Film Screening

Directed by Ishirō Honda
Country: Japan
Runtime: 96 minutes
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Rating: PG13 (Some Nudity)

RESTORED VERSION
A fire-breathing behemoth terrorises Japan after it is awakened from its centuries-old sleep by an atomic bomb.

Affectionately regarded as the King of the Monsters in movie history, the original 1954 version was made at a time when Japan was reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing in the Pacific. It has since became an international icon of destruction, spawning over thirty sequels and adaptations to date.

7 & 15 June, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Joko Anwar
Country: Indonesia
Runtime: 49 minutes
Language: Bahasa Indonesian with English subtitles
Rating: PG13

A single mother and her young son discover a group of dirty and underfed children living in a mansion’s attic. In saving the children and returning them to their families, the mother had unknowingly snatched these children from the Wewe Gombel, a spirit desperate to be a mother, and must face her vengeful wrath.

*Double bill screening with Folklore: Pob.
8 June, 4pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Country: Thailand
Runtime: 63 minutes
Language: Thai with English subtitles
Rating: NC16 (Horror and Gore)

A journalist meets Pob, a ghost, who confesses to a murder. Finally finding an outlet for complaint, Pob explains how the murder happened and requests for his story to be published. However, the journalist declines and the two make a deal of a lifetime.

*Double bill screening with Folklore: A Mother’s Love
8 June, 4pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Eric Khoo
Country: Singapore
Runtime: 52 minutes
Language: Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and English with English subtitles
Rating: NC16

A pontianak is awakened when a foreman and a construction worker attempt to bury a dead girl instead of cremating
the body. A series of unfortunate events ensues at the construction site.

*Double bill screening with Folklore: Toyol
8 June, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Ho Yuhang
Country: Malaysia
Runtime: 49 minutes
Language: Malay, Cantonese and English with English subtitles
Rating: PG13

A Member of Parliament of a fishing town turns to a mysterious woman who possesses shamanistic powers to salvage his town’s dire economic situation. She fixes all his problems and the two become lovers. However, the woman’s dark secret threatens to destroy his life.

*Double bill screening with Folklore: Nobody.
8 June, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Takumi Saitoh
Country: Japan
Runtime: 46 minutes
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)

A writer returns home to attend his father’s funeral and experiences constant flashbacks of his childhood. He discovers a secret door to a room in the house that hides a horrifying family secret. A myth of the household tatami is that while it is commonly a flooring mat used in Japanese homes, it is also believed to carry the positive and negative emotions – including grudges – of all who have stepped on it.

*Double bill screening with Folklore: Mongdal.
9 June, 5pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Lee Sang-Woo
Country: South Korea
Runtime: 48 minutes
Language: Korean with English subtitles
Rating: PG13

A mother tries to appease the moods and demands of her borderline psychopathic son. The son falls in love when a new girl comes to town and is determined to win her at all cost. Things take a tragic turn and the mother is willing to do anything to keep her son happy even if it means finding a bride to join him in the afterlife.

*Double bill screening with Folklore: Tatami.
9 June, 5pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by B.N. Rao
Country: Singapore/Malaysia
Runtime: 86 minutes
Language: Malay with English subtitles
Rating: PG

A dead woman returns as a vampire to protect her daughter. The film deals with female vengeance, and stars the actress Maria Menado, dubbed the “most beautiful woman in Malaya”.

Sumpah Pontianak is the third in a trilogy of pontianak-themed films that capitalised on the local population’s fear for “the most treacherous of vampires”. The original prints of the first two films are regarded to be lost. Zubir Said, who composed Singapore’s national anthem, wrote Sumpah Pontianak’s film score.

9 June, 1pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Nonzee Nimibutr
Country: Thailand
Runtime: 100 minutes
Language: Thai with English subtitles
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene and Disturbing Scenes)

Mak leaves for Bangkok and is seriously wounded in the Chiang Toong War. His wife, Nak, dies in childbirth, together with her stillborn child. Mak returns and continues his life with his family, unaware that his wife is now a ghost. The legend of Mae Nak Phra Khanong is well-known in Thailand and serves as the film’s influence.

12 June, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Ho Meng Hua
Country: Hong Kong
Runtime: 84 minutes
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes and Nudity)

The film tells the story of a crippled and down-on-his-luck Hong Kong man who learns of a magic spell that can turn his life around. Performing the spell transforms him into a grotesque and malevolent creature – an ‘oily maniac’. Along with other supernatural capabilities, he can simultaneously appear or disappear, serving as the city’s vigilante.

