Fast Forward: Short Films Screening
Lunchtime (2000) / Directed by Wee Li Lin
Fantasy allows the mind to go wild and surpass reality, and celluloid possesses the ability to capture this imagination. Lunchtime features an assistant working at a chicken rice stall and allows the audience to visit her inner thoughts, where she keeps dreaming of getting out of her current lifestyle and constantly thinking about her crush – the young business executive who frequents her stall. The story is not far-fetched from reality, just with a dash of fantasy and imagination included, where all is not what it seems to be. An interesting aspect of the short film is that of the usual first-person approach – in this case, from the view of the assistant – being replaced by the application of the third-person narrative – embodied by a male voiceover. This voiceover assumes the role of a storyteller who is seemingly observing everything that the young assistant is doing. He then spins the tale of this girl through her every action that may help describe and speak the possible inner thoughts and feelings she may possibly have; one that invites the audience to imagine, deduce and understand the various actions of the girl from their own perspective. This third-person approach is also rightly suitable to form a cohesive ending to the short film. The unexpected fantasy sequences, created with the emphasis placed on certain slow-motion shots and crisp sound effects, help to liven up the film. The entire film provides the audience with the opportunity to explore the hopes and wishes of lonely people as they splash more life and colour into their world with the power of their imagination.
One Track Vision (2002) / Directed by Tania Sng
Completed by the use of panning shots throughout the short film, One Track Vision chronicles certain traits of humility and the characteristic behaviour of individuals. An actor performs various actions, similar to actions that are performed in our daily lives, in the entire film, using simple props and inexpensive methods. These actions complement very well with the on-going voiceover about the various idiosyncratic facts in life, as inspired by a poem by local poet Cyril Wong. The visuals and voiceover match very closely as visual poetic interpretations of the poem. The short film may seem different and slightly difficult to understand at first, but the audience should take it as a chance to sit back and reflect over the little moments that may have affected their outlooks on life.
Majidee (2005) / Directed by Azharr Rudin
Majidee is the last of 6 interconnected shorts that formed director Azharr Rudin’s Amber Sexalogy featured in the Singapore International Film Festival this year, but this 15-minute one-take short film stands very well on its own as an exploration into the issues of relationships and trust. Two men meet in transit by chance while making their way to a train station in the heart of busy Kuala Lumpur. What develops within the duration of the film is a quick-cultivated relationship that is immediately given a stern test – can there be trust between total strangers? The most amazing aspect of this short film is the techniques used and the eventual presentation. Other than the continual fluency with virtually one take throughout the film, the camera captures merely their back views for most of the film, keeping the audience distant from these two men. This method resembles that of the opening scene to French New wave director Jean Luc-Godard’s film My Life to Live, where a sense of distance between the audience and the lead actors is created with the projection of only their back views presented on the screen for most of that particular scene. The audience is thus left with mere occasional glimpses of their facial expressions and can only deduce what the two characters may be feeling deep inside. This unorthodox camera technique creates the sense of distance by force and makes the audience equally unfamiliar with the two men, just as much as the two strangers have even when they are walking next to each other. The only occasion where the audience can observe their expressions and reactions vividly is during the climatic scene, in which the powerful performances of both actors make the whole sequence look more realistic. It is often taught that people should not interact with strangers, but when such a scenario pops up, how would people really react? Indeed, it seems to reflect the hard truth that in a busy city such as ours, everyone just minds their own business and cannot afford to stop and watch the world around them, let alone talk to strangers or even forge a relationship.
As observed by film critic Robert Williamson, Majidee also plays with the idea of public relationships in relation to public spaces. In other words, the landscape of Kuala Lumpur becomes an important visual motif – as does its soundscape in the wordless moments of the short film. The predominant idea in this respect is of Kuala Lumpur as a transit city for people on the way to other destinations, much as a relationship may turn to be just a temporary pit-stop on a longer journey.
