Tanjong Rhu & Other Shorts - Film Synopses

Notice:

As an educational film screening, this event is open only to NUS students, with priority given to USP students and PGP residents. Please arrive early to ensure a seat, and bring along your matric card for identification! (We regret to say that non-card holders may be turned away).

(Please note that the films are also rated R21)

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Just thought I would include a brief synopses for the films we're showing this Friday!

Tanjong Rhu (2008):
A former military officer seeks closure by making a documentary film about a man he had furtively encountered in Tanjong Rhu many years ago. Tanjong Rhu is a secluded beach on the east coast of Singapore, and a popular cruising ground for gay men. In an entrapment exercise in 1993, 12 men were arrested there and sentenced to imprisonment and caning. This is a fictionalised account of what has happened since then to one of these men.

Threshold (2009):
In a dingy motel room, a sexual threesome has been arranged to take place. Except that the two men lying in wait are officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau, ready to apprehend their suspect, who is going to show up with crystal meth at any moment. Inspector Anton is preoccupied and tense, and increasingly restless. As the wait for the suspect lengthens, it is apparent Anton has something infinitely more personal at stake. In what appears to be a routine crackdown operation, which walls will come tumbling down, and what thresholds will be crossed? In the film’s tropical swelter, how does one ascertain that everything one sees is not a mirage from a fragmenting mind?

Autopsy (2007):
A highly personal documentary project, Autopsy revolves around a conversation between film-maker Loo Zihan and his mother. The film focuses on the latter’s point of view, exploring how she has coped with her son’s homosexuality.

Katong Fugue (2007):
A short film based on a scene in Alfian Sa'at's play Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol. 2, which depicts the fragile relationship between a mother and her gay, closeted son. The film combines image and voiceover to great effect to reveal their uncommunicative relationship.

And as a "sneak preview" of sorts, here's the trailer of Tanjong Rhu :)

Tanjong Rhu and Other Shorts!

Hey all!

This Friday marks the final installment of the USP Film Series, and we intend to go out with a bang! :)

With the support of the Asian Film Archive and Objectifs Films, we’ll be screening four short films for our series finale, all of which deal with issues of gay sexuality in Singapore. These films were made by young, up-and-coming film-makers, Boo Junfeng and Loo Zihan. Our programme will include:

Tanjong Rhu by Boo Junfeng

Threshold by Loo Zihan

Autopsy by Loo Zihan

Katong Fugue by Boo Junfeng

Post film discussion with Boo Junfeng.

** a reminder--some of the films are R21. After viewing them, though, it would be fruitful to discuss exactly why they are so designated.

We’re very pleased to announce that Boo Junfeng will be attending the screening, and post-film discussion forum! Junfeng is a promising young director in Singapore, who has been touted as “the next Royston Tan” by some! His portfolio of works include other short films like Family Portrait (2004) and Keluar Baris (2008) which have won accolades at various film festivals. Junfeng was recently a recipient of the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award, and is currently writing and directing his first feature-length film, Sandcastles, which will be produced by Eric Khoo’s Zhao Wei films.

We’re very excited about the upcoming screening, and really hope to see you there! :) As usual, the screening will be held at Function Room 2, PGP, and will start at 7pm. This Friday being somewhat special, we'll also be serving refreshments prior to the screening at 6.30pm (outside Function Room 2). And yes I know what you're thinking - the chocolate eclairs will make an appearance.

Some Background to Tanjong Rhu…

Headlining our mini short films fest, is Junfeng’s Tanjong Rhu (2008) which is loosely based on an actual gay entrapment exercise conducted by the Singapore police in 1993. Fort Road in Tanjong Rhu, was known as a popular cruising area for homosexual encounters. The entrapment exercise saw decoy police officers posing as homosexuals, and soliciting actual homosexuals in the area. It resulted in the arrests of 12 men, who were publically shamed by having their names and occupations published in The Straits Times.

The arrests provoked responses from the local gay and artistic community. Notably, Josef Ng created performance art pieces meant to protest the incident. One of them famously involved him snipping off his pubic hair as a symbol of silent protest - this event was sensationalized by the New Paper as an “obscene” pub(l)ic act. It led the government to enforce a de facto ban on performance art for the next decade.

