Singapore film festival movies range from thrillers to romances

Home-grown movies with mass and arthouse appeal will be shown at the Singapore film festival

Little People, Big Dreams by film-maker Mak C.K. (above) is based on a dwarf theme park in Yunnan, China. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Little People, Big Dreams by film-maker Mak C.K. (above) is based on a dwarf theme park in Yunnan, China. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Little People, Big Dreams by film-maker Mak C.K. is based on a dwarf theme park (above) in Yunnan, China. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Yeo Yann Yann plays a condom reviewer out to seduce a plumber in Rubbers, a sex comedy directed by Han Yew Kwang (above). -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Yeo Yann Yann plays a condom reviewer out to seduce a plumber (Julian Hee, both above) in Rubbers, a sex comedy directed by Han Yew Kwang. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
The film by Yeo Siew Hua (above) on The Obs features band members such as Leslie Low and Vivian Wang. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
The film by Yeo Siew Hua on The Obs features band members such as Leslie Low and Vivian Wang (both above). -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Kit Chan plays a radio personality who dispenses advice in Ms J Contemplates Her Choice, directed by Jason Lai (above). -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Kit Chan (above) plays a radio personality who dispenses advice in Ms J Contemplates Her Choice, directed by Jason Lai. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Lei Yuan Bin (above) captures the everyday lives of three single women living alone in HDB flats in his film, 03-Flats. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Lei Yuan Bin captures the everyday lives of three single women living alone in HDB flats in his film, 03-Flats (above). -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

If you fear that all festival films are arthouse works, with every negative connotation attached to that term - foreign, navel-gazing, slow - this year's Singapore International Film Festival might change your mind.

The range of works at this year's event, which opens tonight, runs the gamut from thrillers to epic romances to insightful documentaries, says festival executive director Yuni Hadi, 38.

Nowhere is the range better illustrated than in the Singapore Panorama section, she says. Five screenings are already sold out. There are a total of 10 features, comprising both documentaries and fiction works, an increase from the eight that were screened at the last edition of the festival in 2011.

This focus on home-grown films could be seen as a reflection of the mood in the larger film-making community.

Lei Yuan Bin, director of the sold-out documentary 03-Flats, has observed that among the community, there is a new surge of optimism, leading to more projects getting under way. The reasons for the optimism include the inspirational example of Anthony Chen's wins for Ilo Ilo (2013) at last year's Cannes Film Festival and Golden Horse Awards, and more flexible funding options by the Media Development Authority.

Launched at the 2008 edition of the festival, the Singapore Panorama continues to showcase local film-makers. Like the rest of the festival, it has a mix of works that might see the light of day in the mainstream cinema, as well as those likely to have more niche appeal.

This year's wide mix of styles and genres "reflects where we are and how our voices are all different", Ms Yuni says. The more accessible films include Han Yew Kwang's raunchy comedy Rubbers and the erotic thriller Lang Tong by Sam Loh, she says.

She notes that a good number of the film-makers, such as Han and Loh, are alumni of previous festival editions, but there are also a number of directors making their debut features and shorts.

"Our job as organisers is to support them, whether they are first-time film- makers or returning to the festival for their second or third time," she says.

And yes, the list will include the highly personal, stripped-down works that people associate with arthouse, she adds. "Singapore film-makers are unearthing all these stories that need to be told. The Panorama section is a place for personal expression."

Life! profiles five home-grown films worth catching at the festival.

johnlui@sph.com.sg

bchan@sph.com.sg


MS J CONTEMPLATES HER CHOICE BY JASON LAI

Singer-actress Kit Chan pays a great deal of attention to her hair, her make-up and her clothes when she plays a role. But it is not for reasons of vanity.

Rather, it is how she approaches acting.

"I start with the clothes, deciding on the haircut, the make-up. Once I've decided on the look of the character, it's almost like you slip into her skin," she tells Life!.

In the drama Ms J Contemplates Her Choice (88 minutes, NC16), Chan, 42, plays the title radio personality who dispenses advice and is later forced by a mysterious caller to make a series of wrenching decisions.

The film will be screened as part of the Singapore International Film Festival on Saturday at the National Museum of Singapore. The session is sold out.

Director Jason Lai (above), 41, recalls that Chan had strong ideas of what her fringe should be like and even the exact colour of her lipstick. He says: "I remember we had this discussion for a while, on the lipstick. Sometimes on set, she would tell me, 'I know you're not going to shoot my feet, but look at them. I feel that this is the perfect colour for my toenails.'"

And he appreciated the details that she put into the character. He adds: "Everyone felt that as well and everyone worked along at that level. She really lifted the project for me."

Chan is no stranger to acting. She has tread the boards in productions such as the musical December Rains and been on television in the Hong Kong medical drama Healing Hands II (2000).

