The One with the Overrated Director

"Patrick Khoo aka Careless Whisper, a nickname he received for quietly mouthing the lyrics to the Wham! classic during the Singapore Idol auditions, is the subject of Royston Tan's next short film. And yes, he will sing in the movie.

The two short films will premiere next year in Chicago at 0104, a Royston Tan retrospective show that will go to London and Tokyo before coming to Singapore. The show is curated by Tan and represents his short films from 2001 to 2004, hence the title."

I don't know about the general public in Singapore. But am I the only one that thinks Director Royston Tan is overrated?

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Sons (1999)
Runtime: Hong Kong:11 min (Hong Kong International Film Festival)
Language: Hokkien

Hock Hiap Leong (2001)
Runtime: 7 min

Mother (2001)
Runtime: USA:6 min
Language: Mandarin

24 Hours (2002/I)
Runtime: USA:2 min
Language: English

'15' (2002)
Runtime: 25 min
Color: Color

15 (2003)
Runtime: Singapore:90 min
Language: Hokkien / Mandarin
Certification: Singapore:(Banned) (original rating) / Singapore:R(A) (edited for re-rating)

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Let's see, if they were to showcase his short films on his so-called tour, it'll probably last a total of 26 minutes without the two '15's. That's a little short. Unless IMDB is wrong, we're really barking up the wrong tree by showcasing him as a talented local director alongside Eric Khoo. Methinks Tan doesn't even come close.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that this guy can't direct and hasn't produced anything film worthy. I'm judging him (Yeah I know it's wrong to judge. But then again, I did pay premium to watch 15 at the SFF) based on what I've seen him do, and what's he's fucked up. If anyone begs to differ, do let me know.

I must specify too that I've NOT watched some of his shorts, namely: 24 Hours (2002/I), Mother (2001), Hock hiap leong (2001) and Sons (1999) basically because I didn't get a chance to do so. Now on with the crtiq.

I did manage to download a copy of his initial short of 15 from Kazaa a few years back. It was one of those interesting pieces that you get to know by word of mouth. I remember that I liked it. Liked it alot and even converted it to VCD to pass around to my friends. Sometimes you find a gem, you just want to share it. So obviously I was ecstatic when I heard they were making an 'extended' version to be screened in its full uncensored glory during the SFF.

Unfortunately, Tan's creativity was severly affected by the prospect of having a load of cash to blow on his extension of 15. I guess it's one of those cases where there's limited or no budget, you tend to be more concise and film what is necessary and relevant as opposed to being able to play around and basically fuck up your plot.

The first film had quite beautiful visuals. Really. The second was just wrong. One expects an extended edition to be something like what we can catch on DVD. Ya know, like the LORD OF THE RINGS EXTENDED EDITION with 45 minutes more footage. Cuts that were left on the floor were like integrated into the show and hence made the film more relevant, e.g. Frodo getting the Evenstar from Arywen. But nope. He had the brilliant idea of.. 'why don't I attach about an hour of totally new film AFTER my initial short film and count it as a full blown 90 minute movie?'

Seriously, I don't know if that's called lazy or was there any actual reason behind the addition. Why not just leave the first '15' as it was? 25 minutes of beautiful film and not horribly disfiguring it with the 'higher-budget' but fucked up poor excuse for a film extension which was 15 (2003).

Maybe Tan has stooped to the level of Jack Neo and has resorted to making poor tasteless films. Perhaps the only redeemable aspect of Jack Neo's film career was Home Run. But even that was a poor remake of an originally brilliant film and the biggest factor was his overexcessive peppering of local issues in it. Unfortunately the poor denizens of Singapore have an almost zero appreciation for real film and embraced his integration of local material in Home Run as brilliant. Well. Fuck them. But I digress. I believe that Tan just suffered from having little or no ideas on how to extend his initial 15. It could have been very well done. Given what we've seen in the first 25 minutes. But an extension was really unecessary. Why not just make a separate film? (Actually I felt that the main reason it didn't work was because it felt really different and the transition was bad between the short and the hour long addition. And also the reason that the second part sucked.)

I'm always one for Dick jokes. I loved the episode in the hilarious british comedy THE UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE where they basically made the entire episode a giant dick joke. Really. It was funny. Tasteless but funny. Somehow, I don't see how relevant the measuring of a dick and well showing a giant dick on a full sized movie screen can be considered film art. I mean. Yeah, that's about as huge as a dick joke can go. But was it necessary? Perhaps it was homage to Fight Club. Perhaps he was just into gay porn. I dunno. But I felt it was wrong. Don't put something into a film just for the sake of being able to do it. What does it show? What does it prove? You're just fucking up your movie. (Case in point, Pikachu in a supposed horror movie which ended up as a comedy) Ya wanna show male bonding, go masturbate on a swimming pool diving board (Yu Tu Ma Ma Thumbien) for god's sake. Disturbing jarring images do not make good film if there is no reason behind it.

I guess the main downfall of Tan's film was the relevance of his images. We've seen people go for piercings on film before. Is it necessary to actually film it in all its gory? If you're using gore to woo people to watch your film, then do it a la Battle Royale. Was the piercing for realism? Go film reality TV instead. Forcing your actors to swallow condoms with pills is a little over-excessive. Sure, you've got the reason of realism. To show what these people are going through. But is it necessary? Can not simulation do the trick? Maybe that's because they're actually not good actors. Hence having to go through the real stuff. Ha.

Finally, his extension suffered too from its lack of direction. Transition from the first 25 minutes to the next 60 minutes was pretty bad. I don't feel for the characters much and I don't feel compelled to feel for them. I didn't even feel a thing when the kid self-mutilated himself. That shows how detaching the last 60 minutes was.

Maybe I'm sounding too superficial by focusing on the visual aspects of the film. But that's recollecting my thoughts after viewing the film last year. It was so forgettable script wise that I can't remember anything except the giant dick and the physical torturing scenes (Was that the point?). If anybody wishes to forward me their write up of what they think of Tan's films and/or post their comments, it'll be great.

Anyway. That was about 15. Realising his 'potential' after '15' (Due to much media hype and publicity), I recall they pulled him in to do some commerical or ad shooting for.. something. Something which involved people dancing around onscreen. It was supposed to be comedic. But really. It was low taste. Now we're treated with the new material he's gonna use for his next shorts. Singapore Idol rejects. One comes to think how good he really is at spotting material and actually playing around it it. His decisions and films really reflect his mentality. In this case, does it show that he's stooped to an all time low? (Was he ever high?) Has fame gone to his head?

Or have his 15 minutes just come to an end?