First Takes Feb review...Dealing with O.C.D.

It’s a night of obsessive compulsive tendencies at the first First Takes of the year, not all that heavy-going, kinda dreamy in a hallucinatory way as too. The films screened all display The line up is a mish-mash of the dark and heart-warming, the forlorn and the funny. It also spans various genres which include a traditional narrative, stop-motion animation, experimental and even a mockumentary.

The first film ‘Candid Shot of Youth At Play’ by Athalia Ho is languid and dreamy in the way it portrays 2 youths trying to cover up for their deed, a likely murder of a common friend. Dragging his dead body across the grass plain, they look for a suitable resting place. Shot in blurred focus, handheld and with an esoteric eye for quirky yet intimate angles, you can’t help but notice a certain aesthetic knack about the way the director is framing what’s in the scene.

Strangely, the cloudy skies and the ‘sanctuarious’ nature of the open field gave it a very ‘Country Western’ look to the film, which I suspect having 2 young men dealing with a dead body adds to it. It’s got a grey-hued palate reminiscent of Hollywood’s ‘Cold Mountain’. In short, I am just alluding to a very subtle sense of romanticism the film had over a killing act, which made death seem balmy and peaceful.

‘Backyard Bowler’ by Amanda Tan, though shot in cheerier and warmer colours, is actually more carcinogenic than you think. With pun intended on its story about a lackadaisical man who finds his soul in bowling and rests his health in the hands on cigarettes. What might have been smothering could be the choice of an uninspiring character, begging the question of why this story needs to be told.

The film is told in different timeframes, starting in mid-life, going back and forth between marriage, old-age and childhood. Throughout that life-span, we see a man, brought up in a dysfunctional family, insecure about himself, jittery at his biggest moments (like his wedding) and living in regret half the time. Narrated by the voice of his mid-life self (which is a self-defeating voice), you look for point of redemption but find yourself lost in a state of addictive consciousness in which the only respite is the pleasure of bowling.

This film however, had some quirky poignant directorial touches like the protagonist bowling into a birthday cake and seeing that birthday cake quashed under the weight of the ball. Also visually punctuating was the Fortune Cat waving its arms in the foreground while turmoil has unfolded in the background.

‘A Green Ticket’ by Anoo Priya was the sweet surprise of the evening. It is a modest film that opens your heart without trying too hard or telling a big, grand story. It’s in the actors’ gestures and temperament that this story flutters in my heart. A poor boy struggles to earn money while studying in school. Amidst the overpowering tinge of sepia that is aimed to recreate the year 1976, his innocent, somewhat naïve single-mindedness sparkles and exudes an undeniable subtle charm.

He comes home late every night from collecting used drink cans in order to sell them for money. One day, his mother comes home, fatigued from work and he relentlessly pesters his mum to take him out for a show. The ‘green ticket’ to this is when he flashes the ticket itself to his mother, surprising her. This is of course, when the truth inevitably unfolds and his mother discovers his ‘moonlighting’ endeavours. Avoiding the potential drone of explaining his ‘labour of love’ he simply hurries his mother, drawing attention to the fact that they could be close to wasting the ticket since the show was about to begin.

It‘s guts meeting good intentions that makes this little short film, the tiny empowerer it is. It also draws attention to the fact that human nature and responses transcend language and culture. I did a double take at the director’s name and was assured of this.

The later films took an experimental, experiential turn. ‘You Disappear’ is a contemplative, mood-evoking stream of images played to a hypnotic soundtrack. It follows the journey of a blind-folded girl, treading through forest and beach-scapes seemingly searching for someone. Vacillating between the phantasmic and idyllic, the film takes us on a journey, sometimes lucid in its clarity of textured details and landscape and sometimes shrouded in a blurred interplay of light and movement. This duality of lucidity and the moments of pandemonium, in fact, gave this visual journey some depth and solidity, preventing it from being just another dream-scape.

‘Don’t hate the player, hate the game.’. That’s apparently the T-shirt that made our protagonist, Rick Shamus, famous in Stephanise Bousely’s ‘I Make T-Shirts’. He is a ego-centric, anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive young man who thinks too highly of himself. Told like a satire of the cocky, ambitious Gen-Y youths who want to dominate the world like Marcus Zuckerberg, this mockumentary is a strange animal, sometimes funny yet sometimes intense and affecting.

It is funny because it contrasts Rick’s inflated-ego-driven ideas to the reception towards them. The turn out at his investor presentation was one out of twelve. It is also intense because of the way he exploits and torments his Indian intern. Odd moments in the film make you wonder if you are watching a film about human exploitation. He quips about his intern being Indian and hence, naturally more hardworking, yet he cracks the whip unnecessarily and throws his temper over the most trivial of things. He would knot his eyebrows, his face would crumple up and he would be struggling to contain his irritation at the things that stumble him. For the behavioural detail, you wonder if this film is really more a dig at a fellow friend, rather than an attempt to tell a story. Nevertheless, disregarding the ‘classroom exercise’ that this film seems to be, you might want to grab a T-shirt or 2 from Rick, but you sure need his attitude to go with them.