14 June & 6 July, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by P. Ramlee
Country: Singapore/Malaysia
Runtime: 90 minutes
Language: Malay with English subtitles
Rating: PG

A deformed hunchback gets a second chance in life, but this opportunity is abruptly taken away when he accidentally kills a man. He makes a deal with the devil that leads him to commit more atrocities.

A Malay supernatural icon based on real criminal cases, the Orang Minyak inspired a spate of movies that catapulted the folklore legend to the peak of its notoriety and screen fame in 1950s and 1960s of Malaya.

15 June, 4pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Ramon A. Estella
Country: Singapore
Runtime: 103 minutes
Language: Malay with English subtitles
Rating: PG

An iconic regional monster, the Pontianak is commonly described as the vampire-ghost hybrid of a scorned woman who died during childbirth, often taking on the guise of a young seductress. In the film, the son of a Pontianak struggles with his supernatural instincts.

Filipino director Ramon Estella’s Anak Pontianak came on the heels of Cathay-Keris’ Pontianak and Dendam Pontianak (Pontianak’s Revenge). Released in 1957, these two films are believed to be lost. The Shaw Malay Film Productions’ Anak Pontianak may probably be the oldest Pontianak film that still exists today.

16 June, 2pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Ho Meng Hua
Country: Hong Kong
Runtime: 90 minutes
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes and Violence)

Fortune hunters Lu Tien and Johnny Feng travel to India with plans to capture the giant monster ape. On the expedition, Johnny falls in love with Samantha, a Tarzan-like woman who was raised in the jungle. Samantha returns with the ape to civilisation, where the “Mighty Peking Man” escapes its shackles and ravages the city.

16 June, 5pm
20 July, 4pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Mattie Do
Country: Lao PDR
Runtime: 98 minutes
Language: Lao with English subtitles
Rating: PG13 (Horror)

Chanthaly is Laos’ first feature horror film. It tells the story of a lonely girl afflicted with a hereditary heart condition. Raised by an overprotective father, she experiences visions of her dead mother and struggles to determine if the apparitions are a side effect of her daily medication, or if her mother is truly reaching out to her from beyond the grave.

Laos has produced less than 10 feature films in its cinematic history. Chanthaly marks several firsts including the director Mattie Do being the first woman ever to make a feature film in the country.

19 June, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by H. Tjut Djalil
Country: Indonesia
Runtime: 86 minutes
Language: Indonesian with English subtitles
Rating: NC16 (Some Disturbing Scenes)

In researching for a book, Cathy travels to Bali and is introduced to the black magic cult of Leák. She meets an evil witch who promises to train her in the dark arts and is turned into a penanggalan, a grotesque flying vampire who terrorises the innocent villagers around her.

Based on a novel by Putra Mada entitled Leák Ngakak, the Leák is a mythological flying head with entrails still attached. Leáks are said to haunt graveyards, feed on corpses, with the power to fly and shape shift themselves into animals.

22 June, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Hugo Ng
Country: Singapore
Runtime: 86 minutes
Language: Cantonese, Hokkien and English with English subtitles
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes and Coarse Language)

Gullible Sin apprentices himself to a faith healer and discovers that his master is merely a sexually driven con man who takes advantage of the women seeking cures for their various ailments. After exposing the empty magic of his master, Sin is convinced that he has attained god-like status, resulting in a series of disastrous events revealing his unravelling psyche.

Due to the notoriety of the Adrian Lim murders (which the film is based on), Ng had trouble finding a lead actor and took up the lead himself. God or Dog premiered at the 1997 Singapore International Film Festival.

29 June, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Arthur Smith
Country: Singapore
Runtime: 91 minutes
Language: English
Rating: NC16 (Some Disturbing Scenes)

A sceptical Australian journalist pursues an exclusive story about a Singaporean medium claiming to have supernatural abilities. The medium’s powers draw her in against her will and brings her perilously close to doom.

Loosely based on the Adrian Lim ritual murders in 1980s Singapore, Medium Rare was released as Singapore’s first full-length English-language film.

30 June, 5pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Khwaja Sarfraz
Country: Pakistan
Runtime: 104 minutes
Language: Urdu with English subtitles
Rating: PG (Some Disturbing Scenes)

RESTORED VERSION
Professor Tabini experiments on an elixir that he believes will beat death. He tries it on himself but dies from it. His assistant throws him into a basement crypt, but he rises from the dead and feeds on her.

