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STOP10 Feb 2017: 'Wong Tai Foong' by Anthea Ng

February 1, 2017, 8:30 am
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Wong Tai Foong by Anthea Ng employs snappy editing and quirky graphics to tell the story of an uptight security guard who develops an ability to switch identities with the owners of lost wallets. In the process, he comes a little out of his shell and starts to notice other people's lives. 

Wong Tai Foong (aka WTF), a security guard who looks like a male version of iconic artist Yayoi Kusama, keeps a neat desk and a precise routine. He eats the same meal every day: a bland lunchbox of white rice, beansprouts and bittergourd. He only drinks plain water, from a tumblr. In short, his personality is as straight-laced and neatly boxed as his hairstyle suggests.


The film stands out for the detail in its production design. Bright colors are used boldly and lends a fun and wacky feel. There is a clock reminiscent of the Weasley family's magical clock with a clockhand that denotes activities instead of the time, such as "Lunch" and "Sleep". The clock determines the cadence and flow of the film's timeline, as well as WTF's life. 

In the clock, the word 正 is used as a decorative border. 正 means "upright" and "exact" in Chinese. It is also what WTF writes to count how many times the residents in his workplace swear at him (one swear = one stroke of the word). WTF sits at a desk with the word "security" printed in big bold letters, secure in his comfort zone, refusing to break his routine and have lunch with his colleague or go out drinking after work.

The film stylised visuals are supported by cutesy, cartoonish sound design punctuating much of the film and lending a upbeat tempo. It helps that WTF himself looks like a comic character, as well as other characters like the thugs he gets in trouble with or the femme fatale in the bar.

The introduction of magical powers allows WTF to open a lost wallet and literally walk in someone else's shoes. It catapults him into leaving his comfort zone, yet it is also a conscious search for a new name and identity as his name is constantly made fun of for its vulgar connotations.


With his ability to switch identities, WTF finds various lost wallets and has a roulette of experiences as an old woman, a young and cute bartender (as whom he is briefly popular, with the ladies), a maid, a little boy at the playground and so on. The humour is largely derived from the incongruity of a grown man being spoonfed his meals or playing on the flying fox at a playground. 



Eventually, the biggest change is not WTF's ability to be a completely different person, but his ability to empathize with those around him. The film humbles with the reminder to step out of one's comfort zone and try to see things from the point of view of those closest to us.



Watch on Viddsee:



Written by Jacqueline Lee

For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10 Feb 2017: 'Closer Apart (團圓)' by Jason Lee

February 1, 2017, 8:32 am
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Closer Apart is a bittersweet family drama that brings to the table how familial relationships are important in everyday life. It is a reminder of simply how easy it is to take something, or someone, for granted. Capturing the moments of how absence highlights the importance of someone in our lives, this is a journey of self-reflection and letting go.

This film is selected as part of Viddsee’s Chinese New Year special – Drama At The Dinner Table. It is a collection of films that places the spotlight on Asian Families this new year from around the region. Having won the Viddsee Shortee Award in October 2014, it is no surprise that this short film of 13 minutes will make its reappearance on this channel.


Just like its name suggests, Closer Apart follows the journey of an aged father’s lost connection with his own family. As he drifts further and further away from the individuals he used to call home, will they even notice or is this just part and parcel of growing up?


The writer and director Jason Lee used plenty of close-up shots to tell the story, creating a sense of intimacy with the characters and immersing the viewer into the situation, eventually giving the film an appropriately pensive atmosphere.

If there is another reason to watch the film, it is seeing comedian Henry Thia for the first time in a serious role. We think he does quite a mean job in looking sombre for change!


This is definitely a short film that most Singaporean families may relate to, especially during this festive season. Perhaps, it might also make you rethink your own relationship with your family.

Catch “Closer Apart (團圓)” by Jason Lee on Viddsee.

Written by Dawn Teo

For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10 Feb 2017: 'Flooding in the time of Drought' by Sherman Ong

February 1, 2017, 8:34 am
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Originally showcased at the 2008 Singapore Biennale, ‘Flooding in the Time of Drought’ by artist-filmmaker Sherman Ong, was a two-part art installation that comprised 2 92-minute docu-dramas, titled ‘Drought’ and ‘Flood’. This film is a yin-yang take on a view of Singapore from outsiders. 8 immigrant couples and their separate conversations make up the total 184 minutes of running time. Yin-Yang because what they talk about can be both absurd and yet painfully real. Moreover, the film uses a heavy dose of irony to make its point about what seems like an increasingly dystopian experience living in Singapore.


In the film’s setting, Singapore is facing floods. Yet it is also running out of water and there is no way to harness and use the flood water. In trying to make sense of the situation, the film takes us through anxiety, fear, helplessness, memory and superstitions (like a Thai man needing to wear women’s clothes to sleep to escape the ‘sleeping-death syndrome’) in a no less than 10 different languages including Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Tagalog, Mandarin, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Hokkien. It is also interesting that what could have been a series of interviews with these real immigrants has evolved into play-acting. These immigrants act out their own lives, views and feelings in 8 fictional shoe-box dramas.     
This film will be screened again this month at the Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum under the ArtScience on Screen programme. ArtScience on Screen explores the intersection between art and science using moving image, video and film. In a rolling programme, ArtScience on Screen features a range of exciting filmmakers and artists from Singapore and beyond, at various stages of their careers.  This season, the theme is Water. The curated feature-length narrative films, which include ‘Flooding in the Time of Drought’, cover themes as broad as climate change, ocean conservation, cultural heritage, memory, play, romance and death.

Apart from Sherman, the series features prominent Southeast Asian artists and filmmakers such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Woo Ming Jin, Charliebebs Gohetia, Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo and Kamila Andini. In Apichatpong’s ‘Mekong Hotel’ water is the source of, and backdrop for conflict and depravity. Woo Ming Jin uses his camera to tell stories and ‘Woman On Fire Looks for Water’ is a cinematographic masterwork surrounding the vanishing tradition of fishing for livelihood in Malaysia. Charlibebs Gohetia’s ‘Chasing Waves’ offers a glimpse into two young boys’ imaginations on the brink of their families being torn apart by adverse environmental and political climates. Kamila Andini’s ‘The Mirror Never Lies’, a masterfully told story of an Indonesian fishing village on the verge of irreparable crisis.  

Here are the screening details:
Venue: Expression Gallery, Level 4, ArtsScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands
Date & Time:
- Flooding in the time of Drought  -
  (7 Feb) - 11am, 3pm
  (12 Feb) - 11am, 3pm
  (13 Feb) - 11am, 3pm
  (20 Feb) - 11am, 3pm
  (23 Feb) - 11am, 3pm
- Mekong Hotel (2 Feb) - Screening on the hour, every hour from 11am - 6pm
- The Mirror Never Lies (3 Feb) - 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm
- Woman on Fire Looks for Water (4 Feb) - 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm
- Chasing Waves (5 Feb) - 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm
Entry by admission to ArtScience Museum.

Check out the film synopses of all the films here. 

The film has travelled well on the film festival circuit over the years. Here is a list of the festivals it has screened at:
2013
• Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (Cinema), Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane
• Casa Asia Madrid & Barcelona, Spain

2011
• Unseen: Cinema of the 21st Century, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia

2010
• Malaysia, Singapore Cinema! Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
• Rainbow Asia, Hangaram Museum, Seoul Art Centre, Korea
• Rotterdam International Film Festival, Netherlands
• Rome Asian Film Festival, Italy
• Barcelona Asian Film Festival, Spain

2009
• Code Share: 10 Biennales, 20 Artists, Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, Lithuania
• South Australia Contemporary Art Centre, Australia
• Asian Competition, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong SAR
• Competition Cinema Digital Seoul, Korea
• Bangkok World Film Festival Thailand


"Decades from now, these movies are going to serve as some of the most authentic cinematic documents of how we actually lived in Singapore in the early 21st century. I'm impressed."- Ny Yi-Sheng (Poet, Playwright, Singapore Literature Prize 2008) on ‘Flooding in the Time of Drought’

More reviews on the film in the film's blog site.

About Sherman Ong

Sherman is one of SE Asia’s most celebrated filmmakers, photographers and visual artists. His practice is centered on the human condition and our relationships with others within the larger milieu. Winner of the prestigious 2010 ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Award, Ong has premiered works in Art Biennales, major Film Festivals and Museums around the world.

Written by Jeremy Sing

For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10 Feb 2017: 'Time Tomorrow', starring Ng Chin Han

February 1, 2017, 8:38 am
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Remember that early scene in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, when the mobsters of Gotham meet in a nondescript kitchen with some guy on a TV screen, just before they are interrupted by the Joker?
This guy

The Joker does not approve
The target of the Joker's disapproval is played by none other than Singaporean actor Ng Chin Han, now often credited simply as Chin Han in such Hollywood fare as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Roland Emmerich's 2012 and the upcoming adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. (His actual surname was probably too formidable an obstacle for American audiences to parse.)

But before Ng made his foray into Hollywood, he developed his acting chops in the Singaporean television scene of the 1990s. This included his starring role in Time Tomorrow (1993), the first English-language telemovie made in Singapore, which will be screened this February as part of Objectifs'Watch Local 2017 festival.

Three Reasons Why You Should Catch Time Tomorrow on the Big Screen

1) Witness a younger Chin Han in action
How does a Singaporean actor make his way into Hollywood? A good start, it seems, is to master the kind of atas Queen's English elocution that was sought after by the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)—which soon became TCS, and later the Mediacorp of today—for its baby steps at what would evolve into the Channel 5 dramas of the mid-1990s like Growing Up.

This elocution is harnessed in Time Tomorrow for the winning meet-cute between Jen (Chin Han) and Laura (Suzanna Ho), two students at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, in which one of them enunciates perfectly to the other, "Can I have some plain water please?" (Listen for all those plosive 'p's!) This Anglo-centric milieu is a perfect backdrop for us to discover that 'Jen' is actually short for Lin Jen Wan—an amusing irony in hindsight, given the eventual fate of Chin Han's own name. Time Tomorrow further indulges this Anglo-centric irony, unwittingly or not, by giving us a scene where Jen fumbles through an attempt at Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, still a keystone for romances in the English language, in a bid to charm Laura.


Jen (Chin Han, on left)
... meets Laura (Suzanna Ho, on left)

2) Enjoy a time-warp genre film
Yet Time Tomorrow is also not content to settle for being a straightforward romantic comedy. Instead, it sharpens its dramatic teeth by revealing, in its opening scenes, that Laura was shot to death by someone robbing a shopping mall, leaving behind a bereaved Jen. His grief is complicated, however, when he bumps into Laura two weeks after her funeral. Is this a sign of Jen's grief manifesting into a resurrected Laura, or is this a Laura imposter who harbours more sinister motives? Furthermore, what should we make of this new Laura's frequent flashbacks to, and encounters with, the man who supposedly killed her?


