Singapore | 48 minutes | English | None | Format – HDV

Synopsis

A young woman stuck in a marriage to an older man. A husband who doesn’t know how to communicate with his younger wife. A mysterious boy who shows up in their lives. As their realities give way to the realm of desire, the three are sucked into an ambiguous romance that grows beyond what either can bear.

Night Lights is at once a moral critique on eros and a tragic mystery of what lies at the heart of passion.

Director’s Statement

Isn’t it funny how, in dreams, you can live an entire life and it wouldn’t make a difference when you wake up? I’ve fallen in love so many times in my dreams, felt that strong forceful physical emotion; and then everything vanishes in the morning sun. The thing is, something real happened there – if we can trust our feelings. Something happened that only we know, a flower in our heart that is sheltered from the rest of the world – it blooms in secret. A friend told me recently, it is true because we experienced it; it is true even though no one else thinks it’s true; because as long as there’s one person in the world who felt it (the proverbial tree falling in an empty forest), it actually happened. Isn’t it the same with love after all?

Director’s biography

Daniel Hui is a filmmaker and writer. A graduate of the film program in California Institute of the Arts, his films have been screened at film festivals in Rotterdam, Hawaii, Manila, Seoul, Bangkok, and Vladivostok. His writings have been published in prominent cinema journals, including the Cinematheque Quarterly of the National Museum Singapore. He is the contributing editor to the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) online journal, Cinemas of Asia. He is also one of the founding members of 13 Little Pictures, an independent film collective whose films have garnered critical acclaim all around the world. He recently won the Pixel Bunker Award for International New Talent at the Doclisboa International Film Festival for his début feature film Eclipses.

CAST

Joanne-Marie Sim

Hey Mun Cheok

Lin Hongxuan

Violet Goh

Gillian Hey

Vel Ng

CREW

Written, Edited & Directed by Daniel Hui

Produced and Edited by Tan Bee Thiam

Photographed by Looi Wan Ping

Sound Recorded by Lim Lung Chieh

Sound Design by Daniel Hui, Takuya Katsu

Assistant Director – Vel Ng

Production Coordinator – Hey Mun Cheok

Grips – Liao Jiekai, Athalia Ho

PRESS AND INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION / SALES CONTACT

13littlepictures@gmail.com