2010 saw the government’s continuing determination to establish Singapore as Southeast Asia’s media hub. This policy includes the Media Development Authority’s (MDA) International Film Fund (IFF), launched in 2009. As reported in February 2011, the IFF will invest up to S$5m (US$3.9m) in each selected globally marketable film involving at least one Singapore partner.
MDA’s persistent efforts to break into the international arena paid off when the China-Singapore co-production agreement was signed in July 2010. It covers theatrical feature films and telemovies and is expected to pave the way for more film tie-ups between the two countries as co-productions will enjoy the same access to government funding and incentives as do national productions in each country. Considering Singapore’s population is under 5 million, the agreement is seen as a significant step towards widening the market for the city-state’s co-productions.
Early in 2011, Singapore’s media complex Mediapolis, at present in development, saw a groundbreaking ceremony for its first building. Named Infinite Studios, the ten-storey edifice will bring together a wide range of media-related services such as broadcasters and digital media companies. It will house Singapore’s first two sound stages which can accommodate the motion-capture technology used in Hollywood blockbusters such as Avatar. This will be provided by Infinite Frameworks, the building’s main tenant.
Another new project supported by the MDA is ScreenSingapore, to be held from 5 to 12 June 2011. Positioned between the Cannes Film Festival and the Northern Hemisphere summer blockbuster season, the week-long event hopes to establish Singapore as a new film market in Asia, a region considered to be where the real movie industry growth is. It aims to serve as a platform for international films to be marketed in Asia and likewise, for Asian films to be sold internationally. ScreenSingapore will host a film and entertainment trade and technology market and include premieres of upcoming Asian and Hollywood releases, along with conferences, workshops, financing seminars and producer forums.
Film output was relatively healthy in 2010 reflecting Singapore’s robust economic rebound (GDP increase of 14.5% in 2010): with roughly 20 features, it stood midway between the production of 2008 (28 features) and the rather mediocre output of 2009 (12 features). An unexpected event in early 2010, talked-up as expected by the Singapore media, was the extramarital affair between 50-year-old filmmaker Jack Neo, the embodiment of homegrown mainstream cinema and television, and a young model-actress. The revelation was particularly embarrassing for the director whose movies are known for their persistent moralising stance, while many viewers felt betrayed when they realised that their screen idol was just a part of commonplace reality. Perhaps as a result of this, Neo’s satirical comedy about an unscrupulous businessman, Being Human (aka Being Human Being), brought in less in ticket sales than expected. After a one-year leave from filmmaking, Neo returned to the silver screen in February 2011 in the Singapore-Malaysian co-production Homecoming directed by Lee Thean Jeen. Released for the Chinese New Year, the comedy features three intertwining stories of characters faced with the values and meaning of the traditional reunion dinner. Neo plays voluptuous mother Karen Neo (the second female role in his career, after Liang Po Po The Movie, 1999) attempting via an eventful road journey to get home in time for the reunion dinner, accompanied by her son (Malaysian singer Ah Niu). This is also the first movie of Singapore’s Homerun Asia, founded by Daniel Yun, former CEO of MediaCorp Raintree Pictures.
During Neo’s absence, a number of filmmakers were keen to exploit the popularity of his comedies, making movies similar in themes and style, though without much success. They include Fok Chi Kai’s Old Cow vs Tender Grass, a title adapted from Mandarin suggesting an autumn-spring romance, though the story itself sidesteps the subject; Harry Yap’s Happy Go Lucky on the destructive effects of gambling; Love Cuts by Gerald Lee, a movie promoting breast cancer awareness; and Phua Chu Kang The Movie by Jack Neo collaborator Boris Boo, inspired by a popular local sitcom character, produced and set in Malaysia. It appears that co-productions with Malaysia are gaining favour with Singapore filmmakers.
One such is Kelvin Tong’s 2010 action thriller Kidnapper, which was also partially shot in Malaysia. This is about a taxi driver whose son is abducted through a case of mistaken identity. Tong (Eating Air, Rule Number One, Men in White, The Maid) has been cementing his position as a leading mainstream filmmaker. In January 2011 he released his new movie, It’s a Great Great World (Tua seh kai in Hokkien), a nostalgic look back at the now defunct Singapore’s popular amusement park Great World. The period comedy-drama, comprising four independent stories, is set during the 1940s-1960s. This ambitious project, co-produced by Raintree Pictures and Tong’s own Boku Films for an estimated S$2m (US$1.5m), is studded with Singapore stars, including Joanne Peh, Yvonne Lim, Chew Chor Meng, Xiang Yun, Huang Wenyong, and Kym Ng.
