| Project |
GEYLANG (aka Passion of Shangri-La)
| No. |
19 |
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Director
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Boi KWONG |
| Country |
Singapore / Malaysia |
|---|
| Producer |
Jimz LEE |
|---|
| Production Company |
mm2 Entertainment Pte. Ltd. |
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| Writer |
SNG Aik Khoon |
|---|
| Genre |
Crime Thriller |
|---|
| Running time |
95min |
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| Project Status | Script Development |
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Director’s Profile
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Boi Kwong is a Singaporean film producer/director with more than 15 years of film production experience. He is well known in the industry for his people skills and his creative eye.
In 2000, Boi received the Special Jury Prize at the Singapore International Film Festival Silver Screen Awards for his debut short film, Wait (2000). He has since worked with acclaimed production houses on television commercials, music videos and feature films.
He worked as an assistant director on low budget independent film Becoming Royston (Nicholas Chee, 2007), which ignited Boi’s passion for feature-length filmmaking.
Boi’s directorial feature debut, The Days (2008), which was inspired by his own life, was nominated at various international film festivals, including for the New Asian Talent Award at Shanghai International Film Festival 2009, in Asian Connection at CPH:PIX Copenhagen International Film Festival 2009, and Best Cinematography at Singapore International Film Festival 2009. |
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Producer’s Profile
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Jimz Lee joined Mediacorp in 2000. In 2004, he returned to Malaysia and began his first short film, A Lonely Man, which was nominated as one of the Top 10 finalists in the BMW Shorties competition. In 2012, he also directed a PSA short film, The Wheelchair, a story about the unity of Malaysia. Under mm2, Jimz has produced a variety of films including Kiasu (Gwo Yunn Law, 2014), Wonder Boy (Dick Lee, Daniel Yam, 2017), Buyer Beware (Jeffrey Chiang, 2018), Circle Line (J.D. Chua, 2019), and more.
Headquartered in Singapore, mm2 Entertainment produces films and TV/online content. mm2 Entertainment provides services that cover the entire film-making process, including securing financing, production and distribution, as well as securing advertising and sponsorship. mm2 Entertainment has national offices and strategic partnerships in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and the U.S.
To date, mm2 Entertainment has produced and distributed over 100 film across Asia since 2008. mm2 Entertainment productions, such as the Ah Boys to Men (Jack Neo) franchise and More than Blue (Gavin Lin, 2018), have garnered commercial success. In 2018, mm2 productions received international acclaim, with A Land Imagined (Yeo Siew Hua, 2018) winning the Golden Leopard Award at Locarno Film Festival 2018, Cities of Last Things (Ho Wi Ding, 2018) earning Best Supporting Actress at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival 2018, and Guang (Shio Chuan Quek, 2018) claiming the Best New Director Award at the Chinese Young Generation Film Forum Awards 2018. |
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Synopsis |
A provocative thriller, Passion of Shangri-La interweaves five un-connected stories about money, class, ambition and love in a seductive web of crime, sex, guilt, violence and perversion. Set in one tumultuous night in the red-light district of Geylang, this action-packed arthouse drama reveals the seamy underbelly of Singapore – the darkness that throbs beneath the tourist-friendly veneer of the polished city.
The five characters are: Jay, a doctor pining for his dead daughter; Shangri-La, an illegal Chinese prostitute; her young lover, Ajie, a runaway heir; Celine, an ambitious executive; and a pimp obsessed with money. While chasing their own illusions they inevitably collide, their disconnected existences interlocking in a night of non-stop action and plot twists.
No character is what they seem – ambiguous morals color the motivations and actions of each: Celine’s love for her family drives her to commit indecent acts; Jay’s grief for a dead daughter leads him into a life of crime; the pimp has a heart of gold; Shangri-La seeks a safe haven in all the wrong places; and Ajie is on the run from an unloving father. Each plot strand peels back the layers that hide the heart-breaking truth of human existence.
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