A Comparative Study of Bilingual Film Criticisms on post-1965 and their application in Chinese education by Tan Chee Lay

Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow, NLB

The contributions of film criticisms to the film industry, and the cultural, educational and even social fields are much less discussed.

Film criticisms and reviews serve as important and indispensible platforms to evaluate, promote and even influence films and film productions.

• It targets film criticisms, esp criticisms in both English and Chinese languages, so as to reach out to the international performing arts participants—both in the East and the West.

• To promote interaction between the English and Chinese films and critical writing communities, and even international English and Chinese readers

• To further enhance the distinctive culture identity of a multicultural and multilingual Singapore society

Before independence: Singapore had a cinema industry which could be traced back to the film-making in the mid-1920s to mid-1930s, when multi-ethnic and multicultural influences began to take their roots.

• “Golden Age” (1947 – 1972)- most of these films were Malay, except for a few shot in Chinese Mandarin or various Chinese dialects- Shaw and Cathay-Keris studios

-1952: around 23 feature films were churned out by one studio, Shaw’s Malay Films Productions, and a handful of independent production houses

However, after Singapore’s independence in 1965, the film industry declined significantly.

• Rapid modernization and industrialization in Singapore brought about great changes to the audience’s tastes and lifestyles.

• The industry eventually declined, and local production came to a halt by the end of 1978.

• It came gradually, with Singapore’s government recognizing the need to revitalize the film industry during the late eighties.

• Committee in 1987 for the promotion of the film industry

• Tang City in Jurong

• The first Singapore film to be produced after this long hiatus in 1991 was Medium Rare, which was, unfortunately, not very well-received.

• Revival in 1995: Mee Pok Man by Eric Khoo

• Since 1995, there has been a constant production of local films.

• The revived Singapore cinema from the 1990s was characterized by short and feature films, shot predominantly in Chinese, and occasionally in English.

Currently, the Singapore film industry has seen a steady growth, as seen in the table below.

• Many people’s original perception of a Singapore film are films that are filmed locally which involves local actors and actresses, script-writers, themes, directors, production crew etc.

• One would expect the Singapore cinema - to be locally rooted - to reflect the various ethnicities and languages of Singapore - to capture the different themes of local lifestyles.

The use of local directors, producers, actors, actresses, filming locations, and even Singlish, the local variety of English which draws from different languages and dialects, in Singapore films has been a determining factor in differentiating Singapore films from foreign films.

HOWEVER, • Recent films have proven that “home-grown” or local films might not necessarily be filmed, produced and acted by locals

• Eg: “Made-by-Singapore” films• Eg: Raintree Pictures

• These co-productions have allowed Singapore to be placed on the global stage of cinematic industry

• Such international co-productions are increasing worldwide, and it has become increasingly difficult to draw a clear line

Although it may not even occur to most that films which they are watching are “Made-by-Singapore” films, such films are imperative as it is Singapore’s step towards gaining international exposure and recognition for these films.

Besides, through working with other more established movie production companies overseas, Singapore companies can learn and benefit a lot from them.

Focus on the comparison of data of 73 films starting from 1991 to 2008. We had a total of 226 reviews which comprised of 63 Chinese reviews and 163 English films reviews.

Appendix 1:Appendix 1:Appendix 1:

Year Movie Title No. of Reviews English Chinese English Chinese

2008 An Long Pte Ltd. 老师嫁老大 4 32008 Dance of the Dragon 龙之舞 1 22008 12 Lotus 12莲花 5 12008 The Days 岁月 2 22008 Sing to the Dawn 曦望 2 22008 Carrot Cake Conversations 萝卜糕情缘 3 32007 Just follow Law 我在政府部门的日子 4 02007 One Last Dance 茶舞 5 12007 Cages 3 02007 Legend of the Sea 东海传 3 02007 Gone shopping 逛街物语 3 02007 881 881 5 12007 Becoming Royston 效仿陈子谦 2 12007 The Homesong Stories 意 0 12007 Pleasure Factory 快乐工厂 1 12007 Truth Be Told 真相 2 12007 The Tatooist 3 02007 The Leap Years 誓约 2 2

