The Life Of A Girl: Amoeba Director Tan Siyou Talks Girlhood And Singapore Cinema
We talked to Tan Siyou about her directorial debut.
Every once in a while, a coming‑of‑age film with some serious punk attitude comes along and electrifies a generation. Tan Siyou’s debut feature Amoeba is set to be one such cult hit. Centred around four students from an elite girls’ school who find friendship through their shared contempt for the authoritarian system they’re entrenched in, the movie is equally stylish and profound, capturing the joys and pains of adolescence in modern‑day Singapore with wit and sensitivity.
Meet Singapore’s next star film‑maker: Tan Siyou, whose debut feature Amoeba has been a critical success since its world premiere under the Toronto International Film Festival’s Discovery programme in September this year. While she has been based in Los Angeles since 2012, the independent movie taps on her own experience growing up in Singapore, with the organism it’s named after a highly personal metaphor for how Tan felt as a teen.
Since making its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival this September, it has received glowing reviews and a growing list of honours, including the Cinephilia Critics’ Award and the Youth Jury Award at the 2025 Pingyao International Film Festival, and a nomination for Best Youth Film at the upcoming Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Come end‑November, it will be shown locally for the first time as part of the 2025 Singapore International Film Festival’s Asian Feature Film Competition. Here, Tan takes time out of the movie’s whirlwind world tour to speak with Noelle Loh about Singapore’s cinema industry, creating Amoeba and how growing up here was like for her.
Hey, Siyou! We started chatting over WhatsApp nearly a month ago, right after Amoeba debuted at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. It has since travelled to Busan, Pingyao, Hamburg and Los Angeles. Where in the world are you now and how has the whole experience been, considering this is your first feature film?
“I’m currently in Los Angeles (where she has been based since 2012), having some time to myself after travelling with the film for a few weeks. It has been overwhelming, humbling and kind of unreal. The creation process can be quite solitary and like being in a cocoon, so I was a little nervous to expose the film to a wider audience, but it’s really connecting with people around the world. It almost feels like the film has been injected with new life – the amoeba it represents splitting into many unexpected versions of itself. New wombs, new spawns, Amoeba is born again through many different perspectives, and that’s so delightful.”
Amoeba has already garnered several accolades. Lead actress Ranice Tay also won the Fei Mu Best Actress prize at the 2025 Pingyao International Film Festival and you’re in the running for Best New Director at the 62nd Golden Horse Awards. Were these ever goals for you as a film‑maker, and why do you think critics have responded so positively?
“As a perennial ‘bad student’, I’ve never received any awards or been lauded for anything, so these things are never a motivation for me. I’m also not sure why Amoeba has resonated so well. Perhaps it’s to do with how the film captures the questions of youths in an honest way?”
For those who haven’t seen the movie, could you write your own IMDb‑esque summary of it for us?
“Ha ha, I’m terrible at summarising. I’ll just say: Watch out for Miss Nap Time!”
With sparkling performances by its four lead actresses (from left to right) Nicole Lee, Lim Shi‑An, Genevieve Tan and Ranice Tay, Amoeba is an edgy yet heartwarmingly honest movie about navigating girlhood and the search for self‑identity. Like the girl gang the four main characters attempt to start, the film – produced by Fran Borgia of Akanga Film Asia – has a wilful, DIY spirit that adds to its charm. For example, director Tan Siyou incorporated camcorder footage, while local shoegaze act Astreal’s riff‑heavy Snowflake features on the soundtrack. And to get around the challenges of limited shoot locations in Singapore, the crew and cast jetted off to the Philippines to film in a cave, nailing the shots in a single day.
Prior to Amoeba, you released four other short films, and most of them also explore the themes of girlhood and nostalgia. What are your interests as a film‑maker?
“So far, I’ve been exploring the mysteries of the world through a girl’s point of view – not only the yearnings, confusion, deaths and disobediences of youth, but also how these young lives are shaped by societal structures and narratives. This means I’m also interested in youths’ desire for freedom – a hunt for the power to define themselves to find some kind of agency in the world they inhabit.”
Why make Amoeba?
“When I was a teenager in Singapore, I felt a weight that I couldn’t express and I was just fighting against it in simple ways with little forms of rebellion. As an adult, this film is an attempt to investigate this.”
What influences you as a film‑maker and a creative person? I’m interested to know more, especially as someone who has largely covered fashion and youth culture. From the trailer alone, Amoeba is extremely stylish and has a killer soundtrack!
“Thank you for saying that! I think our secondary school toot‑ness (Singlish for being uncool) is actually quite stylish – ha ha! And there’s only one song in the film: Singapore shoegaze band Astreal’s Snowflake – such a great song! As a creative person, I like reading fiction, taking long walks and naps, lying down to zuo bo (the Singlish term for doing nothing), and people‑watching. I enjoy being solitary as well. As a human being existing in this world, I’m also acutely influenced by the world, and feel raging helplessness, hopelessness and despair that I try to investigate and reflect in my work.”
It’s a cult of personality: in addition to Tan’s directorial debut, it’s four lead actresses were also lauded for their on-screen performances.
What were the biggest challenges in making the movie?
