Yet another S'porean film site: sgNewWave

Students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of Film and Media Studies have set up their own film commentary site, ambitiously called sgNewWave. Moreover, they apparently want to make this site the Singapore equivalent of Cahiers du Cinema.

http://www.sgnewwave.com/

Well, we'll see.

I like how their masthead is a nod to Sight & Sound, but did they really have to use Impact?

For logophiles

For extreme logophiles, you now have Wordie/a>. It's Flickr but with words.

/heavy breathing

Good heavens, yet another S'pore film blog

The Screen Bug
http://thescreenbug.blogspot.com/

Announcing a hiatus

Due to various committments, we won't be updating this blog for a while. But make sure you keep watching movies. We'll be seeing you at our screenings, ya?

Till next, here's some links:

Singapore Film Society
http://www.sfs.org.sg/

SGFilm Forums
http://www.sgfilm.com

Sinema.SG
http://sinema.sg/

Moving Images: A Season of Australian Cinema

Well, if animation don't float your boat, you may wanna head over to The Substation:

The Substation Moving Images presents
A SEASON OF AUSTRALIAN CINEMA
With Dr Vincent O'Donnell

20 to 25 November 2006
The Substation Theatre
2 to 5pm daily
$15 / $10 concession per session
$60 / $40 concession for whole season
(please note change in pricing)
Tickets available from Gatecrash

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Peter Weir, Sunday Too Far Away by Ken Hannam, and My Brilliant Career by Gillian Armstrong – just to name a few stellar films that marked the rebirth of Australian cinema in the 1970s. By using carefully selected films that explore developments in cinema in Australia over the past thirty years, each of the six sessions will begin with a discussion about the historical and social context of the film for the day, followed by the full screening of the film, and a discussion and analysis. This is a programme for those who like cinema for more than what blockbusters can offer, for those interested in the language of cinema, the emergence of a national voice in cinema, depictions of national identity in cinema, low to medium-budget filmmaking, diversity in national cinema, and cinema history.

(con't at The Substation website)

A public service announcement for Animation Nation 2006

This just in:

Ticket sales for the screenings of "Renaissance" and "Paprika" are sold out on Cathay's Internet booking system, but a fair number of good seats are still available at the Cathay Cineplex Orchard box office (Orchard Cineleisure building, near Somerset MRT Station).

You know what to do ;)

Animation Nation 2006 tickets on sale

Well, you don't post for a bit, and suddenly some b*stards come along and hijack your film blog into a splog.

Anyway, we're back - back I say! - and gearing up for Animation Nation, 16-22 Nov 2006.

Tickets went on sale just earlier this week, and tickets for both screenings of Satoshi Kon's latest psycho-thriller Paprika are more than half gone. Go grab yours quick.

Don't forget to also check out the rest of our sterling lineup, including well-known independent animator Bill Plympton's masterclass and films.

Animation Nation 2006 synopses and schedule.

And a bonus for all of you loyal readers: Animation Nation website.

Singapore Dreaming scoops screenwriting prize at San Sebastian

Congrats to Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen for winning the Mont Blanc New Screenwriters' Award at San Sebastian for Singapore Dreaming. San Sebastian is - oh - just the premier film festival in Spain :D

Love this bit on Colin's blog:

we can stop trying to make films to please notional foreign audiences by copying films from other countries.

Read the rest of the entry: Breaking News: WAH LAU EH - WE WON! | Singapore Dreaming.

Jacques Tati films at the Alliance Francaise

Alliance Francaise pays tribute to Jacques Tati this month, with Mon Oncle, Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Jour de Fête, and Tati's latest film Russian Dolls. Having enjoyed Playtime last year at the Arts House, I'm looking forward to more of the gangling, innocently bumbling M. Hulot (à gauche).

Synopses at the Alliance Francaise website.

Glassy Ocean (Kujira no Chouyaku)

What are the chances of two unrelated individuals mentioning an obscure anime title to me, within a few hours of each other? First, a friend of mine asked if I'd seen Glassy Ocean (Kujira no Chouyaku): a surreal animated short where a whale's leap is frozen in time while a variety of characters stroll on an ocean newly transformed into glass.

I couldn't recall the film at first, but then I struck up a conversation with another friend online who had a pic from Millennium Actress (Sennen Joyu) -- which I love -- as her avatar. Talk turned to Satoshi Kon's debut Perfect Blue, which we both recalled seeing (though we hadn't met in 1998, not at SIFF). “It was a doublebill,” she typed, and suddenly the people on the frozen green waves resurfaced in my mind.

Shortly thereafter I was enveloped in a haze of nostalgia, with motes of regret. But everyone has stories about movies, which is a large part of why going to a cinema can be such a moving experience.

