Boon Pin Koh

An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.

When ambitious young correctional officer Aiman is transferred to the country's highest-security prison, he catches the attention of the seasoned chief executioner Rahim. Aiman's desire to become the hangman's apprentice is not only professional but born of an unspeakable urge to reconnect with a past that haunts him.

This sensitive and sensual film draws together several narratives spanning several decades, all of them transpiring in the same room of the same Singaporean hotel — and all of them involving sex.

The film depicts 24 hours in a HDB block of residential flats in Singapore. There are three main storylines. San San, fat, silent, and alone, hears the ghost of her mother constantly upbraid her. Ah Gu, a tofu soup vendor, is at odds with Lily, his materialistic immigrant wife, who longs for something he cannot provide. Meng spouts every moralistic bromide of the striving middle class, but is unhinged by his teenage sister May ("Trixie" to her boyfriend) who won't study, parties all night, and seems doomed by youth culture.

The consequences of a mother's decision to leave her daughter in the care of an American homestay family are slowly unearthed.

Chun Feng Koh, a middle-aged food critic whose career is starting to wear him out, decides to explore his life and the development of Singapore through the local food.