Tan Pin Pin

Directing

Tan Pin Pin

Born January 1, 1969 · Singapore (age 57)

Tan Pin Pin is an award-winning Singapore film director who has spent over two decades chronicling her country’s history, memory and representation in thoughtful and self-reflexive works that have screened theatrically in Singapore and abroad. Her works have been invited to key film festivals: Berlinale, Busan, Hot Docs, SXSW, Visions du Reel and at the Flaherty Seminar. Nearer home, they have bee…

Known For

Moving HouseMoving House · 2001
Moving House
2001
MovieDocumentaryHistory
The Chew family is one of 55,000 Singapore families forced to relocate the remains of their relatives to a columbarium as the gravesite is needed for urban redevelopment. The picnic mood of the family outing to move the remains belies the sadness and confusion everyone feels.
North Wind: Broken TimeNorth Wind: Broken Time · 2020
North Wind: Broken Time
2020
MovieActionAdventure
China’s booming animation industry has reached us. The film in question is Shuo Feng — Po Zhen Zi, an action epic directed by Zheng Wu and based on an internet novel by A Nu. From what we understand, the film is set in the eighth century, during China’s Tang dynasty. The story draws inspiration from real historical battles, which pitted Chinese forces against the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate and Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Watch the hyper-kinetic, elaborately composited trailer below:
Rogers ParkRogers Park · 2001
Rogers Park
2001
Movie
The connections between three strangers living in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood are explored in this short film.
Singapore GaGaSingapore GaGa · 2005
Singapore GaGa
2005
MovieDocumentary
Singapore GaGa is a 55-minute paean to the quirkiness of the Singaporean aural landscape. It reveals Singapore's past and present with a delight and humour that makes it a necessary film for all Singaporeans. We hear buskers, street vendors, school cheerleaders sing hymns to themselves and to their communities. From these vocabularies (including Arabic, Latin, Hainanese), a sense of what it might mean to be a modern Singaporean emerges. This is Singapore's first documentary to have a cinema release. With English and Chinese subtitles.
7 Letters7 Letters · 2015
7 Letters
6.52015
MovieComedyDrama
An emotive anthology by seven of Singapore's most illustrious filmmakers, celebrating SG50 through the lives and stories of Singaporeans. Directed by Eric Khoo, Jack Neo, K. Rajagopal, Royston Tan, Tan Pin Pin, Boo Junfeng, Kelvin Tong.
Snow CitySnow City · 2011
Snow City
2011
Movie
In hot tropical Singapore, a traveler stumbles upon polar bears, a road tunnel grand opening and office workers in cubicles. Deadpan in tone, surprising in content, the film captures a mood of a place where time stands still.
Yangtze ScribblerYangtze Scribbler · 2012
Yangtze Scribbler
2012
Movie
Debbie Ding has been documenting survey markings and graffiti in Singapore. One particular set of graffiti catches her attention. Found in the back stairwell in Pearl Centre, Chinatown, the anonymous drawer roughly sketches a man and a woman beside a series of three numbers. Several of these same scribbles are found in different parts of the stairwell. What does it mean? What is the writer trying to communicate? Debbie, like a detective tries to decipher the meaning of these scribbles and she talks also of graffiti in general. Are these acts of vandals or are they notes from people seeking to communicate with others? Or are they acts of memorialisation by the writers themselves? Perhaps it is all three. Recently, Debbie excitedly reports, in the Bugis area near NLB, the same scribble. Has the Yangtze Scribbler moved?
MicrowaveMicrowave · 2000
Microwave
2000
Movie
Microwave takes a humorous jab at the world's obsession with everybody's favourite plastic doll. The film was done in a single shot and has screened in multiple festivals around the world.

Filmography

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Yangtze ScribblerYangtze Scribbler · 2012
Yangtze Scribbler
2012
Movie
Debbie Ding has been documenting survey markings and graffiti in Singapore. One particular set of graffiti catches her attention. Found in the back stairwell in Pearl Centre, Chinatown, the anonymous drawer roughly sketches a man and a woman beside a series of three numbers. Several of these same scribbles are found in different parts of the stairwell. What does it mean? What is the writer trying to communicate? Debbie, like a detective tries to decipher the meaning of these scribbles and she talks also of graffiti in general. Are these acts of vandals or are they notes from people seeking to communicate with others? Or are they acts of memorialisation by the writers themselves? Perhaps it is all three. Recently, Debbie excitedly reports, in the Bugis area near NLB, the same scribble. Has the Yangtze Scribbler moved?

Director