A cross-border collaboration between Taiwanese and Singaporean producers has brought a provocative crime thriller to Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF), exploring the stress between scientific rationalism and spiritual belief systems through the lens of a chilling murder investigation.
“The Fundamentals,” from acclaimed Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua, follows a superstitious small-town police officer who teams up with a fact-based big-city investigator to uncover a rural cult chargeable for murdering people born via caesarean section. The cult believes these killings will restore nature’s balance, forcing the mismatched duo to confront their very own beliefs about science, sexuality and spirituality.
The series marks one other collaboration between Volos Movies and Akanga Film Asia, following their work on “Stranger Eyes,” which premiered in competition on the 81st Venice International Film Festival and opened the 61st Golden Horse Awards. For “The Fundamentals,” the partnership has assembled a Taiwanese writing room including Jen-Fang Wang, Ting Chi-wen and Becca Chen alongside Yeo.
“The premise of the project is prompted by the increasing lack of trust within the sciences as observed through the pandemic in those that reject medical expertise,” says Yeo, whose “A Land Imagined” won best original screenplay on the Golden Horse Awards and served as Singapore’s Oscar submission. “The proliferation of knowledge online has eroded our ability to make judgments, which has sometimes led to dire consequences.”
Wang, a specialist in suspense and female-centric narratives, was drawn to the series’ philosophical underpinnings. “What drew me to ‘The Fundamentals’ was its refreshing core conflict between the reverence for nature and the dominance of human science,” she says. “Through its characters, the series reflects on the notion of belief: in our modern age, science has turn out to be its own sort of faith.”
The author praised Yeo’s approach to embedding complex ideas inside genre entertainment. “What I find most fascinating about ‘The Fundamentals’ is how such a high-concept philosophical premise is told through the guise of an entertaining crime thriller,” Wang says. “Beneath the suspense and emotional entanglement between the characters lies a deeper, thought-provoking meditation on faith, nature, and human fragility.”
The project represents an evolution within the producers’ collaboration strategy. After participating within the Golden Horse FPP Series market and the Serial Bridges Asia workshop, the team is now pitching at TCCF with an eye fixed toward production in 2026.
“This project is entirely set, developed and to be shot in Taiwan, with a Taiwanese forged,” says Stefano Centini of Volos Movies. “It was conceived on the road of a Chinese language regional series who can reach to audiences in Asia and worldwide, and produced jointly with Akanga to bolster the mutual collaboration between Singaporean and Taiwanese talents, with the goal to grow together and expand our possibilities and outreach.”
The producers are currently fine-tuning scripts and shutting financing. “We’re desperate to find the fitting partners at TCCF,” says Fran Borgia of Akanga Film Asia. “Because the project is conceived to be filmed in Taiwan, coming back to Taiwan to attend TCCF provides the best platform to attach with collaborators who share our vision. We’re enthusiastic about this partnership between Taiwan and Singapore and the creative possibilities it continues to open.”
Borgia, a Spain-born producer based in Singapore since 2003, founded Akanga Film Asia and has produced acclaimed works including “Tiger Stripes,” “Apprentice” and “Stranger Eyes.” Centini, a Taiwanese-Italian producer, founded Volos Movies in 2018 with a mission to bridge emerging independent Asian filmmakers with international talents.
The series goals to balance regional specificity with global appeal, tapping into universal questions on belief systems while grounding its narrative in distinctly Asian cultural contexts. Wang noted that the story treats various belief systems — Taoism, indigenous spirituality, Christianity and the fictional cult — as equal, with none positioned as superior to a different.
“There are a lot of mysteries on this world that even the strongest science cannot fully explain, yet belief itself holds extraordinary power — as long as it stays steadfast,” Wang says.