Last year saw twice as many features as 2003. But quality did not improve. Most films, with the exception of the optimistic social comedies of Jack Neo, seem to explore the darker side of the affluent hi-tech city-state. In general, improvements have been made in the technical and acting departments, while the script quality leaves much to be desired.
The most publicized film of the year was, as usual, a Raintree Pictures production, The Best Bet (Tu ran fa cai), directed by the country’s top comedian and TV personality, Jack Neo. This situation comedy draws its inspiration from Singaporeans’ undying passion for gambling, and recalls the cash-related theme of the sleeper hit Money No Enough (Qian bu gou yong, 1998, scripted by Neo).
Jack Neo’s style, and perhaps the popular success of his films, are rooted in the television sitcom aesthetics which he and his audiences are so familiar with. However, a lengthy, heavy-handed and politically correct "sermon" in the closing scene, which extols the virtues of patient labour over the destructive vices of gambling, spoils much of the fun. The Best Bet, like many of Neo’s previous comedies, found box-office success, securing 7th place in the 2004 Top Ten. In fact, it was the only Chinese-language film in the chart, beating Jackie Chan’s New Police Story, which just missed the top ten club.
A new Jack Neo comedy I Do I Do (Raintree Productions, J Team Productions, Creative Motion Pictures and Kantana Motion Pictures, Thailand) reached Singapore’s screens just in time for the Chinese New Year of the Rooster in early February 2005. Starring Sharon Au and Adrian Pang (Forever Fever), the film’s story focuses on themes of family, love and marriage, the timing of its release cleverly exploiting the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival and Valentine’s day.
It has become Neo’s trademark to highlight a social problem through humour in each movie; this time, the focus is on the country’s declining birthrate. However, the critical stance and satirical bite characterising his I Not Stupid (2002) is noticeably weakened in I Do I Do. Still, there are a few well-aimed digs at the authorities’ efforts to increase the country’s birthrate and a slyly comic scene with Neo as a Member of Parliament in a cameo role. Another asset of the movie is Adrian Pang’s accomplished performance, still exceptional in local production. The director’s forte are again farce and slapstick, more than the story. The explanatory ending is redundant. It not only underestimates the audiences’ ability to understand a simple story but seriously undermines the credibility of the plot. The movie’s framing and editing remain fundamentally that of a TV sitcom. The verbal puns and jokes require an appreciation of local politics and dialects, and make it a movie for home audiences rather than one that can travel.
Singapore’s paternity claim to the horror The Eye 2 (Jian Gui 2, 2004), by Thai-based Hong Kong directors Danny and Oxide Pang, lies mostly in the financial participation of Raintree Pictures (with Hong Kong’s Applause Pictures) and a few minor roles by MediaCorp performers. The movie, generally listed only as a Hong Kong-Thai production (IMDb), is about a pregnant woman who sees ghosts after attempting suicide. This loose sequel to The Eye starring Shu Qi and Eugenia Yuan limps behind its successful predecessor.
Djinn’s Perth is similar to the director’s 2001 horror feature Return to Pontianak (aka Voodoo Nightmare) in that both are attempts to capitalize on popular films. The latter, with its nostalgia-generating title that recalls the local Pontianak horror movies of the late 1950s and early ‘60s, emulates the style and substance of The Blair Witch Project. Perth, on the other hand, is inspired by Martin Scorsese’s The Taxi Driver.
Harry Lee (Lim Kay Tong), the alienated middle-aged hero of Perth, is a security guard turned taxi driver in the grip of an existential angst. He realizes that his society has little use for him - the future belongs to the young and better educated. Harry is looking for a personal utopia and wants to emigrate to start a new life. In fact, he is not alone: in Singapore, Perth in Western Australia has assumed a semi-mythical status of a "promised land" where many Singaporeans have re-settled. Unfortunately, Harry becomes infatuated by a young Vietnamese prostitute and is slowly drawn into the local underworld with a too predictable outcome.
The film’s attempt to bring to light an unsanitized but real Singapore evaporates as fast as the hero’s dream of Perth. At the end, the viewer is left with a lengthy, meaningless massacre of most of the film’s characters. Some claim to originality of that bloody event is that guns are replaced by kitchen tools - choppers, knives, hatchets, and rolling pins. Perth’s dark existential theme and Sartrean "no exit" atmosphere contrast with Singapore’s conventional image, and may have helped it to participate in several international festivals, including those held in Singapore, Manila and Brazil in 2004, and Bangkok and Rotterdam in 2005.
Sam Loh’s debut, the psycho-thriller Outsiders may be, in relative terms, better than the films mentioned above. It explores the impact of a serial killer’s actions on people around him - family, friends, and victims alike. It is a clever idea that becomes convoluted by too many characters so that the plot is at times difficult to untangle. Like Perth and earlier Singapore films such as Royston Tan’s 15, Eric Khoo’s 12 Storeys and Mee Pok Man, Outsiders explores the city’s darker side, both metaphorically and literally - most of the movie was shot at night. It was filmed on DV in an expressionist style, which includes the use of a musical motif associated with the killer, a technique made famous by Fritz Lang in his 1931 thriller M. Outsiders was supposed to premiere at the 2004 Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) but was withdrawn by the festival when cuts were demanded by the censors.
