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Ramen Teh

Culinary Cinema 2018
© Zhao Wei Films/Wild Orange Artists
Masato is a young ramen chef in the city of Takasaki in Japan. After the sudden death of his emotionally distant father, he chances upon a suitcase of memorabilia and a red notebook – filled with musings and old photos – left behind by his Singaporean mother who died when he was just ten years old. Acting on a hunch, he takes off for Singapore with the notebook, hoping to piece together the story of his life, as well as that of his parents. There he meets Miki, a Japanese food blogger and single mother who helps him track down his maternal uncle Ah Wee, who runs a bak kut teh stall. Masato discovers that his grandmother Madam Lee is still alive, and that she holds the key to the tender yet turbulent love story of his parents. Masato and his grandmother try to heal each other’s broken soul, and find salvation in the kitchen where the meals they cook become more than the sum of their ingredients.
by Eric Khoo
with Takumi Saitoh, Seiko Matsuda, Mark Lee, Jeanette Aw, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Tetsuya Bessho, Beatrice Chien Singapore / Japan / France 2018 Japanese, English, Mandarin 89’ Colour World premiere

With

  • Takumi Saitoh (Masato)
  • Seiko Matsuda (Miki)
  • Mark Lee (Uncle Wee)
  • Jeanette Aw (Mei Lian)
  • Tsuyoshi Ihara (Kazuo)
  • Tetsuya Bessho (Uncle Akio)
  • Beatrice Chien (Madam Lee)

Crew

Director Eric Khoo
Screenplay Fong Cheng Tan, Kim Hoh Wong
Cinematography Brian Gothong Tan
Editing Natalie Soh
Music Kevin Mathews, Christine Sham
Sound Design Kazz
Sound Daniel Koh
Production Design Aloysius Norman Benjamin, Kikuo Ohta
Costumes Meredith Lee, Junko Nishio
Make-Up Dollei Seah, Machiko Sano
Casting Felicia Tan, Yumi Takada
Assistant Director Hiroyasu Kitagawa
Production Managers Donovan del Rosario, Kaori Okitsu
Producers Fong Cheng Tang, Junxiang Huang, Yutaka Tachibana
Executive Producers Bert Tan, Yutaka Tachibana, Teck Lim

World Sales

mk2 Films

http://www.mk2.com http://www.mk2.com

Produced by

Zhao Wei Films

Photos

Eric Khoo

© Eric Khoo Zhao Wei Films

Born in Singapore in 1965. An award-winning filmmaker and founder of Zhao Wei Films, he has helped to put his island nation on the international filmmaking map. He was the first Singaporean to make films that were screened at major festivals including Berlin, Venice and Cannes. The Centre Pompidou in Paris has held a retrospective of his work and he served as president of the jury at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2010. His first animated feature film Tatsumi premiered at the MoMA in New York in 2011. In 2017 he was on the jury for the Cannes Short Film Competition Palm d’Or. His recent projects are inspired by Singapore’s history.

Filmography

1995 Mee Pok Man 1997 12 Storeys 2005 Be With Me 2008 My Magic 2011 Tatsumi 2015 7 letters · In The Room “Hotel Singapura” 2018 Ramen Teh

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018