How can you bring to life something that cannot be seen on film/screen? And yet milk every aspect and feeling it evokes. Like Anthony Chen’s `Haze’ `Wind’ a short film by Aaron Wilson, invigorates a seemingly mundane concept like wind with a refreshing perspective of space and life. `Wind’ interjects between the banal lives of 2 characters. One is an Australian retired soldier who lives in a standalone house in the Australian countryside. The other is Singaporean senior lady who lives alone in a HDB flat.
Opening the film is a sensory establishment of the environment with thematic references to the wind. In the countryside, where feather-like clouds drift across the balmy blue skies, the wind is ever present and connects itself with life there in many ways. The drying clothes billow, the paper-windmills twirl and the leaves ruffle. Intercut to the HDB scenes – the air seems still as the drying clothes hang in lines as straight as how the HDB units are partitioned. The only sources of wind are man-made, like the swirl of the blades on the electric fan in a private home. But in deliberate irony, it is the old man who seems to be having a harder time dealing with loneliness than the senior lady. For a start, human interaction is quite a distance away. And his expressions belie a strong emotional hang-up about something. Living in Singapore is on the other hand a busy experience. Amidst all things man-made, there is a real bustle of human activity and energy. Hence, the metaphorical reference to the wind.
Most of the time, the quick cuts style editing did undermine the contemplative intentions of certain scenes. It also seems to work against the thematic nature. At times, the film lost its filmic nature and seemed more to serve a point than to tell a story of two people. But redemptively, it held a shot of each towards the end for more prolonged time to give the audience a moment to ponder and take in the character - on one end, the old man and the last bits of his meal, on the other end, the old lady and the silence after the dancing number. And under the common tinkling of the wind chimes on both sides, together with the characters, I settled into a brief moment of reflection. Then in a brief and surprising touch, we get a glimpse of the old man's military past in Changi from the shots of his old photos, followed by a note of tribute to Elizabeth Choy, a war heroine. Not quite self-explanatory but certainly a attempt to penetrate the characters more deeply and leave an after thought on the audience.
Remember how the 377a battle was fought? I signed the petition, excited by the thought that Singapore might just start to re-gravitate itself in cultural change. We were still steps behind in terms of freedom of speech because it had to take a HUGE concerted effort like this for it to be heard in Parliment. Interestingly, I really thought like in the past, it would bear the volume of a whimper among the white-shirted men. Instead, it was given due attention and for once, people intellectualised about it.
What a group of big-hearted folks did in Chek Jawa was like the effort in the 377a petition. In fighting Goliath, they took a long-suffering journey to gather enough evidence to prove that reclaiming land over Chek Jawa would be a regretful move. In this instance, they earned a full success in making the government change their minds about destroying the ecosystem in Chek Jawa.
At the start, it enchanted me with the exotic images of flagellating sea creatures and anemones. Coupled with the unmistakable and geographically appropriate gamelan overtue, it was almost too pretty for its own good. But little did I know, it had a lot of muscle to flex as the plot thickened. After all, the interviewed except for the Raffles Bio museum manager, looked like a group of peace-loving, non-confrontational nature enthusiasts. Maybe only the Berkeley graduate had some bite in what she expressed. The rest were meek, or so I thought.
The conflict was unveiled without too much lingering on the character establishment. In enough pacing, we were soon led to know of the government's intention to reclaim land over Chek Jawa. And following that, the beginnings of a mammoth act of heroism emerged.
Joseph Lai is a botanist and a young father. He is the one who leads the team in a massive sampling exercise. Basically, what the team of volunteers had to do is to collect samples of living organisms at strategically marked out points on the Chek Jawa site. In each team, they had to mark out a square and start digging for signs of life. Even if you found an endangered speciemen outside the square, you could not harvest it. The rules were so strict that even when the allocated spot was a pile of rocks, that pile of rocks had to be lifted up and the mud below worked upon.
The volunteers were mostly amateurs. I remember Ria Tan, who did the Chek Jawa website. There was also the graduate from Berkeley who was one of the more fervent and persuasive members. There was a gently-persuasive storyteller. There was an old photographer whose scorpion fish sting stole some moments of the film later on. And last but not least, plenty of students, some `aunties', some `uncles', some `Ah Soh's, practically a good cross section of society. Joseph Lai himself exudes a lot of quiet charisma and subtle conviction in his beliefs. He seems the perfect man for the job for his balance of the motivational and technical aspects of leading this challenging operation. Interestingly, filmed against the motifs of sea water and boats, in the darkness of the night against the political resistance behind the entire project, one could be easily reminded of the story of Noah's Ark and its related themes.
The team set out to prepare the instruments of exploration upon arrival at Pulau Ubin. They had little sleep because they had to beat the dawn and avoid the high tide. Not all were properly attired it seemed from the shots. While it was punishing work, it was understandably exciting as well because of the curiosity towards the experiment and the camaraderie of the team. There could be certainly no other reasons why a sizeable number of people were willing to utilize a day of annual leave for muddy labour.
It was for certain, a lot of good spirit reminiscent of school science laboratory lessons. But placed under the perimeters of the documentary and the case it presented, it unsettled me because for a decision to be made in a boardroom, it was such a pain-staking act trying to tilt the balance against people who are just doing their jobs in air-conditioned environments. I really felt `Remember Chek Jawa' planted its plot points of the story shrewdly, making the issue come alive naturally without drawing too much deliberate attention to it. Nothing in the initial splashes of interviews suggested the quiet aggression of this movement. But like how nature has designed living things to be, we all have our self-defense mechanism. The sea anemones would have their traps and don't think fishes can't bite. In an almost allegorical fashion, the data-collecting team soon proved to be a force that bore a valuable lesson for Singaporeans.
Eventually, the government overturned its decision. But it would review the case again in 2012. Things are a little hard to predict at this point but surely greater awareness of the issue would help it in some way. There is a lot of information (I think many thanks to Ria Tan) on this on the internet. So check out these links:
Official site of the film :
http://www.chekjawa.net/
Blog site :
http://rememberchekjawa.wordpress.com/
NUS site on Chek Jawa :
http://www.chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/ (includes a virtual tour) Love the postcards!!!
Sinema Interview with Eric Lim :
http://www.sinema.sg/ You can catch it at Sinema right now. Click on the Sinema Old School link in the Sinema website
Lastly, I fondly remember this famous story of a little boy and starfishes on the beach by Loren Eiseley about the power of making an effort. Read the
story here.......
I took home with me 6 lives (or maybe more) from watching Diminishing Memories. I will always remember the endearingly helpless father, the fast-talking and level-headed mother, the jovial singlet-clad uncle, the Chinese Caligrapher, the laughing-Buddha face provision shop owner and of course, the earnest and brave Yee Peng, whose voiced stringed the different lives together.