But Ms J is only her second movie after Lover's Discourse (2011), in which she played the object of infatuation of her son's friend.

The way she chooses her film projects is by instinct.

She says: "When the scripts come and there's no feeling, then you can just forget it. That's not my forte nor my regular thing so it has to be very personal and interesting for me."

Do not mistake her laid-back attitude for laziness, though. She adds: "When something does happen, I'll be very committed and work very hard. But I don't really work hard at trying to make things happen."

Her fans will be happy to know that she is working towards a pop concert next year.

Chan tied the knot with her long-time banker beau in December 2012. Asked how married life has been, she says: "No difference at all because I've no children and we've been together for so long. I'm not in my 20s, I'm very mature already, so it's different."

Boon Chan

The screening of Ms J Contemplates Her Choice at the National Museum of Singapore on Saturday at 7.15pm is sold out.


THE OBS: A SINGAPORE STORY BY YEO SIEW HUA

Earlier this year, film-maker Yeo Siew Hua was clearing old files from his computer when he found a video he made a few years ago on musician Leslie Low, a member of the seminal local band The Observatory, known to fans as The Obs.

Yeo (below), 29, found he could not bring himself to erase the file and that was when he knew he had to make a documentary about the band that he and co-producer Dan Koh consider one of Singapore's most talented yet undervalued musicians.

He hopes the documentary will shine a light on the avant-garde group, known for their aversion to publicity and self-promotion.

He says: "This is made for the band, it was not commissioned by them. I tagged along while they practised and recorded."

The Obs: A Singapore Story (94 minutes, PG13) explores the question of why the band, formed around frontman Leslie Low (formerly of 1990s rock group Humpback Oak), get so little attention in Singapore, despite - or perhaps because of - their reputation as uncompromising musicians.

The film explores their musical evolution and creative process, using interviews with friends, fans and collaborators, as well as archival footage. Members talk about their fears and dreams as musicians and Singporeans.

Singapore's musical context - the lack of venues, the paranoia over slam-dancing and long hair, the 1990s blossoming of indie music, thanks to foreign labels such as Pony Canyon - are taken into account, as are the contributions of key members such as Vivian Wang. But Low, despite his low-key ways, takes centre stage.

Yeo says Low "is the humblest man, he is such a character, but in a quiet way". He adds: "He's not someone you take to right away. It takes time. But after you do, you'll say, 'Woah, this guy is extremely interesting.'"

John Lui

The Obs: A Singapore Story will be screened on Saturday at 11am at the National Museum of Singapore. Director Yeo Siew Hua will be there for a Q&A session after the show.


RUBBERS BY HAN YEW KWANG

Sex comedies are a common enough offering in places such as Hong Kong and South Korea. But in Singapore, film-makers seem to shy away from the genre.

Director Han Yew Kwang (below), 38, believes there is demand for it though and he is making good on that belief with Rubbers (83 minutes, R21), which comprises three stories about condoms taking place on Valentine's Day.

He says: "In other countries, films about sex are just another genre, it's like just another ordinary choice. But for us, it's taboo and most local film-makers don't tend to make sex films that are accessible to the audience.

"That limits the choice of audiences and who knows, maybe that's what they're looking for."

Encouragingly, the film's screening on Dec 12 has sold out.

A fund-raising campaign for the film on crowdfunding website Indiegogo probably helped to create some buzz for the $500,000 project. While he raised only about a third of the target of US$25,000 (S$32,700) on the site, the process attracted some private investors.

Apart from funding, another challenge he faced was in casting. He points out: "For the established actors, we know it's quite difficult for them to strip down and do some explicit scenes. When we auditioned new faces, there were quite a number of them who were okay with exposing themselves. But they couldn't act as well as the established actors."

Han found himself in something of a dilemma. His solution? "I thought we would go for performance more than anything else."

Alaric Tay (from television skit show The Noose) is a playboy who wakes up one day with a condom trapped on his penis until a character from a porn flick he is watching comes to life to offer assistance.

And in another story, Yeo Yann Yann (Ilo Ilo, 2013) is a condom reviewer out to seduce a plumber.

The third story is about an old couple rekindling their passion after the wife stumbles across a packet of condom.

Both Tay and Yeo have worked with Han on his critically acclaimed feature, 18 Grams Of Love (2007).

As scripted, "we don't get to see any body parts", says Han. "We filmed it in such a way that something will block the important areas. We purposely made it that way to add to the comedy element."

The film has been rated R21 for sexual content with no edits for its festival screening but has yet to be rated for its general release.

Han says: "If we need to cut it to get it shown, I'm okay with that."

Boon Chan

The screening of Rubbers at the National Museum of Singapore on Dec 12 at 9.15pm is sold out.