Although most Singapore productions are in Mandarin or English, exceptions do exist, as in the case of the thriller Gurushetram - 24 Hours of Anger by T. T. Dhavamanni. This is made in the Tamil language, and is a recipient of the Singapore Film Commission’s (SFC) New Feature Film Fund (NFFF). The story centers on 17-year-old Prakarsh and his attempt to protect his mentally ill brother as they are dragged into a world of gangsters and drug trafficking. Thomas Lim’s first feature Roulette City is a Cantonese-language action drama that takes place in Macau. Director Lim plays Tak, a Chinese mainlander who tries his luck in the city’s underground gambling dens hoping to help his sick mother. Another SFC NFFF recipient was Wee Li Lin’s feature Forever which had its world premiere simultaneously at the international festivals in Cairo and Jakarta in December 2010.
A movie that generated initial excitement was Haunted Changi by Andrew Lau, a low-budget mockumentary which takes viewers on a Blair Witch-style journey to Singapore’s abandoned and notoriously haunted Old Changi Hospital. This was a former Japanese military hospital in WWII. An effective online publicity campaign through blogs and Facebook helped this some- what amateurish horror film climb to the top of the box office chart during its opening weekend.
More noteworthy is Cowboys in Paradise, a documentary that commanded considerable international attention through its popular trailer on YouTube, not least because of its subject. Directed by Singapore-based Amit Virmani and set in Bali, it explores the lives, loves and motivations of the “Kuta cowboys,” tanned young men on the island’s famous beach who offer female tourists romance and sex.
Memories of a Burning Tree (Kumbukumbu za mti uunguao) by Singapore-based director Sherman Ong — a visual artist and photographer — examines an even more exotic subject. Commissioned by the Rotterdam International Film Festival for their Forget Africa programme, the films is set in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and shot in Swahili with non-professional actors. The story centres on a man who enlists the help of locals to look for his mother’s grave. This thought-provoking effort skilfully blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction.
Without doubt, one of the best achievements of 2010 was Boo Junfeng’s debut feature Sandcastle. The story focuses on 18-year-old En as he waits to enlist in the army. He spends time at his grandparents’ home and discovers his deceased father’s past as a student activist. It is a well-performed, nuanced film about family relationships, first love and the search for identity. It also puts the tumultuous events of mid-1950s Singapore in the spotlight. The 1956 student riots have long been swept under the carpet by the country’s official historiographers and have only been publicly discussed in recent years. A success for both the young director and Singapore cinema, Sandcastle was shown at the 2010 Cannes Semaine de la critique.
The “unromantic” comedy of manners When Hainan Meets Teochew by Han Yew Kwang (18 Grams of Love) is an example of unpretentious yet enjoyable fun.
Hainan and Teochew are two Chinese dialects spoken in Singapore. The film introduces two seemingly ordinary characters living in an ordinary apartment building in the heartlands who are not really so ordinary. The short, stout Hainan-boy (Lee Chau Min) with a crew-cut is actually a woman while the tall, slim and long-haired Ms Teochew (Tan Hong Chye) is in fact a man. Brought together by a lost bra, the two begin a complicated emotional relationship which leads to farcical situations cleverly exploited by the director. The two leads, both non-professional actors, deliver believable and rewarding performances, very much playing themselves in this gender-bending movie. Made on a shoe-string budget, the film was released late in 2010 outside Singapore’s major chains. It will be screened at the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival as well as the Asian Queer Film Festival in Tokyo in 2011.
Singapore filmmakers also made a mark at the 39th Rotterdam International Film Festival where 9 shorts and 2 features from Singapore were shown. This suggests that Singapore’s independent films are becoming more respected on the international festival circuit. The two features were both by Sherman Ong: the aforementioned Memories of a Burning Tree and his earlier Flooding in the Time of Drought (Banjir kemarau, 2009). The latter is an inventive fictional feature with documentary elements that looks at life in Singapore through the eyes of eight immigrant couples as a water crisis looms. The film was made by 13 Little Pictures, a new production company founded in 2009 by a group of young filmmakers. The company has already made its mark on the local filmmaking scene with more than half-a-dozen completed titles. Among them is Liao Jiekai’s feature debut Red Dragonflies, a personal film that gently evokes memories of childhood with a contemplative sense of loss. Another is In the House of Straw by Chris Yeo Siew Hua. This is about a young man who discovers that his house-mates are bicycle thieves.
An effort deserving mention is the feature documentary Old Places (2010) shot by Royston Tan, Victric Thng and Eva Tang. It was presented as a National Day documentary last August Produced by Tan, the collaborative effort captures the images and memories of fast disappearing places which have been par t of Singapore’s identity. The places visited include old playgrounds, traditional coffee shops and Chinatown street barbers. The images were evocatively overlaid with audio narratives of personal journeys and remembrances.
On a more sobering note, the future of the Singapore International Film Festival — held since 1987 and respected for its outstanding programming — is uncertain. The festival, which is a driving force behind the Singapore cinema revival, experienced management turmoil in 2009. This caused it to reduce its profile and activities in 2010. The festival is perennially short of sufficient government support.
Yvonne Ng Uhde e Jan Uhde