Set against the backdrop of the wealthy Jia clan’s slow financial decline, Jia Bao-yu falls in love with his cousin Lin Dai-yu, newly arrived from Taiwan. Their growing mutual affection gets derailed when their family’s materialistic interests and another cousin from the United States comes between them. Considered one of the four great masterworks of Chinese literature, Chiu’s adaptation reimagines this classical saga by transposing it to 1970s Singapore, featuring a largely local cast and weaving in various idiosyncratic film tropes popular at the time. In this rare rediscovery, Dream of the Red Chamber offers a unique and uncommon glimpse into early independent and transnational filmmaking in a rapidly developing post-independence Singapore.
