SG Complains

Singapore film by Royston Tan to be screened in Japan

According to Channelnewsasia:

SINGAPORE: A Singapore movie about singers performing for the dead has attracted widespread interest overseas.

“881″ has been pre-sold to distributors in Japan even before film production officially wraps.

The S$1 million (US$1.5 million) movie is the first musical by award-winning director, Royston Tan.

More than just a song and dance, the movie “881″ looks at a popular sub-culture in Singapore, the “getai” or “song stage”, and the people behind the business of entertaining the dead who are believed to roam the earth during the seventh lunar month.

“I spent 22 days making this film. And considering that it’s a musical with many, many people…the kind of logistic nightmare is really scary. Also I only spent two weeks writing the script. It’s the fastest I’ve ever written in my life,” says Tan.

But Royston Tan, who is known in some circles as the bad boy of Singapore cinema and has been in the limelight for his previous, more controversial films, maintains that his latest project is not a break from his original style.

“I’m still bad. I’m just maintaining it not to be too bad,” he says.

The musical contains a mixture of Chinese dialects and Mandarin, and features original dialect songs straight from the “getai”.

It took a special arrangement between the film and music directors to put everything together.

Says Eric Ng, Music Director, “881″, “Usually we do movies, we see the visuals, then we put the music in. But this was the other way round.

“He would then describe to me every scene in graphic detail. Like he would dance in front of me and he would do all kinds of funny things in front of me and then, “Ok this is what it’s going to be.”

“Then I started using my own imagination and did a first draft of music. After that I gave it to him and he used it to film the whole movie. So it was a reverse process where the music moved the movie.”

This is the second Singapore movie to be released in Japan.

The first was “Forever Fever”, which was released about 10 years ago.

Judging by the poster and the movie’s promotional materials, “881″ looks set to be a colourful musical journey for audiences both young and old.

“881″ is jointly produced by Zhao Wei Films, Media Development Authority, Scorpio East Pictures, Infinite Frameworks and MediaCorp Raintree Pictures.

It will be shown in Singapore theatres on National Day, and in cinemas in Japan next year.

- It’s always great to see local talent finding some success overseas! Let’s support this movie ALL THE WAY! ^_^