Avatar, (aka Avatar Exile, aka Avatar/The Matrix Hunter, 2004), is Singapore’s first sci-fi feature directed by Singaporean Kuo Jian Hong (daughter of Singapore’s respected stage director Kuo Pao Kun). In the making since 2000, the film was released in 2004 (on TV in Russia, where it was also issued on a DVD). Avatar was screened at Oporto (Fantasporto) International Film Festival, Portugal, in February 2005. It has yet to be released in Singapore.
Starring a Singaporean and international cast (Genevieve O’Reilly, Lim Kay Siu, David Warner, Joan Chen), Avatar’s futuristic tale takes place in the hi-tech Asian city-state transparently called Sintawan, where the identity, actions and whereabouts of each individual are recorded by the watchful eye of a vast cyber-databank CyberLink. The only way around this is using illegal simulated identity implants (sims). A young bounty hunter who makes her living tracking sims, finds herself the unlikely ally of a police detective who suspects the CyberLink is being perverted for an insidious and deadly purpose. Kuo’s futuristic fantasy was shot in Singapore which, no doubt, must have provided plentiful inspiration for the movie’s story. Subjectwise, Avatar is not much different from a number of futuristic dystopias since Godard’s Alphaville.
Clouds in My Coffee, scripted and directed by Gallen Mei (A Sharp Pencil), is a drama about three young women whose experience with men range from the adulterous to abusive. The heroines, played by Ase Wang, Celeste Valdes Lim and Cindy Ng, escape into the world of fantasy, imagining alternatives which would make their lives more meaningful and fulfilling. Although a viable idea, as there have been hardly any features made in Singapore on the subject of women, the story and performances are too weak and production values too poor to sustain interest. As one of the fantasies brings up the subject of lesbianism the film was given the Restricted 21 rating by the Singapore censors.
Toh Hai Leong’s "mockumentary" Zombie Dogs (60 min, prod. by Eric Khoo under the name of Hardly Annie Gore) is a raw, idiosyncratic work that essentially reflects the film-maker’s eccentric personality. It was made on DV for a couple of hundred dollars. Toh plays the role of a snuff-movie director interviewing prospective players. This alternately serious and comical process presents the director’s personal life, fantasies and obsessions - stories that may be real or imaginary, horrific or comic, trivial or profound. The "snuffing" demonstration scene, for example, is pure surrealism. On the other hand, the numerous satirical barbs thrown at Singaporean society and officialdom are sharp and have little to do with fantasy. Despite (or perhaps because of) its darkly comic, B-movie ambience, Zombie Dogs has an authenticity and honesty which may turn it into a cult film. Zombie Dogs premiered to a sold-out audience at the SIFF in 2004 and has been shown at festivals overseas.
The comedy-drama Rice Rhapsody (Hainan Ji Fan), scripted and directed by Hong Kong director Kenneth Bi and jointly produced by Kenbiroli Films/ JCE Movies/ Ground Glass Images and the Singapore Film Commission, was filmed in Singapore but otherwise has little local content. Jen (Sylvia Chang), a single mother, runs a Hainan chicken rice restaurant. Fearing her son may be gay, she takes in a female French exchange student. Director Bi was nominated for the Grand Prix at 2004 Tokyo IFF and Sylvia Chang for Golden Horse Award. Hainan Ji Fan was released in Hong Kong in January 2005 and is expected to reach Singapore’s cinemas in March - hopefully without hiccups with the censors, considering the subject of homosexuality.
The 82-minute drama Tequila (2003), written and directed by Jonathan Lim, with Jimmy T, Jake Lam and Christine Sham, and produced by Crimson Forest Films, is the story of four friends and their turbulent relationship. It was released only on DVD (29 October 2004) available on the production company’s website.
In 2004, new censorship regulations were implemented, but the results were less groundbreaking than expected. An M18 (Mature 18) category was added and the R(A) changed to R21. However, with the new ratings films may still be cut and the old ruling that films rated R21 must not be sold or rented on DVD or VCD remains. This prevents a number of features and shorts of Singaporean independent filmmakers from being seen by potential audiences in their own country - unless they can be distributed theatrically, which is no easy task. On a more positive note, theatrical movies can now be released under two ratings (but not at the same time), improving the chances that more films will be shown in their entirety.
Following the mediocrity of the 2004 round-up, the prospects of Singapore production may be improving. Film critic-turned director, Kelvin Tong (Eating Air), Eric Khoo, Glen Goei, and of course Raintree Pictures, are all working on new features. Royston Tan who, in 2004, stirred local officialdom with Cut, a provocative twelve-minute satire on censorship, is writing a new script. Moreover, some of the country’s noted short film directors, including Tan Pin Pin (Moving House) and Tanya Sng, are jumping onto the feature bandwagon. These are encouraging signs that 2005 will be a more interesting year.