As it turns out, Time Tomorrow doesn't quite want to be a Singaporean hall-of-mirrors version of a classic film noir, even though its plot seems to draw inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) or Otto Preminger's Laura (after whom the telemovie's lead female character might have been named). Rather, Time Tomorrow commits more readily to the kind of populist scifi B-movie aesthetic associated with the Doctor Who franchise, as implied in the wibbly-wobbly choice of a title like Time Tomorrow. This new Laura, it seems, has been hurtled forward in time from ten years back, as suggested by a sequence filled with earnestly cheesy footage of lightning storms and roiling thunder clouds. What results is an hour-long feature that dabbles in light musings about romantic fatalism, reminiscent of other genre pieces like The Time Traveler's Wife or The Lake House.
Star-crossed by time itself

3) Relive your 90s nostalgia
As is befitting of a movie so bound up in time, Time Tomorrow also offers up the pleasures of a time capsule. The telemovie is replete with throwbacks to the 1990s, starting with everyone's fashion sense: oversized glasses, side-slicked hair and roomy shirts for the men; pearl jewellery, coiffed hairdos and tanned skin for the women. Locales visited include a pre-ION Orchard Road and a university snack stall selling 'Titbits'.

Anyone who grew up or lived through the 90s will have a blast with every bygone thing that pops up onscreen, including those squat orange payphones or the white-and-red SBS buses. Indeed, one character actually takes the time to explain the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to another ("You know, like the underground trains in London?"), which might be a welcome shock to audiences that have always known it to exist. "We have to make the most of our time together," says Laura at one point, and nothing testifies to that more than the once-familiar sights that populate the movie but that no longer remain in our lives.

Despite its title, then, Time Tomorrow might be best appreciated as an ode to a Singapore of yesteryear: at the cusp of a Singaporean actor's Hollywood career, at the dawn of a television corporation's foray into the English-language medium, and as a peek into one era of modern Singapore even as it moved into the next.

Written by Colin Low

Time Tomorrow will be screened on 11 February at 2pm as part of Objectifs'Watch Local 2017 series, at the Objectifs Chapel Gallery.
Entry by donation.
Register via Peatix: watchlocal2017.peatix.com

For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10 Feb 2017: 'Eating Air' by Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng

February 1, 2017, 8:40 am
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Eating Air and Billy Liar is a double-bill screening that is part of National Museum of Singapore's Cinémathèque Selects Programme. The films will be screened on 11 February 2017, Saturday at 2pm. Eating Air // 吃风 is a "motorcycle kung-fu love story" directed and produced by Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng in Singapore's film revival decade in the 1990s. Its English title is a literal translation of the Chinese word for joyride. Shortly after the film's release, it was invited to participate in the Rotterdam International Film Festival and the Hong Kong International Film Festival. The plot revolves around the lives of a gang of teenagers who spend their time hanging out in a video arcade, riding on motorcycles and fighting with other gangs. There is a sweet love story: Ah Boy meets Ah Girl and they fall in love. Kelvin Tong sees the motorcycle as an apt metaphor for youth: noisy, fast and accident-prone. As for the kung-fu, you'll have to watch it to find out.

Watching Eating Air is definitely a ride. The film uses many tools in its arsenal to make the experience unexpected and fun. For example, a fight between rival gangs is set against animated sounds and edited to parallel that of a Street Fighter game with "You Win!" across the screen. A smart move that not only enables the film to bypass the censors despite its implied violence, but also brings up the interiority of the gangsters and how they view their nightly activities.

Beneath the film's stylish exterior is a serious look at one of the marginalized groups in society: the youth who are labelled as "delinquents" or "good-for-nothings" when the odds are already stacked against them. The frequent use of public spaces as backdrops for key moments may on one hand show that these youth feel that they belong in the public spaces they inhabit, yet being forced out into public spaces is one facet of their marginalization. The film is strangely void of adult characters and when they do appear, they have hardly any dialogue. Actor-comedian Mark Lee is the sole adult character in the film with substantial screen time. He plays Lao Beng, an old time gangster with exaggerated tales of bravado based loosely on true events. The thin line between illusion and reality in these characters' lives, and how they use illusion to cope with reality, creates a sympathetic portrait of the teenagers even as the paths to their future become narrower and narrower throughout the film. 



We spoke briefly with Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng ahead of this screening.

Eating Air is billed as “a motorcycle kung-fu love story”. Would you also describe it as a tale of disillusionment and/or a coming-of-age film? 

Eating Air is a coming-of-age film but we prefer to call it a motorcycle kung-fu love story. It sounds so much more fun. There are thousands of coming-of-age films out there but so far, I think there’s only one motorcycle kung-fu love story. 

When was the last time you watched it again? How did you feel watching it so many years later? 

We saw it a few months ago when NTU organised a film festival. We should be so bored of the film after all these years but we found ourselves still giggling when the CTE-tunnel-meets-photocopier opening sequence starts up. We were foolish when we shot our first film. I guess our first film still makes us feel foolish even now. 

Favourite part of the film? Looking back now, if you could change one part of the film, which one would it be? 

The musical portion of the film with clanging kopi cups, kiddie rides and fist fight. Looking back, we had so much fun shooting it we wish we had made it even longer and more ambitious. Perhaps even incorporating traffic jams on the Benjamin Sheares bridge. That would have been wild.

Billy Liar (1963)
What is the rationale for choosing Schlesinger's Billy Liar to accompany the screening of Eating Air? 
Billy Liar was a big inspiration for us. Billy’s habit of daydreaming and fantasising his way out of the tedium and narrow confines of his life gave us the idea for Ah Boy’s character in Eating Air.

About Cinematheque Selects


Cinémathèque Selects is a monthly double-bill screening that profiles the boldest filmmakers and most inventive productions from Singapore’s past to its present.

Focusing on diverse aspects of film-making, from directing to producing, script writing to cinematography and art direction, the series uncovers lesser-known local productions and features significant films in Singapore’s cinematic landscape.

Each film screening is accompanied by a conversation with the filmmaker and a second film guest that has influenced the filmmaker on a personal and professional level.


Screening Details:

Date: 11 February 2017
Time: Eating Air - 2pm; Billy Liar - 5pm
Venue: National Museum Gallery Theatre (basement)
Tickets can be purchased in the following link.
Free seating



Written by Jacqueline Lee

For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10 Feb 2017: '1987: Untracing the Conspiracy'

February 1, 2017, 8:45 am
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On 11 February 2017 at The Projector, a local documentary titled 1987: Untracing the Conspiracy will be screened. While the film has been screened before, we strongly recommend this film for so boldly taking on a sensitive yet important topic and the film had been awarded the Best Southeast Asian Feature at Freedom Film Festival 2015. The event will also feature a post-screening Q&A with some of the ex-detainees and the director, Jason Soo, a graduate of visual and media arts from the University of Melbourne. Aside from being an independent filmmaker he is also an adjunct lecturer in art history.

The film covers Operation Spectrum,an operation where 22 people were arrested under Singapore’s Internal Security Act (ISA) in 1987, accused of being involved in a Marxist conspiracy to establish a communist state. The detainees were tortured and then coerced into implicating themselves and their friends on public television. Featuring interviews with ex-detainees and political exiles, the film focuses on the first 30 days of their ordeal, including various physical and psychological techniques used by their interrogators. 

Here are excerpts of our interview with Jason, done in 2015.
  
What first piqued your interest in Operation Spectrum?

I started with the intention of making a film that would express the best and worst of Singapore. And for many years, I tried to find or write a story that would do this. It wasn’t until I read the book Beyond The Blue Gate by ex-detainee Teo Soh Lung that I realised I had found my film. In a period when the term “activism” was not even widely used, the detainees were engaged in various forms of social work, whether directly in organisations such as Geylang Catholic Centre, or indirectly through social criticism in plays and books. And the worst of Singapore was not just how the detainees were imprisoned without trial and tortured, but also how society allowed such abuses to take place. Each and every one of us has to take some responsibility for Operation Spectrum. Each and every one of us did not do enough to change the system that made such abuses possible. Our indifference or our lack of solidarity allowed this system to persist, even up till today.



What do you hope to achieve with this documentary in terms of in the public sphere?

The story of Operation Spectrum should be known by every Singaporean. It should be also be in the school textbooks. And taught to every student not just in the way previous security exercises like Operation Coldstore have been falsified, but as a lesson in the abuse of power and the consequences of that abuse.

In Singapore however, education has become less and less about empowering the citizen with critical thought and knowledge. It is now oriented towards a kind of job training, so that the individual becomes skilled at performing a specific number of tasks.

So we have to ask, do we really have a public sphere that we can speak of? Who is the Singapore public? Does it even exist, in the concrete, effective sense of the term, as a space of real, meaningful contestation? We should therefore make a distinction between what we call a people as opposed to a population. In Singapore, the people do not yet exist. They do not yet exist as a real, meaningful collective. What we have instead, is a population. In other words, a numerical entity, a figure that is measured, managed, and manipulated through statistics and publicity campaigns. What we therefore need is to create a people, a collective force who can express their will in a larger movement or who can express solidarity with the people around them. This does not yet exist, or only in very limited forms.

I believe cinema is one way to help make these people come into being.

There will be a plethora of difficulties you will encounter in the making and distribution of this documentary; why go through with it and what are your greatest concerns for yourself and for its censorship within the state?

Censorship is a problem. But an even bigger problem is self-censorship. Censorship is easier to resist because it is much more visible, and we know what we are up against. But today, the way in which control works is harder to detect, because it is imbedded in us, within us. The person being censored faces a power external to him, but the person who is censoring himself has internalised that power, and he now regulates himself. So the difference between censorship and self-censorship is this difference between an older, repressive method and a new form of power and control that is less visible and hence more efficient. You could even say that this new form of power produces us. We are the products of control. And if we resist, it is to go against these forms of control that produce us, that gives us our individuality, and that determine the very fibre of our being, how we should or should not think, act, or behave. The emphasis on individuality in modern consumer societies is a tool of control. We have to go beyond the individual, and create a sense of solidarity with each other. This does not mean we have to subjugate ourselves within a collective; it means mastering ourselves rather than regulating ourselves; it also means finding new forms of collectivity based not on conformism but on differences. Easier said than done. But we first need to have the desire to do all this. And the awareness to understand how control takes place in our societies.



Is there a greater statement you wish to reveal with this film?

Besides the untold stories of the arrests, interrogations, and torture, the focus of the film is on how something like detention without trial can happen. That means not just the existence of a law in order to carry out the arrests, but also the existence of supplementary institutions in order to legitimise it in public opinion. This was of course done through the mass media and through parliamentary debates. So purportedly democratic institutions such as parliament, the judiciary, and the mass media are complicit in the whole affair.

We all know how in the absence of an effective opposition, we have a dysfunctional parliament in which laws are passed without meaningful debates. As for the judiciary, Jothie Rajah has written an important book in which she makes a distinction “rule of law” and “rule by law”, in which we have the appearance but not the substance of legality. As for the mass media, given that the government enjoys de facto control over broadcasters and newspapers, public opinion can be easily manipulated.

So all these people working in these institutions have a role to play in the unfolding of the story of Operation Spectrum. Each of them has a role to play in order to legitimise the arrests. And each of them could have done something different.

Can you talk about any unexpected revelations or discoveries that surprised you the most?

One of the things that surprised me most when I was researching the film was a BBC news report from 1990. It described how Singapore was already at that time importing huge numbers of foreign labour. And that’s why the ex-detainees at Geylang Catholic Centre were already grappling with the same issues that organisations such as HOME and TWC2 are facing today. So when the arrests happened, not only was civil society crippled for the next 20 years, problems such as the lack of workers’ protection, incorporation of workers’ unions into government-led organisations, lack of minimum wage, low birth rates, all these were carried over from the 1980s till today, they become even harder to solve, with the added problems of rising xenophobia, infrastructural deficiencies, lack of economic innovation, etc.

