Singapore-born director Nelson Yeo is set to premiere "The House on the Moon," billed as the country's first wuxia feature film, in the international competition at the Locarno Film Festival. The film reimagines the Chinese legend of Chang'Er, the moon goddess, expanding on a myth Yeo felt left too much unexplored, and marks his effort to fully embrace the swordfighting and martial-fantasy genre after a more experimental debut.

The story picks up after Chang'Er ascends to the moon, following her and a bandit from Earth on a journey to the moon's dark side, with Yeo fleshing out minor figures such as the disciple Peng Meng while keeping the focus on Chang'Er's inner journey of self-discovery. Yeo, who grew up watching Hong Kong wuxia cinema and Singaporean television serials from the late 1980s and 1990s, previously attended Locarno's Filmmakers Academy in 2018 and won the Golden Leopard and Swatch First Feature Award there in 2023 for his debut "Dreaming & Dying." Variety has exclusively unveiled a clip from the new film ahead of its world premiere.