"Guang" is set for theatrical release in China
21 Oct – Malaysian movie "Guang" will be getting a theatrical release in China in the coming months.
Distributor mm2 Entertainment revealed that Alibaba Pictures will likely make it a wide release in cinemas across China, though so far a release date has yet to be set.
The Quek Shio Chuan-helmed movie previously won an award in China, prior to even opening in its home country. It nabbed two major awards, Best Director for Quek and Best Actor for Kyo Chen, at the 13th Chinese Youth Generation Film Forum in Wu Han.
It premiered in Malaysian cinemas a few months later in November 2018, and was released in three more territories the following year, namely Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Adapted from Quek's own award-winning 2011 short film of the same name, the movie revolves around an autistic young man named Wen Guang and his younger brother who takes care of him.
The feature version expanded on the story by adding in a new character, Sue Ann (Emily Chan). Quek kept Kyo as the lead but removed himself from the younger brother role, which he played in the short film, and roped in Ernest Chong as replacement.
Aside from the above, mm2 Entertainment has also announced its upcoming slate of Singaporean releases from 2020 to 2021.
"We are extremely excited to share this slate of Singapore-made movies, including the first local film to release in 2020. It has not been a good year for Singapore moviegoers, with the pandemic causing havoc to the releases to Hollywood and Asian movies," Mr Ng Say Yong, Chief Content Officer of mm2 Asia, said in a statement.
"Every year there is a steady stream of new Singapore movies released in cinemas. This year however, due to the pandemic and the circuit breaker, there has not been any local releases to date. We are therefore proud to be releasing this slate of Singapore films, for Singaporeans."
The Mark Lee-starring "Number 1" is opening in Singaporean cinemas tomorrow, 22 October.
Other upcoming 2020 movies include another Mark Lee-starrer, this time helmed by Jack Neo, called "The Diam Diam Era", releasing end of next month, and Wayne Peng's "Precious Is The Night" that's opening on 10 December.
Next year, "The Diam Diam Era Too", a continuation of the Jack Neo movie, aims for a CNY 2021 release. The first quarter of 2021 will also see Mark Lee's directorial debut "Running Ghost", Sam Low-helmed "Hell Hole" and the Raihan Halim-directed "Ibu". The second quarter will include Glenn Chan's "Shadows", Daniel Yam's "Fatekeepers" and JD Chua's "Circle Line".