A week ago, I watched a Simpson's spoof on indie documentary filmmaking in which Maggie Simpson tries making her first film and goes around exposing her family's ugly doings. She gets into Subdance and at the festival, the family members become the notorious talk of the town. Things are a little different in Dimishing Memories because Yee Peng actually interviews them (which already siphons off the uglier side of things). But the way the characters shared their views and lives so freely made me think that only Yee Peng could create this kind of screen honesty. Of course, for a first documentary, shooting a subject so close to her heart is a very smart move. But how many of us can actually make your parents feel comfortable in front of the camera, especially if they do not whole-heartedly approve of your filmmaking.
I had the opportunity to chat over dinner before I watched the documentary. While we spoke of the usual things filmmakers would talk or even grouse about, we also went beyond film and picked each other's life experience. Somehow, with her, I felt nothing was too low-brow to be talked about. The way she has told the story in DM emanates this spirit of hers as well. It was very `
Kampung'. Though this has certain negative connotations in it, it is almost like the documentary cannot live without it. By `Kampung', I mean a few things - the scrapbook-style of presenting the story, the gushy and sometimes boorish narration, the closeness the characters felt towards Yee Peng who operated the camera and many more. Perhaps the film could get a better editor to cut the loose storytelling bits, but like fried lard in
bak chor mee, the style redefined the film, because anyone could easily make a documentary about their family.
I cannot resist commenting on the characters and why they continue to live in my mind. Take the father as a start. He is wrinkled and all but had a face that grew on me. Alternating between saggy frowns and sudden grins, there was something quietly endearing about this man. I could tell he was probably an handsome and determined young man in his early years. His eyes are stern and focussed, even in his younger photos. It's no wonder he was such a prolific lorry-maker. But on the downside, he is not as shrewd as his wife. The relocation from Lim Chu Kang is remembered with sentiments of helplessness and even betrayal. In a sardonically funny moment when the daughter asks if he benefitted at all from the move, he said no, but there was definitely `victimisation' by the govt. And he said with a stifled laugh.
His wife, or rather Yee Peng's mother is one who will hold the family together in bad times. She is evidently strong and resolute. She talks fast and is very level-headed. Unlike dad's slightly dreamy and forlorn eyes, her expressions are always alert. But she is more complex than you think. Unlike her single-minded husband, she plays so many more roles. She is the manager of the kids, she is the gregarious party-organiser, she is sometimes an Ah Soh group leader (haha) but she will slow down and spare a thought and some honest emotions when the time calls for it. For instance, asking Yee Peng in front of the camera if she once felt neglected? On the whole, I feel she is Yee Peng's source of strength in the family and she would get a lot of guts from her mother. From her father, perhaps it is determination and ambition?
And then I will always remember how the chubby uncle who wore the singlet related how he knocked his elbows against the HDB bathroom wall when he might be thinking he was still bathing in Lim Chu Kang. Its seems to almost register the thought that we Singaporeans have been moulded into a generation of enclosed beings with clipped behaviour. Even his wife's warmth was so effortless and natural. She laughed as she commented how the camera had already started rolling even as Yee Peng stepped in. And the chunkiness of the meat filling in the Yong Tau Foo oozed with wholesome Kampung flavour as it sizzled in the cooking oil, just like the uncle's full-hearted laughter. The power of sentiment overrules so many things we perceive which is really the beauty of life. Just like how the wife felt so strongly about the taste of the water back in the Kampong. And its not just the wife, the old-fashioned singlet -clad husband wept buckets for leaving his Kampung.
Of course, there were other variants that formed that vivid family portrait that I remembered of DM. Some documentaries unintentionally exude a lot of romanticism in it and I think the mention of the Dog, like another family member was immensely sweet. Okay, maybe bittersweet. Related through the melancholic voice of Yee Peng's father, it was mentioned that he would make time to stop by the old abandoned house on his way to work just to take a look at the dogs everyday. Eventually, both dogs vanished. Which I think was the saddest part of the film because the documentary gave to them life and a subliminal kind of voice. And it was never heard, had to be imagined and died along with their Kampung.
I was glad the use of foreign language here was with good cause. This film is entirely narrated through the Thai language because the character is a foreign worker in Singapore from Thailand. Hence, the social relevance to us as well a the opportunity of a peek into another world.
Love, Your Son is about a worker who writes letters back to his mother in Thailand. He is struggling with life and adjustment here and misses her terribly. The first letter cleverly draws a parallel between his homeland and Singapore through an account of his visit to the zoo. He talks about the innocence beauty of the animals and visually only showing the elephants, which are coincidentally emblematic of Thailand, like it was the common thread between Singapore and Thailand. And they were evocatively shot as well.
Then as each letter progresses, the tone becomes more desperate and regretful, driving you to want to find out more about what is actually wrong with his life. And there is also a mention of his mother's illness. While the shots of the letter writing were gracefully and intimately captured, Natalie (the director) wisely varied the visual fabric with flashbacks and anecdotal scenes. And these anecdotes were patiently paced, offering moments of contemplative details and close ups that sensitive our journey with the protagonist. I am particularly drawn by the shot in the toilet where he swallows what looks like something of soap/detergent content in a suicide attempt.
His mother, the object of his longings, never really appears upfront but exists more spiritually. We hear her benign voice and see her bed-ridden in a darkly-lit room. Which I feel serves the storytelling focus well as well because these are all but his faint and desperate memories.
Finally, if I am correct in my interpretation of the story. When he was writing the letters, he was also awaiting an arrest due to a unspoken crime. Hence, the `new' job and the `new' place he was writing to his mother about was really his conviction in jail, which maybe explains the final scene in which he was dragged out of a room by 2 policemen. (And I loved the way the camera tracked out at the end). Returning to the idea of migration, I felt his last letter was very poignantly written. Even if it was not a confinement that he was entering, the precariousness he faces simply hits home the underlying transience of comfort these migrants would feel in a foreign land.
Sorry for reveiwing this in 2 parts. I really regretted not attending the 2 set of Filament screenings because the quality of the productions were very laudable. So I actually watched some of the films on DVD upon request from the filmmakers.
CRASH is a aesthetically sleek film that restores my faith in HD shooting (after my mishap with HD). The visuals were stunning and the editing helped enhanced the overall tone of visual sequence. A man loses his memory from an incident that leaves a wound on his forehead. Upon recover, he spots a polaroid photo stuck on his house wall. It shoes him and a mysterous girl looking rather chummy. He has no trace of any memory of her and wants to dig up as much as he could on his past. There is a convenenient clue stuck next to the photo that brings him to MUNCH a cafe, made quite obvously it was a sponsor of the film.