Glassy Ocean
Anime News Network entry
Grand Prize - 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival

Film blogs in S'pore

I have to admit, compared to the regulars at the SGFilm forums, I'm just a dilettante. A couple of them have set up a blog to share their substantial reflections about film.

http://mono-no-awareness.blogspot.com/

Stefan's another exemplary film fan. You can quibble with his reviews, but you can't fault the guy's dedication. I'm really impressed by the regularity of his output - there's a review nearly every day. Where does the man find the time?

http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/

The Biology of B-Movie Monsters

Look for some of your favourite kaiju in an academic paper on the realities of B-movie monster anatomy. Written by a professor at (where else?) the University of Chicago.

The Biology of B-Movie Monsters

(via BoingBoing)

David Bowie returns to the screen

Gah! Work's been crazy of late.

Normally I wouldn't paste little bits of who's gonna be acting in what film - type of info, but I'll make an exception for David Bowie, who's going to be playing Nikola Tesla in Christopher Nolan's next film. Don't you see? It's a rare confluence of music, science and film geekiness!

Variety.com - 'Prestige' lures Bowie

"Kinda Hot?"

Got my cheap thrill of the day: I actually used a quote from Saint Jack at work. The one where Jack Flowers deadpans: "Some people when they're desperate they think about suicide. Me, I'm different, I think about murder."

(earlier post on Saint Jack)

For his presentation yesterday, Ben Slater, author of the book on the making of this 1979 (officially, but the film was completed in 1978), spoofed Ho Tzu Nyen's Utama: Every Name in History is I, last seen at the recently concluded Singapore Theatre Festival. Admittedly, Ho's wry Powerpoint "lecture-performance" is ripe for parodies (which reinforces its point, but that's for another post). However, I couldn't help but wonder if there was some synchronicity between Ho's exploration of how people shape the kinds of history they want, and Saint Jack: a movie made by Westerners about a Singapore that they found alluring and exotic in its own way. There's even a scene where Jack is retelling the Sang Nila Utama myth to William in his own rascally way. (And if you'd bought the book, you'd have known that both men were drunk during that scene too.)

(More about the book Kinda Hot: http://kindahot.blogspot.com/)

Well, that's the 1970s for you. Even so, like Ben I'm hoping for a commercial release of this movie sometime soon - the ban was lifted in March after all. Not because the film's very good or particularly illuminating, but because it's a genuinely interesting character-driven drama shot in Singapore. Besides, if you were born after the 1970s, aren't you curious to see what Bugis Street and Boat Quay and Chinatown looked like then?

SGFilm thread

UPDATE: Corrected the quote, after reaching the end of Ben's book :)

Nokia Starlight Cinema 2006: 20 - 30 Sept

Yes, it's a romantic idea: watching movies in the open air on a giant screen while the stars look on. But this is Singapore, where even the nights are muggy and the threat of rain lingers. The Padang isn't the quietest spot on the island either. And $15 per ticket for repeats of Hollywood blockbusters? You've got to be joking.

6th Asian Film Symposium - 9-17 Sept

Six years already? Kudos to The Substation's "Moving Images" programme! Now, if only they would schedule their lectures and panels after office hours so white-collar slaves like me can attend.

Lots of short films in the programming as usual, and the featured filmmaker this year is Taiwanese documentarian Wu Yii-Feng (吳乙峰). His work about the aftermath of the 1999 Taiwan earthquakes Gift of Life (生命) will close the festival.

Amir Muhammad will also be back in town with The Year of Living Vicariously (Ada Apa Dengan Indonesia?). If you missed it at SIFF '05, now's your chance to catch it again.

Film info isn't up yet, but the schedule and background info are:

6th Asian Film Symposium

Schedule: http://www.substation.org/6afs/schedule.htm

Taipei Times feature on Gift of Life

Kakiseni.com on The Year of Living Vicariously

Violence, the Supernatural and Exoticism in Singapore Cinema - 31 Aug 2006

The Asia Research Institute, for its 2006 series of seminars, has chosen to tackle "Violence in Contemporary Asian Films". Singapore's turn is next, on 31st August.

That such a seminar could take place is a sign that enough material has accumulated over the years for academics to sift through we now have some sort of a film industry. Or do we?

Violence, the Supernatural and Exoticism in Singapore Cinema

Kenneth Paul Tan
Assistant Professor, Political Science Department, National University of Singapore
The Salon, National Museum of Singapore
7pm - 9pm

Kenneth Paul Tan discusses how depictions of violence in Singapore cinema have reflected social-structural modes of violence in Singapore, including themes like urbanization and the loss of organic traditions in Tan Pin Pin's Moving House (2002) and the repressive and destructive power of capitalism in Eric Khoo's 12 Storeys (1997). He also discusses, via Ong Lay Jinn's Return to Pontianak (2001), Victor Khoo's Tiger's Whip (1998), and Kelvin Tong's The Maid (2005), the cultural ambiguities and anxieties of post-colonial modernization that underlie Singapore's struggles and strategies to locate itself as "Western", "East Asian", or "Southeast Asian". (click for more)

Speaking of spooky stuff, Cine Singapore will screen Return to Pontianak on Nov 1 and Medium Rare on Nov 29.