Appendix 1:

2006 I NOT Stupid TOO 小孩不笨 2 3 1

2006 Zodiac: The Race Begins 生肖传奇 3 0

2006 Love Story 爱情故事 4 0

2006 Unarmed Combat 2 1

2006 We Are Family 我爱一家人 1 0

2006 4:30 4:30 4 1

2006 S11 S11 2 0

2006 Smell of Rain 雨之味 1 0

2006 Singapore Dreaming 4 0

2006 Kallang Wave 4 0

2005 I Do I Do 爱都爱都 2 2

2005 Avatar 2 0

2005 Singapore GAGA 3 0

2005 Perth 血溅芽笼红灯区 3 1

2005 The Maid 女佣 4 2

2005 Be With Me 伴我行 4 0

2005 Three Good Men 三个好人 1 1

2004Last Life in the Universe 末路狂命 3 1

2004 The Eye 2 见鬼 2 1 12004 The Best Bet 突然发财 1 32004 Clouds in My Coffee 2 02003 City Sharks 难兄难弟 1 12003 Twilight Kitchen 1 02003 Homerun 跑吧 ,孩子 4 02003 Turn Left Turn right 向左走向右走 3 02003 15 十五 2 12003 Infernal Affairs 3 无间道 III 0 22002 I Not Stupid 小孩不笨 2 12002 Talking Cock 讲鸡话 1 22002 The Eye 见鬼 3 22001 The Tree 孩子 ·树 1 02001 Return to Pontianak 黑暗的马来村 1 12001 A Sharp Pencil 尖铅笔 1 22001 Miss Wonton 云吞小姐 1 12001 One Leg Kicking 一脚踢 2 12000 A.D 2000 公元 2000 2 12000 Stories about Love 爱的季节 1 12000 Chicken Rice War 鸡缘巧合 1 3

1999The Truth about Jane and Sam 真心话 3 0

1999 Where Got Problem 问题不大 2 21999 That One Not Enough 那个不够 3 0

1999Liang Po Po - The Movie 梁婆婆重出江湖 2 0

1999 The Mirror 午夜凶镜 2 11999 Lucky Numbers 发财八百万 2 01999 Eating Air 吃风 3 01998 Forever Fever 1 01998 Teenage Textbook 纯爱手册 1 21998 Tigers Whip 2 01998 Money No Enough 钱不够用 2 01997 12 Stories 十二楼 1 01997 God or Dog 1 01996 Army Daze 新新兵小传 2 11996 Bugis Street 妖街皇后 1 01995 Mee Pok Man 面薄佬 2 21991 Medium Rare 乩童 2 1

Total: 163 63Total Number of Reviews: 226

English films reviews appear to be more encouraging than Chinese films reviews

Examples:• Eric Khoo’s production - Stories

about Love• The Leap Years

Perhaps this has got to do with the differences in cultures between the West and the East?

• In the West, failure seems to be more acceptable and thus perhaps people are more encouraging towards failures?

• In the East, failure is often more frowned upon, hence perhaps why the Chinese reviews appear so seemingly unforgiving towards bad films?

In addition, Chinese films reviews keep mentioning that we should lower our expectations when watching local films. Eg. Army Daze.

Both Chinese and English reviews for the film Miss Wonton were very encouraging.

• Business Times: “It is an impressive introduction and hopefully, the best is yet to come.” • Lianhe Zaobao acknowledges that although the film has it flaws, it is no doubt the director’s first film. The review goes on to praise the director’s creativity.

Chinese Film Reviews include both entertainment and artistic indexes• In many of the Chinese Film Reviews by Lianhe Zaobao and journals like i-Weekly, there are both entertainment and artistic ratings for the films.