Monkey Love (2005) / Directed by Royston Tan
Acclaimed local director Royston Tan’s experimental short film “Monkey Love” is an unusually creative, beautifully-shot little film focusing on a monkey (or to be precise, a boy in a monkey suit) reminiscing over a lost love and seeking to search for what he has longed for. It may look bizarre initially, but once the sense of absurdity is cleared, the audience can sit back to experience and feel the emotional torture that he has to go through over what he has been missing. The transfer from the Super-8 format to the normal DV format results in a very grainy effect appearing for most of the short. Set in the impossibly beautiful Hokkaido, Japan, its pretty setting, grainy appearance and the constant use of the colour blue for most of the sequences results in a kind of lovely yet gloomy effect to the film, with the beauty and sadness matching seemingly well with its protagonist. The beautiful lyrical lines, together with solemn and endearing voiceover of the young boy, resemble that of someone singing a sad love song to the one that he loves. What is innovative with the film is its somewhat different approach with certain artistically interesting shots centering on the crew and their filming process, with scenes featuring director Royston Tan filming the boy with his film camera. This approach seems to mirror that of Jean Luc Godard’s self-reflexive cinema, as referenced in the opening sequence to his film Contempt, where the entire crew is prominently featured shooting a scene with the actors, very much expressing to the audience the important notion of “this is a film”. Yet, everything feels very real. What is most appealing however, is the climax scene when Royston – featured once again as the director with his camera – attempts to capture the boy’s expressions up close. With practically no sound throughout this sequence, it is hard not to feel for the boy as the audience gets to notice the silent grief and quiet emotional pain he has been trying to hide, in which he eventually lets it all out. Subsequently, the shot centres on Royston’s emotional expression as he suddenly stops filming. The embrace they share afterward show a clear mutual understanding that they both share, and the ending shot attempts to add a sense of optimism to an otherwise tragic tale. It may not be easy to realise that this short film seems to be a symbolic indication on the difficulties in communication between different types of people and the dark effects this may cause, but it should be much simpler for the audience to deeply appreciate how love possesses the power to disrupt and change life in mysterious ways.
Jia Fu (Family Portrait) (2004) / Directed by Ellery Ngiam
“Despite the prevalence of bankruptcy in Singapore during these tough times (the financial crisis that hit Singapore and Asia in the late 1990s), nobody really talks about it because it is deemed embarrassing and it tarnishes the image of the family. I wanted to make a film about it and through it reveal the unexpressed pain and suffering of financial loss.” – Ellery Ngiam
Everything is not lost, just as long as everyone has each other by their side. Possibly director Ellery Ngiam’s most personal film till date, Jia Fu explores how the struggle to pay for the daughter’s overseas studies eventually leads a rich family to lose everything they possess in a matter of hours. At the end of the ordeal, however, as they come to terms with the failing economy and all sit down for the first time in years for their Chinese New Year reunion dinner, they get to understand what they still have is the strong family bond that keeps them together. This short film allows the audience to explore the inner thoughts of individual family members – the difference here is that they tend to reveal details not on themselves, but on their loved ones. By describing the behaviour and characteristics of a family member from another’s perspective clearly shows the love and deep understanding all the family members have with one another. Nobody discusses about sadness or grief up front, it is what that is left unspoken – the inner thoughts – which speaks enormous volumes. The sidetrack to another working woman whom the daughter meets on her journey home just clearly reflects another side of reality where some families do not make an effort to meet up and just stay apart. This short film may run the longest out of the five, but it provides a chance to carefully develop the background of the main characters and allows the audience to experience what they all go through and how they truly feel. All the silence amounts to something even bigger, and this film provides the audience with the chance to reflect on the significance of family unity amidst life’s ups and downs
Written by: Ang Wei Chong
“Short Film Focus: The Amber Sexalogy – Six Degrees of Combination” by Robert Williamson http://www.firecracker-media.com/issue18/feature1804.shtml
“Malaysian Short Film Showcase” by Rizal Johan (The Star Online eCentral)
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2005/10 /7/movies/12228002&sec=movies
“SeptFest 2004 – Asian Film Symposium – Jia Fu (Family Portrait)” http://www.substation.org/substation/events/AFS04 /sexpress-sing.html
“Monkey Love” Review at Fitzroy Monthly Short Film Festival 2006 http://fitzshorts.allmedia.com .au/blog/?p=56
Singapore Short Films – Introduction
http://www.theartshouse.com.sg /feast_of_films.html
* This text was first published on the Singapore Arts House website: www.theartshouse.com.sg
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