Toronto-Singapore Film Festival

6 April 2008

It was the TSFF this weekend, over a period of 3 days, from 4 - 6 April, held in downtown Toronto.

Apparently this was also the same weekend that the International Film Fest was launched in Singapore. :)



The organizers are the Singaporeans who hope to bring the local films into this country. Also this the first time I met some Singaporeans in Toronto, either they are the firm directors who flown all the way here for the launch, or they are already settled here. Great to stay connected with fellow locals again... ;)

We went for the Sunday night's session, which featured a video clip and a movie together. The video is 19/20s which is about a pair of siblings, brother and sister living in the world of their own, in isolation from their busy parents. In the buzzy-ness of everything, are we forgetting to realize our dreams...?

Talking about dreams, this led on to the next movie called "Singapore Dreaming". Easy to guess, it's all about the material dreams of a typical middle-class family in the small little country. Every single part o the movie depicts the local life and live, work..boss..family..friends..shopping..restaurants..sun..aircon..neighbourhoods..flats..condo..Singlish..dialects..certificates..marriage..money..MRT..crowds...and so much more... It's a lot of irony, but yet so much truth and harsh reality in it...ouch! >.<

As I was watching the movie, it seems like I was watching at things from a 3rd party's point of view, peeping into the life of these people in the country, like watching a rewind version of my life in the past few years...

The movie involve a middle-class family: chauvinistic father, housewife mother, married pregnant daughter, son-in-law just quit from army sign-on, graduated son from USA, son's longtime girlfriend, all staying together.

• The issue of $$$ is blatantly slammed into your face. Need to get car lah, condo lah, credit cards lah, all need $$$ to get all these material wants!
• The issue of 'face'. After getting all these car lah, condo lah, good job lah, university graduation, then you will have the 'face' to show off to other people! More 'face' if you got some ang-mo USA degree, even though it's some disguished university-wannabe.
• Traditional Chinese values/culture is still deeply embedded in the society. Male 'chauvinistism' is still in existence, especially in older generation, also the preference over son than daughter is also pretty visible in the movie.
• Social issues like maid mistreat, peeing in lifts, and China chicks roaming in coffee shops also got the highlight in the movie.
• On the issue of languages and dialects, the husband can't even speak proper Mandarin when he was approached by this China chick. Also, the wife declared that she would not want her children to learn dialects, too low-class it seems. On the other hand, the mother only speak Teochew, don't even understand Singlish.
• Though the movie is almost 90% English (to be correct, should be Singlish), subtitle was given in English. Acronyms are explained, and rephrased. Example: HDB becomes 'public housing'.
• The husband used to play in a band, but he has to give up his dream and become more thick-skinned to sell insurance. The China girl has her dream to become a fashion designer. Given the practicality of the environment, people live for the purpose of other people, and do things they don't want to and don't enjoy.
• That Chinese girl says to the husband, "You're giving up something you like, to do something that you don't like; but I am doing something that I don't like in order to do something I like." What a contrast!
• The girlfriend lends $$$ to the son to study overseas, she also waiting long time for the son to return to marry her. Is this love? Dumb woman! Waste of time! Waste of money!
• The father died after winning the Toto, sigh...got so much money also no use, still also cannot enjoy at all. And leaving the children to fight for their share of the heritage...
• Can see how much stress there is in the society. Pressure to get a job after you graduated from the 'apparently-famous' overseas university, pressure from girlfriend to get married, pressure from wife to earn enough to feed the baby, pressure at job to handle dummy boss... What a pressure cooker!

Spoke to some of the directors who attended the event. They are all young people, doing films in their free time, as their hobby. Admired them for their passion, fascinated with their hobby, and appreciate their effort to make such great shows!

Looking forward to more filmfest in Autumn... :D