At MUNCH (the owner of MUNCH is smart, even reviews cannot escape mentioning it), he realises the girl is a waitress there. When pressingly asked about how she eneded up in that shot. she reveals it was just a casual shot during Christmas. But he was not satisfied because I think he sub-consciously wanted more to do with the girl. Then there was another guy to compliate matters more. Finally one day, he confronted the girl again, pressing her about that other party. When she was evasive, things got violent with the help of the glass vase. The girl is knocked unconscious and left to bleed to .... death (I suppose), while he runs out and escapes...... to his own..... (the rest is a simple guess)
This film sits between the stylistics and language of film and TV. Hence, I think it is very telemovie. Here are the TVish parts. The plot and development is more dramatic than a film. Yet, the drama never digs deep enough, it is just nice for a visual tingle. There was little attempt to establish and enrichen the characters. On the motifs side, there is a fair amount of blood, wounds and , excuse the pun, crashes. There is the almost mandatory P.I. (private detective) style `cheating' shots of her and his romantic rival. `Cheating' not in the conventional sense. Use of eye-candy telegenic cast. Generous dashes of flashbacks.
And its film moments come mainly from the shots. They were tight. intimate, zoomed on details and effectively-lit. But I feel the editing had a part to play as well. Excessive use of flashbacks aside, I felt the editor cleverly enhanced the moments of tension well. Finally, the circularity of starting the film with the chase scene and coming back to it later could be potentially cliche and narratively lazy. But they placed the scene of him in a bandage right after the chase scene which turned to be a future event, to pretty nifty results!
Genre - Ghost Movie
Heart Attack quotient - Some, finally we heard token sound effects
Psycological (The Ring) quotient - Had some motifs that veered towards the psycological horror but mostly very surface type of scares
Greatest moment - BLOOD! Finally a team that tries to use blood. Bravo!!!
Worst moment - The message `Help Me' on the computer after he has left the seat. I mean it could be an msn message.
Production value - It looked like a really cheap drama until the blood showed up.
`Help Me' uses a technique that is quite similar to `The Ring' - that of a mysterious character trying to reach out to communicate with the protagonist. You don't see it, you just get all these signals and cries for help. So in the story, a man gets all these signals in the form of messages written in Hongbaos. All the notes are written with Help Me. They appear on the floor, in the fridge and at the front of his car. And eventually, this lurking spirit possesses the man and causes him to bleed. Apparently there was no violence or cuts, so I thought maybe the spirit was a female having period. Either that, or it made him vomit blood.
It was a simple production that felt a little lazy at worst. They was little backstory or establishment of the horror elements. The actor was a little casual and lazy with the facial reactions. They made an effort with the sound effects but could turn up the volume a little more and aim for more heart-attack-causing scares. And then I think with better casting, the scare factor would be higher. The man was too tall, secure, composed and straight-laced. Here is my suggestion. Get a woman, in her lates 20s, insecure looking, with a thousand demons lurking in her mind, conscience-stricken, complex and a dark past. Hehehehe!
Genre - Holiday Film
`Want to getaway' Quotient - Only as far Sungei Road
Greatest moment - When we felt finally saw Mas Selamat after 2 months of fruitless search
Worst moment - The transitlink card seller scenes (had no idea how he fits into the story)
Production value - This is the most labour intensive production. I define labour intensiveness by the following equation:
Labour Intensiveness = Expensiveness of the look or feel of end-product divided by number of people involved in the production
Lost is a drama about this mother and son pair who go on a Holiday to Singapore. The mother is Japanese and the son look half Malay half Japanese. They visit a few sites including the Merlion (wonder if they bumped into that cheesy couple from Rezzureaction pictures). Finally, they find themselves in Sungei road shopping for rubbish. What a holiday! (my heart was speaking). Then the little boy loses his playing gadget and in the process of finding it bumps into a weird man who was trying to tout things. He does find his gadget eventually but curiosity leads him to another man. This man was shabbily dressed and seemed to be wandering around in no particular direction. The boy follows to no substantial consequence. Eventually, he finds his mother back and they carry on with their holiday in Singapore. Then, comes that epiphanic moment in which the camera pans from mother and son to a Mas Selemat ad (but using another fictional name) and that mysterious shabby guy was actually the face in the ad.
It was another very concerted effort by a very large group of people. In fact, maybe Team `Jalan Ampas' rounded up the whole of Jalan Ampas. They had the highest turnout at the Eng Wah cinema screening. It was about close to 20 people, all I assumed were involved in the production. But note comments about the labour intensiveness above. I felt the story was like family entertainment with some cute quirks and mildly clever touches. It is family entertainment due to the focus on the innocence of the child and it as quirky mainly due to the `Mas Selemat' off shoot. The problem was that the little mishaps were not tightly linked, almost inconsequential and this led to a rather pointless drama. But in the context of the having fun under 48 hours, guess throwing in ideas for gambles were additive to the fun quotient. However, if they did one thing differently, it would have upped the ante on the `Holidayness' of it all : don't set it in Singapore, we are all DYING to getaway from here (for holiday I mean)!
Genre - Roadmovie
`Wanderlust' quotient - Huh? Where was the journey? Was it meant to be 1 round around the Singapore Flyer?
Greatest moment - The cross-dressing sequence planted after the credits
Worst moment - Was I not paying attention or was the boxing room scene really inconsequential?
Production value - This wins the top award for production value. Let analyse :
Airport: they either did it illegally or had to go through some serious red tape procedures to get approval
Limousine: looks posh!
Singapore Flyer: They must be one of the first few indie groups to have shot this in a capsule of the ferris wheel. It means they either paid a lot of $$ or wrote many `powderful' letters to the authorities
Leisure boat: This one tops it off. By then, I already began to suspect that one of the team member must be a high-flying corporate rat who really wants to fufill his itching passion to shoot a film.
Art direction: The shaved head motif in ths film is visually stunning.
Stopover is a great adventure/thriller comedy to watch. It's got a nicely contained story, great visuals and outrageous surprises. I only had one problem with it. It was not really a road movie. So let's stop analysing it in this parameter.
It starts with this wealthy looking, high flying man on a mission who seems to have a thousand tasks to do the moment he touched down in Singapore. And you really take the movie seriously because the acting, the costumes, the camera work and locations were very sleek. One more thing, the cast looked good, very telegenic. Then, he makes his way straight to the Singapore Flyer. And before you think that they are just borrowing the backdrop, you let off a `production value gasp' when they actually book a whole capsule to shoot in! The, the next scene he is in a leisure boat. But he discovers he has just lost his mobile phone which contains some very important videos or images that would spell disaster if they were leaked out. He hires someone to hunt it down. And what a good tyrant he plays, clipped and curt in his delivery and oozing with malice. Finally the mobile was found by the man and he offers the promised handsome reward.
