It began with telling a story with two women. On a random day of the year, what would one be expecting out from the ordinary lives of two women? Inspired by a deaf friend who raises a hearing child on her own, 7th of July was thus born.
In what circumstances was this film conceived?
It was an academic requirement that this film was conceived. I chose to tell a story from a hearing-impaired mother's perspective because I wonder what it must be like to raise a child as a handicapped mother raising a child who was not handicapped. How would they deal with the psychological, physical and social ramifications of such a unique arrangement? Would they feel like they would have to overcompensate on their physical inadequacies? And what would be the dynamics of a relationship of this particular kind? Parental love can be expressed in many ways but what I was interested in was specifically how this particular character would express her love for her daughter. I often wondered how it would feel like sleeping in bed with the prospect of never being able to hear your child calling for you. I could go on and on, but at the end of the day, I could only make a short film on this subject matter and hence the story I wanted to tell had to be considerably simplified.
So, how did you go about writing this script?
We began working with several treatments as the biggest challenge was simplifying the story with such a complex subject that is being targeted on. Upon locking down our final treatment, Jeannie Chia the writer began working on the script which was further developed as we continue to research on the deaf society such as meeting with an Audiologist who assisted us on perceiving the deaf world and reading up various articles on true stories of CODA, Children of Deaf Adult. The research was intense as we both had to discover a world that was not within our boundaries to begin with.
I must say it's hard to miss the fact that you have gotten such a stellar cast, featuring Yeo Yann Yann, as one of your leads! So how did you go about casting for 7th July?
She was god sent to this film. Yann Yann chanced upon the Casting call in Lasalle and the next thing we knew, she nailed the audition and was on board with us in this production. Casting for the deaf mother was certainly the biggest challenge for the film as it was not easy for the actor to deliver a sensitive yet realistic and close to heart character of a deaf person. From signing to singing with a deaf voice, the chosen actor must go through an intensive series of rehearsals and workshops to deliver a natural performance of a deaf character like Lyna. I must say I am very grateful that Yann Yann took the time to participate with me in this as she was also juggling with another rehearsal at the same time.
Being dubbed as "Probably the most sentimentally-engaging film of the showcase", could you share more about what goes behind the scenes which constituted to that?
Spontaneity and improvisation from the cast would probably be the catalytic factor that drove the scenes within the film to a different dimension.
How was this film made possible?
The Puttnam School of Film from Lasalle which groomed everyone of us into capable filmmaking students gave us the opportunity to create this film and of course, the support of the cast, crew and sponsors which gave us their time and energy for this production.
What were your biggest challenges you've met during production and how did you managed to overcome them?
Time and cast constraints, as we had to shoot day scenes in a location which was mainly available only at night for us. We also had to plan the shoot schedule strategically as both our lead actors have their own respective rehearsals to attend. With the help of our very capable team mates during pre-production, things just fall into place on its own as very thorough planning really promises a smooth shoot throughout the production.
Any interesting anecdotes to share about the production?
Battling with 40 cockroaches in the middle of the night while shooting on set and having to pray everyday to ensure good weather and a smooth shoot. Overall, we've been really blessed in many ways throughout this shoot.
How do you feel after graduating with your thesis film?
Great sense of achievement and feeling really relieved.
Any future plans?
Taking 7th of July to the film festival circuit and if another lucky day comes by,perhaps someone might like to further develop this film and bring this short film to the next level!
Film is no longer about seamless, immaculately planned shots pieced together with dramatic music cued to set you sitting on the edge of your chair and one brilliant mind behind the camera playing God. It extends beyond the emotionlessness of plastic buttons, black wires and the various devices into a world of fantasy and trance. Organised by Esplanade, Bitesize presented Understanding Singapore Cinema on 19th June, alongside with the Asian Film Archive. The talk not only delved into the origins of Singapore Cinema, it also highlighted the artistic and cultural achievements of key Singapore filmmakers like Rajendra Gour, Eric Khoo, Glen Goei, Jack Neo etc.
This little heritage tour back to our cinematic roots has certainly stirred up much appreciation for those lost and forgotten and of course the beauty of such never failed to enchant the audience, for instance like the ever hilarious snippet from Seniman Bujang Lapok directed by the Malaysian maestro, P Ramlee or the slightly uncomfortable scene where the sudden suicide occurred from 12 Storeys directed by our remarkable Eric Khoo. The talk has definitely provided an encyclopedic perspective of national cinema and the immense value and influence it possesses till this very day. However, this talk would not been made possible without this very man - Mr Tan Bee Thiam, the speaker of the day! So before we end this entry, SINdie had a brief interview session with Bee Thiam to find out more about Asian Film Archive and their works.
