a delicate foodie drama →

Director Eric Khoo's film about a Japanese chef visiting Singapore is full of exquisitely detailed food preparation

Eric Khoo’s Ramen Shop is a slim but affecting drama about Matsuo (Takumi Saitoh), a Japanese ramen chef who travels to Singapore in search of his late mother’s family and the recipe for pork rib soup.

With the help of a blogger (Seiko Matsuda) who guides him through Singapore’s dizzying range of restaurants and food markets – which made a brief appearance last year in Crazy Rich Asians – Matsuo will accomplish both and learn more about his origins than he may have expected.

Screenwriters Tan Fong Cheng and Wong Kim Hoh don’t do anything innovative with their very simple premise, but Ramen Shop always remains engaging thanks to its delicate atmosphere, lived-in performances and exquisitely detailed food preparation.

Khoo (My Magic, In The Room) has a fondness for long, slow scenes of people not quite knowing what to say to one another, which doesn’t always serve his material well, but it works very nicely here, amplifying Matsuo’s struggles with language and dislocation while also building emotional stakes that pay off when he’s able to make a connection.

That said, I’m still not sure why Kevin Mathews and Christine Sham’s score relies so heavily on a slowed-down version of Joe Meek’s Telstar. It’s just distracting.

Review: “Ramen Shop” Blends Food With Singaporean Identity →

When a movie is literally named after a hot bowl of noodles, one would expect the focus of the film to be on food. However, Eric Khoo’s latest production Ramen Teh (also known as Ramen Shop) is more than just a foodie movie — it’s a complex story of family, self-discovery, and the Singaporean identity.

Masato works at a family ramen shop with his father Kazuo in a quiet Japanese city. His father’s death triggers him to visit Singapore to reconnect with his distant relatives — and the other half of his cultural roots.

Ramen and History

Masato meets up with Japanese food blogger Miki, who introduces him to the flavors of Singapore — starting with the city’s famous chicken rice. As Masato takes in the spices and herbs of Southeast Asia, the film jumps to flashbacks of how his parents met at a bak kut teh (literally “meat bone tea”) restaurant. At the time, Masato’s father Kazuo owned a small Japanese kaiseki restaurant, and courted Masato’s mother Mei-Lian by preparing a smattering of Japanese classics for her, ranging from tamago (egg omelette) to sashimi (raw fish) and grilled mackerel.

As one would expect in a foodie movie, shots of beautifully-prepared dishes take a first class seat next to the actors and story. Ramen Teh is like a highlight reel of Singaporean culinary offerings: from home-cooked Singaporean meals to dim sum restaurants, roti prata to fish head curry — the list just goes on. One segment of the film is literally a step-by-step guide on how to prepare bak kut teh that would not be out of place on an Anthony Bourdain video. Just don’t watch this film hungry.

Courtesy of Golden Village Pictures.

Ramen may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start

However, Ramen Teh quickly takes a turn beyond culinary delights, and dives into a heavier topic: the difficult relationship Singapore (and many other Asian territories) has with the legacy of Japanese military aggression. This is where Ramen Teh goes beyond a simple foodie movie, and starts to take on a whole new dimension.

Masato attempts to connect with his grandmother, but she rebuffs him as she realizes he is Japanese. Back in the past, Mei-Lian becomes estranged with her mother over her relationship with Kazuo — her mother holds a grudge against the Japanese for killing her own father during the occupation of Singapore. In the present, Masato visits a museum of the Japanese invasion, where an audio guide graphically narrates how the Japanese bayoneted babies.

Despite setbacks, Masato decides he wants to repair the relationship with his grandmother, the only way he knows how — through food. With his uncle’s help, he sets out to create the film’s titular dish: ramen noodles cooked in bak kut teh. After dropping off the dish at his grandmother’s apartment, the two reconcile and she even teaches Masato how to cook the recipes Mei-Lian left in her diary.

This beautiful reconciliation harkens to Anthony Bourdain’s famous quote, “barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.” A simple bowl of noodles in this case is easily a metaphor for reconciliation for healing the pains of atrocities committed half a century ago, that carry to modern-day politics — while an older generation continues to dwell on the legacy of wartime Japan, younger generations from China and Korea visit Japan in growing troves, and are happy to slurp up bowls of ramen and plates of sushi. Ramen Teh was meant to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Japan — Eric Khoo chose food as the theme, as he believed it was not only a cultural carrier, but a “unifying force”. After all, it’s pretty hard to hate on Japan while eating sushi.