Can "Networked Filmmaking" work?

Jeff Jarvis over at Buzzmachine has a post about how two U.S. filmmakers successfully raised funds for a documentary solely through online contributions.

Read the post here: Networked Filmmaking

The article's here: "His Fans Greenlight the Project", Washington Post, 20 June 2006

Granted, they had a track record, an existing database of contacts and politically charged content. Still, their success suggests that this kind of financing is particularly suited to low-cost films with niche appeal. Certainly a much better alternative to draining one's bank account. Jeff Jarvis calls it "networked filmmaking", but I wonder if "networked financing" might be a more appropriate term. More importantly, can it happen here in Singapore?

"The High Cost of Living" at The Picturehouse

Good to see more local films screening commercially, and this one opens 17th Aug. You can see the trailer here. It's unintentionally funny.

According to the synopsis:

Gid earns a living by eliminating problems for his clients. Terminally. He is a killer for hire but not a very good one. His actions have not gone unnoticed and his latest job has attracted the attention of the authorities. Gid soon finds himself being hunted by Long, a professional government assassin whose marriage to his wife, Sulee, is failing because of what he does. Gid's long-time friend, Aloysius and his girlfriend, Lily, become involved in the mess as he desperately tries to rectify the situation. Gid's only hope is that he can get out before Long catches up with him. A trail of bodies lead all the main players to a high tension hostage situation where they will have to deal with not just the police gathering outside, but also with their own broken relationships inside. When it is all over, none of them will come out the same.

Well well, a "professional government assassin"? If the government has to be evil, it'd better be cool evil, dammit.

"Saint Jack" at The Arts House: Aug 18 & 27 only

The good news first: the authorities have finally allowed screenings of Saint Jack, Peter Bogdanovich's adaptation of the Paul Theroux novel, here. The bad news: there will only be two of them - on Aug 18 and on Aug 27, at the Arts House. Miss either, and you'll have to settle for DVD.

As a bonus, Ben Slater, author of a book about the film called Kinda Hot will talk about the movie and his book. Catch him at 4pm on Aug 27th. Earshot, the Arts House bookstore, will probably have copies up for sale as well.

(On a side note: the book itself was never banned here, and has always been available in our public libraries.)

Is the film more of a quaint historical curiosity than anything else? Only one way to find out.

Saint Jack: IMDB entry and Wikipedia entry

SGFilm thread

Article on Peter Bogdanovich, director and film critic, at Senses of Cinema.

Cine Singapore: Second Take

Cine Singapore's far from over. The website's been updated for the Second Wave. Resuming Aug 17 with James Leong and Lynn Lee's political documentary Passabe (above).

Link to Cine Singapore

In your display cabinet, no-one can hear you scream.

Another Kubrick-related post! Part of loving movies is enjoying their associated collectibles. For example, fans of Ridley Scott's classic Alien might drool over this too:


This one in particular is the ALIEN KUBRICK Comic-Con version btw.


So cute it's disturbing. (Link to more pix from Kubism)

Kubrick figures are a line of collectible figures created by Medicom Toy. Named partly in honour of the filmmaker (according to Wikipedia). Most Kubricks milk popular franchises for profit, but they also have tie-ins with some cult classics too, e.g. the original Planet of the Apes, Edward Scissorhands and The Usual Suspects.

IMDB entry on Alien

"A Clockwork Orange" bubble gum cards

Someone's gone and put together some A Clockwork Orange bubblegum cards. Curious.

(From Boing Boing)

A Film Fan in Hong Kong: Part I

The Broadway Cinematheque (BC) is a quiet, unassuming cinema tucked away in Yaumatei, and a boon for film lovers. There's the trendy Kubrick bookstore & café that also houses the BC's members' library of DVDs and film-related books. Inside, past the box office, is a well-stocked shop dedicated to DVDs, film posters and inexpensive chirashi. The BC plays a selection of arthouse stuff interspersed with standard Hollywood fare. In fact we'd arrived at the tail end of a Krzysztof Kieslowski retrospective, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the BC. Whatever screenings were left were pretty much sold out, so Slee and I didn't get to see anything.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we had a cinema like that here?

Broadway Cinematheque's "Remembering Kieslowski" - Link

"Helvetica" -- The Film

I like Helvetica, and I'm excited to see this clean, effective font get its own film: Helvetica

(Pic and link from Typographica)

Short Cuts -- 5 Aug '06

Saturday's session was notable more for being a history lesson than a collection of short films. The theme was early short films from the 1990s. This was before DV caught on, and so 3 of the 4 shorts were shot on film.

