Nelson Yeo debuts in Locarno with his love triangle film “Dreaming & Dying” inspired by classic Chinese cinema

SINGAPORE: Singaporean Nelson Yeo will be screening his film “Dreaming & Dying” in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente this year.

The film is said to revolve around the story of three friends in their fifties who reunite after years of being apart. The three friends find themselves in a love triangle, and as they figure out their feelings, supernatural experiences occur. 

 

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The three characters, played by Peter Yu, Kelvin Ho, and Doreen Toh, will constantly return to the moment they lost their innocence – the moment they lit a cigarette in a back alley. 

The film gives multiple surprises connecting dreams and nightmares in harmony. Considering Singapore’s landscape of fantasies and repressed desires, this is what Nelson Yeo’s 77-minute film debut will offer its viewers. 

Co-produced by Kawankawan Media and Widewall Pictures and sold by Italy’s Lights On, the film “Dreaming & Dying” is lead produced by Momo Film Co, one of Singapore’s most prominent production-distribution works. Nelson Yeo’s film gives Singaporean vibes because it reflects the complex psychic state of the country – a dreamland and a nightmare. 

Even before Nelson tried filmmaking, he studied animation. In the film, people can see the influence of his animation background through its plasticity and fluidity, especially in sequences shot in cult Singapore old school luna park, Haw Par Villa, which features supernatural creatures from Chinese and Western mythologies. 

The film aims to catch the viewer’s unawareness with its surprising turn of events – from a beyond love-triangle melodrama to tales of death and apocalypse. 

 

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Nelson Yeo is a Singaporean filmmaker who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Filmmaking from Nanyang Technological University in 2011. He participated in Berlinale Talents Tokyo in 2014, BiFan Fantastic Film School in 2015 and Locarno Filmmakers Academy in 2018.