Absent Smile

directed by Lavender Chang and John Clang
written and edited by John Clang

2022 | 80 mins | English, Mandarin, Hokkien with English subtitles | DCP | 1:85:1 | Black & White, Color | 2K

Ten years after an elderly couple takes a special portrait with their absent son who lives overseas, their sense of yearning grows into a habit where long distance phone calls and mundane repetitions are temporary remedies to a complex longing.

TRAILER

FILM STILLS

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Aging and separation are common reflections of what many are going through. These are themes that had been legendarily coined by Yasujirō Ozu with his masterful Tokyo Story.

In Absent Smile, we documented a single day of an elderly couple, with the intention of capturing the nuance and underlying dynamics of their everyday life in the absence of their son. By compressing one day of their life into a film, this absence marks the duration of time that is irretrievably lost forever. A day can be seemingly long or short, depending on one’s perspective. Time becomes uncertain through the process of waiting for a phone call, a thought, a reunion, and perhaps another separation.

- Lavender Chang and John Clang

SCREENING

Official Selection - Singapore Panorama, Singapore International Film Festival 2022

NEWS

POSTER

CREDITS

Directed by
LAVENDER CHANG
JOHN CLANG

Written and Edited by
JOHN CLANG

Executive Producer
ELIN TEW

Producer
ELIN TEW
JEREMY CHUA

Director of Photography
LAVENDER CHANG

Music Composer    
CLARENCE CHUNG 

Sound Editor
ANGEL IGNACE
CLÉMENT IGNACE

Audio Post Production       
AURAE STUDIOS

DCP Mastering Services       
MOCHA CHAI LABORATORIES

© 2022 John Clang