It seems almost unfair to criticise Ragged and Sense of Home, because they were such old, rudimentary works. I hope the filmmakers have gotten better. The newer ones have fewer excuses. Absence acquitted itself well. Some awkward dialogue, but overall a sensitive portrayal of how a widow and her son each grapple with the loss of her husband / his father. On the other hand, Datura looked great, and it was interesting for its inclusion of a bomoh ritual, but it was all style without substance. The cliched ending didn't help either. Surely there are better ways to make a short about the transience of material pleasures etc?

Hmm. I really should read the programmes for these things more carefully.

Asian short films at WOMAD Singapore '06

Well, in case you missed those few lines in this earlier Channel NewsAsia article, WOMAD Singapore is including short films as part of its festivities for the very first time. Sponsors include the Asian Film Archive and the Substation, and the selection looks decent.

However, it doesn't look like there're any special (lower-priced) tickets for the screenings -- you'll have to buy regular WOMAD passes. So it seems like the short films are just icing on the cake for those already heading out to Fort Canning for WOMAD. /rolls eyes

The WOMAD Singapore site runs on Flash, so no direct links. Click on "New @ the Festival" to get to the schedule. (On a side note: when will people stop using the @ symbol in place of "at"? It's really not fashionable anymore.)

ASEAN Film Festival 2006

Back from Hong Kong, where we did lots of film-related stuff. If you go there, you must check out the Broadway Cinematheque in Yaumatei. More on its coolness in a later post.


Together with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) and other partners, SFS is helping organise an ASEAN film festival this month. We've got our mailer here. The SIIA website has the schedule, a PDF of the brochure, and even a trailer.

If, like me, you weren't one of the lucky ones to snag a ticket to the sold-out premiere of Singapore Dreaming, now's your chance to catch it. I'm also keen on Citizen Dog (which I missed at 2004's Bangkok Int'l Film Fest) and Monday Morning Glory looks interesting.

As with all our film festivals, ticket sales are open to the public (SFS folks get a little discount too). So take a break from Hollywood blockbusters and watch something new.

Reel Revolution - 29 July

As I won't be in Singapore this Saturday, I suppose I'm spared from having to choose between Reel Revolution and Short Cuts this weekend. I'm generally skeptical about activist filmmaking, as you can see in an earlier post, but Reel Revolution sounds fascinating because it's about drawing attention to our social problems, while milking the intrinsic zeal and idealism of youth giving young people a grounding in both filmmaking and local social issues. There's even a networking session on Sunday.

Looks like the films will be uploaded. Am looking forward to watching them when I come back. If you're going:

REEL REVOLUTION POWWOW
29 July 2006, Saturday
2.30pm to 5.30pm
The Substation Guinness Theatre
Free Admission
Register with register@revolution.youth.sg

Short reviews for Short Cuts on 22nd July:

24/7/06 UPDATE! Gavin Lim's replied to comments about Hello? on SGFilm. (Link to the thread).

(earlier post)

Let's see –

Hello?

The director apes Wong Kar Wai's direction, look and music choices in In The Mood For Love. He also tries to imitate Christopher Doyle’s cinematography, but the only things that achieved were extremely orangey or extremely grey scenes. The short film eventually descends into camp, which amused me to no end since it was so incongruous with all the ersatz In The Mood For Love.

Old Woman

Ah, this one probably had the most significant narrative of the four. Well scripted and paced, particularly the scenes leading up to the end where the titular old woman’s sense of loss and confusion is explained with economy of dialogue. Not as polished – shot on DV – but this short has substance.

Lost Sole

Old man loses his sandals, and the randomness of the ensuing events reminded me a little bit of Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know (IMDB entry). The semantic pun on sole/soul isn't bad, but probably not strong enough to anchor a short film on existential crisis. Also marred by a few incongruities. For instance, the protagonist complains about cardphones being "new technology" when they’ve been around for more than a decade.

3 Meals

Essentially a string of gags that mines the wealth of Singaporean cultural stereotypes so deeply that it probably wouldn’t be able to extricate itself for a non-Singaporean audience. It's really funny -- if you're Singaporean, but Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh have never claimed to be international. Polished production helps, I suppose: the short film looks good and sounds great.

I won't be around for the ones on the 29th, 'cos I'll be in Hong Kong then. Naturally, I plan to hit all the film-related places there. Which ones do you like?

Were you at the NLB on Fri night?

Mr Kishore Mahbubani deftly handling the Q&A after our screening of Broken Promises (earlier post) at the NLB on Friday night

Were you there? From what I've been hearing, you should have lots to say about it ;) Feel free to leave your comments.

