The Hong Kong-based producer, known for being the first from Singapore to win the Camera d’Or for Best Debut at Cannes, is more interested in finding beauty in the ordinary than in making Marvel-type blockbusters
The elderly and housewives don’t often get to be the protagonist in movies, but in Ajoomma (2022) a 60-year-old homemaker stars in the leading role. The film has also made a leading lady of an actress who has spent her career in supporting roles. All of which is exactly what Singaporean director and producer Anthony Chen loves to do: subverting expectations.
His latest project—which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in October and was featured at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival in November—is about a Singaporean woman who travels to South Korea alone against all odds to meet K-drama stars, after her son cancels her long-awaited trip together for his work.
Ajoomma, produced by Chen, garnered four nominations at the Golden Horse Awards this year, including Best Leading Actress for Hong Hui-fang, who plays the mother, and Best New Director for He Shuming. It has also been selected as Singapore’s entry for the 2023 Academy Awards in the Best International Film category.
The film is being shown in Singapore and Malaysia, and will hit cinemas in Taiwan around Christmas, and it is also expected to be screened in Vietnam, Thailand and South Korea. Thus far, Hong Kong—which Chen now calls home—has only shown Ajoomma at the Asian Film Festival, but hopes the city might screen it, too.
Chen shot to fame when his directorial debut Ilo Ilo (2013), which also tells a mother’s story, won the Camera d’Or for Best Debut at Cannes. He has also just finished shooting his first English-language film Drift (to be released in 2023) with Call Me By Your Name (2017) producers Emilie Georges and Peter Spears.
Chen talked to Tatler during the Asian Film Festival about his films, why South Korea isn’t a dream factory for foreign filmmakers, his move to Hong Kong and what’s next for him.
Read more: Singaporean Film Director Anthony Chen on Making Movies in a Lockdown