So tell us why hold a talk on Singapore Cinema? Bitesize is a series of talks and workshops organized by Esplanade to introduce various aspects of the arts to the general public. When Esplanade approached the Asian Film Archive to do a talk, we thought it'll be interesting to do an introductory session on Singapore Cinema in the last 100 years.
How do you guys managed to find films that date all the way back the 1930s and restore them? For old films, we rely on the traces of information we find to track things down. It's a bit like film archaeology, doing research, looking for materials, tracking down the rights-owners and making an ask for their donation so we can share them with the public. Luckily too, there have been a wonderful bunch of scholars and collectors who have done excellent work in this field and always willing to share them with us.
Some of the earliest Singapore films we hold today include Orang Minyak (directed by L Krishnan, 1958) and Sumpah Pontianak (directed by BN Rao, 1958) - both from the Asian Film Archive: Cathay Malay Classics collection. It was a donation from the Cathay Organisation. With the support of the National Archives of Singapore, we have been doing film cleaning work so they are maintained and preserved well.
Unfortunately, we do not have all the films I talked about. Some of the titles, we only have memorabilia (posters, film magazine articles, etc) of them. A major memorabilia collection was donated recently by an avid collector.
Only a very small number of films is selected so far for restoration work because it is very expensive. One of them is Moon Over Malaya directed by Chun Khim, a 1957 film shot in Singapore and Malaysia. It took us close to 2 years to get this restored.
What sort of feedback did you guys receiving after holding the talk? From the people who talked to me, it's been wonderful! Here’s a quote from a participant too:
"Singapore clearly played a pivotal role in the development of Asian cinema -- and Bee Thiam's thoughtful lecture provided a historical overview of filmmaking in this region. It is not merely a chronology, but places the changing tides of the industry within the context of the political and social history of the country. As with the Archive's premiere of the restored print of "Moon over Malaya" earlier this year and the accompanying curated exhibit, this talk was enlightening and reveals a long tradition of Singaporean cinema. I'm happy the Asian Film Archive exists to preserve that rich tradition for future generations. Bravo to Bee Thiam and his colleagues!"- Amos Ezra Katz, NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia
What other events can we look forward to? We are doing a lunchtime talk in NUS on 10 August to review Singapore Cinema in the last decade (2000-2010). There will be a series of Singapore film screening in August too to celebrate National Day.
*The above pictures taken are courtesy of Esplanade Pte Ltd.
Dear friends of SINdie, here are 3 new faces you should know (yes, we sure like to multiply!). Together with the current 4 of us (Darren, Grace, Colin and myself), we are 7 in total! So here they are:
Audi Khalid graduated from Ngee Ann Poly in 2008 taking a diploma in Film, Sound and Video. Having been given a video camera when he was 9, the camera stuck with him through his life. He has worked as an assistant stunt coordinator and stuntman with local stunt director, Jimmy Low, since 2007. Part of his niche specialty is weapons handling. He is also freelancing as videographer and is married to his 'Canon 7D'. Some of his recent works include an entry for a video competition held by Pringles (which won first prize) and a music video for local duo Jack and Rai's 'Pixelated' that was commisioned by the Health Promotion Board. Finally, he loves making films, but is currently more interested in making filmlets (little films) as he explores styles and themes. He hopes to have a unique storytelling style to call his own.
'I love making videos. It's the only way I could dive deep into my emotions and bring it out into the sun. Whenever I'm in a turmoil of thoughts and words become useless, I dive back in and create. It's fun.'
Melody Chow just graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic with a diploma in Media Studies and Management and will be pursuing her Bachelor's in Communications. Having to work on several productions like Here and Project Earth during her polytechnic days, the substantial amount of effort, heart and soul that goes behind the scene simply thickens the love relationship Melody has with films.
'It's captivating how a film can be pieced together with infinite themes and beautifully crafted plots to command the greatest amount of emotion within oneself and implore one on a journey of contemplative reverie. It is nothing physical in nature nor psychologically/emotionally harmful. It's just all that and more.'
Alvin Choo is a Comms & Media graduate from University of South Australia, Alvin has written and published works for several local magazines and portals. Now employed as a digital marketer and continuing to pursue his passion for writing & film (recently completing a scriptwriting course by Objectifs, participating in the 48HFP and now writing for SINdie), he hopes to find in his love for film an inspiration to share with others.
