From the perspective of popular success, Singapore cinema has been synonymous with Jack Neo’s films for a long time. This phenomenon was even more evident in 2012. Understanding the importance of the lucrative release period during the Lunar New Year holidays, the director prefers to schedule the release of his first movie of the year at this time. In 2012, it was We Not Naughty, a comedy exploiting the popularity of Neo’s earlier successes I Not Stupid and I Not Stupid Too.
The film did well with its S$1.72 million in takings, but was soundly beaten by his Ah Boys to Men, an armyrecruits comedy.
Released in November, it has become the highest-grossing local film in Singapore’s history with over S$6.2 million in takings.
It also secured a respectable number 5 position on Singapore’s annual top ten list, beating even the James Bond thriller Skyfall.
Ah Boys to Men, echoing the popular 1996 comedy Army Daze by Ong Keng Sen, begins with dramatic CGI-generated scenes of Singapore under attack by unspecified invaders, scenes which are eventually revealed to be a only video game.
Most of the plot focuses on a platoon of rookies trying to cope with the switch from civilian to army life. The main character, Ken Chow, is a spoiled youngster from a well-off family who unsuccessfully tries to avoid the draft.
When his girlfriend Amy leaves him for another man, he concocts a desperate scheme to get medical leave to see her. Ah Boys to Men 2, released on 31 January 2013, appears to have an even more promising career at the box-office, having collected over a total of S$4.67 million after 13 days.
Jack Neo’s movies are popular melodramatic comedies which address, besides family and marital problems, issues relevant to most Singaporean heartlanders.
Issues like the shortcomings of the country’s educational system, children’s problems, and the propensity for gambling and petty crime. Neo himself is no stranger to human weakness: his own extramarital affair was exposed in March 2010, reflecting, in an ironic way, the problems of some of his movie characters. Neo’s film style is strongly influenced by the television medium, in which he started his career. This is evident in his dialoguedriven style, the actors’ exaggerated delivery, and his framing and editing. His movies feature an abundance of sentimentality and didacticism. Neo’s films are not much in favour by the critics, but there appears to be a kind of emotional bond between Neo, the director and actor, and the Singapore audience. Even if his movies do not reflect Singapore’s reality, they do reflect its citizens’ dreams, desires and concerns. These characteristics are at the core of the familiar “Neo style”, which assures his films guaranteed success at home, but allows very little chance to penetrate the markets beyond Singapore and its immediate neighbours.
For better or worse, horror movies have become a staple of Singapore production. In 2012, the quality was certainly for the worse. Horror films are often released in the “Ghost Month” or seventh month of the traditional lunar calendar (usually August-September), in which ghosts, and spirits of the deceased come out from the nether world, mingling with the living.
Three of the five 2012 horror movies, which also belong in the sub-genre of horror-comedy, were screened during this period: My Ghost Partner (Huang Yiliang) and Greedy Ghost by Boris Boo (Where Got Ghost?, 2009, The Ghosts Must Be Crazy, 2011) share the overused theme of spirits and gambling, while Hsien of the Dead (Gary Ow) attempts to be a zombie movie.
Cheng Ding An’s Ghost on Air, about a radio DJ who reads his dead girlfriend’s ghost stories on air, was shown earlier in May. Despite a stodgy script and uneven acting, the Australian- Singapore co-production Bait 3D, directed by Kimble Rendall, was a more accomplished horror movie. In the story, a freak tsunami hits a town on the Australian Gold Coast, submerging a supermarket and its car park. The blood and gore begins as the survivors realize they are trapped together with two great white sharks. The film bombed at the box office in both Australia and Singapore but did better internationally, especially in China, where it brought in US$24 million within three weeks of its release. Plans for a sequel have been announced.
An unusual link between the supernatural, gambling obsession and animal kingdom themes was provided by My Dog Dou Dou, Singapore’s “first dog movie” by Ng Say Yong, a local veteran television producer.
Revolving around a gambling father, his small son, and a “miraculous” dog that can predict 4D lottery winning numbers (no ghosts this time), this is a drama for families and children. Apparently, this was not enough to attract more viewers, as the final box office was less than S$90,000.
Film control in Singapore has always been tight and controversies have bubbled up periodically, although today, classical censorship has been replaced by classification. The latest controversy concerns the satirical comedy Sex.Violence.FamilyValues, the directorial debut by Singapore scriptwriter Ken Quek (It’s a Great, Great World; Blue Mansion). His short feature (47 minutes), already screened at numerous international festivals, consists of three intelligent, well-crafted shorts that take aim at stereotypical assumptions of race, sexuality and family values. In Cartoons, a mother is called to her young son’s school over his morbid drawings. Porn Masala revolves around an amateur Indian actor and a young girl hired to play the lead roles in a porno film. The Bouncer depicts the struggle between a middle-aged nightclub bouncer and his rebellious daughter who shows up at his club to compete in pole dancing. Starring Serene Chan, Matthew Loo, Adrian Pang, Osman Sulaiman and Sylvia Ratonel, the acting is above the general standard in Singapore cinema. Its planned Singapore release was suspended after the MDA (Media Development Authority) revoked its license a day after the movie’s premiere at Orchard Cineleisure on October 5. The reason given for the ban was the Porn Masala segment, which was deemed to be demeaning and offensive to Indians. The ban was lifted after an appeal and the film reclassified as Restricted (R21) with edits. It is expected to be screened in March.