I’m not saying of course that had Operation Spectrum not happened, these problems would not exist today. But this is just an example of how something like the Internal Security Act cannot be taken in isolation. It’s not just a law that exists on its own. It has consequences for the rest of society. We should be concerned. Because we’re still suffering those consequences today.

Check out the trailer:



Tickets are available here.

For more information on the film, regarding its development into a feature, the crew and funding, you can visit the website here.

Original interview by Chris Yeo
Edited by Rifyal Giffari

For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10 Feb 2017: 'Early Morning Awakening', adapted from Haresh Sharma's 'Off Centre'

February 1, 2017, 8:47 am
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With its bold and tender depictions of mental illness, Haresh Sharma's Off Centre became the first ever Singapore play to be offered at the O Level examinations, and remains one of the landmark works of The Necessary Stage. In his notes on the play, Sharma recalls how the theatre company chose in 1993 to turn down the Ministry of Health's $30,000 funding in order to refuse the ministry's request for 'less extreme depictions of mental illness.'

In 2003, the play was adapted for the TV channel Arts Central into the one-hour telemovie Early Morning Awakening, starring Yeo Yann Yann and Daniel Hutchinson. It will be screened this February as part of Objectifs' Watch Local 2017 festival. Below, we touch on three intriguing adaptation choices that were made in the process of bringing Off Centre from stage to screen:

1) The casting of Yeo Yann Yann and Daniel Hutchinson
Off Centre is known for the delicate pas de deux between its leads Vinod and Saloma, who are bound in their status as mental health patients and racial minorities even in spite of their differences: Vinod, an outspoken manic-depressive university student; Saloma, a timid schizophrenic ITE graduate.

Yet, for Early Morning Awakening, the casting of Daniel Hutchinson and Yeo Yann Yann meant, naturally, that these characters had to be adjusted in ethnicity and name to fit their actors. The result was the racially nondescript 'Mark' and the very Chinese 'Mayling', and an excising of Sharma's trademark blend of non-English languages into his dialogue, especially between Saloma/Mayling and her mother. Nonetheless, Hutchinson and Yeo press on admirably, abetted by directors Gozde and Russel Zehnder's bold filming of the adaptation as though we live in these characters' headspaces.



2) Title swap
Perhaps these fundamental changes made it easier for the powers that be to choose an alternative title for the telemovie, opting against Off Centre in fear that it would not live up to audiences' expectations to see the play filmed intact. The new title, Early Morning Awakening, comes from a phenomenon explained in both the play and film: "You wake up at two, three in the morning and feel very depressed. You can't sleep. You keep thinking and thinking. But nothing helps."

In many ways, the difference in the two titles reflects the key aesthetic differences between the play and film. Off Centre, with its blunt syllabic stresses at the start of both words, follows the way that its characters are always off-kilter and threaten to spiral out of control. Its meaning is reflected, too, in the striking theatrical choice to have Vinod start the play sitting at the edge of the stage, talking to the audience as they enter and making use of that unconventional fourth-wall breakage to reflect the character's madness. (That technique has since been aped by many plays in the name of 'interactive theatre', but never quite with the same impact and purpose.)

By contrast, the title Early Morning Awakening is softened by the feminine rhyming of 'morning' and 'awakening' as well as the soothing rhythms of the lengthened phrase, which better reflects the more circular, less plot-driven approach that the Zehnders have taken to the telemovie adaptation. Unlike in Off Centre, the film doesn't drive itself to a sobering climax, but loses us amid the off-beat rhythms that the characters find themselves in.

3) The completely altered ending / use of narrators
Another signature choice made in Off Centre is the way Vinod and Saloma flit between their status as narrators and characters, until the climactic moment when Vinod drives his 'narrator' persona away, hence toppling into the play's heartbreaking final scene. Naturally, this works better in the theatre as a canny use of stage conventions, and might not translate as well onto the screen. 

Early Morning Awakening retools the play's climax completely, changing the role of narration and the status of one of the play's minor characters, and producing an unexpected, tragic ending that is entirely its own.





Written by Colin Low

Early Morning Awakening will be screened on 11 February at 4pm as part of Objectifs' Watch Local 2017 series, at the Objectifs Chapel Gallery.
Entry by donation.
Register via Peatix: watchlocal2017.peatix.com

For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10 Feb 2017: 'The Drum' by Ler Jiyuan

February 1, 2017, 10:02 am
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The Drum is a film commissioned by the National Arts Council for the Silver Arts Festival 2016, a festival connecting the elderly with the arts and will premiere in Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France this February. It will also be premiering at The Smalls APAC Film Festival in Singapore held at The Projector on the 11 February 2017.


The film is directed by Ler Jiyuan, more known for this television work on Channel 5 such as Code of Law (2013) and Zero Calling (2014). In this film, he returns to collaborate with writer Dave Chua. They previously worked together on the telemovie adaptation of Gone Case (2014).

The Drum is an unhurried and tender view of a retired man, Kang, played by ex-TV actor Wang Yu Qing (王昱清), who brings a subtle mix of lugubriousness, frustration and broken vigour as he struggles against the onset of a later-life crisis. His problems seem plenty, with his forced retirement from the army, his divorced son’s returning home to live with him and the haunting thoughts of death.













These numerous obstacles are beset on him to create a sympathetic character. However, it taints the film with a slightly heavy touch of melodrama and leads us early on with an expectation of cliché. Fortunately, it never leans on those dramatic aspects too much and veers itself right to focus more on Kang's quiet inner struggle.


The refreshing twist and hook of the film is a pair of Indian tabla drums left behind by his ex-tenant, through which he attempts to seek solace. It also provides a humorous juxtaposition when Kang takes a class to learn the table. Delightfully, director Ler manages to mostly avoid using the instrument and the culture it comes from in a gimmicky way or succumb to tokenism.


The resolution is poignant though arguably rather simplistic, with Kang's problems not really resolved in any tangible and meaningful way. As much as the arts is a meaningful outlet and has its therapeutic capacities, it feels as though Kang's many problems are swept under the rug rather than addressed.

Overall, the film is a beautifully shot, openhearted look at life as an elderly, with a great sound design and score helped by bursts of tabla, creating a potent mix of the sentimental and at times the surreal, either for humour or dread.

Ler Jiyuan is a director based in Singapore, including high-profile TV drama serials Fiends and Foes, Code of Law, The Pupil, In Cold Blood, Perfect Deception, Confessions of Crime, Anything Goes and Zero Calling.

Catch the trailer for The Drum here:


Here are the event details:

Date: 11th February 2017
Venue: The Projector
Time: 7pm to 9.30pm

Event Flow
7:00pm – Registration (SFS members, invited guests and public)
7:30pm – Introduction by The Smalls & Screening (90 mins)
9:15pm – Post-screening networking with complimentary F&B (SFS members and invited guests only)

Shorts Flow
1. Fulfilament (UK) - Animation
2. The Drum (Singapore) - Drama
3. The Shining Stars of Losers Everywhere (USA) - Documentary
4. Hero (Singapore) - Drama/Action
5. The Wonderful Flight (Mongolia) - Drama
6. Eclipse (Singapore) - Animation
7. Night Stalker (USA) - Music Video/Animation
(Note: Shorts not in English language will be accompanied by English subtitles)

Admission:
- If you are an SFS member, you get in for free
- If you are an SFS Reel Card holder, you can get in for free also bring up to 2 guests
- If you are not a member you can sign up as a member for $95.68; or your could buy the SFS Reel Cards at either $95.68 (for 20 shows) or $53.62 (for 6 shows)
- If you are not an SFS member and just want to pay for the event only, it is $8

For more details and purchase tickets, head down to this link.

Written by Rifyal Giffari

For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10 Feb 2017: 'The Return' by Green Zeng

February 1, 2017, 10:04 am
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SINdie had the opportunity to catch The Return by Green Zeng at its Asian Premiere as part of the Singapore International Film Festival in 2015. It is the first feature film by multi-disciplinary artist Green Zeng and had garnered international attention after having been selected for the Venice International Film Critics' Week in July 2015.

The film follows Wen, an ex-political detainee, as he returns to society after many years of imprisonment. We follow his journey in rediscovering a Singapore, both the familiar and new, in expected and unexpected ways. It is an expansive and ambitious story to tell which remains relevant in this day of increasing political awareness both locally and internationally.

Back in 2015, we wrote a review (click here) and also conducted a Production Talk interview with Green on his journey in creating his first feature film (click here).

In under 2 years, The Return has been part of the official selection at various International Film festivals including Cairo International Film Critics' Week (2015), ASEAN Cinema Hanoi International Film Festival (2016), Luang Prabang Film Festival (2016) and in competition at the International Film Festival of Kerala (2016). We are certainly very glad to see 'The Return' get its local release at Filmgarde Bugis+ on 23 February 2017.


We caught up with director Green for a quick update chat.

Since its Asian Premier in Singapore in 2015, how has the journey been to general release at the end of this month?

I am excited that The Return is finally having its theatrical release at Filmgarde Bugis+ on 23 Feb 2017. It took us slightly more than a year but I am delighted that we finally managed to secure a commercial release.

As we did not take the conventional route in making this film, we knew that it would be a challenge to secure a theatrical release in Singapore. Small independent films often struggle to find a cinema to exhibit their films and we are grateful that Han Minli of Filmgarde Cineplex has given us this opportunity to show our film there. Such supportive cinema operators are important in helping our local film industry grow. It has not been an easy journey but I am proud of the work that we have created despite the odds. I believe this little film of ours can provide a unique experience to cinema audiences in Singapore.

In the various international film screenings, what has been the most unique response to the film?

Recently the film had its Indian premiere at the 21st International Film Festival of Kerala and it was the most memorable screening I have attended so far. Our first screening was on a weekday on 9am and I was surprised to see that the 900-seat house was full. The audience response was also unforgettable as they were spontaneous and warm. They clapped when the title of the film appeared and they clapped at certain important moments of the film too. At the Q&A after the screening, they asked some very interesting and thought-provoking questions about the film and Singapore. I have never witnessed any audience so passionate about cinema. It is certainly one of the most film literate and interesting cinema audiences that I have ever encountered.

Do you feel that The Return would strike a cord in today's increasing political uneasiness internationally?

I believe The Return will strike a cord anywhere in the world as the film’s themes of sacrifice, change, separation and beliefs are quite universal. The film’s narrative is quite classic and Homeric as it is about the journey of a man who is displaced and struggles to find his way home, and when he finally reaches home, he finds that his home is no longer the same anymore.How did the actor " Chen Tianxiang" prepare for the role? Is he personally familiar with student activist movements of the past?

Our lead actor Chen Tianxiang said that he is familiar with the Chinese student movement as he grew up in those times. He had friends and schoolmates who were involved in the movement but he himself did not participate in any of the student movement activities. He also mentioned that he does not know any political detainees personally but was aware that some people were detained for associating with the communists.

As such, he understood the context of the film so I didn't have to tell him much about it. As he is also an experienced actor, he grasped the motivation of the political detainee character very well and slipped into the role without any difficulty. 

