Last Shadow At First Light (PG13)
109 minutes, now showing at The Projector
4 stars
Tough questions about trauma and mourning are handled with delicacy and introspection in this debut feature from Singapore writer-director Nicole Midori Woodford.
Teenager Ami (Japanese actress Mihaya Shirata) – born to Singaporean father Wen Yong (Peter Yu) and Japanese mother Satomi (Mariko Tsutsui) – lives in two worlds. She is bicultural, never fully comfortable in either place.
This discomfort extends to her plane of existence because she sees and hears emanations from other realms. She embodies liminality.
Her story is told in the form of a road movie after she leaves for Japan to find her missing mother, chaperoned on the cross-country drive by her taxi-driver uncle Isamu (Masatoshi Nagase).
It will be a trip marked by uncanny discoveries – some ambiguous, others distinct – taking place against a tsunami-ravaged landscape heavy with loss.
Woodford’s approach, bolstered by the melancholic framing of Singapore-based Japanese cinematographer Hideho Urata (A Land Imagined, 2018), could be viewed as grief counselling by another name. But Ami’s spiritual journey, mirroring her physical one across Japan, offers more to think about than just comfort.
Woodford and Shirata will be present for a question-and-answer session after screenings on May 9, 7.30pm, and May 11, 4.30pm.
The Beatles: Let It Be (PG13)
89 minutes, now on Disney+
4 stars
In 2021, The Lord Of The Rings (2001 to 2003) director Peter Jackson released the three-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back (also on Disney+). The 1969 footage that went into that release was shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for the feature film Let It Be, released in 1970.
Jackson, using the technology that breathed new life into Get Back, has restored Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be. The colours pop and the frames sparkle.
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, with keyboardist Billy Preston guesting, rehearse the songs that would be released on the legendary British band’s final albums, Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970). It climaxes with the famous rooftop concert.
For years, the original film had been haunted by its release around the time it became known that the Fab Four were dissolving, making it less a musical experience than a record of a disaster about to happen.
Today, with the fog of disappointment long gone, the film can be enjoyed for what it is – a glorious study of musicians at the peak of their powers, creating songs loved for decades to come.
Cinema Reclaimed: Dream Palaces
Since 2020, Cinema Reclaimed has been held as the film strand of the Singapore HeritageFest. Curated by writer and researcher Ben Slater with support from Toh Hun Ping, the fourth edition of the programme is titled Dream Palaces, for the local cinemas that have become historical and emotional sites.
The film screenings and talks will be held in heritage cinemas and theatres, namely Capitol Theatre, Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre, The Projector and Oldham Theatre.
Ring Of Fury (1973, PG, 78 minutes, screening at Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre on May 19, 5pm) was filmed in Singapore by the writing and directing team of James Sebastian and Tony Yeow, who hoped to ride the martial arts wave started by Hong Kong-American movie star Bruce Lee.
While the Chinese-language work was never released because of its depiction of gangsterism, it has since gained value as a historical artefact.
Peter Chong is Fei Pao, a noodle seller who goes in search of martial arts mastery after a visit by thugs. With skills under his belt, the cook portrayed by Chong – a karate master in real life – goes on a trail of vengeance.
Courtesy of the Asian Film Archive, the print restored in 2017 will be used for the screening.
Where: Capitol Theatre, Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre, The Projector at Golden Mile Tower and Oldham Theatre
MRT: Various
When: Until May 26, various times
Admission: $10
Info: For details and bookings, go to str.sg/koBg
