Singapore Dreaming

Went to see “Singapore Dreaming” on 23 Sept 2006.

What’s painful is not that it’s disappointing, but that this is apparently the best we can do. It need not have been this way. Singapore was once a movie-making hub that churned out all the Malay classics for the region. But the industry died in the late-1960s, and the discontinuity caused us to start from ground zero again. There is no maturity here because the cycle of growth was so traumatically extinguished. We are back now to a cinema in its infancy.

This is an indie picture. It means practically no budget, low quality visuals, lighting and sound. It is also a debut effort for the directors, so they are struggling to speak the cinematic language. This means poor pacing from stationary camera position, slow dialogue and disjointed moods. But this is forgivable if we have a good story to be engaged with. But no. The family featured here, a study of 3 couples, is coarse and unlikable. They do their best to make each other miserable. Then there are unbelievably monstrous employers, it’s a wonder they have any employees. We squirm in our seats, not because of the verismo, but because it is awful human behaviour. This is not Singapore. It’s a selective vision of hell.

I place the blame squarely on the script. I can imagine how hard everyone associated with the movie worked, and many of them would have done it with meager pay, if at all. It’s a labour of love. They must have believed in the project, and some gave stand-out performances for what are essentially card-board characters. (The most real character was the waitress from China, who was only on screen for less than 5 minutes. She was natural and unforced, took a couple of ordinary lines and actually made them poignant.) But to all of them, I give my support. It’s why I went to see it alone, and why I stayed till the end of the credits.

Maybe the script just couldn’t be better because we lost all that movie-making tradition for 30 years. We have nothing to build upon, and we can only start again with clichés. That’s why S’pore’s TV industry is miles ahead. Mediacorps’ drama series have had 20 years of tradition to build upon. The Singapore audience is far more sophisticated than its indie movies. Building upon this base now, things can only get better from here.

Chup