Cinema of Singapore
7 Letters7 Letters is a 2015 Singaporean drama film directed by seven different directors. It comprises seven short stories to celebrate Singapore's 50th anniversary. The film was selected as the Singaporean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI_Tp92v_OA
Despite having a flourishing Chinese and Malay film industry in the 1950s and 1960s, Singapore 's film industry declined after independence in 1965. However, most of these were not released in Singapore and cannot be labelled as truly Singaporean productions.
Early 1990s pioneers
In 1997 ,Eric Khoo feature film, 12 Storeys , a highly acclaimed production which was the first Singaporean film to be shown at Cannes . Interweaving 3 stories about life in the HDB high-rise flats, 12 Storeys was seen as a breakthrough for Singaporean films, combining a coherent plot with Singaporean production crew and actors, such as Jack Neo and Koh Boon Pin. The rest of the decade was encouraging for the growing film industry.
12 Storeys12 Storeys (十二樓 ) is a 1997 Singaporean drama film directed by Eric Khoo . It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival .
Plot
The film focuses on the troubled lives of several people living in the same building.
Soup vendor Ah Gu is having a hard time dealing with his money-hungry wife Lily.
Nearby, young children are forced to raise their even younger siblings due to parental neglect.
Late 1990s successes
However, it was the phenomenal success of Money No Enough (1998) which eventually catapulted the nation's drive towards movie-making.Using a local crew of actors drawn from television comedies, this 'heartland' comedy written by Jack Neo used a smattering of Singles and Hokkien to make a realistic, easily identifiable drama about everybody's quest to make a quick buck. Made with less than S$1 million, it raked in S$5,800,000, making it the most commercially profitable local film to date.
It also demonstrated the viable potential of Singapore's film industry.
Eight Singaporean feature films were made in 1999 alone, the most notable being Liang Po Po: The Movie (starring Jack Neo in a reprisal of his television cross-gender role), That One No Enough , the first directorial effect of Jack Neo, and Eating Air , made by film critic Kelvin Tong and film editor Jasmine Ng on a budget of S$800,000. Eating Air did not break even; That One No Enough barely did and only Liang Po Po: The Movie continued the vein of commercial success of Money No Enough , collecting S$3.03 million.
Money No EnoughMoney No Enough ( 钱不够用 ) is a 1998 Singaporean comedy film about three friends with financial problems who start a car polishing business together.
Written by Jack Neo , directed by Tay Teck Lock and produced by JSP Films, the movie stars Neo, Mark Lee and Henry Thia .
Released in cinemas on 7 May 1998, Money No Enough received mixed reviews from critics, but earned over S$ 5.8 million and was the all-time highest-grossing Singaporean film until 2012. Its success helped revive the Singaporean film industry and pave the way for the emergence of other Singaporean cultural phenomena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0KcUuMeB10
Liang Po Po
Liang Po Po: The Movie (梁婆婆重出江湖) is a Singaporean film directed by Bee Lian Teng in 1999. It starred the comedian director Jack Neo himself, who cross-dresses as the titular old lady, which in English is translated as "Granny Neo".
Liang Po Po
Liang Po Po: The Movie (梁婆婆重出江湖) is a Singaporean film directed by Bee Lian Teng in 1999. It starred the comedian director Jack Neo himself, who cross-dresses as the titular old lady, which in English is translated as "Granny Neo".
Jack Neo and Royston Tan
The success story since the turn of the 20th century must be from local comedian-turned-director Jack Neo. Financed by Raintree Pictures, he made a number of hits dealing with Singapore's heartland problems in an engaging and deceptively light-hearted fashion. I Not Stupid (2002) was a peek into the ultra-competitive academic lifestyle as seen through three local students who performed poorly in grades; its acerbic social commentary marked another height for Singaporean films. Homerun (2003) was a remake of the Iranian Children of Heaven in a local, pre-independent era context; it won for its young lead Megan Zheng the first Golden Horse Award for Best Newcomer. The Best Bet (2004) took a humorous dig at heartlanders' obsessions with lotteries. Neo averages a film per year and his productions feature local Singaporean (usually television) artistes in filmic roles. They have been successes locally and abroad, especially in those places with a Chinese-language market, such as Hong Kong. He has started his own artiste management company, J-Team Productions.
Royston Tan, a young Singapore TV commercial director who has been making award-winning shorts for years, released 15: The Movie, his first feature, in 2003. An expanded version of an earlier short film he made, this 90-min movie on the fringe and drug-abusing delinquents used bold subject-matter and featured some graphic scenes with non-professional actors. When the film censorship board passed it with cuts, it prompted a backlash from the director in the form of Cut, an all-singing musical satire à la Tsai Ming-liang lampooning the system. Interestingly, this short film was passed uncensored by the board and was seen during the Singapore International Film Festival, but there were open discussions about it during local parliamentary sessions, prompting remarks that the government was "not amused" by it. Royston Tan has since made three more features, 4:30 (2005), 881 (2007) and 12 Lotus (2008).