What were some of the best things said about the film (from foreigners and from Singaporeans)?

The Venice International Critics’ week selection committee told us it was an unanimous  decision among them to select the film for the festival. They also told us they really liked the film’s premise and universal themes as well as the direction, strong acting and visual treatment. 

The local feedback for the film was generally positive, with people thanking us for making the film. Some found it "deeply moving" and beautiful ("every frame is stunning") whilst others appreciated the creative direction and great acting.



For more information on the film:
Official website - http://www.thereturn-movie.com/
Facebook - www.facebook.com/thereturn.sg

Official film trailer:

Written by Ivan Choong
For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10 Feb 2017: 'Siew Lup' by Sam Loh

February 1, 2017, 3:00 pm
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Having made waves with his debut The Outsider, and his sophomore Lang Tong, filmic enfant terrible Sam Loh returns to the sexy and the macabre with the second entry to his femme fatale trilogy, Siew Lup.

When Mia, an ex-prostitute trapped in a loveless marriage with the abusive butcher Quan, meets sensitive funeral director Wu, their mutual passion escalates into an affair. However, the plot only thickens from here on; the path to true love is fraught with jealousy, and sooner or later, someone is forced into making a deadly move...




Inspired by genre films of East Asia like Takashi Miike's Audition and Kim Jee-woon's I Saw the Devil, Sam Loh's third cinematic outing is a sleek and devilish ride into an erotic and ultraviolent side of Singapore that you will never see.

The film stars Melody Low, who caught the attention of Singapore's social media sphere with her ample assets when she appeared in Ah Boys to Men star Tosh Zhang's SG50 tribute music video Lingo Lingo. However, Melody will not be the one stripping. Instead, it is her co-star Rebecca Chen who does the brave job. Rebecca is a professional nightclub dancer. They act opposite Sunny Pang, a regular face on Singapore cinema and Louis Wu, who has also appeared in several movies.

Read our interview with director Sam Loh, our very first cover guy for SINdie Magazine, here.

Siew Lup is produced by mm2 Entertainment, and would be out in cinemas in Singapore on 23 February.

Written by Alfonse Chiu

For the full list of February 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.
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STOP10: 10 local films to catch in February 2017

February 1, 2017, 5:00 pm
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The collage visual we created for our landing page banner is an ode to Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng’s seminal film in the late 90s, Eating Air. We tried to create it in the manga-comic style of Eating Air’s film poster.


If there is a film among February’s STOP10 list that encapsulates the spirit of most of the films selected, it would be Eating Air, which will screen at the National Museum on 11 February. When it was first released, it pushed the boundaries of stylistics and directorial treatment among the early Singapore films. In other words, it was a film that stuck up its middle finger at convention or comfort.

Most of the other nine recommended films, by our choice or by the cosmic alignment of the sun, moon and stars, have as much of an attitude as well. Be prepared to feel uncomfortable with films like 1987: Untracing the Conspiracy, The Return and Flooding in the Time of Drought. But expect to be unknowingly rewarded from the experience. Be tickled and yet baffled by Wong Tai Foong (aka WTF). Be even more amused by Time Tomorrow, Singapore’s 1st telemovie, but be thoroughly entertained. To end off February, be all hot and bothered with Siew Lup (烧腊), an erotic thriller that gives you a stronger aftertaste than char siew.
You ready for STOP10?

Wong Tai Foong
Viddsee, Singapore Shorts
A security guard stumbles upon a certain magical power - he finds himself being able to switch lives with the owners of the lost wallets he’s picked up. He gets to experience life as a maid, a bartender, a young man and an old woman. He gets to break out of his ‘zone of security’, get it? Quirky story aside, this short film really hooks you with its staccato-paced editing, music video style visuals and its never-ending stream of oddball surprises. It’s so weird it actually makes sense on its own terms! Not to mention, there are traces of Amelie, the French film that stars Audrey Tatou, in it. Even the security guard sports the same hair bangs as Amelie. No, wait. Actually he looks more like a male version of iconic artist Yayoi Kusama.
Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.

Closer Apart (團圓)
Viddsee, ‘At the Dinner Table’ – a CNY channel
Local comedian Henry Thia is capable of looking serious as well and this is a rare look at Henry Thia in a serious role as a father. In fact, it’s so serious, he actually breaks down in tears and we realise he slips into naturalistic acting quite well too. This short film is about how a father feels alienated by his family members who do not appreciate the things he has done. His wife nags at home and his children seem to trivialise the things he does. So he decides to do something drastic. Don’t try this at home though.
Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.

Flooding in the Time of Drought
7,12,13,20,23 Feb, 11am & 3 pm, ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands
The ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands has pulled together a line-up of feature films under its theme ‘Water’, as part of the ArtScience on Screen series. Some of the most exciting director names in Asia are featured, including Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Woo Ming Jin, Charliebebs Gohetia, Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo, Kamila Andini and Sherman Ong.
Flooding in the Time of Drought by Sherman Ong, was made for the 2008 Biennale and has travelled to several Asian and European film festivals. Perhaps, it can go down in history as the local film with the most number of languages spoken. A total of 10 different languages are spoken including Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Tagalog, Mandarin, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Thai, Indonesian, Malay and Hokkien!
Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.

Time Tomorrow
11 Feb, Sat, 2pm, Objectifs Chapel Gallery
In 1991, Zoe Tay made waves as Bobo in the riveting Channel 8 drama Pretty Faces. In 1994, Channel 5 released its iconic drama series Masters of the Sea where Margaret Chan displayed her cockroach-crushing powers. Triple Nine was in 1995. VR Man (remember VR Man?) was in 1998. Time Tomorrow was in 1993, and that was Singapore’s first ever telemovie, born at a time when producers thought dubbing Channel 8 dramas in English were a good idea. Apart from a trip down memory lane and a chance to laugh at yesteryear’s fashions, Time Tomorrow stars Ng Chin Han, who has gone on to appear in Hollywood flicks like The Dark Knight and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The telemovie is about man who meets the younger self of his murdered wife from 10 years ago. Good if you are into time-warp, paranormal fare.
Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.

Eating Air
11 Feb, Sat, 2pm, National Museum of Singapore Gallery Theatre
This film belongs to the Sg Film Hall of Fame. It burst into the film scene in 1999 with its suave depiction of youth and its raw energy, personified by gangsters shuttling around in roaring motorcycles, literally chasing air! Eating Air, co-directed by Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng, is arguably Kelvin Tong’s ground-breaker, just like what Mee Pok Man is to Eric Khoo and 15 to Royston Tan. Even though he’s built an impressive track-record of commercial hits like The Maid and Rule No.1, many people still remember Eating Air fondly for its inimitable style. Oh yes, Michelle Chong doing accents onscreen had its humble beginnings in Eating Air!
This screening is part of a pairing under the National Museum Cinematheque Selects Showcase. It will be screened with Billy Liar. Both directors Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng of Eating Air will be present for a discussion on the film.
Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.

1987: Untracing the Conspiracy
11 Feb, Sat, 2.30pm, The Projector
This film is not for you if you just want to smell the roses and take your mind on a holiday for the weekend. But sometimes, we experience those mindset-shifting moments in our lives that open up new aspirations and somehow, come back on a Monday finding a sudden burst of energy and purpose. This is one film that could do that. 1987: Úntracing the Conspiracy is documentary film about Operation Spectrum, in which 22 people were arrested under the Singapore Internal Security Act in 1987 and detained without trial. They were subsequently imprisoned for 3 years and then coerced to appear on national television to ‘confess’ in order to close the loop of the operation.
This film is not just about revisiting an uncomfortable past. Like all good documentary films, it poses questions to us about our understanding of history and the social systems around us. As Singaporeans, we owe it to ourselves to generate more healthy debate about issues. So for those who are interested, watching this film will be a potentially rewarding experience. After all, the film won Best Southeast Asian Feature at Freedom Film Festival 2015. There is a post-screening Q&A that features director Jason Soo and some of the detainees.
Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.

Early Morning Awakening
11 Feb, Sat, 4pm, Objectifs Chapel Gallery
Golden Horse winner Yeo Yann Yann’s first English speaking role on TV was Mayling in Early Morning Awakening, a 2005 telemovie about mental illness, directed by Gozde Zehnder and Russell Zehnder. Mayling has lost her father and has limited contact with the outside world while Mark is an over-achiever who breaks down under pressure during National Service.  Mayling and Mark find a common bond with each other and begin to create a world between them. This film was first shown under the Stage to Screen series for the then Arts Central channel (now known as Okto) and is adapted from one of Singapore’s landmark theatre pieces, Off Centre, written by Haresh Sharma.
Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.

The Drum
11 Feb, Sat, 7.30pm, The Projector
When you see former TV actor Wang Yu Qing (王昱清) of the小飞鱼 (The Flying Fish) fame, playing a grandfather trying to put ‘active ageing’ into action, and you feel something for it, it means you are a Gen-X kid and time is catching up too. But don’t fear, this short film called The Drum, directed by Ler Jiyuan (who directed Channel 5’s ‘Code of Law’) promises to give you a new rhythm to live life to.
The film is about a recently retired man who has to get used to the absence of a work routine. His search for purpose lands him in a Tabla class. The effect is somewhat odd, funny and extremely liberating. The Drum has been selected for the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in February. The festival can be considered the holy grail for short films and it is one of 73 films selected out of 8,000 entries.
Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.

The Return
23 Feb, Thu, Filmgarde Bugis+
This film made its world premiere to a full house at the 30th Venice International Film Critics’ Week in September 2015, with many members of the audience staying behind for the Q&A session. Made on a modest budget and totally self-funded, The Return by Green Zeng is an example of a small production made big. The film is a fictional story about a political detainee who returns to society after many years of imprisonment and faces an uneasy reunion with his children and has to grapple with a Singapore transformed beyond anything familiar to him. Past and present collide in his journey to move on. The detainee is played by Chen Tianxiang, a veteran actor who has appeared in TV dramas over 40 years, right from his first drama serial, The Awakening on Channel 8 to the more recent 118. The film first premiered in Singapore at the 26th Singapore International Film Festival and this is its commercial run.

Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.

Siew Lup （烧腊）
23 Feb, Thu, cinemas islandwide
There are plenty of good reasons to watch Siew Lup and they don’t just come in pairs. Siew Lup is the sequel to Lang Tong, Sam Loh’s erotic thriller, a landmark film for commercial cinema in Singapore. The last time, it was Bak Kut Teh. This time, it’s Char Siew. A Char Siew seller’s wife is trapped in an abusive marriage and starts an affair with a handsome funeral director (didn't we see some hot funeral directors in the news of late?). Then violence and blood ensues.

Director Sam Loh promises this to be sexier and darker. It will also star 22-year-old Melody Low, a freelance actress-model-YouTube star, who shot to fame, for her, erm, cup size, after she appeared in Ah Boys To Men star Tosh Zhang's hip-hop music video Lingo Lingo in 2015. And yes, there WlLL be nudity, just to be clear.