The Living Corpse caused a sensation during its release and remains to date, the only Pakistani film to be rated “X” in the country

3 July, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra
Country: Indonesia
Runtime: 96 minutes
Language: Indonesian with English subtitles
Rating: NC16 (Horror)

RESTORED VERSION
Rita and Tomi come from a wealthy family whose father, Munarto, only cares about business and neglects the children. After their mother, Mawarti, dies of an unexplained illness, a suspicious housekeeper is sent to care for the family. Soon, they are violently haunted by the undead, including the spirit of their deceased mother.

Sisworo’s Satan’s Slave achieved cult status among Asian horror fans for its zombie theme set in a local context, its obscurity heightened by the lack of accessible copies.

5 July, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by M. Amin
Country: Singapore/Malaysia
Runtime: 85 minutes
Language: Malay with English subtitles
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)

A young merchant learns the art of transforming himself into a tiger, on condition of him adhering to some rules. Using his skills, he takes revenge on those who had tortured and attempted to harm him. However, as he breaks the rules he had promised to observe, he pays the ultimate price.

7 July, 5pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Torro Margens
Country: Indonesia
Runtime: 86 minutes
Language: Indonesian with English subtitles
Rating: NC16 (Sexual Violence)

RESTORED VERSION
A schoolteacher and his wife relocate to Indonesia and move into a new home. Soon after, they discover the former house owner had committed grisly murders and buried the victims on the property. A mysterious painting that was left behind in the house holds a strange power and seems to compel the wife into murderous thoughts of her own.

10 July, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Gerado de Leon
Country: Philippines/United States
Runtime: 89 minutes
Language: English
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)

Can you ever tame the savage in the beast or in the human? Based on a loose adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau, the film details the evil schemes of Dr. Charles Girard, a rogue scientist working on Blood Island, struggling to morph a panther into a human. Sailor William Fitzgerald is shipwrecked on the island and trouble brews when the scientist’s wife falls in love with Fitzgerald.

12 July, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
Country: Japan
Runtime: 88 minutes
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Rating: TBA

35MM
To avoid spending time with her father and his new lover, Gorgeous decides to visit her aunt’s remote mansion. Together with six of her closest friends, the group encounters supernatural events on the estate.

13 & 20 July, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Gerado de Leon and Eddie Romero
Country: Philippines/United States
Runtime: 97 minutes
Language: English
Rating: NC16 (Nudity and Gore)

Brides of Blood is a monster romp that takes place in the tropics where all is not as it seems. Three Americans on a fact-finding mission to a remote island discover that a deformed humanoid beast is terrorising the island’s inhabitants, horrifically dismembering and murdering the women. Together with the villagers, they must fight for their lives.

14 July, 5pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Emmanuel H. Borlaza, Ishmael Bernal, and Peque Gallaga
Country: Philippines
Runtime: 124 minutes
Language: Filipino, Tagalog and Spanish with English subtitles
Rating: M18 (Some Sexual Scenes)

Shake, Rattle and Roll (1984) is the first instalment of the Shake, Rattle and Roll series. This anthology comprises three episodes: Baso, Pridyider and Manananggal. Baso chronicles the adventures of three friends who perform the Spirit of the Glass and discover the tale of a tragic love triangle. Pridyider focuses on a refrigerator that possesses a horrifying life of its own. Manananggal features a teenager courting a girl, who was an aswang, a shape shifter with a monstrous alter ego.

17 July, 8pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Country: Thailand
Runtime: 61 minutes
Language: Thai with English subtitles
Rating: NC16 (Some Disturbing Scenes)

Mekong Hotel shifts between realms of fact and fiction in a hotel situated along the Mekong River, marking the border between Thailand and Laos. The film explores the bonds between a vampiric mother, her daughter, young lovers and the river while weaving in layers of politics and a drifting dream of the future.

21 July, 2pm
Oldham Theatre

Directed by Ryū Murakami
Country: Japan
Runtime: 90 minutes
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Rating: PG

Japanese actress Moeko comes to Singapore to reunite with her lover, Kariya. After checking into the Raffles Hotel, she discovers that Kariya is married with children. Overcome with pain and jealousy, strange things begin to happen to Moeko during her stay at the hotel. The film was shot on location in Singapore’s Raffles Hotel, which was also the setting in Murakami’s novel.

21 July, 5pm
Oldham Theatre