But “ramen teh” is also a metaphor for Singapore — a multicultural, diverse country. “Ramen teh” is a fusion of a Japanese dish with a Singaporean dish, both with origins from China. Even defining “Singaporean” is difficult — while the country’s biggest demographic is Chinese, Malays and Indians make up a fifth of the country’s “local” population. The island is also host to a large number of expatriate workers, who bring along with them cultural influences from their own home countries.

Western audiences gushed at the glitz and glamor of Singapore in Crazy Rich Asians, but Ramen Teh is a more authentic and down-to-earth introduction to the Lion City. Come for the food, but stay for the culture lessons.

•  •  •

Ramen Teh is being released in select US theaters on March 22nd.

Review: Ramen Shop →

Most of us have a favourite dish from our childhood. Something so wrapped up in nostalgia, that even if it’s bad for you or hard to make, you’ll endure the stomach pains or time demands just to taste it again. Somewhere in your subconscious is a dish that brings you back to the table of your old family home. Maybe it’s your mom, dad or beloved grandparent serving you the plate of something so deliciously steamy, just the smell wafting from the kitchen is enough to make you forget your present-day grown-up troubles for a minute or two.

Although Eric Khoo’s movie is named “Ramen Shop,” there’s surprisingly little ramen in it. Instead, the comfort food of choice for Masato (Takumi Saito) is Bak Kut Teh, a Singaporean pork rib soup that his mom used to make. It’s a recipe that the young man and his Japanese father never learned how to make before her untimely death. Years later, Masato works at a ramen shop with his father and uncle, and he becomes a master of one side of his culinary heritage but not the other. After his father dies, Masato decides to visit Singapore to find his mother’s side of the family and reconnect with the Singaporean cuisine that ties them all with the help of a local food blogger, Miki (Seiko Matsuda).

In Masato’s quest to find his family and his favorite childhood dish, he discovers not only long lost relatives and new culinary delights but also the war scars that tore his family apart decades ago. Much in the same way the Western nations have not forgotten about the atrocities committed by Nazis in World War II, several Asian countries, including Singapore, have not forgiven Japan for its deeds from that era. During Masato’s visit, there’s a news report discussing a museum exhibit commemorating the anniversary. Masato may be the product of two former opponents, but it was his parents’ mutual love of food that brought them together, and it could be the key to healing his family’s rifts.

If your knowledge of Singapore comes from an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show or “Crazy Rich Asians,” you at least know that the food there is the tasty amalgamation of several culinary staples, a mixture of many Southeast Asian cultures boiled and plated before our hungry characters. There are different mixtures of curry and spices, various grilled meats and clear broth soups, crunchy whole crabs and plump dumplings, wispy noodles and sticky mounds of rice. Khoo gives his audience a sampling of these dishes but rarely does he serve them a “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”-like close-up or have his camera drool over each spoonful as “Tampopo” does in its love letter to the hearty bowl of ramen. Instead, these shots are like appetizers, somewhat distant from what we’re used to in movies or documentaries about food, building towards the movie’s main course, Bak Kut Teh. Miki may not be the most lively presence in the movie, but as Masato’s guide to Singaporean cuisine, she helps the audience also understand the meaning and history of some of the menu options.

The film’s soft watercolor palette gives the impression of a gentle story. The colors change from a somewhat pastel view of the present day to a washed out, soft-focus perception of an idyllic past, like faded family photographs. When Masato revisits some of the sites in his parents’ photographs, we see past and present united briefly. It gives him a chance to reflect, and viewers a chance to see how emotional and meaningful this food trip is for him. It’s more than just the search for an old family recipe, it’s a chance for him to reclaim this part of his cultural identity.

Sometimes our past can come with so much baggage, it’s preferable to just focus on the good things like our favorite childhood meal. In reconnecting with his estranged relatives, Masato also finds anger and pain on both sides of his family tree. However, the movie is about reconciliation and doesn’t go too deep into exploring that generation-long grudge. “Ramen Shop” believes that the healing power of food can satisfy our hunger for comfort in difficult times, and that should be filling enough for now.