The final 2 short films felt like random picks given yet another genre-departure or thematic departure. ‘Squared Shaped’ by Zen, on closer analysis is still in the same grounds as the rest, except that it takes a lighter look at an OCD problem and has a happy ending as well. Boss needs everything on his table to be square while his secretary tries to coexist with that and even share some of her sunshine energy in the office. Eventually and predictably, he succumbs to it and airs his plush toys on the table…. Which begs the question, this film square-shaped or circular?

Finally, never go on a date with a bigmouth. His appetite could kill. Told through spunky stop-motion animation, this musically-driven short film tickles with black humour and discernible style. Half the time you are staring at a menacing looking set of carnivorous teeth, the other half of the time, you are grooving to the music. I guess that kind of sums up the eclectic, dual nature of this particular installment of First Takes.

You can check our their synopses at the First Takes page of the Substation website.

A Red Carpet 'First Takes'

We walked along a red carpet to the Nov edition of 'First Takes'. It was a dream-like experience. By the way, Substation's retrofitted itself in a huge way. Do drop by to behold. It's rather groooovy now.

A priceless moment on camera.

Uncomfortable as it was, the First Takes crowd still packs the floor. Well done, Singapore Poly!

Aishah (First Takes programmer) rules the court.







Watch the video blurbs above for what the best and the worst remarks the filmmakers have ever received about their films screen tonight.

Aishah thanks the filmmakers for having contributed the films.

Here comes the pleasant surprise of the evening. The helpers from Singapore Polytechnic come up to me and asked if they could snap a photo with me because they were fans of SINdie. I was deeply honoured. :))

First Takes Oct 2010 - Trees that talk

October's First Takes is a mixed bag of genres from the animal-rights themed documentary to a sketchy comedy to history and to hybrids of the supernatural and the absurd. The common thread was mostly NTU. Once again, the spirit of the curation embraced that 'just do it' recklessness about the productions; how they bulldoze their way through the production process without a full 'driving license'; and how proudly the filmmakers articulate their own justifications for their creative paths taken.




Reckless they sure are. '2309' by Sivaraj Pragasm tells the story of a father, who has neglected his family, and faces the prospect of turning into a tree, as told by a mysterious stranger. The lines between what happens in his dream and his waking reality are blur so we are not sure if it is just a nightmare or part of the story's reality. Sounds like a original? Likely, but the loose grip on the narrative brings it down.


It's a pity because Sivaraj pulls together some great elements for a show - Timothy Nga, an interesting premise and a shooting set (with chessboard flooring) that is extravagant by common standards of the indie practitioners.

Narrative aside, the acting is really the biggest stumbling block. Many of them resort to stereotypical moulds of expressions. The son character slouches all day on the sofa watching TV, defining rebellion (to his father) with a limited vocabulary of 2-3 facial expressions. The daughter character is a step worse in her '1 mode of existence' presence - the mode being the self-engrossed, beauty-obssessed teenager painting her nails. The mother is just part of the family equation, bridging the plot gaps. With a bit more sensitivity put into directing the actors, the film could have avoided this.

Sivaraj shared passionately during the Q and A about the inspiration behind humans 'turning' into trees. This bizzare concept grew out of observing a woman talking to a tree outside a shopping centre one day. In fact, without that observation, the idea of a 'tree spirit' is already part of our cultural story bank, which makes this premise extremely fertile for a beguiling story. I would love to see Sivaraj take on this premise by its horns and awaken it in a more thought-out manner.

'Safety Zone' is a gamble of ideas. Awkward and extremely raw, it is genuinely Eileen Loh's first film attempt (apparently First Takes has broken its own 'virgin' rule a few times). If you think about it, the film actually makes logical and sequential sense. A man (called Yong Suay even though having a definite name seemed inconsequential in the film) has a close shave with an accident and thereafter finds himself trapped in a series of paranoia-driven fears. Paranoia being destructive in nature eventually leads him to his own death. So narratively, it comes full-circle.

The straddling between horror and absurdist humour tends to disorientate the audience. You are not quite sure about the film's frequency. This also dilutes the message of the film which is potentially quite a clever one. Sometimes, you don't know whether to laugh at a scene or be concerned. I choose to laugh because the corny coincidences and the exaggerated reactions are just screaming for your reaction, especially when he stretches sticky tape in a cross across the gas stove in a desperate attempt to put himself out of danger.