'Film to me is like a patchwork of expressions weaved together by the auteur, based on the mishmash of experiences, ideologies, et al he/she has been participant to. And perhaps that is what draws me to the silver screen, especially local indie films that never fail to be close to the heart. It’s hard to put a finger on what is it about an individual showing glimpses of his passion but it nevertheless endears. Having completed a scriptwriting course and looking to further my film experience/expertise, coupled with my new writing commitments for SINdie, I hope to find in this passion that I and many others share, a sense of fulfilment and share it with you - our readers. As some-great man once said, “The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have”.'
We 'raised the bar' literally on our series of interviews by bringing our filmmakers to the top of an old building - Pearl Centre. We found this deserted carpark by chance and rather befitting to set the mood for interviewing David Liu and Linus Chen, makers of Steadfast, an action movie. Here we are caught in the action...
GO SLOW Steadfast... Linus (right) getting excited and flailing his hands as he talks
Grace keeps close a close tab on the screen
Cut!
Jeremy : 'We would like to bring out a prop for you guys. Do something with it.'
As you can see, we were braving the carpark 'traffic' (or lack of it) by plonking ourselves right in the middle of the lane!
The sensationalistic hook of Scot Free's synopsis makes the film seem much worse than it actually is. That sounds like damning praise, I know. But when you sell your film on the basis of two French tourists in Singapore accidentally killing someone and trying to dispose of the body, you do it at the expense of belittling your film's intelligence and subtle ambitions. Thankfully, wedged between the blood-slathered Vengeance: The Death Wish and Director's Cut in the Substation's First Take June screening, Scot Free couldn't get off with its comparatively muted killing, allowing its laudable attempts at comic absurdity (however few and half-successful) to shine through.
See, the ballyhoo'd killing in the synopsis only happens around the halfway mark; if you're waiting for it, the stuff before that might feel like a dreadful bore. If you shed those preconceptions, though, it becomes apparent that Scot Free is trying to be a lot freer with where its plot could run up to that point, and even after. The initial sight of the two French tourists in a cut-rate hotel lobby, one of them asking for directions to "westearn foood", prepares us for another stale fish-out-of-water story where the tourists are no more than conduits for the filmmakers to sniff and sneer at the more "exotic" aspects of our local culture. And this does happen somewhat, notably when they end up at an Indian food joint, and one of them wrinkles her nose as curry is plopped onto their plates.
But it turns out that Scot Free has more up its sleeve, especially when it comes to the nose-wrinkler of the duo (on the right in film still). As they talk over the food, she drops a few hairline surprises—surprises to us, anyway, because of our false preconceptions: The baby we thought she was worrying over in an earlier phone conversation turns out to be something else. She mentions a man she's bringing home for Christmas, but then tosses off a joke that lets us realize they're not romantically involved. She makes a remark that has us assume she is accepting of queer folk, but then she curtly protests when her friend refers casually to a male-to-female transsexual as a "she". These might not amount to much for other viewers, especially with the uninspired shot/reverse-shot editing and the actresses' slightly inorganic line deliveries, but I found that these conversational revelations prepared me to be surprised by where the story would take me.
Certainly, if not for the synopsis, I wouldn't have been prepared for a drunk German tourist stumbling into their hotel room at night, and it's even funnier that the actor playing him does it in a kind of fazed, slow-mo walk, rather than an angry zombie lurch. But let's not place all blame on the synopsis, because the film also falls prey to that now-clichéd trick of starting at the end before looping back to the events that got them to that point. This doesn't work for Scot Free because, as I have suggested, the film relies most on projecting a certain unpredictability to whatever happens next.
Nonetheless, it manages to avoid not preparing us too much for the tourists' instinctive, alternative use of a local fruit; or the choice of vehicle they flag down to flee the law; or the mishap that the vehicle itself gets into, suggested mostly by the briefly-espied sight of a spinning bicycle wheel; or the way that it never seems like the police are even after them at all. Near the end, there's even a brief tender moment when one of the tourists offers to take the blame for the other, even though it's unsolicited and we get the feeling they weren't that close to start with, and it's a tiny injection of feeling into the scattered bits of chaos. I wanted more, a lot more, and given how I leave some films wanting none of it, that's not at all a bad thing to ask.
'Scot Free' was Chia Pei Zhen's graduate thesis film at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. It was screened as part of Substation's First Take this month, and was among the Singapore Panorama Shorts slate at the Singapore International Film Festival last April.
Remember this?