Below is an excerpt from a Straits Times article about the 1993 arrests, which we located through the Factiva database. Kindly note that the original article included the names and personal details of the 12 arrested men. Out of respect for the privacy of these individuals, I have removed the portions which revealed their identities.

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“TWELVE men were arrested for alleged sexual offences in the space of a week at a reclaimed piece of land at Tanjong Rhu during an anti-gay operation by the police.

Among those arrested in the operation and charged with allegedly outraging their victims' modesty were a broadcasting producer and a butcher.

In the mid-September operation, plainclothes policemen from the Geylang Police Division Headquarters posed as decoys.

They would identify themselves when contact was made before back-up officers moved in to help round up the alleged offenders.

Only six of the 12 men pleaded guilty in court yesterday.

The rest claimed trial.

Those who pleaded guilty received sentences ranging from two to six months' jail.

All of them were also ordered to be given three strokes of the cane each.

…

One of the accused who claimed trial …told the court: "The guy had approached me and smiled, so I walked over to chit-chat with him."

He said that the other man had suggested having sex in the nearby undergrowth.

"Since he was so keen, I thought I would satisfy his need," he said…

Another accused ...who pleaded guilty initially, later said that the complainant had asked him to touch him."

15 - Screening 2 Oct

Hey guys, just a reminder that we'll be screening Royston Tan's 15 this Friday as part of the film series! It's a great film which explores issues related to homosociality and masculinity.

The screening will be followed up by a discussion as usual - we're sure you'll have plenty to say about this film!

Once again, the screening will be held at Function Room 2 of PGP.

Please note that 15 is rated R21. It features adult situations, language, violence and brief male nudity.

Hope to see you all there!

New Line-Up!!

Hey guys, thanks for coming for Perth last night! :)

We've concluded the first half of our series with films that explored different aspects of Singapore's commerical sex industry. With Saint Jack, we tasted a seedy but colourful world of casual sex in the 1970s through the eyes of an American pimp. Pleasure Factory provided a contrast with its more 'up-to-date' portrayal of the sanitary and orderly flesh trade in contemporary Singapore. Finally, we ended off with Perth, and its depiction of an alienated man who seeks a sense of personal redemption through his efforts to "save" a Vietnamese prostitute.

Once the mid-semester break is over, we'll be resuming the film series with a selection that moves gracefully away from Singapore's flashy red light district, and into less obvious locales including dingy HDB flats in suburban Singapore where 15 year olds exchange lip piercings; and a secluded Catholic monastery where nuns tot machine guns (?!) Yet issues related to sex are still implicated in these unlikely places. One of the unifying themes in the second half of our series will be how these films construct and treat notions of gender and sexuality.

So all that said, we're pleased to announce our upcoming programme!

15 (R21) - 2nd Oct

Directed by Royston Tan

Synopsis: Combining gritty realism with edgy style, 15 is a fast, frenetic and strangely beautiful portrait of disaffected youth in Singapore.

Trivia: The uncut film stirred up controversy with its various 'music videos' featuring gang chants. Fearing that these scenes would incite "social unrest," the authorities famously placed pressure on Tan to make 27 cuts to the cinematic version.




They Call her Cleopatra Wong (NC16) - 16th Oct

Directed by Bobby A. Suarez

Synopsis: "She purrs like a kitten and makes love like a siren!" Featuring the sexiest secret agent on this side of the Pacific, Cleopatra Wong is an unabashedly campy ride across Asia with Singapore's female answer to James Bond.

Trivia: Quentin Tarantino reportedly listed this film as one of his early inspirations. References to Cleopatra Wong can be glimpsed in Tarantino's Kill Bill.