Read more about the film and how you can watch it here.
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Between Good and Bad: An Interview with Maxi Lim

February 3, 2017, 8:00 am
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Maxi Lim is best known as Aloysius Jin in Ah Boys to Men, the kiasu mummy's boy. What many don't know is that he can play a gangster or a loanshark to perfection. He's acted in more than 100 short films, many more shot form video content, and a string of feature films like Ah Boys to Men 1,2 & 3, The Lion Men, 4Love and Take 2, being the most recent film which just opened in cinemas on 26 January this year. In Take 2, he plays one of 4 ex-convicts who try to start life afresh after prison and gets to display some mean martial arts moves. Certainly an actor who has paid his dues, Maxi shares with me the rocky road and unforgettable moments in his journey as an actor, as well as that La La Land moment before he landed his role in Ah Boys to Men.

I read that you played numerous roles in close to 100 short films. What have you been commonlycast as? When did this journey start?

I finished national service in 2009 and started as a stunt guy. Back when I was in the army in 2008, I was practising some martial arts and I got to know this person who brought me into industry as a stunt guy. As a stunt guy on set, I had to fight with actors without causing any hurt, both on them and on myself. 

It was during that time that I felt I could do some of the lines better than the actors, so I thought to myself but I was too shy to express what I thought.

Because on set there were always producers around, so some of them approached me and said “Hey, actually you look quite suitable for this role, do you want to come and try?’’

Following their invitation, I went ahead to audition without any experience, though I knew what was required of an actor, from my experience in directing during Polytechnic. So I marketed myself as someone with directing as well as martial arts experience, but very raw yet willing to try and learn. I gave my best and some of them liked what I did and word got passed around about me. Paid or not paid, I would go for auditions.

What kind of roles did you often find yourself playing at that time?

It was very easy to land gangster roles back then and I played villains most of the time, such as loan sharks. Then I slowly moved on to serial killers and very dark films that required a lot of acting but no dialogiue. It was only later that I started getting speaking roles and I finally got my first break in Ah Boys to Men.

Was Ah Boys to Men the dawn of nerdy Maxi?

Yes, it was. That was the first time I actually played a good guy. (pause) And from then on, I started getting all the goody-two-shoes mummy’s boy roles.



And now you are trying to get back the bad roles? (laughs)

Not exactly trying to get the bad roles but just trying to break away from the nerdy stereotype. With a bit of effort put into research, I can actually do a greater variety of roles. Like last year, I played this autistic guy in a Temasek Polytechnic short film called I Believe. At first I was a bit relunctant because I was thinking why are they trying to stereotype me again with these quirky roles? (pause) Then I had a word with the director and realised what he had in mind was very different. He was actually a cell group leader and the autistic guy I was playing was his cell group member. (pause) On hindsight, I am quite glad that he trusted me with the role, because I think my audition tape was awful! (laughs) Until now, I still harbour a little fear of auditions.

But do you have to audition for most of the roles you play?

Once in a while, I still have to audition. But most of the time, it is more like a sit-down meeting in which they want to chat with you and get a feel of you. They may throw some lines to you or pair you up with certain people and see how to you interact with them. And most of the time when you are called for such meetings, it means you have most likely secured the role.

What have the biggest sacrifices you have made for the roles you have played?

I think one of the biggest sacrifices I made was for Ah Boys to Men 3:Frogmen. This is because I have a phobia of water and I nearly drowned a few times in my life before.  So when they told me I have to learn swimming and diving for the movie. I was like huh! According to the script, I had to jump several stories into the water too and I had fear of heights also. But there was a risk of substitution if I could not do those things.

I remember I was 75 kg then and I worked so hard to reduce it to 64 kg. So the weight loss and overcoming the fears were the toughest parts. Thankfully I had very good trainers from the Naval Diving Unit who held my hand and made sure I did the things right. I remember there were some really difficult challenges like going deep underwater to pick things up as well as passing some compulsory tests. We were training almost everyday. Pretty crazy times!

Ah Boys to Men was your first crossover to the mainstream right?

Yes, that right. During a period close to my getting the role of Aloysius in Ah Boys to Men, I had gone for many auditions for various feature films. I was often in the final shortlist but at the last moment, they would drop me. So I was quite depressed at that time and I was actually quite reluctant to go for the Ah Boys to Men audition. In fact, I had already played 5 or 6 army short films that required me to shave my head.

So I said to myself perhaps I would give it one last shot. If it does not work, I would just leave the industry and find other opportunities elsewhere. (pause) So thankfully it has worked out for me.

Have you watched the movie La La Land?

Not yet.

Explains La La Land’s plot.

That was your La La Land moment.

Yes, you could say that. Haha.

I sort of gave myself a deadline. I had already gone to so many auditions. So one day I received a call from the Ah Boys to Men casting directors telling me they really liked me and they asked me to come down for a second audition. At that time, I had auditioned for 3 other roles in other films and was shortlisted. But eventually, I had the same response from these producers – ‘’Oh you were good but we need someone who is a bit more well-known, someone who is already there.’’

So I was very thankful Jack had in mind to cast completely fresh faces. We were actually all quite worried at that point in time. We were not established like Mark Lee or Henry Thia.

When the movie exploded and you had new found fame, how did you deal with it?

I think I was quite apprehensive at first. I had no idea how to deal with so much sudden attention - people coming up to you, getting stopped every 20 to 30 metres. And I had no public speaking experience.

But you still get fan mail?

Yes I do. And they still come down to support us for our subsequent movie promotions. It’s also interesting because back then they were younger. But now they are older, so they have been sort of growing up with me, getting into relationships, entering the army.  It was a nice process to see them growing up.

Did the new-found fame dilute your journey as an actor? Did it distract you sometimes?

I admit I was. I was carried away for a bit after Ah Boys to Men 2 was released. I saw good money and fame and thought to myself, maybe it was time to chill. Now looking back, I thought my performances were the worst during this period. I didn’t particularly like how I performed in Lion Men. So that was a lesson for me to work harder for the next project.

What makes you more nervous? Doing a dangerous stunt or acting beside Jackie Chan? (if you had a chance)

I think it would be acting beside Jackie Chan. I mean although we would be çolleagues on set but there would certainly be moments I would lapse into fan-boy mode. Even recently, I had those moments acting with Vincent Ng. I watched many of his shows growing up.

Who is the most famous person you acted with?

I acted with Danny Chan once. He played the goalkeeper in Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer and also appeared in Kungfu Hustle as well. It was for a teaser for a film project but the project didn’t materialise in the end due to certain reasons. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly acting with him. I was his stunt double. I had to learn moves and show it to him.

How different is your role in Take 2 from your other roles?

I think the main difference is for the bulk of the film I still have my hair (laughs). On a more serious note, it is having to speak in Mandarin. That is quite a challenge for me. If you remember, I spoke mostly English in Ah Boys to Men. So that was challenging for me. And it was tough to memorise the lines and lines got changed on the go. There was this scene I had to deliver a long monologue. It was about 3 to 4 pages long. That was an incredible challenge.


What kind of research did you have to do for your role? Did you speak to real convicts?

I did. And also prior to Take 2, I had the opportunity to speak to some people from the Yellow Ribbon Project to understand what kind of problems they had. In my own life, I also have friends who have served time in prison before for various reasons.

Any funny or memorable things happened with you on the set?

In Take 2, I played a teacher. I actually had a teaching stint before - I was teaching filmmaking in polytechnics as well as primary and secondary schools. In this film, I had to teach Maths. Though Maths wasn’t my strongest subject in school, I thought how hard can it be to play a Maths teacher. Then one night, around midnight, the crew suddenly sent me a whole bunch of Maths questions and asked me to memorise them! I had never done A Maths before and my call time was 6am! I was required to solve these Maths problems on the blackboard so I needed to know how the formulae worked. Everything overnight!


Also, initially, I was a bit worried because there was a caning scene. (pause) I was worried about whether I had to bare my butt again.

Haha! And you just bared for the camera in Ah Boys to Men3: Frogmen!

Yes! And the funny thing was the nude scene in Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen was not in the script at all and filming had already wrapped for 2 weeks! Then Jack had this idea and the production team called to tell me I had a number of new scenes and one of it was this scene. And you know because we had wrapped for 2 weeks and I had been cheating on my diet for 2 weeks so I started to panick! (laughs)

They told I had to put on a green thong and they will use CGI to complete the nude look. (pause) And when I was there, I realised they bought the wrong thong. So Jack said why don’t you just do it completely nude! Then thankfully, the crew got me some ‘coverage’ using some socks. So I was walking around like this for about 8 to 10 hours. And in this scene, because I just had my shower, I had to keep myself wet constantly.

You could be so awfully misquoted on that last sentence haha!

Yes exactly!

Finally, what would you say to new aspiring actors?

I would ask them what are they in for - are you just in it for the fame or do you really enjoy the craft of acting? These things are always on my mind. You have to be a glutton for rejection - 20 auditions, no roles, finalised for 3 feature films, didn’t get. And as you know in this industry, there are some bad paymasters, and you have to chase for payment. That could kill you financially. I was juggling many other part-time jobs to cover up for the jobs that took a long time to pay. If you are willing to put in the hard work, then you could give this journey a try.

Any plans for the future?

Honestly, as an actor, it is difficult to plan your career. You just give your best, hope it works well and more opportunities come. Having said that, now that I have a new body frame, I am hoping to find new opportunities in action films!


Go catch Take 2 in cinemas now!
Check out our feature on Take 2 under January's STOP10, which includes an interview with director Ivan Ho.

Interview by Jeremy Sing
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Review: The Fortune Handbook (2017)

February 8, 2017, 9:31 pm
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You know what to expect when it comes to a Chinese New Year movie: some laughs, some feel-good moments, a happy ending — and, as is increasingly the case with local commercial films, copious amounts of product placement.

And The Fortune Handbook, directed by Kelvin Sng (Taxi! Taxi!), sticks to the formula dutifully.

In the film, Mark Lee plays the Huat god, a fortune god-in-training who needs to earn his way to the position by getting people to worship him. He and other apprentice fortune gods get people to worship them by granting wishes, to the best of their ability. He winds up in a household comprising Soh Hock (Christopher Lee), a good-for-nothing bum; Ah Zhen (Vivian Lai), Soh Hock’s wife; and their perpetually squabbling son and daughter and starts fulfilling their hearts’ desires.

Soh Hock doesn’t get along with Ah Zhen’s hardworking brother, Hao Xing (Li Nanxing), who runs a successful pastry business. Deep in debt, Soh Hock tries to steal Hao Xing’s secret recipe for his Teochew pastries, hoping to sell it off and make a windfall. When he fails, he decides to enlist the help of the Huat god to turn his fortunes around.

Many plot elements in The Fortune Handbook make no sense. Why does one wish granted by the Huat god override another? (And I can't go into specifics without giving away big plot details.) If the fortune gods can travel freely to anywhere they desire, how do they get “caught” by an ipad app, and why do they have to be tethered to particular place? If Mark Lee wants to get people to worship him, why does he require Soh Hock to help him distribute flyers to get the word out? Why can’t he get out on the streets and start performing miracles? The Fortune Handbook is so heavily riddled with internal inconsistencies that it’s best to stop trying to make sense out of everything.

Logic may be in short supply in The Fortune Handbook, but not so product placements, which are shoved in audiences’ face aggressively. In one particularly shameless sequence, Vivian Lai’s character even breaks the fourth wall to wax lyrical about a particular product to the audience.