As part of Who's Shooting What, we asked filmmakers to fill us in on their upcoming projects in 2010. (Sneak: We will be having another round of Who's Shooting What in 2011 real soon! Do keep a lookout.) After close to half a year, Linus and David are finally presenting their work, Steadfast.
About Steadfast
Probably the most ambitious and biggest modern action film made in Singapore, the film features a cast of over 50 people, military and police gun-blazing sequences and a motorcade of BMWs. Steadfast is a non-profit independent film made by two very ambitious young directors from Singapore. The film is supported by The Singapore Film Commission, Canon Singapore, Samsonite and other private sponsors.
Synopsis
The chairman of an international defense systems corporation attempts to reveal a major financial cover-up, but finds himself the target of an assassin. Only a lone government agent is sent to neutralize the killer, but soon discovers a larger, more sinister scheme at work than a simple hit.
About the Directors
David Liu was 14 and has since then produced 7 films including his most recent work,
recognition in several film festivals like the Canon DV Fest and among other internationally. Besides production, directing, and editing, David was also involved having been mentored by the Australian prop-makers of Star Wars Episode 2,
when Sydney.
Linus Chen was born in Singapore but lived in the US for a majority of his life, graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Film & Digital Media with a concentration on Production. He moved back to Singapore as an aspiring filmmaker as he found the country to be the perfect to start. He has since gone on to produce a number of short films before embarking on Steadfast.
*****
Tell us more about yourselves.
Could you give us a brief intro on what 'Steadfast' is about?
How did you meet each other?
Is Steadfast too American influenced?
So, who are you target audiences?
How did you actually put this film together? How did you get the $$?
Where did you get your props? Who were your casts?
How did you pull everyone together? What is S.W.A.T?
What was the main challenge faced during production?
Is Steadfast a feature film?
Why should we watch Steadfast?
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Check out their website for more details
Asked why she chose to make a horror film for her final-year project, director Ting Shin Mei replied that the genre allowed for "more effects", which made it "more easy to score". One can only stand in awe of such brutal honesty, so rare among filmmakers eager to champion their films' depth. Nor could one have better summed up Vengeance, whose appeal lies solely in its lurid effects. The film pulls out the usual low-fi horror tricks: long takes on soon-to-be victims with an open doorway in the background; rapid match cuts from various women to the "angry ghost" that replaces them; bloody make-up and half-obscured angles that simulate the "ghost's" knife carving into her victims' skin.
If these money shots depict the vengeance of the title, the film's attempt at a "story" supplies its death wish. Vengeance starts not too dissimilar from a traffic awareness ad, as a woman running across the street gets knocked down, cutting to a close-up on her pocket watch. The same watch winds up on the shelf of some odds-and-ends store: no wonder some customer actually (gasp!) wants to buy it, despite the storeowner's insistence that it's not for sale. (Perhaps he feels self-conscious about lifting items off traffic-accident victims and putting them up for display.) When the customer persists that the storeowner should name a price, any price, a bald man walks over and warns her not to buy it. At this point she should have listened; I certainly would heed any omen uttered to me in a thrift store by some random bald man, though I'd suspect that he's eyeing the same object for himself, or that the two are in cahoots to fleece me for more than it's worth.
But the genre being what it is, she buys it anyway. This triggers the easy-to-score effects-laden scenes to which Ting referred, as the woman transforms through a simple cut into the "angry ghost" and tortures and kills the guy in the bedroom with her. And then, with no clear explanation, the timepiece finds its way into the hands of some other woman: rinse and repeat. There's no rhyme or reason to why these men die or who these women are; after the screening, one viewer actually asked who they were, and while the director claimed some relationship with a later character, none of it is evident from the film. Nor does it matter. The pulse of a schlocky horror film like this comes from how it makes us wince, and as the ghost drives a scalpel into her victim's skin, it achieves this goal just fine.
Yet there are other moments where we wince for the filmmaking, such as when the ghost, having carved a word onto her victim's face, asks him if he can see what she's written. It's a rhetorical question, of course, and she makes a huge fuss about bringing out a hand mirror. You'd think this would lead to a horrifying reverse-image in the mirror, but then she just tells him. "H! A! T! E!" Like a cheerleader gone wrong. The campy-ness of the whole thing undercuts the horror, so the only thing we're thinking when we finally get a full look at the ghost's handiwork is that her penmanship is pretty good.