Then comes the twist, the film cuts to a sudden Singaporean face (which was absent from the rest of the movie). It was an average looking teenager looking at the computer screen like enjoying Edison Chen's expose. It was an expose alright. But it is really too good to be revealed, you must contact Team Epiphany yourself to get the video! Hint : some men might have `always wanted to do that!'
Genre - Ghost Movie (I started asking myself why not `horror', I think they specifically want a ghost)
Heart Attack quotient - A lot of drifting and soft spooks. A little more violence would have helped
Psycological (The Ring) quotient - Maybe because of the documentary style interviewing of the wife
Greatest moment - Those underwater shots were beautiful
Worst moment - Towards the end, it was quite tiresome listening to wife who harped on monotonously, offering very little new information
Production value - I vote this to win the most `moderate production value' award. It looks decent, not cheap, not expensive, and thankfully did not shoot everything lazily within one compound
This Believer cleverly marries documentary with fiction horror with a touch of exoticism and a sense of a little personal back story. It was one of the more cohorent stories among the 14. In short, it traces the sequence of events leading to a death in a swimming pool. This is recounted interview style by the wife of the deceased. She remembers how he broke all the superstitious Chinese rules, which she believed led to his mishap in the swimming pool. These include kicking over the 7th month offerings on the roadside, lighting the cigarette using the altar flame and eating the apple offered for praying.
The documentary style always enhances the spook factor because people fear the truth. So good decision on that one. Even in the re-enacted parts, the acting was pretty natural and palatable. The exoticism is quite obviously due to the subject matter covered. It was a like rehash of `The Maid' by Kelvin Tong - the burning incense, the HDB religious activities in the void decks, the altars, the talisman. Well, perhaps a little too much exoticism. But the subtlest and yet most interesting touch was the personal touch. Sometimes behind the characters, an ao dai (Vietnamese traditional costume) wearing apparition would drift in or `dissolve in'. But moments later, it fades out. There are no direct explanations to this particular figure but it had a personal touch because it felt like it came from an actual experience or hallucination.
This Believer must be one of the few entries that did not adopt the `play for laughs' strategy and I think it worked well in this case. It did border on being mundane at certain points but on hindsight, I think it was a very thoughtful and concerted effort.
Genre - Ghost Movie
Heart Attack quotient - zero, scares (if any) were low impact
Psycological (The Ring) quotient - maybe........... if I understood the story correctly
Greatest moment - The appearance of the ghosts. From normal girls, they turn into glamorous divas from the twilight zone. I wished they died earlier.
Worst moment - Carressing the Hongbao. I was always lost at that shot, not sure of what it meant.
Production value - This is either an expensive/well-costumed production or one of the team members actually works in Boom Boom Room or the SAF Music and Drama Company.
It always starts from an axe to grind. So it was not difficult to feel that familiar sense of unease in horror movies, that eventually leads to a full-fledged scare. In `Kantakaca', the grudge starts from the dressing room of a place that looks like a cabaret. I found it hard to follow the threads of conflict. And I felt further confused by the `carressing' of the Hongbao (the most unique Hongbao treatment among the 14 short films). Later in a cross-refernce, I realised that it was supposed to set off some bad luck.
So the performers left the dressing room and went their separate ways on the road. Somewhere along the journey, there hints of traffic difficulties and it was not difficult to suspect something would have happened to some of the people. Moments later(or maybe the next day?), probably it was near performance call time (hence the title) when the male lead returns to the dressing room, he gets a call from one of the girls who said she was on her way. Within a second literally, she is there. It was obvious by then that this was the `ghost' scene. And the film ended just about there.
I really think if the team had access to a backstage wardrobe, they could have dressed the ghosts in more effective ways. Maybe the girls love their performing jobs so much that even as ghosts, they are as `vaudeville' as ever. Come on, grab some white cloth, or maybe something really tattered. Use lots of sauce to create that bloody road accident effect. Add in some sound design and I guarantee you after that, I will never dare to `carress' my Hongbaos again during Chinese New Year.
Genre - Romance
Sizzle or Tears? - More like giggles. But I think the filmmakers intended it that way
Swoon factor - Zero, several things were too distracting, first and foremost the physical mismatch
Greatest moment - `I've always wanted to do that!' guy says to girl when he finally senses he could plant his first kiss. Audience roars in laughter.
Worst moment - Actually, I would call this another great moment - Guy(shopkeeper) after his first exchange with the girl, conveniently steps out of the shop to take a stroll with the girl. I would have sacked him if I were the boss.
Production value - Most of it was seen in the posh and sleek looking living room that looked like it was shot off a showflat. The female lead looked expensive from some angles and looked like your college mate whom you might need to copy lecture notes from, from other angles.
If you want to go by the book in terms of storytelling, this one fails. The romance was too easy. Girl buys equipment from shop and the shopkeeper takes notice. The only thing he braves is walking out of his counter to shop with her during office hours. Then the rendevous starts. And the girl lack of any resistance or coyness makes her look like a girl from an advertisement. From one outing, they move to another. By the time, they reached the Merlion, most of us were already tuning in to the campiness of it all rather than nitpicking at the story flaws. Even when the guy uttered that classic line, there was no resistance to laugh out loud. In real life, I think if delivered cheekily or wittily, the line `I've always wanted to do this' can be very effective and funny, but if you need to enter a girl in deeper ways, I would NOT suggest using it.
Pardon me for saying this, but somehow, at the start, it was hard to imagine a match between the North Indian looking (possibly Eurasian) girl and the very funky-haired yet slightly Ah Beng looking guy. There was something that told me if it was an Ah Lian , it would become easier to digest the story. But I think I was proven wrong later because they kissed like puppies and the camera angles did not cheat. I would believe it if they told me they were real-life couples. Ok la, the guy is really no Ah Beng, more like funky and Gen-Y `Sim Lim' boy. And from the way he speaks, he was quite `Kantang' (potato), sometimes actually resembling Glenn Ong.
I am inclined to believe the rather competent camera work helped cover up the unlikeliess of the romance. It had many good angles and the lighting and colours were very palatable, kinda puts you in a warm fuzzy mood. I also think that it was a deliberate decision to be cheesy, with locations like the Merlion (LOL). Otherwise, it would have been a potentially awkward film to sit through.
Genre - Buddy Film
Buddy Quotient - With the title, several questions came to my head, first was are they male or female buddies?
Greatest moment - When the sisters each stood in front of a room and fired away the bullets. It was quirky and understatedly stylish
Worst moment - When you thought under pressure to shoot her buddy sister, she would not do it. But alas, she goes on to do it.
Production value - I have an image of a blanket pegged haphazardly over a window to block out sunlight so as to create that underground look. And many more but THAT takes the cake (a cheesecake probably)
This film panders to a few popular tastes. If you are after
kung fu chicks, there is plenty of high kicks and arm swerves. Pity about the waitress-like uniforms. They should be wearing lycra, rubber or leather catsuits with suggestive looking zips that dance with the fighting actions. If you are after that foreign language feel, this was the only film with that nice vernacular subtitling effect. Sometimes, I tend to think subtitling can conveniently make any film look serious and art-housey. If you are after triads and gangsters, there is that Hokkien Speaking uncle for you.
