Nelson Yeo is a Singaporean filmmaker. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in digital filmmaking from Nanyang Technological University, he participated in Berlinale Talents Tokyo in 2014 and took part at the Locarno Filmmakers Academy in 2018. His film, Mary, Mary, So Contrary (2019), won Best Experimental Short at Golden Ger International Film Festival. Here is Not There (2020) was awarded Best ASEAN Short Film at Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival and Best Singapore Short Film at SGIFF. Recently, Plastic Sonata (2022) won CathayPlay Best Chinese Short Film at SeaShorts Film Festival. “Dreaming and Dying” is his feature debut, a Singaporean-Indonesian co-production.
Dreaming and Dying is screening in Locarno Film Festival
The title derives from zuì shēng mèng sǐ, a Chinese idiom which means leading a befuddled life as if drunk or in a dream and the overall aesthetics of the movie definitely mirror the phrase. The story begins with three middle aged friends, two men and a woman, who attend a school reunion in which no one else turned up. The woman and the obese man are a couple now, but there seems to be a past story between her and the tall, lean man (the appearance of the two is actually part of the narrative). All three of them, however, seem to be stuck in some ways, as they search for human connection and are also suffering from repressed desires.
As the past, present and their dreams and wishes start intermingling with each other, the couple decide to set out on a day trip to fàng shēng (an old Buddhist tradition in which believers release fish into the wild to neutralize the karma they committed knowingly or unknowingly). The wife believes that this superstitious act will cure the husband of his illness. Lost in the jungle, they are haunted by their own memories and desires, which they believe is a result of their past karma rippling through time. Fish, in a number of ways, the novel “The Mermaid’s Tale” and a bit of violence also become parts of a narrative which unfolds in a number of surrealistic ways.
Check also this interview
Implementing an approach that moves somewhere between Hou Hsiao Hsien, “A Land Imagined” (Peter Yu and Kelvin Ho, the two actors featuring here also appeared in the movie), Hong Sang-soo (in the way the zooms are implemented) and European cinema, Nelson Yeo comes up with a film that could be easily described as Locarno-esque. In that fashion, the art-house aesthetics are quite prevalent, as reality, dream, fantasy, and memory are all intermingled in a way that is as abstract as it is pretentious, with the literary elements definitely moving towards the second aspect. Yeo, however, seem to be able to handle all these factors quite artfully, revolving them around the erotic triangle of three people who seem rather lost in life, with the two men’s subtle antagonism and the inner struggle of the woman of choosing between the two and/or herself, grounding the narrative in a way that does not allow it to become incoherent.
One would definitely need to have some knowledge about the plethora of symbolism appearing here in order to fully understand everything Yeo wanted to say. However, the quality of the images, as mirrored in the excellent 4:3 cinematography of DP Lincoln Yeo, which finds its apogee in the cave scenes, and the leisurely/lazy pace implemented by Armiliah Aripin, definitely allow the viewer to enjoy the movie even if they do not understand it completely
The acting also helps in that regard. Peter Yu, as the tall lean man, who feels a sense of superiority but also knows that he has essentially “lost” from his classmate, regretful for being fat and disappointing Kelvin Ho, are quite appealing to watch in their antithesis. Doreen Toh in the role of apple of discord definitely stands out, in her dilemma between doing what she wants and what is expected of her, with her interactions with the two men being rather intriguing to witness for the difference in her overall attitude.
“Dreaming and Dying” is a movie specifically addressed to the arthouse/(European festival circuit), but at the same time, incorporates enough beauty and artfulness to potentially move even beyond, while Nelson Yeo definitely emerges as a director worth watching in the future.
