Haunting Anthology Blends Chinese Cuisine and Supernatural Terror

In November 2025, Singapore-based Robot Playground Media is producing an ambitious animated horror anthology, "A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts," that blends Chinese cuisine with supernatural terror. The project, selected for the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF), adapts Chinese-American author Ying Chang Compestine's bestselling 2016 YA book into a feature-length collection of four interconnected tales.

Set in a haunted restaurant outside of time, the film follows a ghostly host serving four unforgettable horror stories, each centered around a legendary Chinese dish. From a murdered stepdaughter's spectral revenge with egg fried rice to a cursed fishing village bound by blood and tang yuan during winter solstice, the anthology weaves a dark tapestry of generational sin and ancestral reckoning.

The production represents a significant cross-border collaboration, bringing together animation studios from Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Ireland, and India. Robot Playground Media is producing alongside partners in these countries, with executive producer Justin Deimen's Goldfinch Asia backing the project. Production is well underway, with the first episode "Egg Fried Rice" already 80% complete, and the remaining three episodes - "Hot Pot," "Beef Noodles," and "Tang Yuan" - slated to enter production through 2025, with the full feature targeted for completion in late 2026.