Taking away the guise of sure-to-please genres like the above, the story is a little weird. A triad leader finds a new girl who is willing to join the team. He then poses a challenge to her immediately as a first assignment. Of course, it involves killing people. But she works with another accomplice. Both of them are dressed in white shirt and black pants, looking very much like waitresses who do big 9-course catered Chinese dinners in open tents or community centres. Maybe the film should be called `colleagues'. And without much training, they fight like Michelle Yeoh. The fighting scenes were really commendable though because for the limited 48 hours of producing time, it displayed some level of difficulty. Sometimes, they even fished out guns to shoot.
Finally, without much struggle, they succeeded and got back to the boss, who is still sitting in that classroom desk in the underground hole, looking more like a shrink than anything else. Then, it is time for rewards, the newbie gets a lot of things, the oldie, gets an Hongbao. Inside it is a writtehn instruction to kill the newbie. If they are HK sisters or Taiwanese sisters or maybe Malaysian sisters, one could expect more integrity and drama. But they are Singaporean sisters, so follow instructions lor. She dutifully did the job. The filmmakers must be thinking : Cannot take it anymore, we need to sleep, let's end the story.'
I found a link to watch the film online
here.
Genre – Comedy
Laugh Quotient – The obsessive-compulsive nerd is the funniest thing in the film. Otherwise, the film is really an assault of in-your-face quirky characters, one of whom was like a little `Technicolour-Riding Hood’ but really playing the Big Bad Wolf.
Greatest moment – The expression on the face of Mr Obsessive-compulsive after he tried to arrange the scotch tape in the shop. Classic!
Worst moment - Mobile Salesman’s sales pitch. It was something about his delivery that was rather cross-genre, cross-accented.
Production Value – I would give it two thumbs up for `effort’ value rather than production value. Lots of attention was paid to the wardrobe and props. And the art-director might be working in a kindergarten judging from the choice of colours.
I am really beginning to suspect if `The Perfect Disorder’ is a twist of the little Red Riding Hood. You’ve got a civic-minded nerd who wears a red shirt and a white (nerdy huh!) and will start arranging everything he finds messy on the streets. He even hops a little when he walks and does those ditsy-analyzing tilts of the head when in thought. But the resultant action is always expected – Rearrange! Then along the way, he meets a mobile phone salesperson who seems inconsequential but turns out to be a saviour in the end. Halfway along his dallying along the HDB hub area, he is kidnapped by a mysterious character who just wants to hit on his obsessive-compulsive nerves. She ties him up and starts activating this machine (which we have to suspend our disbelief because it is really a kindergarten toy). Then
a pandemonium of screaming and convulsing begins. Until the mobile phone salesman turns up and distracts the villain.
See! Doesn’t it sound a little like that famous tale? Essentially a film of caricatures, it delivers a very kiddish kind of comedy. Think Act 3. At best, it was a very hardworking attempt. The props were abundant, you could tell there was a proper script to follow, the actors gave it all in the final manic scene. It even had nice clever touches like the inventive use of children’s toys as torture machines. At worst, it resembled a circus act, and going by the rainbow-coloured rags she wore, it was not difficult to identify the clown. There was also something a little
kiasu in the effort to amuse, like if you had a class drama competition, they would be the team that turns up with the most props.
Genre - Detective/Cop
The `Zodiac'(recent movie) quotient - None. But had an `Infernal Affairs' quotient due to the cops/crooks ambiguity element.
Greatest moment - Seeing the Indian lead suck in what was probably talcurm powder through his nose (drug-taking scene) and wondering how he will remove it after the shoot.
Worst moment - None really. The film was quite level. If `Infernal Affairs' is the rocky sea, this is a pond.
Production value - If `Infernal Affairs' is chilli crab, this is steam egg with mince pork.
This film has a nice premise. Cop goes on an assignment but gravitates to the other side of law in the process. It starts with the typcial handing over of assignment scene. It is a tough straight-to-the-point speaking female boss. But she is still no Judi Dench of course. Nor Loke Loo Pin (Triple Nine). The Indian lead has a little more soul and dimension, for as far as the story stretched. But pity the story did not stretch far. And what a plasticine he is. In his first contact with the crooks, his sense of duty already starts to shift, under the lure of white powder. Then what follows is a journey of moral dilemma that spans about half a metre - the shot never leaves the table where he was snorting up the powder. I have one more observation, they chose a good visual motif of drug-taking and avoided the usual guns and blood motifs. I am sure if one of them must have questioned if it was taboo or law-violating to showcase such explicit drug-taking. And it was shown in a way that did not really deglamourise drug-taking. But brave, I like!
Genre - Detective/Cop
The `Zodiac' (recent movie) quotient - they left so many clues in `red`' and I am still so clueless about the film
Greatest moment - I think just before the film actually ran full steam ahead. There were some really nicely taken opening shots.
Worst moment - When my neck got a little stiff
Production value - They must have shot with the best camera among the 14 entries. The visuals were clear and colours were balanced.
Here is my guess on how they made `5W1H' . A group of friends come together to do something they have never done before. They are probably either very democratic or they fear confrontation or they really value their weekends. Hence, whatever turns out, the process must be fun and enjoyable. So a few people throw in ideas and a very consensual team leader collates the idea with minimal intervention because remember, it is the camaraderie and experiment that counts. So they set off shooting. One day later, time check : it is Sunday afternoon, the story still does not make sense! But too late to change anything now. And to change anything spoils the point of going through these 48 hours.
You could probably guess that 5W1H was, like its title, hard to decipher and quite a mish-mash. It felt like a detective drama (cops were absent) that left droppings of red coloured clues that led to unrelated things. There was the pair of girls getting excited about something in the lift and the Ah Lian in the mobile phone shop. But as the minutes pass, I remember less and less of the film. Let alone be able to share a coherent story. Well, maybe somewhere in the sub-consciousness of the filmmakers was Jim Carrey's `Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'.
Genre – Sci-Fi
CGI Quotient – Amazingly Sleek! I’d like to think of it as an achievement rather than some member of the team was a special effects whiz and could churn these out in a short time.
Greatest moment – T
he `Shimmy' (a dance term – referring to a person splaying out both arms and vibrating convulsively, often seen on women because it has an asset-enhancing effect).
Worst moment – T
he ending, too abrupt (but they were smart to cover it up with News Flash at the end).
Production Value – Bravo! Bravo! Or should it be called post-production value. Even the choice of location (the clinical-looking lobby) was appropriate. And a visually effective wardrobe – the use of blonde hair on an Asian face was very iconic.