Released on January 3, 2013, the successful comedy Taxi! Taxi! took in S$1.4 million before the month’s end. Director-producer Kelvin Sng’s feature debut was inspired by the autobiographical bestseller Diary of a Taxi Driver: True Stories from Singapore’s Most Educated Cabdriver published by Dr Cai Mingjie. The polychrome world of taxis, taxi drivers and their customers is a ubiquitous part of Singapore life. Its success hinges on two characters from opposite worlds, portrayed by experienced performers Gurmit Singh and Mark Lee.
Professor Chua (Singh) a retrenched microbiology scientist and novice taxi driver befriends Ah Tau (Lee), a seasoned and resourceful cabby. There is still much overacting, mostly by the supporting characters, and the emotional scene on the high-rise rooftop in the dramatic finale is truly over-the-top. Taxi! Taxi! is not the only Singapore movie where the maxim “less is more” would help.
The Wedding Diary, a Singapore-Malaysian collaboration directed by Adrian Teh, opened during the 2012 Lunar New Year-Valentine’s Day period. Weddings have been traditionally felicitous film subjects, especially in comedies. The Wedding Diary draws its humour from the mismatch in appearance and family background between the nerdy juvenile-looking bridegroom Daniel (Ah Niu) and the pretty, more mature-looking Tina (Hong Kong’s Elanne Kwong). The lighthearted movie did not bring any surprises intellectually or stylistically. The eponymous sequel was duly released for Valentine’s Day in 2013. The Wedding Diary did better in Malaysia (box office takings of S$1.26 million) than in Singapore (S$360,000).
Libērta, written and directed by Kan Lumé (Solos, 2007; Dreams from the Third World, 2008), is an intimate drama, a sharply focused existential confession by a suicide survivor (played by Faye Kingslee) travelling in Australia, who describes her liberating experience during an unexpected meeting with a group of aboriginal children at Ayers Rock. Standing outside categories, the monologue-based film is formally divided into four parts (Sydney, Outback, Ayers Rock and Going Back). The feature is not to be confused with Libertas, a short animated movie the director made in 2011.
Singapore documentaries generally compare well to the country’s fiction production. Lynn Lee and James Leong are experienced non-fiction filmmakers whose productions such as Passabe (2004), about East Timor’s civil war wounds, Aki Ra’s Boys (2007), about Cambodia’s post-conflict children casualties of landmines, and Yi Yi – One On One With Edward Yang (2011), on the shooting of Yang’s feature Yi Yi, have won awards and prizes at international festivals. Their new documentary The Great North Korean Picture Show featured at the Dubai International Film Festival in December was filmed in the North Korean Film Studio near Pyongyang, the hermit country’s key propaganda workshop. Before We Forget is a sensitive portrait of dementia by Jeremy Boo and Lee Xian Jie, focusing on the lives of two women and their families in Singapore, where the subjects of debilitating mental illnesses and dying are only now gradually being discussed openly.
The filmmakers have also set up an internet site helping people to share their experiences with dementia.
Three Singapore veterans of the short subject, Royston Tan, Eva Tang and Victric Thng joined forces in producing Old Romances, a sequel to their debut collaboration Old Places. Singapore’s cityscape is rapidly changing and many of its landmarks and familiar places are disappearing from its collective memory.
Old Romances is one of the attempts undertaken by Singapore filmmakers to preserve the flavour of these sites before they are lost forever. The documentary premiered at the National Museum of Singapore in December, and is now available on DVD.
The following documentaries have been released digitally: Curry Curry Christmas by Randy Ang (released on Toggle.sg), and BooksActually: The Documentary by Lizzy Lee (Vimeo). The latter is about the eponymous independent bookstore in Tiong Bahru, founded by Kenny Leck and Karen Wai, which champions Singapore books and side-stream critical literature from around the world.
The shortage of non-mainstream venues (arthouses) has not changed in 2012. The high-tech metropolis does not have a full-time repertory cinema. There are very good non-mainstream and classical films to be seen at the National Museum of Singapore Cinémathèque, at the charming Arts House, and at Cathay’s The Picturehouse, but this is simply not enough, especially as the former two venues are not dedicated to full-time film screenings. The mainstream cineplexes show mostly American and some Hong Kong blockbusters.
The Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF), whose 24th season in 2011 was riddled with organisational problems, did not take place in 2012. Founded in 1987, the SIFF was a fixture of Singapore’s film scene.
A 25th season is planned for the second half of 2013, although at the time of writing, little is known about it. The decline of the SIFF is a sad blow to Singapore’s movie enthusiasts, and takes away their access to the newest trends and discoveries of international cinema, especially Southeast Asian cinema, which was the SIFF’s core strength for over two decades.
Yvonne Ng Uhde and Jan Uhde