Film directors, producers, industry folks schmoozed at last night’s Directors’ Dinner, hosted by the festival. But there’s probably one dude who wasn’t there. Okay lah, two. I got lazy. Ekachai Uekrongtham, Singapore’s Action Man (or, Action Theatre Man) and a jury member for the main competition this year. Why? He’s deep in rehearsals for his new musical titled Breathe. Yes, after almost a decade, the theatre in him has risen out of the Coffin. The Chang has found its Eng. But sorry to get your hopes up, it’s in Thai.  I didn’t actually get to talk to the man (like I said, he was busy). But in an interview for the festival daily he revealed more details. Music will be by Boyd Kosiyapong, who’s Thailand’s Burt Bacharach, according to him. It’s produced by the “king of Thai musicals”, Takonkiet Weerawan. And… that’s about it. Oh, sorry, three dudes weren’t at the Dinner. Ho Tzu Nyen stayed back. A rainy Friday night isn’t the best time to get a taxi. And what of the films? I caught two vastly contrasting ones. 2022 Tsunami is a Thai disaster flick. Yes! A disaster flick that takes place in the near future that saw Bangkok being engulfed by huge waves ala The Day After Tomorrow. Thailand’s probably the only country in the entire region with the audacity to create its own disaster flick of this scale (in imagination). Not to mention the moral, er, high ground after the 2004 Tsunami tragedy. We can’t really imagine a movie about the Nicoll Highway event. This week on cinemas: The Collapse. Heh. Anyway, that’s the good thing. Other than that, the CGI isn’t quite there yet. And for all the attempts at building up suspense, it’s simply part-Noah’s Ark parable, part-An Inconvenient Truth, and part-propaganda film. The Prime Minister is shown practically wringing his hair at the agonising decision of following the advice of an old scientist against the wishes of his nemesis politician. When the waves come, he gets on a rescue helicopter and rescues a schoolbus full of kids. And almost loses his life doing so. And here we thought politicians were scum. Shame on us. How do you remedy a disappointing start at an all-Southeast Asian festival experience? By seeing a film that made my jaw drop an hour later. The Forbidden Door by Indonesian Joko Anwar that’s up against Here and In The House of Straw for the Southeast Asian Competition category. This beautifully shot and exceptionally crafted fare is about a young, timid artist who creates mysterious sculptures of pregnant women upon the prodding of his overbearing (but hot) wife. At some point, he keeps seeing strange messages of someone pleading for help and gets embroiled in some Masonic-like sect that lets its voyeuristic members see some truly disturbing domestic scenes of violence via planted CCTVs. It’s Hitchcock meets film noir meets retro Indonesia suburbia – with a dose of gruesome violence. It’s visceral at certain parts, classy and elegant in others. A stylish look at the dark side in all of us (Insert VO whisper:  Come on, you know you want to...) Overall? Brilliant. It deserves a commercial run in Singapore and if any film distributor is reading this, I urge you to think about bringing this in. I’m sure we could all take a break from Thai horror and South Korean rom coms.