I try to watch Sci-Fi movies though the scientific details usually get lost on me. But the moment Saving Uranus came on, something told me it was going to go downhill after this. For me, it was primarily the pacing of it. It punched its way through the audience’s consciousness like a machine gun, complete with dramatic and visual twists. It was about a female secret agent who was sent on a mission to save the destruction of the planet Uranus. She had to enter the enemy’s domain which had that quintessential white and immaculate look. After passing through several barriers, some even invisible (supposedly laser operated), she chanced upon a Hongbao kept in a safe. Admittedly, I was lost at this point because her `navigation-controller’ who gave instructions was too snappy in his delivery. In the end, she was chased and caught by the enemy and in a dramatic finish, she slumped over the glass wall under gun point.
I had an inkling that this group ended up with the right genre. Most apparent of all were the CGI, especially that of the newscaster who manifested in translucent forms over strategic parts of the wall. In fact, many of the shots were very thoughtfully composed with the CGI in mind. It even sensibly exploited the free-of-charge backdrop of Supreme Court to up the ante on credibility. The male navigation expert who directed the agent’s moves was sharp and looked tech-savvy. The only let down was that he was only instrumental to the story and rather 2-D. On the other hand, the girl who acted as the agent was quite memorable apart from making a fashion statement. Finally, I felt it was an achievement in the script that it was science fiction that could laugh at itself. I refer to the parts when she had to contort her body to avoid detection and of course, the Shimmy. I think 2 years ago there was a German Sci-Fi parody comedy called `Battleship something’….. I am going to check it out!
Team Gladius has a blog themselves. It is
http://www.seriouslysarah.com/blog/2008/04/28/saving-uranus-a-48-hour-film-project/ It's got behind the scenes pictures on the production.
Genre - Musical (the only one!)
Musicality Quotient - Tone Deaf
Additional Entertainment Value Quotient - Yes! Nice, sweet and funny.
Greatest Moment - When she slammed the door at the fluffy haired little boy who did not even get a chance to speak.
Worst Moment - Opening zoom out - a rather uninspiring start for a musical, looked a little detective.
Production Value - Even lower than `Robbery' cos they avoided getting outdoors.
Tough luck they ended up with the musical genre. I had no idea they even had to compose the songs themselves. But they were smart to just stick to 2 songs - one complaining song by the female lead and the door greeting song by all the strangers. The story line was quite a stroll in the park and self-contained. A married lady sits at home looking trapped by her boredom. One by one, Amercian-accented strangers knock at her door making you forget you are in Singapore. Some try to sell her things, some try to make friends, some with `evangelical' intentions and some just cute and helpless (like the little boy). And they all sing the same tune but different versions of it to suit their lines. Finally, her husband comes back and brings the afternoon's episode to a comfortable closure.
This film proves the value of starting from a small and manageable premise and fattening up the content within the contained space. It was a treat to be guessing at each knock on the door, what else would turn up? And this Hongbao treatment did tickle - the wife gave it to silence one of the strangers who only discovered there was no money after that painful door slam. On hindsight, it also resembled a Simpsons' episode, mostly because of the use of the repetitive use of a visual motif and the camped-up acting of the cast. It's a shame though that the surprises could have been more outrageous because it was a good set-up. Maybe have superheroes, flashers, criminals, celebrities, iconic figures or something.
I could not help but feel that music really was not this team's cup of tea. There was little musical flair in the songs and even the shooting style. The camera was often too static. But sincerity in the musical delivery did cover up half of its flaws, like a bunch of college kids who just want to serenade to you `Three Blind Mice'.
Genre - Buddy Film
Buddy Quotient - More like buddy due to the situation (attempted robbery)
Greatest Moment - When the adult calmly questions them during the sit-down session after being caught, quite a tickle situationally and the blokes' reactions were funny too.
Worst Moment - Das split screens! Made it hard to concentrate. One more, the title shot, I mean it filled the whole screen!
Production value - Ultra low, cos I assume everything looked stolen..... oops, I mean, borrowed
It's got to be the partners-in-crime cliche somehow. But I wonder what kind of other buddies can we have... entertainers? (mmm... been done to huge success last yr by the papaya sisters)...colleagues? (YAWN)...kids? (great if you can find in 48 hours)
`Robbery' is about 2 adolescents who decide to go a robing spree around a posh neighbourhood of private homes. It started with a rather prolonged discussion of their dark plan. One guy had his naked back turned to the camera, looking almost naked. With a different dialogue, they could look like a different kind of buddy. Anyway, they start their raid.
The shots are ordinary and the acting.... well, pretty much being themselves. The split screens somehow made it difficult to see how many houses they raided. One of the buddiest moments was when one of the actors' feet got caught in the iron gate after he delivered the compulsory line `I've always wanted to do this'. They were climbing over. My shoulders twitched a little in laughter.
Bad production values aside, they was surprisingly one of the few films I remembered because it had a nice plot. A few houses later, they were actually caught red-handed by the house-owner who diplomatically offered a deal of not reporting the crime if they handed over the stolen goods. And he would help them return the items to the neighbours. Then, there was a twist about this man. And I really felt the genius of it all was that it was an open-ended twist - there were potentially 3 interpretations. Check out what the twist really is
here.
Genre - Comedy
Laugh quotient - Creative, almost jaw-dropping antics that tickle you to cheer on the film, not really funny funny.
Greatest moment - Podfather collects Hongbao protection money one by one from the flea market tenants.
Worst moment - The actress in general, no match for the experienced Podfather.
Production value - Clever choice of location for dramatic effect, Yousry as Podfather makes the film look expensive because he so looks the part, wore a tuxedo and a posh car was featured.
Podfather is a clever little mafia comedy about a Godfather who controls iPOD business. A rival company selling mobile phones wants to topple his empire (pardon the details if I get them slightly wrong, because there were too many films). Then his grand empire is revealed, the flea market at Larut Rd (LOL). This is where he does the grand Hongbao collection scene.
The writer must have great comic sense to have set this mafia drama in an unlikely place like this. It seemed like they had great planning because they had a relatively big cast, both main and supporting, and all were well costumed. Even the gangsters had some credibility. Oops , I forgot, they even roped in the actual flea market sellers to act for them. How organised! Comedy is tough and unfortunately, they were 30% of the time funny and 70% of the time stylish and suave. But think they still stand a high chance of making top 6.
I saw people grab, throw, pull, soak and do all kinds of things to a poor Hongbao in the 14 final pieces under the 48 Hour Film Project. This was one of the necessary must-have items as dictated by the rules. The rest were the use of a character called Ollie Sparx and the line `I have always wanted to do that.' I only had one grouse, they all used the Hongbao in conventional ways - stuffing money in it, putting in talisman, putting in secret messages. Otherwise, it was actually exciting to sit through 14 experiments.
