Eric Khoo’s erotic drama “In The Room” is finally to get a theatrical release in his native Singapore.
Encore Films will give it an outing on Feb. 25, when it will carry an R21 rating. That means that it can only be viewed by adults over 21 years old, and that advertising and promotion is limited.
The film premiered at the Toronto festival in September. It later played in the Singapore International Film Festival at the end of last year with a special dispensation from the censors at the Media Development Authority.
But the same week Khoo announced that the film would not get a release in commercial theaters because the MDA’s Consultative Panel had refused it even the R21 certificate unless he made cuts to two scenes, something he refused to do.
Khoo has now delivered an ‘international version’ of the film which keeps the controversial scenes, but adds visual effects.
“We are so glad that it got through finally! Now this is a new international version and it got an R21 rating in Singapore without any cuts,” Virginia Leung of Distribution Workshop, the film’s international sales agent, told Variety.
The film comprises six stories that take place in a single hotel room over a period of 50 years. One of the film’s producers, Tan Fong Cheng told The Straits Times that the new version of the film is “a new and improved version… Eric decided to work on the aesthetics to make it sexier.”