4:30 is a 2005 Singaporean film. It is directed by filmmaker Royston Tan. It is his second feature after 15: the Movie. The film is made on a budget of S$400,000. It was released in Singaporean Cinemas on 29 June 2006.
[SYNOPSIS]
"4:30" traces the relationship between Xiao Wu, an eleven year old Chinese boy and his tenant Jung, a thirty-something Korean man. Told entirely from the perspective of the boy, Xiao Wu, this story of two very different characters is less about friendship than about a shared experience and appreciation of solitude. "4:30" starts with Xiao Wu sneaking to the room of Jung in the early hours of the morning, and stealing from the Korean man. Just as getting intoxicated is a habit for Jung, who only staggers back to his rented room when drunk, soon stealing for Xiao Wu becomes equally as compulsive. We soon realize that Jung's true intention for staying in Singapore is suicide. It is only through Xiao Wu's encounter with Jung failing in his bid to die that Xiao Wu begins to understand his true fascination with Jung.
Ultimately, "4:30", as the title suggests is about a moment, a boy's attempt to cling to it escaping his drab reality, in a life yet fully lived. Yet it too opens us to the possibility that in this age of the urban, of the tall apartment blocks, of the cityscape, that the loneliness that a city-dweller feels not only transcends cultural and geographic boundaries but that it is also not inevitable.
Film Review：
For those lonely with people who, for different reasons lonely, lonely is not exactly the same manner.
The guide member is not edited with a lot of long shots to tell the stories from the heart of each person. Hero without dialogue, because loneliness itself is no sound, and let us go quietly feel.
From the day that a fixed time off to observe things to each other's mutual comfort then to the final cup of orange juice is still covered with plastic wrap, we can see that even the most lonely people and things will have the most perfect distillation. Unfortunately, the kind of person can only glimpse appear in memory, nothing of ......
Midnight 4:30 is a dead of night time, but also feel extremely lonely moment. Even in a developed city, skyscrapers, a sense of loneliness, like city people will exist, but also with the city's high degree of human and social development and constantly improve and more lonely.
2005 to 2009
Eric Khoo ( Chinese : 邱金海 ; pinyin : Qiū Jīnhǎi ; born 27 March 1965) is a Singaporean art-house filmmaker .He is the son of the wealthy businessman Khoo Teck Puat (1917–2004). Khoo's films Mee Pok Man and 12 Storeys have together been screened at over 60 film festivals, held all over the world including Ivy League festivals such as Venice, Berlin and Rotterdam.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrI5IQcQS-U
In 1998, Khoo was ranked as one of the 25 exceptional trend makers of Asia by Asiaweek magazine and in the following year was included into Asiaweek’s leaders for the millennium issue. He was an Executive Producer for the local comedy hit, “Liang Po Po – The Movie” (1999), and “One Leg Kicking” (2001), which were both the highest grossing local movies for their respective years in Singapore. He also produced “15” (2003) directed by Royston Tan, which has been invited to the Venice Film Festival (2003) and Sundance (2004). His TV work includes being Executive Producer of “DRIVE”, an anthology series for the Television Corporation of Singapore (1998), and “Seventh Month” (2004), a highly acclaimed TV horror series for Channel U (SPH Mediaworks). These productions served as a platform for grooming young talented filmmakers.
My Magic is a 2008 SingaporeanTamil language drama film directed by Eric Khoo and produced by Zhao Wei Films in association with Infinite Frameworks. My Magic was the 1st Singapore film to be nominated for the Palme D'Or, the top award for film at the Cannes Film Festival. It has been also selected as Singapore's official entry for the Oscars in 2009. It was released in Singapore cinemas on 25 September 2008.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FHfSyOqMd8
2010 and beyond
A wave of young filmmakers, educated in local and overseas film schools, begin to dominate the film scene.
In 2010, young filmmaker Boo Junfeng, known by this time in the international film festival circuit for his award-winning short films, completed his debut feature film Sandcastle. It became the first Singaporean film to be selected at the International Critics' Week at Cannes Film Festival (competing for the Caméra d'Or) and was listed by The Wall Street Journal as one of the most notable films from Asia in 2010. Produced by Eric Khoo's Zhao Wei Films, the film very delicately tackled controversial subject matters such as the Chinese middle school riots and Operation Coldstore. It was picked up by international sales agent Fortissimo Films and funded by the Singapore Film Commission. In the same year, artist/filmmaker Liao Jiekai completed his debut film Red Dragonflies, which traveled to several film festivals around the world.
Ilo Ilo (爸妈不在家), the debut feature of director Anthony Chen, premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors' Fortnight on 19 May 2013 to very positive reviews.The film was awarded the Camera d'Or award, thus becoming the first Singaporean feature film to win an award at the Cannes Film Festival. It received six nominations at the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards. and won 4: Best Film, Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Yeo Yann Yann.In total Ilo Ilo has received 21 awards and 10 nominations around the world, as well as the highest ranking Singaporean-made film on IMDB, making it the most critically acclaimed film in the history of Singaporean cinema.