I call them experiments because of the parameters of the competition. You just had to make that sci-fi, even if you hate sci-fi (kudos to team Gladius REALLY!) So it is really a treat for the audience. Here is a list of the titles with genres below.
Experience tells me that the final 6 films will be chosen purely based on the final film product. But to fair, a large part of the merit really lies with how far each team went to create the genre they ended with up. Just to illustrate the point, look at Team Gladius and the wonderful computer effects they did with their beautiful sci-fi piece Saving Uranus! Risking sounding like an auntie, just want to say`not easy lor'.
Check out the filmmaker's blog on
http://www.48hourfilm.com/singapore/blog.php
And remember to keep a date on 13 May for the best 6 six films at
Sinema Old School.
Tuesday's 48 Hour Film showcase at Eng Wah cinema was viewed with much popcorn and camaraderie. With so many rules imposed on the films' content (props, lines and most of all genre), I could hardly contain my excitement about how the films would turn out, especially with genres like horror, musical and road movie. But I really feel in this, the process carries half the drama, simply because there are only 48 hours.
So I begged for interviews with some of the teams. Here is the first of the lot. They call themselves Mm...McClemens. They must have thought long and hard for a name. Easily the loudest of the cohort, the team is very young.
What genre did you get?
A Buddy Film
What genre did you hope to have gotten instead?
We were hoping for Superhero but Buddy Film was not too bad either.
Please introduce your team members and name one distinctive trait/strength of each team member:
Chris Hussey - Cinematography
Jonas Goode - The Story
Colin McDowell -Acting
What do you do in real lives?
We are all students at the Singapore American School
How was the conceptualisaing stage?
Pretty hectic...we were on our way to shoot a different idea until Jonas came up with this one...phew!
What is the final idea/story? (before you deicded on this, what other wacky' ideas were abondoned? (we looove to know!)
The story is about two buddies who rob houses and they encounter an obstacle/man when robbing the final house. We had another idea about two friends going out to pick up chicks and come across a girl, who in turn robs them of all their stuff.
How did you put the production together (equipment/ art dept/ wardrobe/ cast etc).
Well, we obtained the equipment from our school and got the wardrobe out of my closet pretty much.
What time did you finish production and start post-production?
We actually filmed everything on Saturday night, edited Sunday early morning and slept till about 5pm waiting for the film to compress. We finished filming at about 1:30AM and begun editing at about 3:15AM on Sunday.
Broke anything in the course of shoot? (please list, can be an object, can a part of the body, can be Singapore law)
H.O.P.E extends that thread on poverty from `Away From Home’ and takes us back to the motherland of many domestic maids – The Philippines. In a suburban town, where rickety old houses and structures stand against richly-hued skies, a bittersweet story unfolds. One about giving hope to kidney patients.
Essentially, the documentary tries to uncover the motivations behind kidney donations in this town through 2 men’s stories. Undoubtedly, poverty and the need for money is involved somewhere. While, the answer could easily be guessed right from the start, it is the journey the documentary takes us on that makes this a a more vivid experience.
Unfortunately I forgot their names but one is more pot-bellied and the other a slimmer and younger bloke. The former ferries people around in something that looks like a tuk tuk but on bicycle wheels (more like a trishaw). Then we are led in on how he lives. It is essentially a depiction of squalor but cheerfully introduced. Naturally, the account of how the sewage pipes would occasionally burst and flood the house floor stuck in my head. It is against this context that we picture his attempt to donate his kidneys. The latter case made it more clear his reason for donating and could actually quantify the monetary rewards from doing so (if I remember correctly). I guess, he speaks for the more opportunistic, reckless, younger crop of donors. His ignorance of medical terms and comic mispronunciation of terms at the health declaration process spoke so much for his motivation behind the donation.
I found a lot of natural humour in H.O.P.E by Edwin Chen and Centrestage by Sze Jiamin and they were also very well edited to the right effect. While Centrestage was a laugh throughout, H.O.P.E. traversed between grimness and gregariousness. Somehow, I remembered towards the end, the conference moderator merrily reminded all that the kidney centre would be closed for Christmas, so no donations can be made, as if some would if it was open. For a country where Christmas is richly-celebrated, it was a bittersweet reference to the reality of poverty.
I am unfortunately unable to comment at great lengths for this audio piece but it did leave me with some fresh thoughts. The power of a film has been theoretically explained as 49% visual, 51% audio. I guess, this is why even though this was supposedly the `switch-off’ point of the evening, fragments of what was spoken remained in my mind. `Away From Home' is an interview with an Indonesian maid about her life and working life in Singapore. Given that she is a domestic helper, her life would be inevitably intertwined with work life. Hence, many issues surface on personal freedom and the infringement of it.
While the issues were familiar, it was the issues of sexual fulfillment that stood out to me. For once, I allowed myself to sit down and listen to what sex meant to these people whose sexuality is often played down in the guise of ill-fitting, drab T-shirts and shorts as we often see them in. And it saddened me more to know on one hand, enjoying these basic aspects of life needs to go through stringent approval from employers (predictably, a female voice in the docu), and on the other, even when they have had `it', it is a transient, temporary respite. Sundays end and Monday will start all over again.
It is interesting to know that `Shut In’ coincides with the news report about the Austrian monster of a father who locked in his daughter in the basement of the house for a fraction of her lifetime. Shut In is about a young broody man who voluntarily shuts himself in his HDB flat for reasons unknown. Visually, it is the expected - newspapers strewn all over the place, unwashed crockery, wears and tears, propped up or concealed temporaily by masking tape. However, on the few occasions he stepped out of the house, a seemingly inconsequential young girl literally pops out of nowhere and asks for a space in his house. I was wrong, she did matter as the story progressed.
After a few awkward rejections by the young man, she decides to just gatecrash. It still beats me that she ran in without any luggage! Because her tools of change that were about to affect his life were powerful. In small and sure steps, she fights his coldness and passivity to bring a different tone of life to the flat. Then eventually, one fine day, in a dream-like scene, the flat is transformed and it even has the actors wearing new clothes to match, clothes in the patriotic colours of National Day.
Sounds cliché? I thought the film had a interesting touch in the narrative department though. When the girl was staying, there was a stranger who mysteriously knocked on the door once. He refused to open and remained quiet till the stranger left. The payoff came later when after the transformation scene, the girl disappears. Previously, the knocks seemed like part of his imagination and the girl, a sweet reality. But now the tables are turned, the girl is a dream and the stranger’s knocks, real. The camera takes us to the other side of the door and reveals the stranger to be his mother who is bringing food to him. A clever twist that made me unravel all that I comfortably guessed initially.
