12 Storeys

A blackly comic view of Singaporean life through the tales of three families in a housing project. Pic has several parallels with helmer Eric Khoo's first film, Mee Pok Man, a bleak romance about a noodle seller's obsession with a hooker that did the fest rounds two years ago. With its measured pace, recurrent tableaux of sterile apartment blocks and cast of characters who are almost all emotional basket cases, 12 Storeys paints an equally depressing portrait of life in the Southeast Asian island republic. Khoo's trademark of juxtaposing the official image of Singapore with a darker reality kicks in straightaway as an early-morning radio program proclaims "Singapore! No. 1!" and a man casually commits suicide by leaping from the 12th floor of a housing project, the thump of his body on the concrete hardly breaking the quiet rhythm of the dawn. After this, pic follows a day in the lives of three groups in the same block, their stories cross-cut but separate. Blowup from super-16mm is fine, and other tech credits modest but good, considering the hasty 14-day shoot. Khoo worked for nine months on the script but during shooting gave his actors the freedom to improvise. For the record, pic is the first film from Singapore (whose industry effectively collapsed 25 years ago) to be invited into Cannes' official selection.