‘Ramen Shop’ Review: A Search for Family and Good Soup →

The power of great cooking to serve as a reminder of lost family members is the subject of “Ramen Shop,” a drama from the Singaporean director Eric Khoo that also demonstrates the power of Instagrammable cuisine to spice up an otherwise straightforward, sentimental film.

The movie begins with a search for family — and the recipe for a fondly remembered bak kut teh, a pork rib soup. Masato (Takumi Saitoh), born to a Singaporean mother and a Japanese father, departs Japan after the death of his emotionally distant dad, a celebrated ramen chef in Takasaki. His father strived to create new flavors that blended cultures; he is said to have kept his deceased wife’s memory alive in every bowl. To preserve that tradition, Masato seeks out a long-unseen uncle (Mark Lee) — and his recipe for the Proustian pork rib broth — in Singapore.

A food blogger (Seiko Matsuda) aids him in that search, which means that otherwise pedestrian conversational scenes are enlivened with shots of dishes like fish head curry and digressions on how Pandan leaves are used in Southeast Asian cooking to add flavor and color. The anticipated bak kut teh recipe may tempt viewers to take notes.

“Ramen Shop” is not all as sweet or insubstantial as that summary suggests. It also deals, heavy-handedly, with the legacy of Japan’s occupation of Singapore during World War II — a past that weighs on Masato’s family history. But this gentle film doesn’t linger on horrors too long. It demands only your appetite.

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Director:Eric Khoo

Stars: Tsuyoshi Ihara, Takumi Saitoh, Seiko Matsuda, Jeanette Aw, Shogen

Running Time:1h 29m

Genre:Drama

Movie data powered by IMDb.com

Not rated. In Japanese, English, Mandarin and Cantonese, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes.

HBO Asia’s Folklore, Food Lore set for Japan →

Folklore is a six-episode hour-long horror series that takes place across six Asian countries - Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – with each episode based on a modern adaptation of each country’s deeply-rooted myths and folklore.

Directed by different directors from various countries in Asia, each episode was filmed in the local language of the country that the episode is based in.

Two Folklore episodes, Folklore: Tatami, directed by Takumi Saitoh, and Folklore: A Mother’s Love, directed by Joko Anwar, have been selected for the upcoming 32nd Tokyo International Film Festival’s Crosscut Asia section.

Eight episode Food Lore is an anthology series that, said HBO “explores the human condition with narratives inspired by and showcased through the perspectives of Asian cuisines, weaving tales of the tastes and aromas that have filled the Asian souls – tales of longing and forbidden passion, of connection and loss, of childhood memory”.

Helmed by award-winning Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo, the series is shot in eight countries across Asia. Episodes are directed by Don Aravind (Singapore), Billy Christian (Indonesia), Takumi Saitoh (Japan), Ho Yuhang (Malaysia), Erik Matti (Philippines), Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (Thailand) and Phan Dang Di (Vietnam).

Both series are produced by HBO Asia as part of a two-year partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in Singapore which hopes to develop the drama production capabilities of Singapore’s media industry and talent.

HBO shares Folklore with Star Channel →

Japanese premium broadcaster Star Channel, which specialises mainly in foreign films and TV series, has acquired two original dramas from HBO Asia.

HBO’s original horror series Folklore (6×60’) and culinary series Food Lore (8×60’) have both been picked up by the Japanese outlet and will premiere on Star Channel and Star Channel EX later this year.

Folklore explores myths and supernatural tales from across six Asian countries – Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – with each episode representing a modern adaptation of their folklore. The show features directors from differing Asian countries in each episode.

Food Lore explores the connection between food and the human condition across Asia. Singaporean filmmmaker Eric Khoo is the creative mind behind the series, which features directors Don Aravind (Singapore), Billy Christian (Indonesia), Takumi Saitoh (Japan), among many others.

Both shows are produced as part of a two-year partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in Singapore. The collaboration sees HBO Asia training local talent and working with Singapore’s media industry on its original productions.

HBO Asia started producing original productions in 2012 and has aired 16 to date, including award-winning series, movies and documentaries. This is the first time any of its originals has aired on Star.