03-FLATS BY LEI YUAN BIN

Three single women, each living alone in an HDB flat, each making a life for herself.

It does not sound like the stuff of high drama, but documentary-maker Lei Yuan Bin, 37, has made an absorbing, almost hypnotically arresting treatise on the trend that many are reluctant to embrace - that more Singaporeans are going to be single and living in public housing.

His footage in 03-Flats (90 minutes, PG13) captures haunting moments of tenderness, as well as long periods when the occupants, each from a different age group, do what they love, alone - drawing, cooking, sewing, watching television.

In the background, the National Day celebrations gear up and with it, the message that nuclear families form the core of a stable society.

The film was made to be part of a larger research project headed by

Dr Lilian Chee, assistant professor with the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, exploring issues of domesticity, public policy and identity.

Lei (the drama White Days, 2009), who received a National Arts Council Young Artist Award in 2012, spent nine months with a camera in Sembawang, Queenstown and Eunos estates, ending with more than 200 hours of footage.

He says each woman has made her flat into a refuge, a place of simple pleasures, while living alone.

For example, there is one moment when charcoal artist and Sembawang resident Tang Ling Nah, 35, plugs in a television set given to her by a friend.

The artist lives frugally and had resisted the idea of having a television set in her living room, which doubles as her workspace. The film-maker says: "She was so happy. She said, 'I can finally watch TV!'."

John Lui

The screening of 03-Flats at the National Museum of Singapore on Monday at 7.15pm is sold out.


LITTLE PEOPLE, BIG DREAMS BY MAK C.K.

For documentary-makers, Google is often their friend when the topic bank runs dry.

Film-maker Mak C.K., 36, plugged the words "weird Asia" in the search engine and one of the results was a dwarf theme park (above) in Yunnan, China.

"I thought, 'This can't be real'," he says. But the park, officially named The World Eco Garden of Butterflies and The Dwarf Empire, did exist. Mak was both horrified and fascinated - a sign that he had found his topic.

Parts of Little People, Big Dreams (89 minutes, PG) will make viewers squirm. Tourists gawk at a song-and-dance number put on by little people, who also walk around the park in mascot costumes. The performers are hugged and mauled by visitors, who treat them like toys or zoo animals.

But this is not a record of inhumanity of the sort that seeps out from China with disappointing frequency.

The picture is not black and white and it emerges that the park is not a hellhole, nor are the dwarves naive victims or hapless prisoners. When the key characters speak of their lives as outcasts, the moments are heartrending.

Mak, whose first documentary The World's Most Fashionable Prison (2012), about a fashion rehabilitation programme in the Philippines was an official selection at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, has worked for National Geographic Channel Asia and Discovery Networks Asia.

He is aware that in making a film about little people, he might be guilty of exploiting them in a Shocking Asia sort of way.

He invited representatives from the support organisation, Little People Of America, to view the film.

A testimonial from the organisation's president Gary Arnold reads: "The beauty of Little People, Big Dreams is that it shines a light on China, lets the dwarf performers tell their own story and allows viewers to reach their own conclusions about the theme park."

John Lui

The screening of Little People, Big Dreams at the National Museum of Singapore on Sunday at 7.15pm is sold out.


OTHER SINGAPORE FEATURE FILMS AT THE FEST

UNLUCKY PLAZA (M18)

What: A Filipino single father (Epy Quizon) struggles to get by in cosmopolitan Singapore in the follow-up to writer-director Ken Kwek's controversial Sex.Violence.FamilyValues.

Where: Shaw Theatres Lido 1 and Lido 4

When: Dec 4, 6.45pm. The show is sold out

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STANDING IN STILL WATER (PG13)

What: The feature film debut by Ric Aw examines the interwoven lives of four damaged individuals against the backdrop of a reservoir.

Where: National Museum of Singapore

When: Dec 7, 4.30pm

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SINGAPORE GIRL (PG)

What: While on holiday in Koh Samui, two lost souls end up together in a rebound relationship in this romance drama from Kan Lume.

Where: National Museum of Singapore

When: Dec 8, 9.15pm

AS YOU WERE (M18)

What: Water, water everywhere in Liao Jiekai's film about a couple who find their relationship under threat.

Where: The Projector

When: Dec 9, 9.15pm

BREAKING THE ICE (M18)

What: Nizam Khan weaves together a filmed piece of performance art by Singaporean artist Jeremy Hiah with imagined and actual images from the artist's daily life.

Where: National Museum of Singapore

When: Dec 10, 9.15pm

LANG TONG (R21)

What: A heady brew of sex, betrayal, murder and soup from veteran television director Sam Loh.

Where: National Museum of Singapore

When: Dec 13, 11.30pm (sold out)

Go to sgiff.com for the latest news on sold-out/additional screenings and changes to schedules.

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