Tanjong Rhu and other short films (R21) - 30th Oct
Complete line-up to be confirmed at a later date
Directed by Boo Jun Feng

Synopsis: A line up of short films made by young, up-and-coming film-makers, depicting issues related to homosexuality in Singapore

Invited Guest: Boo Jun Feng (more details to be announced later)


We hope to see you at our future screenings! Stay tuned and watch this space :)

Perth (2004)

Director: Djinn

Starring: Lim Kay Tong

For those familiar with Martin Scorsese's 1976 classic Taxi Driver, Djinn's movie homage strikes a chord. Like Scorsese's protagonist Travis Bickle, Harry Lee (the irony in the name is almost self-evident) is a part-time security guard, and then a taxi driver ferrying call girls. As a marginal character in society, Lee's ambition is to save enough money to emigrate to Perth, his idealized retirement utopia. However, like Bickle, he becomes increasingly involved with one of his prostitute passengers and attempts to buy her freedom--it doesn't end well at all. (the full title of the movie is, tellingly--Perth: the Geylang Massacre)

It is perhaps unfortunate to tout the film as "Singapore's answer to Taxi Driver," as the DVD box boldly quotes one particularly impressed reviewer. It sets very high expectations for the film--and while it is a homage, Perth is arguably a very different creature from Scorsese's creation.

In Djinn's movie for example, Lee might be angry and lonely, but he isn't a friendless misfit (at least--not friendless). He has a wife (albeit with a strained relationship), and the coffeeshop scenes in which he bitches with others about the moral decay in Singapore develops the (few) friendships he has very well.

There is also the issue of context--while the Vietnam War was good fodder for quite a few alienation movies in the US (the first Rambo is a very good example), it is hard to imagine Lee's situation playing out here--would the recession and working class unhappiness be sufficient to push someone over the edge? As an exercise in style, however, the gritty cinematography beautifully captures the seedy reality of Lee that, to my mind, wasn't so much present amongst the neon lights and colours of last week's feature, Pleasure Factory--which really is a modern adaptation of classic whore romances. But perhaps you will have thoughts on this, after Friday.

PS: there is FoodZ. if you're early--movie starts strictly at 7.30.

Pleasure Factory

Director: Ekachai Uekrongtham

Cast:
Yang Kuei-Mei || Ananda Everingham ||Loo Zihan || Xu Er || Katashi Chen || Isabella Chen || Jeszlene Zhou || Ian Francis Low

Pleasure Factory comprises of a series of 3 vignettes: a NS boy is escorted by his army buddy into Geylang to lose his virginity; a young girl is being initiated into the sex trade; and a jaded prostitute picks up a young busker for a song . . . Prostitution as an institution of negotiable relations thus becomes the backdrop against which the stories of alienation, (filial) love and unspeakable longing are played.

Separate stories, the paths of the protagonists cross only incidentally, reminding us that Geylang isn't such a big place after all. While the docudrama maps the spatial boundaries of Geylang, we are also taken down the darkened alleys of the sex trade, so to speak, where women are sold like exotic products off a shelf, marketed by their looks and ethnicity.


(Fishbowls and aquariums form a controlling theme throughout the film. It is easy to imagine why a fishbowl would be an apt metaphor--but perhaps it is already a cinematic translation of a metaphor. Some brothels in Geylang are informally known as "fish tanks" (魚缸). The rationale, as I've been told--is that the women sit behind a glass and the clients pick them.)

Saint Jack: Thanks for Coming!

Hello all! Jeremy and I would like to thank everyone who came earlier tonight for Saint Jack! We were really happy with the turn-out, and the post-film chat. Thanks also to Ben who shared very interesting anecdotes about the film with us, and to Lucas who moderated the session!

We also hoped that you enjoyed the film, and will come back for more in the weeks to come (hehe).

As this marked the first time the film series has been held in PGP, we hope you'll forgive us for any minor hiccups - looks like the bring-your-own-cushion idea largely fell through!

In any case, do let us know if you have any feedback about the session: from the room, to the seating arrangements, to the programme booklets - anything at all! Let us know by leaving a comment here, or emailing me at jeannetai@nus.edu.sg

For those who weren't able to attend, if you're still interested in watching Saint Jack, you can purchase the DVD from HMV outlets in Singapore. Alternatively, if you're a student at NUS, the Central Library stocks copies of the film, and you can watch it in the library's Multimedia room. In response to a question I was asked several times today, I'm afraid that the DVD does not contain an option for subtitles!

Ben Slater's book Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack in Singapore is available in major bookstores like Borders and Kinokuniya. There's also a copy in the Singapore-Malaysian Collection of the NUS Central Library. Do check it out - it's a really fascinating read with lots of interesting trivia!

