POP quiz: What do these three landmark Singapore films have in common – 12 Storeys (1997), Forever Fever (1998) and Eating Air (1999)?
For a start, they’re chiefly about ah bengs. And, interestingly, they’re also helmed by film-makers – Eric Khoo, Glen Goei and Kelvin Tong respectively – who are as middle or upper-class as they come.
An attempt to gain street cred? Probably. An anomaly? Certainly. And it doesn’t look like this trend will change anytime soon.
In May, Khoo wrapped up filming on Be With Me, which weaves together three stories about love and loss in the HDB heartland. The show is expected to be released in Singapore on Sept 8.
And Tong’s latest offering is The Maid, a horror flick about a Filipino domestic worker who sees supernatural apparitions, which will be released here on Aug 18.
Heartland hang-ups
Just what is it with these Yuppie types and their obsession with the working class?
“It’s a dumb tradition,” 32-year-old Tong candidly conceded in a chat with Today.
“Go to any film school,” the former journalist and movie critic commented. “I’ll bet you about 80 per cent of students in every graduating class will be making something about the ghettos.
“Chances are, 60 to 70 per cent of the young film-makers are very middle-class.”
Citing French New Wave cinema in the 1960s and Martin Scorsese’s early works as examples of what he called “outcast” films, the self-taught director said: “It’s always been a theme.
“When you’re 18, you’re angry and your favourite colour is black, you’ll probably not want to make a film about stockbrokers. You’d probably want to murder them, not make a film glorifying them!”
Tong, who said he made his first short film, Moveable Feast (1995), to teach himself how to make films, then turned the spotlight on himself and his peers: “In Singapore, you tend to want to film what’s rare rather than common.
“Good fortune and prosperity are rather common. So, as a film-maker, you’ll point your camera at a place where few people look at — the dirtier corners.”
Which goes some way to explaining his debut full-length feature, Eating Air (translated from Hokkien, it means “wanderlust”), which centres on the misadventures of a pair of motorcycle-bound layabouts.
The movie has travelled the international festival circuit and competed at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards. In 2003, Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao named it the best Singapore film made to date.
But Tong cautioned that a director intent on working on his craft shouldn’t be caught in a rut milking misery out of the working class.
Respected British director Mike Leigh, for example, has fashioned a career from documenting the lives of working-class folk. Movies such as Life Is Sweet (1990), Secrets And Lies (1996) and All Or Nothing (2002) have brought him considerable critical praise – but also allegations that he’s patronising a culture he isn’t part of, and that he hasn’t stretched himself as a film-maker.
“If you just want to capture street life that way and that’s motivated you to make your first film, cool,” said Tong.
“But thereafter, you should do something else beyond the gutter.”
Breaking new ground
True to his credo, following Eating Air, Tong went on to direct two 48-minute telemovies for the now-defunct MediaWorks.
Aspiration and Fantasy broke new ground in 2001 by being the first in Singapore television history to be shot entirely in the 1:85 letterbox format.
In the interim, he also made commercials for clients such as Motorola, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.
With The Maid, bankrolled by MediaCorp Raintree Pictures, Tong has chalked up another milestone by contributing what he called “an entry, from a unique Singaporean angle, to the big family of Asian horror”.
Smiling, Tong enthused: “Horror sells, and horror is really fun to do. It’s different from the way I made, say, Eating Air, which was a lot more reflective.
“This one is more like: ‘I have 30 feet of reel – how do I build a rollercoaster of a movie? I must figure out how to do it.’
“It’s a fun exercise!”
Judging from reactions from preview audiences so far, this maid-in-Singapore rollercoaster horror show is a scream alright. –
Channel News Asia