Film Review: THE HOUSE ON THE MOON: Singapore’s Complex Labyrinth of a Film is Quite Intense to Behold [Locarno 2026]

The House on the Moon Review

The House on the Moon (2026) Film Review from the 79th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie directed by Nelson Yeo and starring Lim Shi-An, Guan-Zhi Huang, Dominick Rustam-Chartrand, Harry Chang and Kang-sheng Lee.

Filmmaker Nelson Yeo’s ambitious and successful effort, The House on the Moon, tells a few very unique tales within just one very obscure, yet intelligent, movie. Yeo has crafted a film of great complexity that shines on so many levels as it presents the character of Chang Er (Lim Shi-An), a “fairy maiden” moon goddess who goes to the other side of the moon in the name of love. Archer Hou Yi (Dominick Rustam-Chartrand) seems to be the love of Chang Er’s life although the film centers its action on an astronaut from Earth (played by Guan-Zhi Huang), a bandit if you will. What ensues makes for one of the most fascinating films of 2026 thus far.

This movie blurs the lines between what is actually happening in the movie and what is imagined by the characters on-screen. While the bandit and Chang Er form a very difficult to categorize relationship, the film never fails to be interesting in terms of where it takes those characters as Hou Yi is off-screen for a lot of the movie.

One very intense sex scene stands out between the two key characters in the movie, and shows the man’s undying love for the woman he is having a physical connection with. As far as the relationship between the astronaut and Chang Er is concerned, it’s a very touching one with a lot of awkward beginning moments that help shape the later scenes of the picture.

This powerful new picture is noteworthy for its scenes which defy the conventional nature of cinema. There are moments that merge into other ones, and the audience doesn’t always initially grasp what’s going on. It takes patience to see where the director is heading with key moments that include the shooting of an arrow through a young boy and the motif of a severed arm that serves as a back-scratcher for one of our male leads.

In The House on the Moon, the bandit gets a lot of time to develop emotionally over the course of the film, and is, perhaps, the most relatable character in a movie that doesn’t dwell on the situation it proposes as much as it probes it for possibilities that could exist within the framework of the unique story line.

One thing that is certainly clear is the quality of the performances. Nelson Yeo has managed to make a picture that is as compelling as it is beautiful to look at in many well-rendered moments within the movie. It’s easy to understand Chang Er’s powerful influence over the men in her life. While certain key scenes can feel a bit exaggerated, it’s also refreshing to see a movie that takes itself seriously while dealing with imaginative issues of mortality, doing something important with one’s life and the meaning of true love.

Where The ‘House on the Moon gets tricky is not only with its scenes that are dream-like in nature, but the movie also zeroes in on the possibility of loving more than one person romantically. As the bandit, Guan-Zhi Huang presents a risky character who wants to take the fountain of youth to planet Earth with him. Thankfully, Huang doesn’t play his character as too likable or too rebellious. He sort of has a serious side that makes him believable as a potential love interest for Chang Er, which works in the movie’s favor.

Meanwhile, Lim Shi-An is magnificent as a character who is pretty much an enigma. People love her mystifying appearance in almost every way. However, the layers revealed by Shi-An as the fairy maiden make her three-dimensional, real and easy to understand despite her sensational ability to thrive under extenuating circumstances that are quite formidable in their excesses.

If The House on the Moon is beautifully made from a technical standpoint, it bounces back between being a love story and a tale of tragic circumstances that are basically beyond human control. Chang Er drives the plot, but the movie knows when to focus on the bandit more than the emotions of Chang Er to prove its points of the genuine nature of love and the brevity of human life.

The House on the Moon is an epic film filled with performances that are both unnerving and moving to watch. Whereas it’s hard to imagine any mainstream movie even beginning to tackle issues like the ones this film attempts to deal with, this new film pulls off the impossible by being a tale of sorrow, loss, and hope as well as true love, both lost and found.

At its core, The House on the Moon is about passion, love and the attempt to escape the mundane things that keep human beings grounded, either on earth or on the moon, as profound as that may sound. By centering on Chang Er’s passion and the love that could develop between her and the astronaut, the movie shifts gears by saying that Hou Yi could also be so very perfect, if he wasn’t justifiably flawed, as people typically are.

The House on the Moon is a powerfully told tale of hopes and dreams and the potential loss of happiness when love is taken away from the equation. It’s the type of abstract film that has many hidden meanings which may be different for each individual person who watches it to discover.

Rating: 7.5/10

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