So thanks once again, and we hope to see you at future screenings! Watch this space for more news :)

Saint Jack Post-Film Discussion

Hi everybody,

For those who don't already know, we'll be screening 'Saint Jack' this coming Friday (28th Aug) at 7pm in PGP. We're really happy to have Ben Slater join us for what I'm sure will be a very interesting post-film discussion! The forum will also be moderated by Lucas Ho, an alumnus of USP, who recently graduated with an Honours in English Literature. Lucas did his Honours Thesis on expatriate literature in Singapore, and one of the texts he analyzed was 'Saint Jack'!

Anyway, have included a mini profile of Ben Slater below for all you out there who are interested. Be sure to come on Friday! :)


"Ben Slater is a writer who has been based in Singapore since 2002. He is the author of Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack in Singapore, which Paul Theroux praised for its recreation of “a vanished world...the chaotic, seedy, exciting, even somewhat innocent and sensual atmosphere of a little island.” He is a guest film curator at the National Museum of Singapore and has advised on the screenplays for three completed feature films, including HERE (Singapore, 2009). He teaches two classes for NUS’s English department, and you can find his writings at www.gonetopersia.com "

Saint Jack

Saint Jack (1979)
"People make love for so many crazy reasons-- why shouldn't money be one of them?" - The Gospel According To Saint Jack

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and
Starring Ben Gazzara as Jack Flowers

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A brief synopsis:
Jack Flowers is a pimp in 1970s Singapore. A savvy expat hoping to make a living through the bustling multiracial, multicultural and deviant sex trades, he is both accepted and rejected by the local communities (and it is especially interesting to see which groups he identifies with).

But even while Jack dreams of running a brothel in a colonial bungalow (with peacocks strutting in the front lawn), the territorial Chinese triads have their eye on him....


Trivia:
Bogdanovich's Saint Jack is a movie adaptation of the 1973 novel of the same name by Paul Theroux. According to Wikipedia (the Matrix of all knowledge), until 2006, the film was the only Hollywood feature to be shot entirely in Singapore.

Interestingly, to get the contentious subject matter past the Singapore censors, the synopsis submitted to the authorities was markedly different from the actual movie produced. When the censors saw the final product they were so horrified that they banned it, allegedly on the basis of excessive nudity and coarse language. It has, however, been re-released in March 2006 as a M18 film.


Guest Speaker:

We are honoured to have Ben Slater speak to us about the film. Slater is the author of Kinda Hot--a book about the making of Saint Jack. (The book is in the Central Library!)
And here's his website:
http://www.kindahot.blogspot.com/

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And finally a teaser:
"Now what can you expect, a place that got started like that?"

Greetings!

... and welcome to the USP film series.

This year's series, Over Sex, comprises of a selection of movies from or about Singapore. Despite the tantalizingly suggestive title, we would like to assure (and hopefully--not disappoint) you that while sex is a common point of reference for the diverse films in our showcase (over sex); it is also a point of departure for each particular film in exploring various ideas about Singapore tangent to sex and sexuality (over sex). What we mean is, while almost all our films are M18--this isn't quite the Yangtze cinema.

An example? While our opening film Saint Jack is a narrative about a Caucasian pimp making a living in early 1970s Singapore, issues relating to "foreign talent", alienation, gender and fetishism are explored above and beyond the sex trade. (and also--the ghastly horror of 70s fashion, i.e. floral shirts and bell-bottomed jeans). More than just watching films together, we would like to hear from you too, about these depictions of Singapore. To that end, following each movie screening there will be a short forum session about the thematic or social issues raised in the films, with occasional guest speakers.

What did you think was important about the film, for example? Did it handle a certain issue well? And how did you feel about that freaky scene in Saint Jack with the two ladies naked dancing with the dyed afro hair and the scratchy vinyl voice of Shirley Bassey singing "Goldfinger" in the background to an entranced and baited audience of one (or many--film watchers?) Well, we are certain that having seen the films you'll have an opinion or other (on that, at least) that you'd desperately want to air :)


All necessary info is on the poster--We hope to see you there!

Your friendly film curators,
Jeremy and Jeanne.

PS: check out our Facebook group here