Despite all the film’s shortcomings, it was still a largely buoyant affair thanks to the commitment of the cast. The high jinks in the movie are performed with such energy that it’s hard not to crack a smile here and there, and Christopher Lee’s Soh Hock, with his over-the-top antics (and compulsive hair-spraying), is a hoot to watch. Some individual segments, such as a beauty pageant scene, score high on the laughs-a-minute meter.

The movie carries such a joyous spirit throughout its run time, bouncing from crazy skit to crazy skit with such infectious energy that it’s hard not to enjoy and be entertained by it at parts. It’s ultimately still just your typical local CNY movie — that is, not a very good  movie — and it certainly tanks hard in the storytelling and coherence departments, but at the very least it doesn't over-promise, and delivers on what it sets out to accomplish: offer a few laughs and moments of warmth.

Review by Raymond Tan

The Fortune Handbook is still showing in cinemas.

Check out our STOP10 Jan 2017 article on The Fortune Handbook, featuring an interview director Kelvin Sng.

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ShoutOUT! National Youth Film Awards kick starts 3rd edition - Submissions open now

February 9, 2017, 9:50 pm
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Winner of the DBS Best Picture Award at NYFA 2016, 'Han' by Shammini Gunasegaran

The National Youth Film Awards (NYFA) is back for a third season and submissions are open now! Previously open only to Singaporean and PR students enrolled in a media-related course at any Institute of Higher Learning (IHL), this year’s competition widens its reach, welcoming submissions by non-media students aged between 18 and 35, as well as foreign students enrolled in local schools.

Setting out to establish and raise the national benchmark for excellence in film, NYFA was inaugurated in 2015, and attracted a record 260 submissions across 20 award categories in its last edition. This year, three new awards with cash prizes of up to $1,500 have been introduced under the competition category for non-media students, bringing the total number of awards up for grabs to 23. 

Christopher Pragasam, Executive Director of *SCAPE – which organises the annual marquee initiative – said, “Singapore has seen a huge revival and burst of energy in the local film scene, and this is evident even amongst our youths. Many are picking up technical film skills like scriptwriting, editing, and photography in school, but with the accessibility and ease of technology, many more are developing their creativity and cinematic talents on their own. It is important that we continue to engage and elevate their passion, and empower a new generation of auteurs and storytellers, making filmmaking rewarding for as many young people as possible.” 

Jonathan Choo receiving the Best Director award in 2016. Picture courtesy of *SCAPE

An 18-member jury panel has been appointed to assess the submissions, consisting of industry stalwarts from diverse backgrounds. New jurists include Yuni Hadi (Objectifs Centre of Film and Photography; Singapore International Film Festival), Jocelyn Little (Beach House Pictures), Kristin Saw (IMDA), Tan Fong Cheng (Zhao Wei Films), filmmakers Daniel Yam and Don Aravind, and Rennie Gomes (Yellow Box Studios); among other heavyweights.

NYFA 2017 Awards Director, Nicholas Chee, shared, “With the recent spotlight and celebration of women in film, I am especially glad to have Yuni, Jocelyn, Kristin and Fong Cheng on board, who bring a wealth of industry experience and fresh insights towards the art and future of filmmaking. Together with the rest of our jury, they are a reflection of the diversity of voices and talent that make up Singapore’s vibrant cinematic landscape, and I am confident that they will also serve as inspiration for our youth.” 

The public will be able to weigh in on this year’s competition too – shortlisted films under the non-media student category will be open to public voting for the first time, with the three films receiving the highest votes being awarded accordingly. Youths who are interested in the film industry and want to expand their knowledge on filmmaking will also be able to participate in NYFA workshops, masterclasses and film screenings held between May and June 2017. Details will be announced at a later date.

NYFA 2017 is open for submission from now until Saturday 15 April 2017, 2359hrs (GMT +8), and will culminate in an Awards Ceremony on Saturday 22 July 2017, with Ms Grace Fu, Minister of Culture, Community and Youth, attending as Guest-of-Honour. For more information, visit www.scape.sg/nyfa.
 
 
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Review: Take 2 // 遇见贵人 (2017)

February 12, 2017, 4:04 am
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There is an emerging trend among commercial films in Singapore to be like mini-variety shows or pantomimes in which the fundamental pillars of a good storyline and characters play second fiddle to random celebrity appearances, gimmicks, stunts as well as token drone shots and a touch of crossdressing. All these seem to be pointing to the recent CNY movie Take 2 遇见贵人. It cannot be denied that the film followed this particular entertainment formula but thankfully, Take 2 遇见贵人 has somewhat a credible storyline and some noble intentions.

The film is written and directed by Ivan Ho, screenwriter of Ah Boys to Men, and produced and co-written by Jack Neo. Needless to say, it retains many of Jack’s signature directorial trademarks like the comic language but Ivan gives it a punchier pacing (not to mention a fresh French and Latin beat literally in the soundtrack!). Take 2 遇见贵人 borrows from a premise already familiar with local audiences, ex-convicts trying to re-integrate into society. It seems to mirror the psyche of Jack Neo’s 2005 prison flick One More Chance with a similar ‘band of brothers’ framework. But Take 2 takes away the heaviness and looks at reintegration pains in a more light-hearted way.

Take 2 遇见贵人 follows the reintegration journey of four ex-convicts, namely serial convict Mad Dog (played by getai veteran Wang Lei), Panther (played by rubber-faced comic actor Galdrick Chin), Tiger, who is the narrator as well (played by Ryan Lian who made his big screen debut in Long Long Time Ago) and Jian Ren (played by Maxi Lim of Ah Boys to Men fame). The crimes committed by the first three are as predictable as loansharks appearing in a Jack Neo movie but Jian Ren’s crime of underage sex is somewhat of an accident. It is a shrewd observation by the creators of Take 2 遇见贵人, that not all recovery journeys will be even, and some ex-inmates bond with certain people better than others. Though they called themselves a band of four brothers inside prison, post-prison, the ‘pai kias’ (bad boys in Hokkien) continue to interact with each other while Jian Ren decides to distance himself and try to ‘sneak’ himself back into the more strait-laced world of the education industry and kiasu parents.

On the side of Mad Dog, Panther and Tiger, there is also the treacherous world of gangsters and unresolved feuds and debts that they have to deal with. The lack of job opportunities drive the ‘ex-triad’ trio to operate a ramen shop in a canteen, taking over the operation from an old lady whose bland-tasting Hokkien mee appeared in a madcap blogger’s ‘Top 10 Disgusting Hokkien Mees’ in Singapore story. Through song and dance and a dozen other gimmicks, they try to win the attention of customers but end up generating more YouTube moments more than real business. Things are also not looking too rosy on the side of Jian Ren as the tuition centre’s parents discovered his criminal background and decided to complain against him. This leads us to the convenient situation of the entire band of four brothers reunited at the ramen shop.
There is no denying that developing full character arcs for four characters is quite a challenge given the time constraints. As the movie stands, only the protagonist, Tiger, has a convincing and meaningful story developed around him. Essentially, he is caught in an offender’s trap. His history with the secret societies is a bad influence for his son and being in prison deepens the alienation between him and his son which leads his son down the same seedy path of getting into gang activities. When he is out, he tries to control his son but his criminal record is an impediment.

Unfortunately, the other three characters appear more as sidekicks. Panther appears more like the token clown in the show dishing up countless slapstick rubber-faced antics. Mad Dog, due to his ‘old dog’ status, had the potential to be a plot driver but ends up being yet another hit-and-run jester. Jian Ren’s background as a teacher, would have been an ideal counterpoint to the world the other three inhabit but his backstory remains undeveloped. The only time the film dedicated to letting us privy to Jian Ren’s psyche was his spiritual pleas at the church. Yet the acting in that scene was hammed up in a such a way that it served to condition the audience for the landing of another joke more than to allow us to understand Jian Ren’s character.

For the gaping holes in the plot, the film makes up for it with a collective of highly-engaging performances from all members of the cast, with some of the best show-stopping moments delivered by characters outside the band of four. Ryan Lian anchors the soul of the film firmly with his sincere performance and a certain moral tenacity as the de facto lead. Galdrick Chin and Wang Lei never fail to give the film a kick in the butt with their comic punctuations when the tempo starts to dip. Maxi Lim, though not given ample room for his acting chops, impressed with his kungfu chops and those mean-looking nunchuck swirls. Dennis Chew proves he will never be a one-hit-pony, I mean, Lucy, with his 6 show-stopping impersonations, which include a flirty tuition centre lady boss, an assertive PRC female noodle seller and God, as the most memorable ones. Henry Thia entertained by being Henry Thia but instead of playing a goofy henchman, he plays the boss now. Finally, one cannot fail to notice Chen Tianwen’s electrifying performance as the big bad triad boss with a wardrobe malfunction, straddling between being menacing and funny.

The film manages to end with a suitably high-octane finale, a final showdown between the band of four and Tiger’s rival gang. Somehow, the scene seems to show that director Ho had it all planned out at the beginning that all roads would lead to this point. On suspicion that Ho is a Bruce Lee fan, this is also like a fanboy tribute to Bruce Lee and his martial arts genre, nunchucks and all. But yet, this is still done within the realm of reason and the plot is clever in using Tiger’s son as the bait that brings the gang to the showdown, hence coming full circle. With the combination of sharp fighting-choreography and comic timing, this segment proves to be rather entertaining. I guess if one expectsTake 2 遇见贵人to be a version 2.0 of the emotional and moral struggles of reintegration seen in One More Chance, one might be disappointed. But releasing this as a CNY movie, I think the filmmakers had a much simpler objective in mind and that objective was met.

Review by Jeremy Sing

Check out our interview with director Ivan Ho on Take 2 in our January 2017 STOP10 article.

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Skål! A Closer Look at the Swedish Film Festival 2017

February 15, 2017, 8:10 am
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From left to right: Directors Roy Andersson, Karin af Klintberg, Lukas Moodysson, and Anders Helgeson.

Returning to The Projector for its 2nd Edition from 16 to 19 February, the Swedish Film Festival 2017 boasts a compact but powerful line-up. From a retrospective on the sparse and occasionally polarizing Swedish auteur Roy Andersson, to the works of established Swedish filmmakers, the Festival has something for everyone.

  • We Are the Best! // Vi är bäst! (2013)


    Adapted from the graphic novel Never Goodnight by his wife Coco Moodysson, Lukas Moodysson's We Are the Best! is a warm Bildungsroman of three tween girls who decide to form a punk band.

    Showing on 20 Feb, 8 pm. Tickets availablehere.


    • A Swedish Love Story // En kärlekshistoria (1970)

    The stunning and successful debut of Swedish auteur Roy Andersson, A Swedish Love Story is a kooky romance between two teenager who falls in love despite the dismissal of adults who thought them nothing more than love drunk.

    Showing on 19 Feb, 8 pm. Tickets available here.

    • World of Glory // Härlig är jorden (1991)

    The work that marks the return of Roy Andersson into the film scene after the commercial and critical failure that was his sophomore feature Giliap, World of Glory is darkly comic look at a bleak world commissioned by the Gothenburg Film Festival for its 90 minuter 90-tal short film series.

    Showing on 16 Feb, 8 pm with A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence. Tickets available here.

    • Nice People // Trevligt folk  (2015)

    A documentary in the spirit of the 1993 comedy Cool Runnings that follows a team of Somalian immigrants as they trained to compete in the  Bandy World Championship, Nice People is a thoughtful window into a social phenomenon that received much attention yet little understanding.

