881
itunes: 徳永英明, Vocalist (2005)
Official Website: http://www.zhaowei.com/881/synopsis.html
Despite I have always associated the annual Ghost Festival Getai thingy and Hokkien songs as something cheesy, sleazy and low brow entertainment in Singapore; especially it is a local production which I tend to link it with the poor bad TCS8 (our National TV) soap drama style acting, this time I'm surprised that I have actually paid a full price ticket to catch it in the theatre. First of all, I'm intrigued by the promo trailer, which I find it impressive for such a genre. Ya, I'm right, it turned out to be one of the finest local production after all these years. Hail to the director Royston Tan, who has successful captured the essence of Getai scene culture in Singapore and beyond which take something as low corny as Getai and turn it into high retro art. Impressive!!
I have to admit it does contain the necessary emotion-stirring plot, tear-kerking moments and local favour witty Hokkien jokes (well, these are must-have elements for commercial movies, forgivable I mean). The more important aspects are the soundtrack, the set, the cinematography, the costumes and the colours that help to escalate this film into higher ground as compared to its peers. The most clever part of this movie is the way it was shot. It relates the essence (that is the 'soft' part) of Singapore grassroots living without having to show the physical aspects around it. This is something different from the rest of the local films which would have shown extensively and deliberately right at the audiences' face the 'hardwares' of Singapore living. The casts also play a part in making the movie real. I noticed a couple of actors and actresses are in fact the veterans of the Getai scene here, particularly Liu Ling Ling who played the guardian of the leading actresses, is a Getai emcee for 30 years. Their contributions to this movie would have helped to make it a truly realistic Getai world even though the storyline maybe fictional. These really impressed me most because any audience watching overseas would be able to feel the richness of Singapore livelihood instead of merely 'seeing' it. That's the kind of element I expect would help Singapore films to go internationally.
Check out the soundtrack too. Even though they are all cheesy Hokkien songs, I have to admit I somehow touched by them, maybe because of the movie. Most of them are originally written by the acclaimed Chinese pop local producer, Eric Ng. His blog said that it was out on 8th of August, I went hunting for the CD after the show, but unsuccessful. :O(
GO WATCH IT. Drop all your pre-conceptions you might have on this movie. Just go watch it. For the first time, I'm touched and excited by a local film production. DUN EVER MISSED IT.
Despite I have always associated the annual Ghost Festival Getai thingy and Hokkien songs as something cheesy, sleazy and low brow entertainment in Singapore; especially it is a local production which I tend to link it with the poor bad TCS8 (our National TV) soap drama style acting, this time I'm surprised that I have actually paid a full price ticket to catch it in the theatre. First of all, I'm intrigued by the promo trailer, which I find it impressive for such a genre. Ya, I'm right, it turned out to be one of the finest local production after all these years. Hail to the director Royston Tan, who has successful captured the essence of Getai scene culture in Singapore and beyond which take something as low corny as Getai and turn it into high retro art. Impressive!!
I have to admit it does contain the necessary emotion-stirring plot, tear-kerking moments and local favour witty Hokkien jokes (well, these are must-have elements for commercial movies, forgivable I mean). The more important aspects are the soundtrack, the set, the cinematography, the costumes and the colours that help to escalate this film into higher ground as compared to its peers. The most clever part of this movie is the way it was shot. It relates the essence (that is the 'soft' part) of Singapore grassroots living without having to show the physical aspects around it. This is something different from the rest of the local films which would have shown extensively and deliberately right at the audiences' face the 'hardwares' of Singapore living. The casts also play a part in making the movie real. I noticed a couple of actors and actresses are in fact the veterans of the Getai scene here, particularly Liu Ling Ling who played the guardian of the leading actresses, is a Getai emcee for 30 years. Their contributions to this movie would have helped to make it a truly realistic Getai world even though the storyline maybe fictional. These really impressed me most because any audience watching overseas would be able to feel the richness of Singapore livelihood instead of merely 'seeing' it. That's the kind of element I expect would help Singapore films to go internationally.
Check out the soundtrack too. Even though they are all cheesy Hokkien songs, I have to admit I somehow touched by them, maybe because of the movie. Most of them are originally written by the acclaimed Chinese pop local producer, Eric Ng. His blog said that it was out on 8th of August, I went hunting for the CD after the show, but unsuccessful. :O(
GO WATCH IT. Drop all your pre-conceptions you might have on this movie. Just go watch it. For the first time, I'm touched and excited by a local film production. DUN EVER MISSED IT.
posted by music-nazi ~ musik mit uns at 19:02
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home