Kelvin Tong

Directing

Kelvin Tong

Born 1972-01-01 · Singapore

Known for his range and ability to traverse both mainstream movies and art-house cinema, Kelvin Tong embarked on his filmmaking journey in 1995 with Moveable Feast. The quirky short, co-directed with Jasmine Ng and Sandi Tan, about one man’s obsession with the rituals of eating, garnered a Special Mention at the 1996 Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival as well as the Best Short Film Award at the 1995 Singapore International Film Festival Silver Screen Awards. Moveable Feast was the first piece of Singapore cinema to be showcased at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York. Kelvin Tong made his feature debut alongside co-director Jasmine Ng in 1999 with Eating Air, which represented Singapore extensively in numerous international film festivals. Kelvin Tong’s second feature – The Maid – was an atmospheric horror film based on the rituals and superstitions of the Chinese in Singapore. It broke box office records in Singapore and won the Asian Award at the 2006 European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation. In 2006, Kelvin Tong received Singapore’s highest national artistic award for youth – the Young Artist Award. Following The Maid, Kelvin Tong’s career took on a regional dimension. His third feature, Love Story (2006) was produced by Hong Kong screen legend Andy Lau. It took the Best Director Award at the 2006 Singapore International Film Festival and was chosen as the closing film at the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival. Kelvin Tong’s fourth feature – Rule #1 (2007) was a supernatural noir thriller shot in Hongkong. Returning to Singapore, Kelvin Tong made the thriller Kidnapper in 2009 and It’s A Great Great World in 2010.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

The Maid poster
5.6

Alone for the first time and away from her family in rural Philippines, Rosa Dimaano arrives in the cosmopolitan city state of Singapore to work as a maid. Her employers Mr and Mrs Teo runs a Chinese Teochew dialect opera troupe takes well to their new domestic help. So do their mentally disabled son, Ah Soon. In Chinese superstition, the seventh month of the lunar calendar is regarded as the month when the gates of hell open for forsaken spirits to walk the earth for 30 days. Unknown to Rosa, she arrives on the eve and her hell is about to begin.

The Maid

2005

The Maid poster
5.6

Alone for the first time and away from her family in rural Philippines, Rosa Dimaano arrives in the cosmopolitan city state of Singapore to work as a maid. Her employers Mr and Mrs Teo runs a Chinese Teochew dialect opera troupe takes well to their new domestic help. So do their mentally disabled son, Ah Soon. In Chinese superstition, the seventh month of the lunar calendar is regarded as the month when the gates of hell open for forsaken spirits to walk the earth for 30 days. Unknown to Rosa, she arrives on the eve and her hell is about to begin.

The Maid

2005

Eating Air poster
7.2

A romance between two opposites, Eating Air follows the lives of two teenagers during the hottest month in the history of Singapore. For Boy, breaking into bridal shops under the moonlight is as wildly exciting as Girl on her first motorcycle spin through the binding fluorescent tunnels of the CTE. About the joys and pangs of teenage love, Eating Air seeks the delirious madness that makes 18-year-olds invincible to low fuels, fists and oil-puddles on the road.

Eating Air

1999

Eating Air poster
7.2

A romance between two opposites, Eating Air follows the lives of two teenagers during the hottest month in the history of Singapore. For Boy, breaking into bridal shops under the moonlight is as wildly exciting as Girl on her first motorcycle spin through the binding fluorescent tunnels of the CTE. About the joys and pangs of teenage love, Eating Air seeks the delirious madness that makes 18-year-olds invincible to low fuels, fists and oil-puddles on the road.

Eating Air

1999

Rule Number One poster
6.0

Rookie Sergeant Lee is injured in a shoot-out and is assigned to the dubious-sounding Miscellaneous Affairs Department (MAD). There, he is paired up with Inspector Wong, a jaded and alcoholic veteran who explains that MAD’s role is to answer supernatural calls. Wong explains MAD’s rule number one - there are no ghosts. For every seemingly inexplicable phenomenon, there is a corresponding scientific and rational explanation.

Rule Number One

2008

Rule Number One poster
6.0

Rookie Sergeant Lee is injured in a shoot-out and is assigned to the dubious-sounding Miscellaneous Affairs Department (MAD). There, he is paired up with Inspector Wong, a jaded and alcoholic veteran who explains that MAD’s role is to answer supernatural calls. Wong explains MAD’s rule number one - there are no ghosts. For every seemingly inexplicable phenomenon, there is a corresponding scientific and rational explanation.

Rule Number One

2008

No artwork available
7.0

Narrated by a teenage boy, he brings us through to the various sights, sounds and characters ranging from a coffeeshop, to a Chinese wedding dinner in a traditional Chinese restaurant.

Moveable Feast

1996

No artwork available
7.0

Narrated by a teenage boy, he brings us through to the various sights, sounds and characters ranging from a coffeeshop, to a Chinese wedding dinner in a traditional Chinese restaurant.

Moveable Feast

1996

The Offering poster
5.3

When young and successful reporter Jamie finds out that her sister has died in mysterious circumstances, she travels to Singapore to uncover the truth. There, she discovers multiple deaths linked to her sister's and must join forces with her sister's husband in order to defeat a demonic entity that is using new technology to complete an ancient mission.