“There were so many! On a writing level, figuring out the story points was a big challenge because it started with a few disparate fragments that unravelled themselves very slowly. Of course, finding the money is always a challenge, but one thing I didn’t expect was how difficult it’d be to find shooting locations in Singapore. I have to commend our locations manager Cheryl and team, who really gritted their teeth and never gave up. It’s a lot of work, walking, knocking on doors, giving out flyers, talking to people and explaining to them what we’re doing – and then when we’re shooting, being firm with everyone about the house rules … And our production designer Sam and her team, who worked with the limitations and reimagined those spaces. Many locations are also under the jurisdiction of various ministries and, with those sometimes, you’re just not allowed to use state‑controlled land in a particular way … We actually went to the Philippines to shoot one scene because it was too impossible to do so in Singapore …
I think the underlying thing is that Singapore is very small, so land or space is very expensive and precious to everyone. This makes people – homeowners, business owners, et cetera – very cautious and protective of their spaces. Also, because we’re living in such a built‑up city in close proximity to one another, we might request a neighbouring business to pause its ongoing construction for two minutes while we go for a take, but for this business, who cares if you’re making a film? To many people, it seems like making a film is not important or a waste of time, and that making money is more important, so people won’t really go out of their way to accommodate us. It’s the same for homes – people aren’t super open to letting us in.”
Film writer and director Tan Siyou describes her body of work as an exploration of “the mysteries of the world through a girl’s point of view – not only the yearnings, confusion, deaths and disobediences of youth, but also how these young lives are shaped by societal structures and narratives”. Before Amoeba, she released four short films including 2200 Volts, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Hello Ahma, (above) which follows a young girl’s search for the reincarnation of her grandmother.
I feel you. I read your essay in Talkhouse about disappearing spaces and, in turn, culture in Singapore, which can be said to be a related topic. You must have read about the closure of the independent cinema The Projector. How did that make you feel?
“Going to the cinema has always been my balm for isolation, so I was sad on a deep level – whenever I’ve returned to Singapore, I’ve always felt that if a place like The Projector exists, I can live in this city. I was an audience member at The Projector for years and dreamed that one day, Amoeba could play there to a roomful of friends. Beyond that, I feel that the worldwide closure of wonderfully messy, organic and meaningful third spaces will have long‑term effects on all of our spirits.”
How important is a cinema in the movie-viewing experience?
“I think it’s crucial. Music is good transmitted through earphones, but it’s sublime when you go to a live concert. This might be a better metaphor for theatre, but I argue that the projection in a cinema makes images dance and feel alive, and the most important thing is that you can hear every detail of sound design because the space is designed for that. It encloses you so you can just lean back and be transported into another world. It’s so great! It’s dark and cosy, and the people on screen are so huge and you feel so small.”
It sounds like you grew up spending some time in the cinema.
“I actually go to the cinema more now than when I was growing up. Over the years, my cinema‑going habits have ebbed and flowed, but now that I’m self‑employed, I structure my time around things I love doing. The Covid‑19 pandemic and streaming affected cinema‑going a lot, and that’s a pity because to me, there’s no greater joy than sitting in a dark room with strangers and feeling a collective emotion. At home, I find myself getting distracted by my phone, or turning on the rice cooker, or doing laundry, and it’s multitasking to the detriment of everything.”
Amoeba isn’t Tan’s first forray into the psyche of the rebellious schoolgirl, her short film Strawberry Cheesecake (above), also features a band of recalcitrant schoolgirls.
What was a cinema you frequented in Singapore?
“I used to hang out at Lido and Cineleisure with my friends, as well as The Picturehouse at The Cathay. To be honest, my fondest memories of growing up are a haze of hanging out at the corners of malls, playing pool, singing karaoke until I got a sore throat, having Pastamania (a casual Italian restaurant chain), and then taking the last bus home while listening to the 25 songs I had on my MP3 player. It was only after I turned 17 that I started going to cinemas alone, and discovering more interesting places such as The Arts House, The Substation and Sinema Old School (the latter two are now defunct). I guess both experiences are adjacent and I have fond memories of them for different reasons. Hanging out after school was about feeling the joy of abandon and insouciance, while going to the cinema fulfilled an obsession.”
What are your thoughts on the film industry in Singapore and do you consider yourself a part of it?
“We’re a small group of crazy people who continue to dream even as the walls get demolished and the bulldozers surround us.”
Another one of Tan’ short films, 2200 Volts (above), in which a woman attempts to reconcile with past regrets while awaiting death.
What was the last film you watched?
“I last saw Renoir (the 2025 coming‑of‑age Japanese film by Chie Hayakawa) and I loved it.”
And what’s your all-time favourite film? Okay, you can name up to three if you can’t choose one.
“Hou Hsiao‑hsien’s Dust in the Wind, Hirokazu Kore‑eda’s After Life and Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”
What’s a film you can watch again and again?
“Lucrecia Martel’s La Cienaga.”
After making its international debut at the Toronto International Film Festival (and subsequently earning plenty of international praise and laurels), Amoeba is due to make its Singapore debut at the Singapore International Film Festival.
What are the most iconic Singapore films and why?
“15 (2003) by Royston Tan! So iconic. I’ve never forgotten the first time I watched it – ah beng subculture is truly iconic and I wish that as a society, we can be a little more haywire and a little less corporate. For films that have come out in more recent years, I’d say Shirkers (2018), A Yellow Bird (2016) and A Land Imagined (2018).”
Where would you, as a film-maker, like to go from here?
“I feel that Amoeba has awakened something inside me that I didn’t know I was searching for, and I’d like to continue to question myself and my surroundings, unlearn and learn again, and pierce through with emotional truth to imagine what is possible.”
THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN EDITED FOR BREVITY AND CLARITY.
This article first appeared in Volume 4 of F ZINE.