(Thanks to eilonwy for the photo! Go check out her blog: http://hyperreality.blogspot.com)

"Happy Together" - 10th Anniversary

Gah! 10 years already? Promo insert for the 10th Anniversary DVD/CD box set of Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together (IMDB entry). Text on the cover says that there're "unseen stills" inside (which is why I bought the magazine it came with, but it was cheap anyway), but the stills are so tiny. Some pictures of Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung taking tango lessons for their roles too. The Limited Edition DVD/CD set itself is full of premiums -- including an exclusive pair of... boxers? You can see the box here.

(The magazine is Milk, issue 252 btw.)

"Broken Promises" - The U.N. at 60

Don't forget - we're screening Broken Promises - The U.N. at 60 at the National Library this evening.

7.30pm - 9.30pm
Possibility Room, 5th level
National Library,
100 Victoria Street


Stay for our post-screening discussion with Mr. Kishore Mahbubani, top diplomat and Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

SFS entry: http://www.sfs.org.sg/event.php?id=31

Broken Promises - The U.N. at 60 website: http://www.brokenpromisesmovie.com/

Jan Svankmajer's "Food"

UPDATE (21/7/06): The clips have been removed from Youtube 'cos of copyright concerns.

The first of Jan Svankmajer's surreal Food animation trilogy is aptly titled: "Breakfast". You can catch the other two in the series (guess what their titles are?) on WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

Svankmajer is an superb Czech animator from Prague. More info here: http://www.illumin.co.uk/svank/.

National Film Board of Canada - Focus on Animation

To showcase their nation's animators, the National Film Board of Canada has put 50 animated shorts from its archives online. (Psst! Singapore Film Commission: when's your turn?)

Focus on Animation - ONF

(From Boing Boing)

"S11" at the Picturehouse from 3 Aug '06

This local film looks promising but I've only seen the promos. We'll soon have a chance to see for ourselves: S11 opens at the Picturehouse Aug 3.

By the awesome power of Youtube, you can view the trailer and teaser.

More info on this blog: http://wurh.com/

The Curious Sale of the Book at Lunch-time

My company, attempting to be a good corporate citizen, runs a couple of charitable activities every year. One of them is a used book sale: all books are donated by the employees, and all proceeds disappear into some charity or other. Anyway, among the Danielle Steel paperbacks and multiple copies of The Purpose-Driven Life (what, it didn't work?) you get one or two interesting things like --

-- which I grabbed at once. It's pretty thick, and I'm contemplating leaving the book in my office as a pretty distraction means of destressing.

And I'm curious. Who had the book in the first place? And why would he or she get rid of it? I know there's another film addict buff in the company but I don't think she would've parted with this. Could there be another film buff in the company?

3rd Singapore Short Cuts

I'm proud of the way in which our museums are supporting local filmmakers. To the National Heritage Board (NHB) -- keep up the good work! We wanna see more events like:

Singapore Short Cuts, one of Singapore’s premiere showcases of outstanding local short films returns for a third season. Don't miss the Singapore premieres of 3Meals by Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh (Singapore Dreaming) and of Eric Khoo’s latest short film No Day Off. The achievements of early local short filmmakers will also be celebrated in a special section on shorts from the 1990s with works by Abdul Nizam (Stories About Love), Lim Suat Yen (The Road Less Travelled) and K Rajagopal (Absence) Closing the 3rd Singapore Short Cuts is a panel discussion on the development of local short filmmaking with members of the community like Juan Foo, Yuni Hadi and Tan Pin Pin.

It's a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and it's near the Orchard and City Hall areas. Go go go.

More details on the SGFilm thread.

National Museum of Singapore website

Download the programme (PDF)

Stitch:Initiative Against Sweatshops - "Underneath the Radar 2006"

Some group calling itself Stitch:Initiative Against Sweatshops (IAS) has assembled a series of 5 documentaries:

Stitch:Initiative Against Sweatshops -- Underneath the Radar 2006.

Who are these folks? According to their website, they're

a not for profit consumer base collective in Singapore spanning students, designers and individuals from diverse fields, whose aim is to raise awareness about the atrocities and unethical practices of sweatshop labour.

A "not for profit consumer base collective"? Uh huh. Sure.

Well, I think sweatshops are horrible too, and that companies will gouge their customers if they can get away with it. But I don't think there's any overarching conspiracy by some multinational capitalist cabal. In fact, my time's probably better spent finishing Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter's thoroughly sane The Rebel Sell.

SFS Experiments: "Deadline" + discussion

Our programming's gotten more experimental, thanks to feedback that we've been receiving from our members. Keep those comments coming in, whether you're a member, ex-member or just a film lover (like us), OK?