There is a lot thought put into 'Safety Zone' but its execution and its treatment cripple its vision. 'Bukit Chandu' by Chiang Wei Liang on the other hand is fitter for the silver platter, as far as production values and finishing is concerned. A period piece, 'Bukit Chandu' takes place during the Japanese invasion and recounts how a platoon of Malay soldiers braved their lives in battle against the Japanese. It tells the story from the point of view of a medic who struggles to save his comrades.

The film does not have much going on in terms of a narrative but is more a contemplative look at honour and sacrifice in the context of a war battle. The draw in this film is the rare representation of Malay soldiers in the battlefront against the Japanese invaders. The retaliatory acts of the Chinese against the Japanese have been depicted ad nauseum in general media. The thrust of the war was also largely seen as a Japanese offensive directed at Chinese people throughout Asia. The indigenous people of Southeast Asia seldom surfaced in this particular chapter of history. So this film illuminates a forgotten effort by the Malays.

While identifying a story in this peculiar episode of history is wise, Wei Liang missed bringing out the essence visually. Presented in black and white, the film’s rather bland and superficial approach to the topic never really brings home its intended message of sacrifice and honour, or perhaps the bravery of 60+ men against 14,000 Japanese soldiers. These facts were simple flashed out in text at the end of the film, rendering the visuals before that a mere act of re-enactment.

The first 2 films, Sol Chang: Elephants on the Street by Low Ting Yi and Riding East by Melissa Foo has been reviewed as part of Filament 2010's grad showcase.

First Takes packs the crowd!

It sure is a sign. The number of people who turned up at the First Takes Oct screening last night exceeds the number who turned up for the S-Express screening of Singapore short films. Target audience strategies for screenings works here! Yesterday's screenings saw a sizeable clump of students from NTU and some from La Salle cheering on their school mates. Sure the films were not masterpieces but they enjoyed good-natured attention and curiosity from the audience. Thank you Singapore for your generosity! Films of similar calibre (come on, these are first films ater all!) in the US or other bigger countries may not even see the light of day, or end up being classified as a classroom project.

Not enough seats, so some spilled over to the floor.

Little Red Shoes.

The films featured all seemed to border on the absurd or supernatural. Most of them were from NTU students of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communications. The film line up was Sol Chang-Elephants on the Street by Low Ting Yi, Riding East by Melissa Foo, 2309 by Sivaraj Pragasm, Safety Zone by Eileen Loh and Bukit Chandu by Chiang Wei Liang.

Here, director of 2309 Sivaraj shares an anecdote about how he came up with the idea of trees housing left-behind souls of forgotten people.

Wei Liang and Sivaraj tell us what's good and bad that's been said about their films.

Stay tuned for reviews of 2309, Safety Zone and Bukit Chandu...

First Takes - 'Water' by Yenn Teo

Here is a film that tries to marry the conceptual with the narrative and does it with panache. Playing around a range of visual metaphors related to water, it romanticises a often heard story of longing for love among our foreign labourers. And in a way, humanises them.

The foreign location of the film (kampung and farm-scapes), makes it easy to forget that it was made by a Singaporean, one who is attentive to the lesser observed things around us. Quite delightfully, it takes the foreign worker story back to its lusher and more idyllic homeland, avoiding the drab construction landscape or the unimaginative choice of the HDB hovel. In his rural fishing village, Ah Shui (notice the water pun, 'shui' is water in Chinese) lives a modest life with his newly-wed wife Ah Shan. It was not long before pristine nature of their village becomes easily overshadowed by the lure of money in bigger foreign places, especially when the poverty cliche hits. Hence, the start of Ah Shui's journey to Singapore.

This is where Yenn Teo, the director has 'reftro-fitted' foreign labourer's story. She does not repeat their woes like a lobbying video, instead she keeps the anecdotes of suffering short but succinct. There was a particular shot of Ah Shui frozen in a moment of dejection after being told off by his employer. The moment was a just token reference to the hardship he faced but it was pregnant with a lot of pain, like a haiku. In fact, the film's visual poetry and aesthetics highlights another dimension of the the worker's thoughts - the romanticism that he yearns for and cannot get.

An interesting comparison can be made between Han Yew Kwang's 'The Call Home' and 'Water'. Both deal with the plight of foreign workers in Singapore but using different approaches. 'The Call Home', one of Singapore's pioneering short films, takes the worker's story more literally and linearly while 'Water' is more contemplative and figurative. It is strange that "Water' despite having won a best female director award in 6th Sedicicorto Film Festival in Italy has not been featured more prominently. Standing against the other First Takes that were more local in their content, it certainly had less appeal with the crowd but it is not difficult for anyone who takes a closer look at 'Water' to see its glimmer.