Singapore’s mm2 Asia is ramping up production across Asia and in the US, with five films scheduled for release in 2023 as audiences return to theatres after the pandemic.
The titles include Sen-I Yu’s New York-set drama My Heavenly City and Nate Ki’s Hong Kong suspense horror Back Home. They will respectively star Keung To and Anson Kong from popular Hong Kong boy group Mirror.
Angelin Ong, general manager for North Asia at mm2 Asia, said the raft of upcoming features marked a rising demand for content in the region following the events of the past couple of years.
“The Covid-19 pandemic caused severe production disruption in the last two years. Cinema audience numbers in Singapore and Malaysia have rebounded to close to pre-pandemic levels since capacity restrictions for cinemas have been removed in late April,” said Ong.
“We are now gearing up a busy slate of cross-border collaborations to meet the rising demand for content across the region. That is made possible as travel restrictions are becoming more relaxed. Talent is more willing to travel, which makes it easier for us to cast them in cross-border projects.”
All five features were shot this year and are in post-production.
My Heavenly City marks the feature directorial debut of Taiwan-born New York-based Yu and stars Vivian Sung (Till We Meet Again), Yao Chun-Yao (series The Amazing Grace Of Σ ) and Keung (Mama’s Affair). They are among the three sets of characters who connect and inspire one another in their journey of finding hope in the seemingly heavenly city of New York.
Another directorial debut is Back Home, starring Kong, Bai Ling (Dumplings) and Tai Bo (Suk Suk). It follows a young man as he returns from Canada to Hong Kong where his estranged mother is in a coma, only to start seeing ghosts and discover a series of suicide cases in his neighbourhood. Hong Kong director Ki is a previous winner of the mm2 Movie Makers Awards short film competition.
Also among the new projects is Happy Ghost, a Taiwanese remake of Korean film Hello Ghost. Directed by Hsieh Pei-Ju, known for Heavy Craving and More Than Blue: The Series, the comedy drama stars Tseng Ching-Hua (Your Name Engraved Herein), Tsai Ming-Liang’s regular actress Lu Yi Ching and Chang Zhang-Xing (Gatao 2: Rise Of The King).
Rounding out the slate are Boi Kwong’s Geylang, an action noir thriller set in Singapore’s infamous red-light district and starring Mark Lee (Number 1), and Tai Min Hwee’s Malaysian comedy drama Little Sunshine, about a 10-year-old boy who runs away from home. The latter is scheduled for a Chinese New Year release in 2023.
mm2 has produced several local box office hits, including One Second Champion in Hong Kong and Your Name Engraved Herein in Taiwan. Its most successful pan-Asian hit was 2018’s More Than Blue, a Taiwanese remake of the Korean film of the same title.
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