Bee Thiam Tan

Directing

Bee Thiam Tan

Tan Bee Thiam has worked as a producer, director, writer, and editor. An alumnus of Berlinale Talents, Rotterdam Lab, and European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE), he produced Daniel Hui’s Demons (Berlinale Forum 2019), Snakeskin (Award of Excellence, Yamagata IDFF 2015), and Eclipses (Pixel Bunker Award for International New Talent, Doclisboa IFF 2013); Lei Yuan Bin’s 03-FLATS (In Competition, Wide Angle Documentary, Busan IFF 2014) and White Days (Hong Kong IFF 2009); Liao Jiekai’s As You Were (International Competition, Torino FF 2014) and Red Dragonflies (Special Jury Prize, Jeonju IFF 2010); and Yeo Siew Hua’s In the House of Straw (In Competition, Bangkok 2009). His upcoming films include Glen Goei and Gavin Yap’s Revenge of the Pontianak, Lav Diaz’s Henrico’s Farm and Lei Yuan Bin's Tuition (Busan Asian Cinema Fund award). As a director, his works include Kopi Julia, one of 13 short films curated by Apichatpong Weerasethakul for the Sharjah Biennale. His co-directorial feature Fundamentally Happy, a film adaptation of the 2006 award-winning play by Haresh Sharma and Alvin Tan, was shot by Christopher Doyle and premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights FF 2015. His first feature film Tiong Bahru Social Club (Udine Far East FF Genre Project Market) is currently in post-production.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Revenge of the Pontianak poster
5.2

A newly married couple’s life is shaken by the arrival of a vengeful Pontianak, forcing them down a dark path of betrayal, witchcraft and murder.

Revenge of the Pontianak

2019

Julia’s Coffee poster
5.0

Ikram brings home his classmates to feed Julia, his blood-sucking stepmum. When Julia starts flirting with a classmate Ikram has been secretly admiring, he flies into a rage of jealousy.

Julia’s Coffee

2013

Julia’s Coffee poster
5.0

Ikram brings home his classmates to feed Julia, his blood-sucking stepmum. When Julia starts flirting with a classmate Ikram has been secretly admiring, he flies into a rage of jealousy.

Julia’s Coffee

2013

Demons poster
2.6

A role in a new production seems lucky for young actress Vicki until the torture that awaits her is revealed. Vicki refuses to be agonized in this satiric horror film about power, abuse and the hidden violence of creativity that contemplates the price of art.

Demons

2018

No artwork available
NR

Plot Unknown.

Strange Root

No artwork available
NR

What does it mean to declare or even whisper: I have loved? In Siem Reap, a young woman, haunted by loss, mourning, melancholia and the imperfections of memory, dances with two men–one of whom she is married to, while the other is engaged to be married.

I Have Loved

2011

Small Hours of the Night poster
7.0

A woman is being interrogated in a dark room by a stern young man on a rainy night. As the hours pass, identities and historical time periods begin to blur. Her testimony becomes a scrambled, personal record of her country’s complicated legal history.

Small Hours of the Night

2024

Tiong Bahru Social Club poster
6.2

Ah Bee goes on a comedic odyssey through Tiong Bahru Social Club, a data-driven project to create the happiest neighborhood in the world. Little by little, his encounters with the neighborhood's residents reveal the absurdity of life.

Tiong Bahru Social Club

2020

Tiong Bahru Social Club poster
6.2

Ah Bee goes on a comedic odyssey through Tiong Bahru Social Club, a data-driven project to create the happiest neighborhood in the world. Little by little, his encounters with the neighborhood's residents reveal the absurdity of life.

Tiong Bahru Social Club

2020

Fundamentally Happy poster
7.0

Twenty years ago, Habiba and Eric were neighbours. When Eric revisits her home to find her still living there with her husband, what seems like a friendly reunion turns into the gradual revelation of a painful secret from the past. An unflinching look at the consequences of abuse, Fundamentally Happy explores without judgment or condemnation critical issues such as trust, memory, relationships and consent.

Fundamentally Happy

2015