    Showing on 18 Feb, 8 pm. Tickets available here.

    • A Separation // Att skiljas (2013)

    A tragicomic look into her parents' divorce, Karin Ekberg's A Separation is a documentary that is at once heartbreaking and heartwarming as it traverses terrains and all its pitfalls of love.

    Showing on 19 Feb, 2:30 pm. Tickets available here.

    • Songs from the Second Floor // Sånger från andra våningen (2000)

    The first of Roy Andersson's Living Trilogy, Songs from the Second Floor is a compilation of vignettes centered around themes of modernity viewed with a tinted lens

    Showing on 19 Feb, 5 pm. Tickets available here.

    • You, the Living // Du levande (2007)


    The second work in Andersson's Living Trilogy, You, the Living too is a collection of sketches based around the tragicomic nature of life and living. 

    Showing on 18 Feb, 2:30 pm. Tickets available here.

    • A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence // En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (2014)


    The winner of the Gold Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is Roy Andersson's final entry in the Living Trilogy. A series of tableaux that follows the attempts of two traveling novelty salesmen in selling their products, the film features Andersson's signature meticulous set designs and the existentialist comedy of being.

    Showing on 16 Feb, 8 pm with World of Glory and a post-screening Q&A with Line Producer Johan Carlsson, and on 18 Feb, 5 pm by itself. Tickets available here (16 Feb) and here (18 Feb).

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    Beyond the lineup, here we also had a quick chat with the Swedish Ambassador to Singapore, Mr. Håkan Jevrell, on the work it took to make the Festival happen.


    The Swedish Film Festival is now into its second edition. What prompted the initial collaboration?

    In a way, it kind of just happened. It started with having an interest in doing something more substantial within the region, and seeing that film festivals seem to be doing well everywhere. Then, we met up with The Projector and came to the conclusion that they can be a really good partner—it was easier to work with them than the big players, because they are niche, well thought-out, and not really bound to the big blockbusters and popcorn flicks going on in the cinema world. For us, we thought it was quite a perfect match, and thus this came out quite early in the discussions

    As we celebrated fifty years of diplomatic relations between Sweden and Singapore last year, we were driven to do something bigger. Since then, we have seen the warm responses and we realized that it was a good thing, so why not continue this endeavor?

    Now, we really look forward to it and we hope we could keep on doing it. I thought it was a lot of fun, and it is incredibly gratifying to see that Singaporean audience seems to appreciate Swedish films.

    What were your biggest helps or obstacles to holding an event such as this?

    We are actually really lucky that the Swedish Institute back in Sweden worked with the Swedish Film Institute to present a selection of Swedish films every year that we at the embassies and other Swedish entities can use for purposes like this.

    This selection is a box of eight films that the Swedish Institute have negotiated with the Swedish filmmakers and producers to provide for free to embassies and other institutions abroad for events whose only purpose is to further Swedish culture. The advantages of having this box is that all legalities and administrative processes were already resolved by the Swedish Institute and Swedish Film Institute in Sweden, which allowed us to skip all the complications regarding the films and focus on organizing the film festival.

    Of course, to run a film festival requires us to broaden the breadth of what films we screen, but I think that we have been able to manage as far as ideas go, and there were good collaborations with the filmmakers and distributors, so the entire process has been relatively smooth.

    Both fortunately and unfortunately, since not many Swedish films have actually made it all the way here to Singapore the normal commercial way, we did not need to be in discussions with the big cinema companies and distributors regarding screening rights and other sundry details, because we are not competing with them. This also made things easier.


    One hurdle we did face is that because we are a very small embassy, we do not have a huge amount of resources to spare—we all had to work till the final moments right before the opening. Thank goodness that The Projector is such a trim and flexible organization, that our collaboration really did go as smoothly as it did.
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    ShoutOUT! 'Point & Shoot'and stand to win prizes!

    February 19, 2017, 4:28 am
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    If you are a student aged 16 and above and would like to try  your hand at filmmaking, here is your chance to make a short film and win prizes totalling S$8400!

    Point & Shoot is a competition whereby participants have a weekend to produce a 3 minute short film. Teams must plan, shoot, edit, and submit the best short film in fewer than 55 hours upon the release of a given theme.

    It will take place on the weekend of 10-12 March, while the Awards Ceremony will be on the following Sunday, 19 March 2017.

    The prize pool for Point & Shoot is a total of S$8400, including cash and various products such as a Blackmagic camera (worth $1425), and 6 Zhiyun-tech gimbals! 

    Who can participate in this competition?

    The competition is open to:
    A. Full/part-time student(s) aged 16-30 (before 31 December 2017)
    B. and is/are currently enrolled in any post-secondary or tertiary institution in Singapore. Examples; Junior Colleges, Institute of Technical Education, Polytechnics, local Universities, arts institutions, and private Universities.
    C. or is/are a foreign student on an exchange programme at a local (Singapore) tertiary institution for the duration of the competition

    The fees per team is $25 during the early-bird period (ends on 28th Feb), and will be $40 per team thereafter.

    To sign up or get more information about the event, please visit the event website here. 

    Questions? Contact us at pointandshoot@nustudios.org or enquiries@nustudios.org

    Who are the judges?

    Juan Foo
    With career beginnings in freelance production work and then producing, Juan Foo went on to pioneer digital filmmaking in Singapore; using technology and technique to deliver screen content. He produced horror and cult films Return to Pontianak and Perth, as well as several others. Juan is also one of the first few in Singapore to have sold a developed script project to Hollywood. Juan’s varied background has led him to write, teach, develop, and promote screen content in several training schools and universities. His previous work has included media training, talent development and content quality assessment. Juan is also the Principal Tutor for nuSTUDIOS Film Productions.

    Gladys Ng
    Gladys’ films reflect her nature, often nuanced and subtle, interspersed with wry humour. Her short film, My Father after Dinner, was presented Best Singapore Short at the 26th Singapore International Film Festival. Gladys was trained in writing and directing at the Victorian College of the Arts and participated in FLY ASEAN-ROK. Her latest short, The Pursuit of a Happy Human, a commission of the festival, was developed during a film residency in Thailand with Objectifs. She was mentored by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit.

    Zhang Wenjie
    Zhang Wenjie is a film programmer in Singapore. From 2003-2005, he headed the Moving Images programme at The Substation and from 2005-2013, he was head of the Cinematheque of the National Museum of Singapore. Wenjie was part of the project team that led the restoration of Usmar Ismail’s 1954 classic After the Curfew, which premiered at the 65th Cannes Film Festival in 2012. In 2013, he organised the first Film Restoration School Asia in Singapore in collaboration with Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, Cineteca di Bologna and L’Immagine Ritrovata. Wenjie is currently the Programme Director of the Singapore International Film Festival.
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    'Soul-searching' on the Big Screen: An interview with Taufik Batisah

    February 22, 2017, 8:18 am
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    Taufik Batisah, a well-known local music figure with hits like Usah Lepaskan and Sky’s the Limit, and a dozen awards, seems to have an uncanny ability to galvanise spirits in a room. He is articulate, composed, yet not without the occasional pocket of earnest energy. Most of all, he came across as wise without sounding too measured. This is Taufik, more than 10 years after Singapore Idol, having seen his fair share of ups and downs in showbusiness, sitting down with a small group of reporters, telling us in the most casual way, his latest foray in show business - movies.

    Soulmate Hingga Jannah, marks the first big step Taufik has taken into the world of moviemaking (sort of, he’s been involved in an earlier film but in a smaller role). Having played to hordes of audiences in cinemas across Malaysia, the movie finally makes it way to Singapore, thanks to newly-formed local film distributor DLUX Entertainment, which aims to bring in more Malay films, from the region into Singapore. Some have called the film one of the best Malay romantic comedies ever in recent times. It opened at Rex Golden Mile Tower Cinemas last week on 16 February and Taufik made an appearance for a Meet and Greet session with his fans on 17 February and actually watched the full film for the first time with his fans.

    Directed by Prof Madya A. Razak Mohaideen and filmed in Thailand, Soulmate Hingga Jannah is about a high-spirited country girl, Rokiah who has been offered to work at a corporate company in Kuala Lumpur. Unluckily for her, she has to work under the cold-hearted Azmeer who thinks of himself as "Mr. Perfect". As the two spend more and more time together, Azmeer begins to warm up to Rokiah, as she reminds him of his late wife Khalisa. However, he is in a dilemma as he has made a promise to his wife that he would never fall in love and marry another woman besides her.

    Apart from Taufik Batisah, the movie stars Malaysian superstar Erra Fazira, Raja Ilya, Reen Rahim, Malaysian comedian Douglas Lim & many more. For Taufik, this is a challenging role as he plays someone totally different from his own character. For his fans, brace yourself for a crying scene with him. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

    We spoke to Taufik at the special screening and Meet and Greet session with fans last Friday 17 February, to get the scoop on him taking on the big screen.

    How was it like working in your first movie?

    This is actually my second movie. But overall, I can honestly say I am still a newbie to the movie industry or even in the acting industry. Especially if I compare myself to my cast. Because Raja Ilya to me, from what I see of her on TV, she is such an amazing actress. And Erra Fazira, obviously a lot of people from my community grew up watching her act. She is amazing. Reen Rahim is also an amazing actress. I had a bit of worry acting alongside these women who are so seasoned and wonderful. So that was a challenge that I had to take.

    But for me, ultimately what I gather from any projects that involves any kind of acting that I do is a learning process. And I will absorb as much as possible from my cast and crew. As much as they allow me to. And as much as the director imparts on me. I try to learn as a I go.


    You’ve had such an illustrious music career, what took you so long to get into acting?

    I’ve been doing so many different kinds of music over the years. I’ve even done a musical before. And the last drama that I did was called Shooting Stars in 2005, in English. Back in 2015, I made a conscious effort to do other things, other than singing or music. I said to myself, man I’m getting older, not getting any younger. Put the fear aside and just try it! You will only learn things from your mistakes if you try something. You will only learn if you want to. So I decided that if the opportunity arises, I would grab it. (pause) And I think I am so fortunate to be given two opportunities to do film. So I just took it and try to see how it goes. And I’m going to keep learning from there.

    Raja Ilya, Taufik Batisah and Erra Fazira huddle with director Prof Madya A. Razak Mohaideen

    Do you enjoy the learning process?

    Yes, I enjoyed the process though I always found it weird to see myself on the screen, even on TV, when it is not music, something else. For example, hosting or acting. Macham Janggal. When I’m watching myself, I always find it weird. So I don’t know if that’s me being critical about myself or me just not used to looking at myself doing other things? (pause)I will definitely take constructive criticism from the masses, my family, my friends, the viewers, to better myself, because that’s the only way to improve.

    By the way, I am thinking of putting together a concert for my fans. I think they have not seen a full concert from me in many years. So I would like to plan a concert for my fans at the end of the year. Ultimately, if you ask me, music is still my first love. So that is something I can’t forget about. Like when I do these projects, I would actually ask them, can I do the music? Can I write the songs for you? Can I do the soundtrack?