Really, given the filmmakers' avowed reasons for making the film, it's the last kind of film that needs any pretense at a connective story, and is the worse for it when it tries. As it turns out, the ghost's last target is some guy she used to bed, and her pocketwatch was the "heirloom" he bequeathed to her (and yes, he calls it his "heirloom", in undubbed English). Fleeing from her ghost, he takes refuge in a multistorey carpark and dials not the police, but his pastor. Better, the ghost extermination service pastor turns out to be the same random bald man who was skulking around in the thrift store earlier. The pastor proceeds to vanquish the ghost with some inappropriate cross of Christian catechism and voodoo-ish hand-waving, and then absolves the guy of his sins in a church that looks suspiciously like a lecture hall.
Later, when asked what she thought about the audience's laughter in her horror film, Ting gave perhaps the classiest response that this situation could afford: "Maybe it's a failure for a horror film... but I'm glad that everyone was entertained." Entertained we might have been, but no more than we would otherwise for a film that weren't, in more ways than one, so "easy to score".
Ting Shin Mei is a graduate from Singapore's Institute of Technical Education (ITE). 'Vengeance', her final-year project, won Best Director and Best Editor in ITE's graduation showcase. It was screened as part of Substation's First Take this month.
The use of a handicapped character as a plot device has its detractors, but still works an effective emotive magic to an audience, as seen from the film 7th July.
A deaf mother runs a noodle stall with the help of her hearing daughter, who feels socially stifled by her familial obligations.
The situation reaches a climax as her daughter wishes to go on a diving trip, no less to fulfil a curiosity her late dad’s love for the deep sea ignited in her, but that would mean leaving her mum to her own devices.
Probably the most sentimentally-engaging film of the showcase, the premise of 7th July comes across well due to a stellar cast – all of which engage the sympathies of the audience, as well as the aforementioned plot device which effectively tugs at the heartstrings without feeling contrived or over-the-top.
What does the art of printmaking and a moral dilemma of fidelity or love have in common?
Not much at first glance, but that’s the question Traces seek to answer with metaphorical and ethic conflict-laden aplomb.
A printmaking teacher goes about his routine as an ex-student walks in, asking for help to rekindle lessons past for a new project.
The audience sees from both countenances and mannerisms that this isn’t any ordinary exchange, and the repercussions of an entangled love/ethics dilemma plays out.
Much like the elements required in creating a worthy artwork, the film fuses different but inter-connected layers of our protagonist’s conundrum to create an almost-esoteric look at how the tenets of love, relationships, and family are put to the test.
From well thought-out metaphors in a printmaking lesson to a climatic scene revealing the student’s motivations for returning, the end-artwork certainly impresses.
Continuing in the vein of collectives finding a way out of the nadir is Waiting.
Waiting tells the story of a widowed father who tries to hold the fabric of his relationship with his son intact while dealing with the challenges of being in the financial doldrums.
From a poignant opening scene (Father and son share a miserly breakfast in silence as an electric fan suddenly stops, presumably due to a power cut) to the closing scenes, the film offers a raw glimpse of a family at the cliff-edge of modern society when all financial resources are exhausted.
A sentimental plot premise, coupled with heartfelt, raw acting makes Waiting a modest triumph at tugging the heartstrings, even if some disjointed dry story-filler scenes threaten to dilute the audience’s takeaways.
If its title comes across somewhat abstract, it probably works as a good foretaste of the film.
Perhaps its synopsis offers the best description: “… the story of the relationship between a man who works as a caveman in a museum exhibit and his long-term girlfriend who works in a bar as an exotic dancer (ed: read Zebragirl).”
In between dealing with the pittance their unconventional jobs provide and their relationship struggles, the cohabiting couple experience cryptic dreams which serve as implicit expressions of their inward feelings toward each other.
The plot structure alternates between the couple’s waking and sleeping (or dreaming) hours, as bizarre but vivid dreams on a nightly basis offer an optimism their increasingly dire situations lack before the alarm's drone wakes them up to reality.
A contemplative film told through metaphors of a relationship held together despite the strain of outside forces, Caveman & Zebragirl does demand a fair dose of patience and ruminating to digest and get through.
Coming in as the longest film of the showcase at 25 minutes, Labour Day captures the collision of idealistic dreams and harsh realities through the eyes of its two protagonists – Zoe, who dreams of a better future for her family back home while escaping from the clutches of a failed relationship; and Purple, the oft-stereotyped study-mama with the unfavoured but sole route of providence for her child.
If pensive stares into space epitomise the dead-end conundrum the duo are resigned to, the desperate measures and untenable dreams they seek add some light-hearted,
albeit pitiable situations to the mix.