• English film reviews generally gave films an overall review. •may not be balanced opinion as audience would base their opinion on the end result, regardless of how it is derived.

Jack Neo’s I Not Stupid Too

• Business Times’ review mentioned that “The film manages to be corny, preachy and melodramatic –almost unpalatable in parts- yet it will undoubtedly draw audiences eager to identify with the characters and share in the comic moments(yes, there are a few).

• The review was generally a negative one save for the above sentence which acknowledges that it would have its target audience.

•However with an overall rating of C-, it is possible that readers would not pick up this line but merely glance at the overall rating before moving on to the next movie rating.

• Although Lianhe Zaobao review commented that the movie is “preachy”, it still gives it 3 stars for its entertaining factor and 2 stars for its artistic factor.

• The star ratings would definitely stand out more than the single one line praising the film’s entertaining factor.

Jack Neo’s film One More Chance

• The English review on the Business Times gave it a C and calls it “run-of-the-mill superficial layering of toilet humor and glib coffee shop chatter, with no payoff in sight.”

• Lianhe Zaobao on the other hand states that the films has not got much artistic flavor but recognizes that it is still very entertaining at 3.5 stars. This is compared to the artistic factor of 2.5 stars.

Having two rating systems may be a fairer review for local films as they allow the audience to judge which film would suit their needs better.

Moral Values• Chinese film reviews: more about morals.

• This trend was highly expected?•Chinese culture/texts is known to put more emphasis on preaching moral values and following a set of moral standards.

Royston Tan’s 15

• English reviews for this film focused more on the character development, Tan’s filming techniques and effort.

• Chinese reviews for this film went a step further to talk about society in general.

Teenage Textbook

• The Straits Times review focused merely on the filming techniques, story line, dialogue, shots and music etc.

• Lianhe Zaobao (15th Nov 1998): how commercials and commercialization have changed our attitudes towards life, stands on moral values and even our perceptions on beauty

• Another review by Lianhe Zaobao (22nd Nov): voices out how the film reflects the current societal trends

Hence, the above examples further illustrate the trend of Chinese film reviews focusing more on moral values than English film reviews.

With the current revival of Singapore made films, it is crucial that such a study is conducted to analyze the trends of what local film reviewers are writing about our local films.

Firstly, it would be useful for film makers to view these trends and thus if they wanted to make a film for a certain targeted segment of the population they would pay more attention on the needs of the population segment.

Secondly, for the average film audience, he may wish to understand such trends and biases so as to pick the film for his choice.

Perhaps, he may wish to look out for points that speak of the entertaining factor of the film in the English newspaper film reviews.

Thirdly, for scholars who are doing in-depth research papers on Singapore films, this study may highlight to them certain issues. Hence they may wish to take into consideration these trends and biases when doing certain studies on local films.

The economic trends and the number of movies made…

• 1997/1998 saw the height of the Asian economic crisis, however the movies made increased.

• This could show a probable link between using movies as an outlet of frustration, for the movie makers to voice the concerns of the locals.

• Eg: Jack Neo’s film “Money No Enough”

Through this study, we hope to highlight the various characteristics of the different language reviews. By doing so, we should be able to better understand the concerns of various local film critics and trends of local film criticism.

We must take into consideration reviews in both languages for their standpoints differ from time to time.

By understanding and highlighting the special characteristics and merits of Singapore film criticisms, it will also acknowledge film criticicism as important cultural elements.

Critical essays and reviews of Singapore films examine both art and commercial films, and the researches of these writings are crucial and essential in promoting Singapore films.

It is also one of the ways to show appreciation and to give recognition to films producers, directors, and individual critics, etc.

Hopefully, this report has not only highlighted the special characteristics and merits of the Singapore films and films criticisms; it helps to recognize film and film criticisms as cultural ballasts in our nation-building efforts, and a true part of our literary heritage.