    For this film, abang Azmeer, originally from Singapore, now based in Malaysia, wrote the songs for the soundtrack of this film and I sang Memilih Mencintaimu with Adira from Malaysia. I also sang another song, Teman Jiwa, with Erra Fazira. I think it’s pretty dope to be singing with Erra Fazira! It feels so weird in my head because I listened to her songs when I was growing up. So that was pretty cool. (pause) Music is definitely still a part of the projects that I do. Even in the film before this, I asked if they wanted to use my music?

    Any juicy stories/gossips on set?

    Ok. This is the coolest thing about Erra Fazira. Everybody knows Erra Fazira. She’s a beauty queen. She is so pretty. We were in Thailand in Chiangmai. So we were waiting at the side of the road for the vehicle for a very long time, but it came finally. It was this big van in which you can just jump in. Somewhere along the way, the vehicle and the engine stopped. And we all had to push the vehicle. It was like a big truck on which at least eight people could sit at the back. Bigger than a Tuk-Tuk. So me, my wife and Ilya starting pushing. We didn’t expect Erra Fazira to do it. But she was like the first person to go beside the driver and push. ‘Come come, I will push,’ she said. And I was like whoa! So she started pushing and we all followed as well. And that was only like two or three days into filming.

    The other thing I remember about filming in Chiangmai was that it was super cold. It was so weird. I know it’s the altitude, high up in the mountains, but I didn’t expect it to be so cold. There was one particular scene we had to film along the river. It was drizzling. With the wind and the chill combined together, OMG, I think Ilya almost had Hypothermia. She was freezing.

    What are the most memorable scenes for you in 'Soulmate'? Why?

    In fact there’s quite a number of moments that were memorable for me. From filming in the elephant park in Thailand to braving the freezing cold on the boat ride with just a jacket to the part where I was literally kicked into the pool.  The one that stood out for me would have to be the fight scene where my character rescued Rokiah (Raja IIya) – that’s the FIRST ever time I filmed a fighting scene! It was a night scene and it took hours to film. I had no previous training on martial arts,  so with some crash course training on set (which was just before the actual filming took place), I tried to execute the moves as much as I could without showing my awkwardness, haha! But that really did took a toll on me as I exerted a lot of energy to control my strength for fear of accidentally hurting anyone in the process.

    Would you consider acting more difficult that singing? Why? Which parts of acting are the most challenging?

    I've been singing for more than 14 years and it is something that I'm very much comfortable with, so naturally acting is a lot more challenging for me. I feel the most challenging aspect of acting, at least for me at this point in time, is to be able to portray the character convincingly. It is really not easy, especially when the persona of the role is very much different from who I am in real life. But it has been enjoyable thus far and I do look forward to other opportunities.

    If you could make your film, what story would you like to tell?

    It will be the story of my mother.

    Interview by Jeremy Sing

    Soulmate Hingga Jannah is showing at Golden Mile Tower Rex cinema. Do catch it soon!

    For more information on the film, please visit the Facebook page of DLUX Entertainment.


    Here are more pictures from the Meet and Greet session on 17 February.

    Fiknatics, fans of Taufik rehearse their welcome greeting for Taufik

    While the fans waited outside, Taufik entertained the media in a group media interview

    Fans go trigger happy as Taufik appears

    Click. Click. Click!

    Blue seems to be the most popular colour

    3 Taufiks in one picture
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    ShoutOUT! Banned film 'Absent Without Leave'不即不离 premieres online for Malaysian audience on 28 Feb

    February 27, 2017, 6:01 am
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     “精采而且情感真摯” - 侯孝賢 导演
    "Exciting and full of genuine feelings", Hou Hsiao Hsien on Absent Without Leave

    In Malaysian filmmaker Lau Kek-Huat’s debut feature documentary Absent Without Leave 不即不离, the tracing of personal anecdotes becomes an act of mining collective history. In trying to reconnect with his absent father, his grandfather’s forgotten story is slowly unravelled: an absent father to the filmmaker’s own absent father, but also a guerrilla Communist soldier, a protector, a martyr of Malaya during WWII.  

    Intensely heartfelt without being overly sentimental, Absent Without Leave navigates the murky waters of Malayan history that appears far removed from the present. It reminds us not only of Malaya’s tragic past, but also our collective amnesia, of how quickly and seamlessly these narratives are thrown into physical and psychological exile. In this journey into forgotten consciousness, we are offered a glimpse of reconciliation and a possible redemption for those who have been absent.

    The film was screened at the 2016 Singapore International Film Festival and received an Audience Choice Award. However, it has been banned completely during a review by the Malaysian Censorship Board. The reason given for the ban was its dealing with the Malaysian Communist Party (MCP) - a sensitive of part of Malaysian history.

    Lau, whose grandfather was a member of the MCP, released the film in Taiwan but had hoped to bring back to Malaysia to be screened at the first ever Malaysian International Film Festival as the opening film.

    Following the ban, Lau has decided to share his documentary for free with Malaysian audiences through the web. The documentary will be available on the Facebook fan page of Lau's Taiwan-based production company, Hummingbird Production starting from February 28th and up to March 5th. The links to view the documentary on Malaysian territory will be posted through several website and announced on Hummingbird's Facebook Page. To know more about this event, please visit Hummingbird Production's Facebook page.


    大马导演廖克发的拍摄的纪录片《不即不离》，因为内容涉及马共题材，本月确 定電檢未過，在马來西亞全面禁映。廖克发今决定提供在线连结，让大马观众免 费看片。

    《不即不离》从导演家庭出发，自追溯祖父因参加共产党后消失的故事，一步步 带出马共的历史，這段历史是对于多数的马来西亚人来说是陌生的，也是一个禁 忌的话题。本片 2016 年在台湾上映，并入围台北电影节、釜山电影节、新加坡 电影节观众票选奖，廖克发也因本片获选 2017 年第 15 届柏林影展新锐营。原本 《第一届马来西亚国际电影节》也计划以本片作开幕影片，如今因送审未过，让 观众错失看片机会!导演也难掩失望。

    廖克发最大的心愿还是能在大馬放映这部影片，因此他决定在 2/28 日-3/5 日期 间，免费提供在线连结，给大马地区的观众看片。有兴趣的观众可到 Facebook 搜寻《不即不离》大马首映活动网页，按“参加活动”，主办方蜂鸟影像有限公 司将会于 2 月 28 日主动寄送影片连结。影片连结也会于 2 月 28 日同步在蜂鸟影 像脸书粉丝页发布。

    如果在新加坡地區的觀眾，渴望於 3 月中下旬後，在付費頻道觀賞本片。




    Absent Without Leave Online Malaysian Premiere
    Dates: Feb 28th to March 5th
    Free screening on Malaysian territory
    The screening link will be posted on the Event Page on 28 Feb 2017.

    Official Trailer

    About Lau Kek-Huat

    Lau was born in Malaysia, worked as a primary school teacher in Singapore for four years. He enrolled at the National Taiwan University in 2006. He was awarded the Best Short Film Award twice (2009 and 2013) as well as the Best Director Award (2009) by the Taiwan Golden Harvest Festival. He has directed a few short films and is currently developing his first feature film.
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    STOP10 Mar 2017: 'Lang Tong'靓汤 by Sam Loh

    March 1, 2017, 9:11 pm
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    Director Sam Loh is busy selling Char Siew these with his latest erotic thriller Siew Lup 烧腊 sizzling up cinemas islandwide. But before selling Char Siew, Sam was serving up wicked bowls of delicious soup with Lang Tong 靓汤, the predecessor to Siew Lup. If you have not tried Sam’s ‘Chicken soup for the tainted soul’, here’s your chance. Lang Tong will be screened by *SCAPE as part of the *SCAPEmedia Spotlight feature on Sam Loh - ‘Sam Loh: from Kids Central to Lang Tong, making films as an Outsider’ (What a long event title!).


    Lang Tong is arguably Singapore's first commercial R21 movie with sexual content and attempt at the erotic thriller genre. No other commercial feature film in Singapore has grazed this fine line between pornography and narrative action. Maybe not a fine line, after all, it had a legitimate storyline. But still, it was a risk taken for the potential controversies it would court with the moral police among decision makers in our civil service. And that risk paid off. Premiering to a full-house audience at the 25th Singapore International Film Festival in 2014, it had a subsequent commercial release the following year with the help of mm2 Entertainment.


    In the film, Zack (played by William Lawandi), a remorseless serial womanizer and con-man meets his match in Li Ling (Vivienne Tseng), an alluring and well-to-do woman who makes a wicked bowl of pork rib soup. Things take an unexpected turn when Zack begins an affair with Li Ling's younger sister Li Er. Soon, Li Er convinces Zack to help her execute a heinous plot to murder her older sister, whom she blames for causing her mother's death. However, things are not as simple as they seem.




    In our ‘Production Talk’ series interview with Sam Loh in 2015, he recounts his uphill task of finding actresses who would want to be in the film due to the explicit sex. Having completed the script about 7-8 years ago, Sam spoke to numerous actresses and most turned him down. This was until his actor Alan Tan introduced him to Angeline Yap, who took the leap of faith and decided to give the role a try. Read the full interview here.

    Also read our review of Lang Tong here which we rated Bak-Kut-Tehlicious.

    Director Sam Loh has cleverly placed equally ample baits for both genders to watch his first feature film Lang Tong. Touted as Singapore’s first commercial R21 movie, it features enough boobs to make guys say ‘yes, this is no lightweight Singaporean attempt at something risqué’. It also features enough female smarts to girls feel winners in the battle of the sexes. At the very best, this film knows just how to press the right buttons for a dirty little adventure. At the very worst, it is simply jogging an old formula, offering a story that’s essentially empty at its core…....

    Here are details of the screening event, jointly organised by *SCAPE and The Filmic Eye.

    Date: 3 March 2017
    Time: 7.30pm to 10pm
    Venue: SCAPE Gallery
    Admission Fee: $5
    Rating: R21 (Please note that organisers have the right to check your identification upon entry)
    Please get your tickets from Peatix at this link.

    The screening is followed by a dialogue with Sam Loh in person. Tap into Sam’s memories of his journey as a filmmaker. Sam built his career from years of television directing. His works display a formidable genre range. They include Channel 5 dramas like Lions Mums and In Cold Blood, Channel 8 dramas like C.L.I.F 4 and Dream Coders, 9 Lives on Suria and even Kids Central! Learn about how he toggles (pardon the pun, Mediacorp!) between the PG family man personality to the R21 devil within. Find out what happened to his debut independent feature Outsiders, which he withdrew from the 2004 Singapore International Film Festival, following MDA’s requirement of several cuts to the film. The film has still not been publicly screened in Singapore so far.
    About Sam Loh

    Sam Loh has more than 18 years of film directing experience. He began his career at Caldecott Productions directing TV commercials. Currently, he is a freelance film director who works regularly with prominent production houses that produced dramas and programs for MediaCorp. He started Outsider Pictures to make independent and original movie content for the local and international market. Lang Tong 靓汤– his R21 Chinese independent movie was well received and had a sold out screening at the 2014 Singapore International Film Festival. It was also screened commercially at all local cinemas in March 2015. Siew Lup 烧腊– his follow up to Lang Tong and part of his femme fatale trilogy was also the first film to sold out at the 2016 Singapore International Film Festival. Its general theatrical release was on 23 February 2017.

    Written by Jeremy Sing

    For the full list of March 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.

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