The scenes between the two and their landlady Cik – who serves as a smart plot device to intertwine the three – flesh out their personas well, but if there was any criticism, the dialogue comes across as somewhat awkward and contrived – made worse by the attempts in using a bilingual Zoe to bridge the language barrier between Cik and Purple.
What one takes away though is merited by an inventive ending and the poignant plot premise of those seeking the notion of “a better life” on our shores and the aged left by the wayside.
Aaron Wilson is an Australian filmmaker based in Melbourne but his connection to Singapore is his previous Objectifs Filmmaking Residency and more importantly his upcoming film, Triple Happiness. This is a film spanning 3 different periods and tries to tie the collective memories of Australia and Singapore together. It is also a collaboration between Chuan Pictures and Finer Films.
Synopsis 21 year old Jim is an Australian airman lost in the jungles of northwest Singapore. It’s February 1942 and the Japanese have begun invading the island. His plane has been shot down. He is suspended from the jungle canopy in the harness of his parachute.
Night falls and he makes his way through the jungle. He intercepts a young Singapore-Chinese soldier, Seng, separated from the rest of his battalion. Unable to speak the same language but with a common foe and survival goal, a connection is formed in the intensity of the situation. They seek safety in the undergrowth, comforted knowing they have each other to ensure they remain alert – but when dawn arrives, loud voices wake them. Japanese soldiers grab Jim and quickly drag him away from a terrified Seng. A single shot echoes through the undergrowth. Jim looks back but can only see jungle. He stops struggling, prepared for his own fate, as the two soldiers drag him out of the jungle.
The story continues 28 years on (in 1970) as Jim’s war experience continues to haunt him. He is living alone on his farm in rural Australia after having not ever truly reconnected with his family upon his return. Following this, the film explores his dealing with the newer times and coming to terms with his memory of that fateful night. But the after effects of the war do not just affect Jim. There are others around in his life will continue to live with the legacy of the war.
Director's Bio AARON was born in rural Australia in 1976 and has been writing and directing short films since 2003, with a passion for understated human drama that has proved successful on the international film festival circuit. His films include the award-winning RENDEZVOUS (‘03), TEN FEET TALL (‘05), FAUX PAS (‘07) and LEAP YEAR (‘08).
In 2006, Aaron took part in a filmmaker residency program with The Objectifs Centre for Filmmaking & Photography in Singapore. His short film FENG (WIND) was created as part of this residency and was awarded Best Short Film at the prestigious Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival in 2007. His most recent short film, AHMAD’S GARDEN (08) was produced in association with Screen Australia and premiered at the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival. For further information, visit Aaron’s website.
Jeremy (J): So what’s it got to do with Singapore?
Aaron (A): I had a script idea at hand when I applied for the residency with Objectifs. They needed something with a Singapore link. My story is about this Australian soldier during WWII. In the opening of the script, there is an encounter with an Australian and a Singapore soldier. So Objectifs was interested to develop this script with me. And offered me the residency. At the same time, I also made a short that carried the themes of that feature film. (pause)
This script was really about me telling a story that connected Australia with its neighbours. We don’t often make films that connect us with our borders and definitely not our neighbours. So that was very important to me.
J: What I find interesting about is perhaps the Singapore soldier because whenever you film someone in the SAF uniform, it carries a lot of connotations, it conjures a lot of ‘feelings’ in young Singaporean men, mostly negative (laughs).
A: Actually these were the original soldiers, the Straits Volunteers Forces, not the modern day ones. They were men who grouped together at the 11th hour because the Japanese were heading south to Singapore soon. They were also Kuomingdang loyaliststs and wanted to fight the Japanese. Their uniforms were put together last minute. They used leftover shirts.
J: Where did you do your research?
A: Ah geez…I can’t remember. It just stuck in my mind as I researched more and more. My mother gave me this book which captured a lot of diary accounts of soldiers and there was one of a Singaporean soldier. So the these soldiers fought together with the Australian soldiers but could not cope with the Japanese forces. The group was disbanded and went into hiding from the Japanese who started hunting them down. They caught many of them within a few months and killed them in the Sook Ching massacre as a lesson to the Singaporeans. J: So how many periods is this film set in?
A: It is set in 3 different periods. It starts out in 1942 when the opening third of the film is basically depicting the relationship between the Australian soldier and the Singapore soldier at the point of time when the forces had just been defeated by the Japanese and the men were lost from the battalion. So injured, they ran into each other and had only the night to figure out to survive as the Japanese were surrounding them. (pause)
We then jump to 1970 when they have aged and explore how the war has affected their lives.
