What To Watch This Week: May 19-25, 2025

Pesta Perdana 2025 (mewatch, Mediacorp Entertainment on YouTube, Suria, 8.30pm, May 24)

Mediacorp’s biennial Malay awards show returns! Themed A Moment for a Lifetime, this year’s edition also marks 25 years of Suria. With Era Farida, Farhana M Noor, Fauzie Laily and Najip Ali as hosts. Among the nominees is Operandi Gerhana, with five nods, including Best Actor (Fir Rahman) and Best Drama Series. The awards ceremony will be preceded by Red Carpet Glam (mewatch, Mediacorp Entertainment on YouTube, Mediacorp Untukmu on TikTok, and Suria) at 7pm. From now till May 24, 10am, fans can vote for their favourites in the Most Popular Male and Female Personality categories here.

Tucci in Italy (Disney+, May 19)

Stanley Tucci (you were robbed of a nomination for Conclave!) is back on another Italian food pilgrimage, and this is time, National Geographic is picking up the tab. Here, he visits 10 of the most distinctive regions in the Italian peninsular, sampling local cuisines that captures that place’s essence. First stop, Tuscany!

Photo: National Geographic

A Complete Unknown (Disney+, May 21)

Timothée Chalamet picked up an Oscar nod (he should’ve won especially since he took home the SAG) for his performance as a 19-year-old Bob Dylan trying to make his name for himself in the 1960s music scene in New York City. The James Mangold-helmed biopic also stars Edward Norton (as Pete Seeger), Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez), and Scoot McNairy (Woody Guthrie).

Photo: Searchlight Pictures

Nine Puzzles (Disney+, May 21)

Itaewon Class’ Kim Dami stars as Yoon Ena, a high schooler who is the prime suspect in her own uncle’s murder. Her only clue is a puzzle piece found next to the deceased.  A decade later, Ena, now a criminal profiler, is forced to revisit her traumatic past  when she’s entangled in a spate of killings, in which each victim is connected by a puzzle pieces not unlike the one from her uncle’s crime scene.  The 11-part serial also stars Son Sukku, Kim Sungkyun, and Hyun Bongsik. Premiere with the first six eps. 

Photos: Disne+

Nine Perfect Strangers, Season 2 (Prime Video, May 22)

Why does The White Lotus get all accolades while this gets diddly squat? They’re basically the same show…ish. The sophomore season — the first was launched almost a lifetime ago in 2021 — sees Nicole Kidman back as Masha, the mysterious guru who runs a boutique health-and-wellness resort, this time attending to the eponymous guests in the Austrian Alps (season 1 took place in California). Other stars include Christine Baranski, Mark Strong, Henry Golding, and White Lotus alum Murray Barlett.  Double ep premiere.

Photo: Prime Video

Fear Street: Prom Night (Netflix, May 23)

The latest Fear Street chapter — based on RL Stine’s book series — is set in 1988 where a group of ‘It’ girls competing for prom queen are being targeted by a masked killer. Yes, the American education system is stressful. The cast are mostly newcomers; one familiar face stands out — Chris Klein, aka American Pie's Oz. Yes, I feel old writing that. 

Photo: Sabrina Lantos/Netflix

Fountain of Youth (Apple TV+, May 23)

Holy Zeus, does Guy Ritchie ever f***ing sleep? This, er, guy is averaging one movie/TV show a year. This year alone, he produced and directed two eps of the TV series MobLand, and this Indiana Jones-flavoured caper starring John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as estranged siblings searching for the titular mythical spring. Their adventure takes them to the UK, Italy, Egypt, and Thailand. Eiza Gonzáles and Domhnall Gleeson co-star.

Photos: Apple TV+

Forget You Not (Netflix, May 23)

The eight-part series stars Golden Horse Award-feted Hsieh Ying-xuan (Dear Ex) as a married woman who balances her job as a stand-up comedian and part-time convenience store employee. And while that is happening, she’s struggling to patch things up with her curmudgeonly father, played by Chin Han, the Taiwanese screen legend, not ours.

Photos: Netflix

Mickey 17 (Max, May 23)

Park Joon-ho’s follow-up to Parasite is a sci-fi satire starring Robert Pattinson as Mickey, an average Joe who agrees to be cloned for an expedition on an icy alien planet. Each time he croaks, he gets replicated. The title refers to Mickey’s 17th version. The movie, an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, Mickey 7, also stars Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, and Toni Collette.

Photo: Warner Bros Discovery

I Want to Be Boss (Netflix, May 24)

Here’s another sci-fi satire of sorts. Henry Thia stars a restaurateur who hires a robot (Patricia Mok) to manage his business and other domestic shenanigans. Or something like that.  If you’d skipped Jack Neo’s CNY epic in the cinemas (because of bad word of mouth and they were better off with Companion, a far more superior AI flick that came out the same time), here’s your chance to decide if the bad rep is deserved. No excuses.

Photo: mm2 Entertainment 

Shaolin Soccer (The Projector, May 25, 4.30pm)

Fancy to catch Stephen Chow’s 2001 classic on the big screen….but in Cantonese? Info here.