We've teamed up with the enlightened folks at the National Library Board (NLB) to bring you two documentaries + discussion sessions. First one is on Sunday 9th July:

DEADLINE
Directed by: Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson
Duration: 90 mins
Interviewing and featuring lawyers, politicians, civil society representatives, death row inmates and families of victims, directors Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson tackle the volatile topic of the American capital punishment system with intelligence, compassion and balance. Furthermore, they capture the extraordinary transformation of one man who held the power of life and death in his hands.

9 July 2006 (Sunday)
2 - 5 pm
Possibility Room (5th level), National Library (100 Victoria Street)
Free Admission!

Post-show discussion guest speakers:

* Professor Michael Hor (Faculty of Law, NUS)
* Associate Professor Lim Chin Leng (Faculty of Law, NUS)
* Dr Mark Nowacki (Assistant Professor of Philosophy, SMU)

(Yes, I know it's late. But better late than never?)

Deadline - official page

SFS mailer

If you read the mailer, you'd see that we have another documentary + discussion lined up for you on 21st July, this time on the UN. Our guest speaker is veteran diplomat Mr Kishore Mahbubani, who was Singapore's representative to the UN.

Remember, keep that feedback coming!

Yet Another Cyberpunk Movie: "The Gene Generation"

The Gene Generation is apparently the first Hollywood film to be directed by a Singaporean.

Kudos to Pearry Reginald Teo (a.k.a. Zhang Pingli), but did it really have to be yet another cyberpunk film? It wasn't long ago that we had to endure Kuo Jian Hong's Avatar. At least the distributors spared us a commercial run.

Is this a trend we're starting to see here? Singapore = cyberpunk? It's too easy - fun, even - to invent similarities between the current state of affairs here and the dystopic, high-tech urban environments jammed with alienated people that are cyberpunk cliché.

Ok, maybe I'm pre-judging. Maybe I'm too cynical. It's not out yet, so maybe this will be a great film. Maybe this is The One to pump new life into a flaccid genre that saw its epitome in Mamoru Oshii's sublime Ghost in the Shell.

I'm not hopeful, but maybe there'll be nice shots of Bai Ling at least.

The Gene Generation official site.

The director's got her own blog.

Wikipedia entry.

Combichrist's music video for "Get Your Body Beat", for The Gene Generation. Combichrist is a techno-industrial rock band. (Yes, another cyberpunk cliché.) Watch out for the usual profanities and lots of people with painted faces and bad haircuts trying really, really hard to look angry.

Did "Superman Returns" bring back good memories for you?

(from Scott Kurtz's excellent webcomic PvP Online)

Wine and Gitmo: Core Screening on 5/7

TV footage and reenactment quickly become indistinguishable from each other in Michael Winterbottom and Matt Whitecross's The Road to Guantanamo. The prolonged physical and mental ordeal of the Tipton Three is sobering stuff, and the directors wisely chose not to overdramatise the material. I particularly like how the movie is an almost seamless blend of acting, TV video footage and interviews.

The Road to Guantanamo

SGFilm thread

IMDB page

Official home

Indiewire feature

Wednesday's core screening had that extra touch of class, thanks to Robin (that's him on the left with a drained bottle of Israeli wine). He's one of the co-owners of D’Vine Stienberg Pte Ltd, and was kind enough to sponsor some wines for a little pre-screening gathering open to all our members. As an extra (extra) treat, 50 lucky namecard-droppers will get a complimentary bottle of wine. So Robin’s earned lots of good SFS karma, and we're helping him out a bit. That’s D’Vine Stienberg Pte Ltd, and you can email him at invizion at yahoo dot com, or call 9673 5601.

(Hey Robin, if you’re reading this, you know which card's mine right?)

btw, the other movie for Wednesday's core screening was Robin Williams's bland vehicle R.V. -- the choice was obvious.

"Singapore Cinema" & Wee Li-lin's "Holiday" at Alliance Francaise

Catherine Tan looks very good on the cover of Raphael Millet's book on the history of Singapore Cinema titled, well, Singapore Cinema. But I'm not sure I would've chosen a still from Ong Lay Jinn's meandering Perth in the first place. To me, it's not that significant a Singapore film.

(Perth at Cine.SG. It's screening again from July 5th onwards, so you can catch it and decide for yourself.)

The book is more chronology than analysis, and so the coffee table format is well-suited to this book. I'm a bit annoyed 'cos it's awkward to carry, but there're lots of photographs and Millet's clearly done his research.

Anyway, if you're free this Friday night and in the area:

Presentation of Singapore Cinema
at the Alliance Francaise de Singapour,
Sarkies Road (near Newton MRT)
Date: 7th July 2006, Friday
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: AF Theatre (Free Admission)
Programme: Brief presentation of Singapore Cinema by Raphael Millet.
Screening of Singaporean short movie: Holiday, in the presence of the director, Ms Wee Li-lin.
Followed by a signing session of Singapore Cinema.