J: I like the 1970s. (grins)
A: We’ve already the 70s bit in November already. Here now in Singapore, we are in the middle shooting their catching up and we’ve got 5 days to shoot.
J: So is this simply a reminiscence kind of movie or are there some new developments or twists to their friendship?
A: Well, it starts off with the encounter in 1942 where we see both characters. But the Singaporean Chinese character does not return to the story until later in the 3rd act. So in the 2nd act, the Australian character lives in reminiscence of that friendship. Then in the 3rd act, we explore more of the legacy of their friendship left for his family. We look at how it is impacting the life of the people in his family in the later generation. Like it affects his communication with his son and how his son communicates with his wife and so on. (Pause) Well, it is not saying that all these things are because of the war but exploring why this man does not talk and why he is like how he is. It really is exploring how war is having an effect on future generations. J: Obviously this is not your first time shooting in Singapore. So I guess it is a big departure from the shooting your first short film ‘Wind’ in Singapore?
A: My first short film was very simple. We didn’t have any lights. Very low budget.
J: So how is it like now dealing with more things like ….. sandbags! I saw them outside the house.
A: Those are very low-budget. It’s all set in a jungle at night. We don’t actually see the war. We hear the war more around us. It is really follows the journey of these 2 men closely as they seek safety in the forest. The war is going on all around them and they can see and feel it. It is like having a big battle between nature and war going on around them and they are sort of stuck in the middle.
J: Have you ever served in the army?
A: Me? No no. I have done a short stint in the Australian Reserves but that’s it. That was for a scholarship.
J: How long were you there for?
A: It was just for 3 months. Not like the compulsory 2 years you have in Singapore. Interestingly, for the Australian soldiers in the 1940s, most of them were volunteers and were off to mission within 2-3 weeks of hearing the call for volunteers. Many of them had never held a gun before. And when Singapore fell, they were kept in camps.
J: Well, I guess it’s a different mood we are talking about in those days. Patriotism is rare these days and hard to find because life has become so comfortable. (pause) So, you guys shot in the jungle?
A: Yes.
J: So that’s quite close to getting a taste of what it’s like to be on a military exercise in Singapore. (beat) So how was it? A: Well, we shot in Bukit Brown. It was a jungle surrounded by graves and the first we had to do every morning was to pray to them, just to make sure nothing bad happens to us and that we have a good shoot. We spent 5 days there and now we are going to spend 2 days in Sungei Buloh.
J: The swamp area?
A: Yes, the story starts in the swamp and moves deeper into the forest.
J: Anything interesting happened during the shoot?
A: Nothing bizarre. Just lots of little mishaps and rain rain and more rain.
J: How long were you here in Singapore during your residency?
A: I have been travelling back and forth many times. J: Last question. I guess you must be quite familiar with Singaporeans films for the time that you were here. So what are your favourite Singapore movies?
A: I really liked ‘12 Storeys’ and ‘Mee Pok Man’. I guess they were very early Singaporea films. Those two stick with me. I also like 4:30 and 15. Those 2 directors travel to the Melbourne Film Festival quite a bit so we see them quite often.
J: But how about the more recent films, like from 3-4 years ago?
A: I like ‘Singapore Dreaming’, ‘The Days’.
J: There have been a lot of new directors coming up and working with low budgets.
A: Yeah, I do notice that there are many Singaporean directors making films on low budgets and that’s very inspiring. In Australia, not that we work with huge budgets but 5-6 million for a feature film is not unheard of. (beat) I didn’t want to make such a budget film because I wanted to get it out more quickly which would make it easier for me to get returns. It is also an arthouse film. The idea is to distribute it to wider box offices. This brings it back to my point about making a film that would connect Australia with the places around with a theme that has gripped us all in the past 60 years.
Check excerpts from our trip to Woodlands to interview Aaron and visit the production team.
Was Chris Yeo masturbating his brains out when he made 'In the House of Straw'? (My apologies if the opening remark is scalding.) The filmmaker is indeed unabashedly challenging its viewers by making them sit through a 2 hour long experiment like this. Therefore, he should be expecting a strong reaction. ‘In The House of Straw’ is a film that would seriously divide the camp into people who will applaud its subversion of all narrative and cinematic rules and people who will be crying for help in its quicksand of indulgence.
The film takes the children’s tale of the 3 Little Pigs, translates it into a modern day Singapore context and builds a web of thematic extensions from it, mostly tinged with a mock-moralistic slant. It is mock-moralistic in a sense that the series of events seem to invite you to interpolate some kind of message or moral (as the fairytale ‘base’ of the film would suggest). Yet, scenes later, something else happens that refutes or disorientates the message. It’s no fun to cock-teased for 2 hours and get nowhere from where you began.
