How an Existential Crisis Led to Singaporean Oscar Entry ‘The Breaking Ice’

TheWrap magazine: “When you’re stuck, you look to find a new direction,” says director Anthony Chen of the movie that came out of his pandemic melancholia

The Breaking Ice
Strand Releasing

Films from director Anthony Chen have represented Singapore three times at the Oscars. After “Ilo Ilo” in 2013 and “Wet Season” in 2020, he’s back with “The Breaking Ice,” a lovely, light-on-its-feet drama in which a melancholy young man from Singapore falls into an unlikely relationship with a tour guide and her boyfriend in a frigid Chinese town near the North Korean border. 

What was the impetus for this film?
To be honest, I had a real existential crisis during the pandemic when cinemas closed and film production stopped. I thought this is the beginning of the end, you know? And when you’re stuck, you look to find a new direction.

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