Wee Li-lin's Holiday, starring the versatile Adrian Pang, details the confusion of a recently-retrenched man. Sprinkled with black humour, and worth watching even if you don't stay for the book signing.

For SFS folks! Special mail order forms for "Singapore Cinema", which offer an SFS-only 15% discount on the book, are available from SFS.

Farewell to my Capitol

Let's take a minute or two to remember the grand old dame of Singapore cinemas – the Capitol.

(The Capitol on Cinema Treasures)

There’s a feature on the Capitol cinema in today's Sunday Times (No links because The Straits Times has in place an anachronistic policy of locking every article behind a subscription. Perfect way to make yourself irrelevant online.) For those of you outside Singapore, or just too young to remember, the Capitol was a major cinema with much nostalgic value in the memories of many (slightly older) Singaporeans. It's still a key landmark here, right in the city centre.

(Photos, circa 2001)

Unfortunately, nostalgia alone doesn't count for much here. The article talks about the derelict state the Capitol has fallen into since its closure in 1998, after the invasion of multiplexes. Everything's rotting away or falling into disrepair due to neglect. This is painful to think about when you recall its history as a premier cinema here, with lavish (for its time) interiors. I was particularly impressed by the large representation of the zodiac on the auditorium ceiling, less so by the stylised wall-mounted sculptures of horses and riders on either side of the screen – all relics from an era when going to the movies was an experience.

No-one seems to want to take over the Capitol. Old buildings are very expensive to maintain, and when you add that to the exorbitant restoration and refurbishment costs, it becomes hard to justify why anyone would want to take over the building.

Should the Government do it? It’s easy to point at the authorities, but that doesn’t answer the real question: "What will we do with the Capitol?" It may not be completely right for the authorities to do nothing, but what are the alternatives?

SFS at the Picturehouse: "Respire", "Rain Dogs" & Q&A with Ho Yuhang

1 July 2006 marked the SFS's first event at Cathay's resurrected The Picturehouse. I couldn't think of a better place to screen Saturday's lineup btw. Cathay-Keris's heritage is rooted in Malayan, then Malaysian and Singaporean, film, and Cathay in Singapore was one of the first commercial operators to screen non-mainstream stuff. But all that's for another post.

First was Ho Wi-ding's short film Respire. This won Best Short Film during International Critic's Week at Cannes in 2005.

(Interview with Ho at All Malaysia.info: Masking Triumph)

Next was an exclusive screening of the rough-cut of Ho Yuhang's latest film Rain Dogs. Funded by Focus Films as part of its First Cuts program.

Ho Wi-ding couldn't make it for the Q&A afterwards, so Ho Yuhang had the mike to himself.


If you haven't met Ho, he's a very affable person. No airs at all, down-to-earth in his speech and demeanor.

-- The editor for Rain Dogs is Liao Ching-Sung, who edited Hou Hsiao-Hsien's early work.

-- He's most comfortable writing about what he's personally experienced in his life so far. That's why all his stories have been set in Malaysia. But he's also spent some time in Iowa, so he's not ruling out a story set there.

Cinema Online on Rain Dogs

Focus Films: Rain Dogs

Slate.com on "A Scanner Darkly"

Slate discusses the historical context behind Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly:

In order to get a firmer grasp on this chuckle-inducing notion, it's necessary to revisit the intellectual climate of the mid-1970s, when a middle-aged Dick was playing host to gun-toting drug dealers and their teenage clients, downing gruesome quantities of speed, and working fitfully on Scanner. In those years, socialism as a doctrine and a movement no longer seemed capable of arresting the progress of the insurgent political, economic, and cultural doctrine that during the market-worshiping 1980s would come to be called neoliberalism. Disappointed soixante-huitards everywhere sank into their couches and succumbed to irony and lifestyle radicalism. In France, however (where Dick's fiction was treated with the kind of respect formerly accorded only to Poe), thinkers like Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari offered up theories of how social control was now exercised not through class domination but increasingly subtle mechanisms.

Watching the Detectives - Richard Linklater adapts Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly.

Pitchfork Feature: 100 Awesome Music Videos

The good people at Pitchfork Media have assembled 100 Awesome Music Videos. And they truly are, starting with the video for A-Ha's classic Take on Me.

Hooray for YouTube!

[JFF 2006] 17 June Update

LINDA LINDA LINDA, directed by Yamashita Nobuhiro, has been confirmed for the Festival. Its official website, in Japanese, carries the trailer.

Synopsis: A five-girl band are preparing to perform their compositions at their high school festival when one of them sustains an injury. Not wanting to withdraw from the festival, three of the girls decide to cover the songs by "The Blue Hearts". They need to look for a new lead-vocal. They have 3 days...


