Golden Village announced the release date for The Breaking Ice, Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen’s Mainland Chinese debut, on Thursday (July 27).

Starring Zhou Dongyu, Liu Haroan and Qu Chuxiao, The Breaking Ice is set in Yanji, a border city in the north of China. It tells the story of the blossoming relationship between three twentysomethings over the course of a few days in the winter snow.

The Breaking Ice will open in Singapore cinemas on Sept 7. Singapore is the first territory to release the film after China on Aug 22. The film is slated to launch in the US in late 2023 or early 2024.

“During the pandemic, I had a huge existential crisis, I was searching for a sense of identity, to continue to ‘exist’ as a filmmaker, I was desperate to make a film,” says Chen in a statement. “The Breaking Ice is the result of that, made with a different mindset and process. After Ilo Ilo in 2013, and Wet Season in 2019, this is definitely the craziest endeavour I have embarked on in the longest time.”

The Breaking Ice made its world premiere in May at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation. Critics at The Hollywood Reporter and IndieWire picked it as one of the best films screened at the festival.

The Hong Kong-based Chen, who was inducted into the Oscars body Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last month,  has two films out this year. Besides The Breaking Ice, he also has Drift, his English-language debut, starring Cynthia Erivo and Alia Shawkat.

In April, He Shuming’s Ajoomma, the Hong Huifang-starring drama Chen produced, became the first Singaporean film to launch on Amazon Prime Video.

Photo: Giraffe Pictures