Honesty and spontaneity are often at a trade-off with form and structure. This is especially true in a documentary. There is a Chinese saying that goes `The boat will find a straight path out when it reaches the bridge point’. Sometimes, when you let nature take its course in shooting a documentary, how life unfolds (or `folds’ in this case) miraculously gives an unstructured documentary structure.
They should seriously change the title. Health, Peace and Happiness sounds like a self-improvement TV program or a book on spiritual awakening. I was prepared to be bored. But as I discovered, the title really did no justice to the powerful content of the documentary. The documentary left me with a image of a face, a very vivid one. (Cliché not doubt) That of cancer. It was not just a harrowing image of patient’s gaunt and ravaged face. It is the faithfully followed family story running beneath the images as well.
HPH chronologically follows 2 cancer patients who are warded literally next to each other, easily enough for a visual comparison. Both are reduced to skin and bones though one is a little more composed and optimistic than the other. The other one’s crew cut had reduced her to a genderless, formless body. We witness various angles of their bed-ridden lives. These unfold gradually in the documentary – the feeding, the occasional musical moments, the technical aspects of their treatments, the palliative officers’ takes on their lives and finally, the family’s outpourings.
Of particular significance was the depiction of the mother-son relationship. The son has not lived up to his mother’s expectations and has a mountain of debts to repay. Time is not on her side for she may not live to see her son redeem himself fully again. There was a scene in her bed in which despite gasping for breath, she still musters the impetus to reprimand her son for a little things, just like she would normally do. And the next moment, there is solitary head shot of her ingesting fluids from a tube, eyes seemingly transfixed on perhaps her visualisation of a ticking clock. The inevitable happens and on another random day after Christmas, the original hospital ward 2-shot becomes a lonely and skewed 1-shot of the remaining patient.
Girls, please ignore this comment, meant for the boys : I think Sean’s recreation of porn in this film was accurate, faithful to the popular styles of this genre and very practised. Oops! Sorry, I know Sean myself as a friend. And it is just funny to discover this other side of him. He previously made a cutesy tale on a Bubble-tea maker, a family-friendly musical called Yumsing! And he has been involved in many Kid Central programs. Enough said.
Electronica is a eye-candied soap about dating in tech-savvy age of the present. Two dating expeditions run parallel to each other. A passionate, Bukit Timah type mother and her TV-commercial-good-looker of a son. They are acted by namely, Neo Swee Lin and Lawrence Wong. We are not sure if she is a widow or just being adulterous. In any case, she hooks up with a man through letter-writing. In contrast, her son, hooks up with a hottie via msn.
In a style that accentuates Swee Lin’s theatricality, in between the writing and the musing, she is engaged with a trashy TV soap opera and constantly pouring her heart out to her goldfish. It is not difficult to imagine how much disbelief needs to be suspended. Eventually, there is a highly `wardrobed(complete with black ties and fur)’ date that materialises. But it all ended less than favourably for her. And she has only her goldfish to pour out her feelings to.
Her son goes through a cyber orgy that is sings a tune closer to the young audience. He chats with this girl on msn who has lost her dog. By coincidence, she is a neighbour who also popped by the house to ask if he saw the dog. So, finally, he could put a face to it and a very willing stamp of approval. I mean, you know how disappointing some online dates are when they turn up in real person la, but then the criteria for cast in this film seemed to be eye-candy (the son’s story only) so the plot could only get thicker and the juices, like adrenalin, hotter.
Then, there were those `fantasy’ sequences. I was soooo worried for the girl, who was peeling off layer by layer of clothing because I know in short films they don’t pay actresses well. Thankfully, she did not go all the way, and the burden of entertainment was shared among 2 other girls who surrounded Lawrence, who actually wore the least clothing in that scene. I should just stop here cos the rest needs to be watched. He he.
Singapore films and TV programs should really stop using the word `Centrestage’ for programs involving Chinese opera. Many years ago when I was in primary school, there was a widely watched SBC 8 drama serial called Centrestage in its English translation. The title of this film should really pay tribute to the kids or even name it after the lead actress who played the Chinese Opera lead.
This information-packed documentary follows a group of primary school who learn the ropes of performing traditional Teochew opera. From such a premise, one can already foresee the kind of drama that will unfold. Two Teochew opera veterans round up a group of children to take part in this creative experiment. The mission is clear right from the beginning, train them to perform a full-length Chinese opera about this female warrior. The kids go through weeks of literally back- contorting training and rehearsals to put the act together. Since there can’t be any other piece-de-resistance other than final performance, it is natural that this documentary follows a chronological structure. In between the advancements the kids make, are interviews with the kids themselves, the instructors and a middle segment on the history of Chinese opera in Singapore and how it faces an imminent demise. This culminates in the performance day when we follow the kids from the make-up room to the stage.
It must be the narrator’s voice. It was crisp Channel 8 Mandarin at its best. At its worst, it reeks too much of TV. Somehow, together with the editing style and the text used on the screen, it seemed like this documentary received a lot of professional help. It was sleek, smooth and had a commercial veneer to it. A good start for a final-year project I thought. Perhaps after this, they might try more adventurous styles. Even the sizeable chunk on Chinese opera history seemed a little cliché and reminiscent of TV. But, the main body of the content more than engaged everyone. Kids filling adult shoes never fails to create screen magic. And the interviews very skillfully captured the right amount of amusement, innocence, candour and spontaneity from the children. The editing was selective and effective as well. We laughed when the pint-sized female lead groused about the realties behind the scenes. We guffawed when the little boy vividly demostrated his difficulty of sight and discomfort in the middle of the show. And it was just wicked for the editor to intercut between politically-correct answers from the adults and the honest answers from the kids.
The film ends with a sweet and triumphant note that the kids went on to perform in Japan at an arts festival. To me, this had a subtle element of
karma in it. For I somehow think, there was a huge amount of coercion (possibly manipulation as well) used on the kids to get them to agree to this project. But, this payoff is definitely, more than sweet.
The audience turn out for last weekend’ Filament 08 was itching to tell me so many more people could be watching local indie films then the usual paltry turnouts. It was amazing. I think almost the whole school came down. By the way, Filament 08 is the NTU Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information’s screening of its final-year students’ video and audio projects. I did not see a crowd of an equivalent size at
Kinofest which is the Ngee Ann Poly equivalent of this event, nor `Fly-by-nite’ last year. If I were a programmer, I might just want to start a traveling short film program – bring screenings to the schools and brainwash them about local indie films. After which Substation will find their rickety chairs in Guiness Theatre even harder to repair and Sinema may find their still-puffy red seats finally beaten down by volumes of indie film-goers.
The films were screened over 2 days on May 3rd and 4th at the Singapore Art Museum Glass Hall. The films presented were a mix of fiction films and documentaries. Somehow, they were all rather long. And in contrast, the ones at
Kinofest (by Ngee Ann) were visibly shorter. Read about the films presented here.