For the benefit of those who have yet to watch, ‘In the House of Straw’ begins with the story of Zhiwen who is at the cusp of his school summer break. Sick of staying at home with his parents, he decides to live out on his own. Strangely, he found a place with 2 bicycle thieves of his own age and decides to live in with them. These 2 boys who get money from selling stolen bikes live their lives in a capsule, oblivious to the tunes of society at large. The capsule is not exactly surreal or unfamiliar. It has the atmosphere of university rebels who choose to skip class, live on the edge and indulge in a lot of inconsequential intellectual banter.
In this realm where the conventional rules of life are eschewed, Zhiwen has not exactly found the utopia that he seeked. When the party is over and the beer has settled in his stomach, the hidden catches of the deal start to surface. The boys have their own issues and prejudices (including misogyny). And in the culture that they create, Zhiwen seems to have merely gotten himself into another world as imposing as his family. Epitomising the esoterism of the 2 boys is their trip to Haw Par Villa. 2 local boys who steal bicycles making a contemplative, introspective trip here? It is hard to make sense out of it except to conclude that the all 3 boys in the story and their adventures are really the inner musings and fetishes of the director played out.
It is a handful of inclinations if you pay attention. There is of course, the fascination with Chinese mythology in the Haw Par Villa episode. There are strong visual references to Christianity with even close ups of biblical statues. There is that capricious reenactment of the yellow brick road scene from the Wizard of Oz in which the costumes are reinterpreted using household items like straw, mops and aluminium foil. Off the Christian track, it also meditates the issue of creation and rebirth, with a visual reference to a Tibetian fabric painting of the 6 realms of existence in Buddhism.
As much as this is a highly contemplative film, it is driven by its rich and layered visuals as well. The visuals are rich not in their colour or filmic qualities. It is hardly a pretty film. They are rich because of the double entendres and metaphors inherent in them. One classic scene is when the camera fixates on the face of the statue of the Goddess of Mercy, followed by an utterance of the word ‘Ma’ by the bicycle thief who professed to be a school dropout. This lends a wryly humourous touch to kind of reverence many Chinese people have always paid to the ubiquitous Goddess of Mercy or Kwan Yin (in fact, recently popularized by the movie 12 Lotus). Another clever visual metaphor is the scene of the amusement park. This is juxtaposed with musings on life and death. The visuals are particularly appropriate because we see people hurled up and down or following the circularity of the ferris wheel’s journey, like having the motion encapsulating the highs and lows, the surprises and the trappings of life itself.
Unfortunately, these philosophical gems are but isolated moments that do not add up to give the film a strong and definite voice. The mood of contemplation adds up throughout the film, in fact, sometimes even veering towards the eerie and the suspenseful. But the ideas and the points don’t add up. I would risk guessing that perhaps an overall point was not important to the director Chris but more the intellectual journey in making this film. So in fact, in making this ‘yellow-brick-road-movie’, Chris was himself on his journey of discovering and making sense of life. It helps to know that Chris was pursuing a degree in Philosophy during the span of the year (or 2?) that he was piecing the film together.
This in mind, can his 2 hours of indulgence be justifiable? Perhaps. A filmmaker’s personal and highly esoteric journey can certainly be an excuse for a film. There is even some form of a structure to this journey (which does not owe too much to the story of the 3 Little Pigs)... Zhiwen leaves school at the beginning of the film… goes through a deep dark journey… through his journey, we learn about the world of the 2 bicycle thieves which gradually get more interesting than that of Zhiwen…and so on (so as not to spoil the film). It ends back in the same spot in the school campus except that the school dropout’s decided to return to school. But point of this journey is mostly lost through the lack of accessible reference points or characters that we can identify with. It is paradoxically local yet alien. There are noticeable entry points into the psyche of the characters but in the very next instance, you lose grip of them when the director decides to reshuffle the cards. Masturbating is often a fulfilling experience in a personal realm. However, when you watch someone else masturbate, it is a subjective experience in which you are either seriously entertained or painfully disturbed.
To be fair, here's Chris's personal take on his own film - recorded during the 23rd Singapore International Film Festival.
I must say it's hard to miss the fact that you have gotten such a stellar cast, featuring Yeo Yann Yann, as one of your leads! So how did you go about casting for 7th July?
What were your biggest challenges you've met during production and how did you managed to overcome them?
Any interesting anecdotes to share about the production?