The Offering

2016

The Offering poster
5.3

When young and successful reporter Jamie finds out that her sister has died in mysterious circumstances, she travels to Singapore to uncover the truth. There, she discovers multiple deaths linked to her sister's and must join forces with her sister's husband in order to defeat a demonic entity that is using new technology to complete an ancient mission.

The Offering

2016

Dance Dance Dragon poster
NR

Ah Long's father was desperate to have a son born in the year of the Dragon because his ancestors had decreed that only a "Dragon boy"could take over family's lion dance association, His mother instead gives birth to "Dragon girls" while Ah Long himself was born several seconds after the clock struck twelve, making him a "Snake baby", much to the disappointment of his father. At present time, Mother Long orays to the gods for blessings on her three children and pours out her desire for a grandchild. The oldest daughter Lucy, 48, is a spinster and can't find suitable work. The second daughter Ah Bee, 36, is a gambling addiction counselor who is tomboyish and was recently dumped by her boyfriend. The youngest and only son Ah Long is married but is terrified of children. Meanwhile up in heaven, the gods are growing sick and tired of hearing Mother Long's daily prayers for a grandchild and deliberate whether to grant Mother Long her wish....

Dance Dance Dragon

2012

Dance Dance Dragon poster
NR

Ah Long's father was desperate to have a son born in the year of the Dragon because his ancestors had decreed that only a "Dragon boy"could take over family's lion dance association, His mother instead gives birth to "Dragon girls" while Ah Long himself was born several seconds after the clock struck twelve, making him a "Snake baby", much to the disappointment of his father. At present time, Mother Long orays to the gods for blessings on her three children and pours out her desire for a grandchild. The oldest daughter Lucy, 48, is a spinster and can't find suitable work. The second daughter Ah Bee, 36, is a gambling addiction counselor who is tomboyish and was recently dumped by her boyfriend. The youngest and only son Ah Long is married but is terrified of children. Meanwhile up in heaven, the gods are growing sick and tired of hearing Mother Long's daily prayers for a grandchild and deliberate whether to grant Mother Long her wish....

Dance Dance Dragon

2012

Confinement poster
NR

Wang Si Ling, a pregnant painter who moves into her dream home and hires a confinement nanny after winning an award. As Si Ling begins her one month in confinement, inexplicable incidents start mounting in the house, threatening both her and her baby.

Confinement

2023

Men in White poster
2.7

Four people from Singapore die on the same day and return to Earth as ghosts.

Men in White

2007

Beijing, Mumbai, Tampines poster
NR

A group of quarrelsome recruits endures a gruelling week of training. Will they get to book out?

Beijing, Mumbai, Tampines

2017

Beijing, Mumbai, Tampines poster
NR

A group of quarrelsome recruits endures a gruelling week of training. Will they get to book out?

Beijing, Mumbai, Tampines

2017

Republic of Food poster
NR

In a world where food has been outlawed, a small band of food lovers risks their skins to defy the authorities and feast on contraband food.

Republic of Food

2018

Republic of Food poster
NR

In a world where food has been outlawed, a small band of food lovers risks their skins to defy the authorities and feast on contraband food.

Republic of Food

2018

It's a Great, Great World! poster
6.4

It’s A Great Great World is set in Singapore’s legendary amusement park Great World, which was also affectionately known in Hokkien as Tua Seh Kai or 大世界. Spanning the 1940s to the present day, the film tells the stories of a multitude of characters who lived, worked, played, sang, danced and fell in love in Great World.

It's a Great, Great World!

2011

7 Letters poster
6.5

An emotive anthology by seven of Singapore's most illustrious filmmakers, celebrating SG50 through the lives and stories of Singaporeans. Directed by Eric Khoo, Jack Neo, K. Rajagopal, Royston Tan, Tan Pin Pin, Boo Junfeng, Kelvin Tong.

7 Letters

2015

7 Letters poster
6.5

An emotive anthology by seven of Singapore's most illustrious filmmakers, celebrating SG50 through the lives and stories of Singaporeans. Directed by Eric Khoo, Jack Neo, K. Rajagopal, Royston Tan, Tan Pin Pin, Boo Junfeng, Kelvin Tong.

7 Letters

2015

1942 poster
4.2

On the 60th anniversary of World War II, Boku Films presents 1942, a suspenseful horror movie set against an unforgettable war. The year is 1942. The setting - Malaya.

1942

2005

1942 poster
4.2

On the 60th anniversary of World War II, Boku Films presents 1942, a suspenseful horror movie set against an unforgettable war. The year is 1942. The setting - Malaya.

1942

2005

A Year of No Significance poster
7.0

Set in Singapore in 1979, A Year Of No Significance chronicles the gradual disintegration of a middle-aged architect as changes rock the 45th year of his life. Sidelined in the office because of his inability to speak English, Lim Cheng Soon is cut further adrift when his wife leaves him inexplicably one day. His elderly father moves in, forcing him to confront the fact that the former has always preferred his younger brother. Robbed of his identities as architect, husband and son, Cheng Soon struggles in the dusk of his life, raging against the dying light.

A Year of No Significance

2023