Born of the Yam

Singapore, 1998. At the peak of the Asian financial crisis, an ordinary family head to Sentosa island and face unknown terrors.

On a sweltering day, two men take a break in a swimming pool. Contact with water will reveal their true nature...

Frank and Lily, partners by chance and circumstance, set off on a wild journey in their search for a mystical character known as the Sunbathing Dog. Our protagonists navigate a foreign landscape, their movements determined by an invisible ventriloquist feeding them cryptic clues and directions. They encounter oddball characters, strange places and new sounds...but will they ever find what they're looking for?

In Tokyo, a young man, Tomo, and his companion, Hiroko, have hardly any money left to their name. Convinced that their misfortune is part of a larger, unexplainable joke, they agree to throw themselves into all the encounters that come their way with the singular hope of defeating this joke before it plays out.

Moving through the rhythms of the day, man, as an organism, needs water, sunlight, rest—and a nice cup of coffee— but not without a few mishaps.

When hair begins to sprout wildly all over a man's body, his struggle becomes a resistance against subjugation in which the human anguish is palpable. Combining overlaid 16mm and Super 8 film loops, this manic new short by Singaporean duo Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen is an exploration of the relationship between the body and the city in an ever violent society.

Streaks of hair and colours weave together furiously, imploding into a frantic vision drawn between exuberance and anxiety. The filmmakers glued their hair to 16mm and Super 8 film leader loops that were played in overlay and modified with ink during projection in this textural expression of a manic feeling of being.