Stars from international hit “Crazy Rich Asians” were on hand Wednesday night to add a little sparkle to the otherwise brisk and efficient opening night events for the 29th edition of the Singapore International Film Festival proved.
Hundreds of film buffs gathered at the 85-year-old neoclassical structure that is the Capitol Theatre on Wednesday evening to cheer on the stars walking the red carpet. The festival runs as part of the Singapore Media Festival through Dec. 9.
Singaporean filmmaker Royston Tan, who will celebrate the 15th anniversary of his seminal debut feature “15: The Movie” at the festival, walked the red carpet with festival executive director Yuni Hadi. Other luminaries included “The Hush” actors Adele Wong, Jason Godfrey and Irene Ang. The guest of honor was Tan Kiat How, chief executive of industry regulator, the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore.
Causing a stir with fans were local “Crazy Rich Asians” stars Fiona Xie, a vision in Fendi, Constance Lau in a Stylease gown, Charles & Keith shoes and her mum’s pearls, and Amy Cheng in a Jo Kilda outfit and Bern Sovereign Culture shoes.
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“The key to this entire (“Crazy Rich Asians” phenomenon) is that nobody expected anything,” Xie told Variety. “It was like a huge summer camp gone viral. We are so excited that Singapore was put on the map. I just came back from Beijing. We hope to spread the love to even more people throughout the world and tell our Singapore story.”
Lau continued in similar vein. “All of us did it for our love of film and acting. We never expected it to be such a hit. “It is very overwhelming,” she said.
The festival opened with the South East Asian premiere of Taiwanese noir “Cities of Last Things.” Director, Ho Wi Ding led his cast onto the red carpet. They included Ding Ning, who recently won the Golden Horse for best supporting actress for her role in the film, and Huang Lu. The biggest cheers of the evening were reserved for their co-star Shih Chin-hang, AKA Stone from the popular band Mayday.