Another festival coverage episode? We’re back to back with Asian film festivals and Ben returns to Singapore to cover the hottest films from the festival circuit and the region for the 36th Singapore International Film Festival. Our film coverage spans the most hotly contested tickets (Silent Friend, Girl, Resurrection, Sentimental Value), cinema classics (Matador, Water, Bye Bye Love), and promising first features from the region (Amoeba, A Useful Ghost, Old Man and His Car)

This is a spicy and fun episode where Ben reflects honestly about his festival experience and Singapore’s cinema culture, as well as sharing his optimism with the concurrent ground-up efforts (The Daily, FFIGS) reinvigorating that culture. On top of all that, we also find the time to do a very special celebration in the middle of the episode.

Links:

Correspondence / The Daily

⁠Ben’s piece on the Cinephile Pass

FFIGS

Deepa Mehta Write-up

Luca Guadagnino video on costumes

Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers at MoMA

Madame Morible Wicked Witch meme

Interview with Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (forthcoming!)

Correspond with us at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:03:15 Festival as a whole

00:08:45 Netflix acquisition of WB

00:11:51 Festival operations

00:20:33 Festival passes

00:24:15 Banned films

00:27:48 SGIFilmFeud

00:28:25 Correspondence / The Daily

00:30:56 FFIGS

00:34:40 Optimism

00:38:14 The films / Bye Bye Love (1974) dir. Fujisawa Isao

00:43:10 How Dare You? (2025) dir. Mipo O

00:46:14 Two Seasons, Two Strangers (2025) dir. Sho Miyake

00:48:29 Audience behaviour

00:51:25 Girl (2025) dir. Shu Qi

00:56:20 Resurrection (2025) dir. Bi Gan

01:02:25 Water (2005) dir. Deepa Mehta

01:07:02 A Celebration

01:09:00 Sentimental Value (2025) dir. Joachim Trier

01:11:25 Hamnet (2025) dir. Chloe Zhao

01:14:25 Late Fame (2025) dir. Kent Jones

01:18:07 Matador (1986) dir. Pedro Almodovar

01:21:20 Silent Friend (2025) dir. Ildikó Enyedi

01:27:00 SEA Shorts Programme

01:31:36 The Old Man and His Car (2025) dir. Michael Kam

01:36:50 Amoeba (2025) dir. Tan Siyou

01:43:10 A Useful Ghost (2025) dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

01:51:16 Wrapup

01:57:30 Bonus

While attending the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival, Ben was able to interview director Pen-Ek Rataunaruang and lead actress Bella Boonsang for their film Morte Cucina.

Morte Cucina follows Sao as she takes an unconventional path toward revenge against a man who has wronged her.

Listen in to hear about Ratanaruang’s candid thoughts on his approach to filmmaking, Boonsang’s initial trepidation and determination to tackling this tricky role, and Ratanaruang’s evolving working relationship with the film’s DP, Christopher Doyle (their third feature film collaboration!).

Special thanks to the TIFF team for arranging the interview!

Get revenge at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:22 Inspiration for the film

04:30 Bella’s reaction to the script

06:23 Casting Bella Boonsang

09:45 Cinematography with Chris Doyle

13:15 The movie is made on set

17:30 What is love?

22:17 Outro

Armed with a press pass and the Japanese language level of a 3 year old, Ben took to the cinemas of Tokyo during the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival. Ben’s coverage spans a varied 17 films over 10 days of the festival: buzzy and fresh Japanese films (Bring Him Down to a Portable Size; The Last Blossom; All Greens…) international film festival darlings (Lost Land; Palestine 36…), and a handful of exciting restorations (Demon Pond, Love Massacre…).

And if you haven’t listened to Ben’s interviews from during the festival, what are you waiting for?

114. Sato and Sato (2025): Interview with Director Amano Chihiro

116. Morte Cucina (2025): Interview with Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Bella Boonsang

Other Links:

Chloe Zhao x Hirokazu Koreeda

ようこそto our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:04:23 TIFF38 Press Experience

00:08:55 Demon Pond (1979) dir. Masahiro Shinoda

00:14:28 Pale Flower (1964) dir. Masahiro Shinoda

00:17:55 Floating Clouds (1955) dir. Mikio Naruse

00:23:32 Love Massacre (1981) dir. Patrick Tam

00:29:01 April Story (1998) dir. April Story

00:32:58 3.11 disaster sidebar

00:36:10 Blonde (2025) dir. Yûichirô Sakashita

00:39:35 Sato and Sato (2025) dir. Chihiro Amano

00:43:41 All Greens (2025) dir. Takashi Koyama

00:47:40 The Last Blossom (2025) dir. Baku Kinoshita

00:52:35 Lost Land (2025) dir. Akio Fujimoto

00:58:30 Echoes of the Orient (2025) dir. Yang Liping

01:00:55 Labyrinth (2025) dir. Shoji Kawamori

01:03:46 Bring Him Down to a Portable Size (2025) dir. Ryota Nakano

01:07:18 Morte Cucina (2025) dir. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

01:12:45 Palestine 36 (2025) dir. Annemarie Jacir

01:20:16 The Mastermind (2025) dir. Kelly Reichardt

01:24:23 Hamnet (2025) dir. Chloé Zhao

01:32:55 Wrap-up