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Eric Khoo (above) may be the only Singaporean film-maker to have three movies premiere in Cannes, but how many Singaporeans have seen them? And would fashion designer Ashley Isham and songbirds Corrinne May and Stefanie Sun be as well received here if they had not based themselves overseas? -- ST FILE PHOTOS
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As a magician, Bosco Francis is one of a kind in Singapore - he eats fire, chews light bulbs and sleeps on broken glass. But his career was not exactly going great guns here.
Then he got cast in film-maker Eric Khoo's My Magic, which made history last month by being the first Singapore movie to compete for the Palme D'or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Playing a despairing magician driven to drink, he not only got to perform his repertoire of bizarre magic, but also did heavy duty emoting for the camera.
He made a big impression at the festival. French TV station Canal Plus invited him - and Faye Dunaway - to appear on the highly rated TV programme Grand Journal A Cannes, introducing him as 'the man everyone is talking about in Cannes'.
Over three days, he fielded over 60 portrait-taking and interview sessions with an international corp of photographers and journalists.
At night when he walked the streets of the Croisette, crowds would stop, yell 'Bravo' and clamour for him to perform magic.
The night before he left for Singapore, he told Khoo very pensively: 'I've never been treated like this in Singapore. Why do I have to fly so far to get this sort of reception? Why do they appreciate me and Singaporeans don't?'
I related this incident to a group of friends over dinner last week. One said he wasn't surprised: 'Singaporeans don't appreciate their own talents.''
He said: 'Eric Khoo may be the only Singaporean film-maker to have three movies premiere in Cannes but, seriously, how many Singaporeans have seen them?''
He was not off the mark. For every eager film student who can churn out five-page essays on the meaning of ghosts in Khoo's works, there are probably 10 who have not even seen one movie by the director.
For example, Be With Me - which opened the Cannes' Directors' Fortnight section in 2005 - played for an astounding nine months in Parisian cinemas, and three months in Seoul, Korea.
In Singapore, the triptych on love exited cinema halls after just three weeks, making barely $180,000.
Another member of our dining party reminded us of a common friend Ping, a Singaporean illustrator now living in Melbourne, Australia.
Ping used to do illustrations for magazines here which refused to pay her more than $100 a pop.
So she forwarded her work to European publishers, and companies which loved her computer-rendered fashion drawings forked out up to five-figure sums and commissioned her to illustrate for clients like Pepsi, Orange and Rover.
Spanish cult fashion label Custo Barcelona was so impressed with her work that it put out a line of clothing with her designs.
With a snort, my dining companion said: 'Do you think Ashley Isham would have a boutique in The Fullerton if he hadn't made it in London?'
'And do you think Corrinne May will be able to sell her albums in Singapore if she hadn't done well in the United States?'' she added, referring to the Singapore-born and Los Angeles-based songbird who has written a song with American singer-songwriter Carole King.
Other examples were thrown around the table. How successful would singers Tanya Chua, Stefanie Sun and Kit Chan be if they hadn't based themselves in Taiwan?
And then, a friend said: 'But how do you explain the popularity of Jack Neo and those MediaCorp TV stars?'
Indeed, how does one explain the fact that Neo movies can rake in millions and the likes of Fann Wong and Christopher Lee can draw thousands to a shopping mall with a public appearance?
'Bah, they're different. They cater to the lowest common denominator; they're mass and mainstream. They won't make it outside Singapore. Why do you think Jack Neo's movies never made the cut for Cannes?'' said the Ashley Isham fan.
I mulled over this for the next couple of days.
I have to admit that I often despair over the lukewarm reception to great local bands like Humpback Oak and Electrico. Or interesting film-makers like Khoo and Royston Tan.
I find it highly ironic, for example, that the two directors should find it easier to get their projects funded by foreign companies, including a Japanese TV station and a French cinema distributor, than local ones.
And I will readily admit I am not a huge fan of Neo or Channel 8 dramas.
Still, I believe that they - and the hordes of fans who adore them - don't deserve to be cursorily dismissed with labels such as 'mass' and 'mainstream'.
It's tantamount to saying they are philistines. After all, who's to say that Neo will not one day walk the red carpet in Cannes, the way Khoo did?
Furthermore, mass and mainstream are not necessarily dirty words. As Hollywood - and to a lesser extent the Hong Kong and Korean film industries - has often shown, you can be mass and put millions of bums on cinema seats and still be intelligent, daring and innovative.
Naturally, the question then arises: 'So what is more important? To be famous in your own country or to be known in the correct circles abroad?''
I put the question to singer-composer Dick Lee, who has carved out a career and a reputation not just in Singapore and Malaysia but also in Japan and Hong Kong.
'I don't think one is more important than the other,'' says Lee, who has written hit musicals such as Beauty World and Snow.Wolf.Lake and composed songs for the late Hong Kong singer Leslie Cheung.
What matters, he added, is whether you have talent.
Media veteran Man Shu Sum, who has spent years grooming talent in both the television and film industries in Hong Kong and Singapore, agreed.
He said: 'In fact, the ideal scenario for any mature media and cultural landscape is a good mix of these two.''
I see his point. Singapore is far from mature. It's a young nation with an even younger cultural history.
While many of our auteurs and artists are still finding their voice and identity, the rest of us are also learning to discern and discover alongside them.
What we should be working towards is an open environment where we will have the space and support - from the authorities and public - to try different forms and genres.
Mr Man has an analogy: 'If you want a really colourful garden, you should plant all kinds of flowers.'
Not all will bloom beautifully but that's okay. What is more important is that we work hard at attaining success so that new generations have models to emulate and benchmarks to cross.
In short, new Kelvin Tongs, new Zoe Tays and new Andrew Gns.
And if we can retain a Singapore essence while we're at it, that's even better. It will make us unique.
kimhoh@sph.com.sg
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