"What distinguishes Nobuhiro Yamashita's Linda Linda Linda from the crowd is a refreshing modesty. Rather than the usual underdog struggle against the odds culminating School of Rock style in the obligatory spectacular stage show and a fat recording contract, Linda Linda Linda's story revolves around four highschool girls for whom learning how to play a single song in time for the school festival is the ultimate challenge.

Known for his deadpan comic minimalism, director Yamashita is an expert at turning the uneventful into the resonant." http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/lindalindalinda.shtml

[JFF 2006] 23 May Update

In our Director-In-Focus segment, we are intending to feature some of Kitano Takeshi's work. We have shortlisted 3 of them and are trying to confirm their participation at the Festival. They are: KIKUJIRO, HANA-BI and KIDS RETURN.


As some of the artwork in both KIKUJIRO and HANA-BI were painted by Kitano himself, we had contacted his management Company to explore the possibility of exhibiting them as part of the Festival. However, we were informed that the works were not available for loan. The artwork in HANA-Bi were published in the form of an artbook and the graphic on the left is one of the collections.

[JFF 2006] The Beginning

Preparation for this year's Japanese Film Festival has begun. It is our intention to publish the progress on the blog such that:

1. SFS members and public could be updated on the status of the preparation;

2. feedbacks, recommendations and comments from the festival goers can be shared with us.

In this way, we hope that the festival this year will attract more audience and that your voices can be taken into consideration in the run-up to the event.

We ask your understanding in advance that, while we will look into each and every comment posted by you, we may not be able to implement each and every suggestion. Nevertheless, we sincerely hope that by being part of the preparation process, this year's Festival will be all that more enjoyable to you.


Update on 10 May 2006:

1. Date
The Festival date are tentatively set as 21-29 October.

2. Theme
The Theme this year shall be FRIENDSHIP. This is in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of establishing of diplomatic relationship between Japan and Singapore.

We have shortlisted some films and we will progressively update the list as and when the title(s) are confirmed. If you have any titles to recommend, please post them in your comment for our consideration.

FOCUS: FIRST CUTS

Guess what we found in our email today?

Join in "FOCUS FIRST CUTS: From Script to Screen" symposium and hear 5 award-winning Asian directors share valuable experience in filmmaking and film production.

Held in conjunction with the theatrical release of FOCUS FIRST CUTS film series in Golden Village cinemas from 16 March to July, this symposium is part of the National Library Board's series of Directing Asia: Insights into Asian Cinema. Five directors of FOCUS FIRST CUTS films who make up the panel of speakers are Robin Lee Yu-Chan (Taiwan), Kelvin Tong (Singapore), Ho Yuhang (Malaysia), Ning Hao (China) and Lee Kung Lok (Hong Kong). Also participating in the panel is lawyer Mr Lam Chung Nian from M/s Lee & Lee who will share on intellectual property issues in the film industry.

The panel discussion aims to nurture promising filmmakers and young aspiring film students in Singapore. Directors will explain their cinematic approaches and vision on "Contemporary Life in Asia". Our popular local director Kelvin Tong will talk about his experience in making big budget studio film versus independent film.

Strongly supported by Media Development Authority and Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, this event is brought to you by Golden Village Pictures, the National Library Board and Focus Films Ltd.


FOCUS FIRST CUTS: From Script to Screen

Language: Chinese and English
Time/Date: 7 pm - 9.30 pm, Thursday, 9 March 2006
Venue: Possibility Room, Level 5, National Library, 100 Victoria Street, Singapore 188064
Admission: Free
Registration: Email, register with: asq@nlb.gov.sg,

Please indicate "From Script to Screen" in the subject title. First come, first served.

The 1st film in FOCUS FIRST CUTS series THE SHOE FAIRY will be released in Golden Village cinemas on 16 March.

More information of FOCUS FIRST CUTS films at www.focusfirstcuts.com

Looks interesting. FOCUS: FIRST CUTS :: The Focus Films and Star Chinese Movie Network HD Project ::

Don't forget Brokeback Saturday!

JACK: Yer up for that Brokeback Mountain discussion on Saturday, right?

ENNIS: (manly grunt)

JACK: Yer gonna be there at the Bright Box, Singapore History Museum, at 11am on Saturday 4 Mar 2006, right?

ENNIS: (angsty) Yeah.

JACK: Y'know howta git there, right?

ENNIS: (chews, then spits) Yeah, ah'know. Near the river.

It's that time of the year again......

... when film-lovers on this little island (and beyond, we hope) rejoice. The Singapore International Film Festival website's been revamped for its 19th year. We're already salivating.

What do SFS members want?

Our membership is falling. Not everyone is renewing their membership.

So the SFS Committee decided to have a focus group and online survey to see what our members want.

You may be invited for the focus group or to complete a survey.

We really want to know how you feel about the SFS.

Berlin Film Festival results

The results for the Berlin Film Festival have been announced. You can find out who won what here.