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2005
Two gay men and a maybe source: The Standard (Hong Kong), 15-16 Jan 2005, by Ann Collier
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Uptight Singapore is letting its hair down, at least on screen.
A government notorious for its conservatism is co-financing a film that deals with a lingering taboo in Singaporean culture - homosexuality. The movie, set for release in Hong Kong next Thursday, is the first joint venture between Singapore's budding film industry and a Hong Kong company backed by Jackie Chan, and features Hong Kong star Sylvia Chang. The film, Rice Rhapsody, amusingly spotlights a traditional Chinese mother's tribulations in coping with the fact that two of her three sons are gay and her uncertainty about which way the third will go. Although it may sound like another hackneyed account of homosexuality and family discord, what is unique is that it is about Singaporeans and filmed in Singapore. "Singapore is not often represented in Asian films," says Hong Kong co-producer and scriptwriter Kenneth Bi. "To show life in the middle classes as it is, well we've never seen this. This is a first." The film explores the clash taking place in Singapore between traditional Asian culture and Western influences. As the city has prospered, many young Singaporeans are abandoning their parents' Confucian appreciation for social order and harmony, and adopting more Western individualism, says Bi. "Singapore is the only place in Southeast Asia that is a true halfway point between Western and traditional Asian culture," he adds. According to Singaporean gay activist Alex Au, the film's portrayal of gay life in Singapore rings true. "There is quite a bit of shoulder shrugging and 'so what' [attitude] about homosexuality these days," he says. The story is told through the eyes of Jen, played by Chang. With her two eldest sons Daniel and Harry already gay, Jen's family aspirations lie with the unknown quantity that is Leo. The plot thickens when an attractive French exchange student comes to live with the family and Jen tries to propel Leo into falling in love with her. Rice Rhapsody is riding the wave of a revival in Singaporean filmmaking that began a decade and a half ago. In the 1950s and 1960s, the city-state's film industry flourished while Cathay Organization churned out hundreds of successful films, mostly written in Malay, from its Singapore studios. But by the 1970s the industry had stagnated, eclipsed by competition from Hong Kong and Taiwanese Chinese-language films. Singapore did not produce a single movie for almost 20 years. In the late 1980s, however, a few determined artists sparked a filmmaking resurgence. The Singapore Film Festival began in 1988, but it was only in 1998 that the government spawned the Singapore Film Commission (SFC) to provide funding and production support for the nascent industry. Now, up to five films are produced every year, says Duncan Jepson, founder of Ground Glass Images, the Singaporean company that co-produced the film along with Bi's Kenbiroli Films. Bi founded his company in 2000 with his wife Rosa Li, an executive producer of Rice Rhapsody. It is the first international film to receive funding from the government-controlled SFC. Although there were some "discussions" about the its theme, the US$1 million budget (HK$7.8 million), celebrity cast and internationally acclaimed production team motivated the government to invest, says Jepson. The film is also backed by JCE Movies, Jackie Chan's Hong Kong-based production company. "Rice Rhapsody exemplifies the type of international feature film projects that the SFC looks to support ... in terms of artistic merit and commercial potential," SFC director Seto Lok Yin says. "I think for a film produced in Singapore to tell this story is a useful breakthrough," insists Au, who was surprised at the government's decision to fund it. "There is a definite intention to try to build some kind of film industry in Singapore, so perhaps the SFC is a bit more flexible about what they fund, based on their economic interests," he adds. But, according to Jepson, there is nothing new about filmmakers exploring the city's social tensions. "In a place like Singapore, where there are a lot of rules and regulations about social behavior, these issues have been tackled before in movies, books and debates." Blockbusters Bugis Street (1994) and Mee Pok Man (1995) respectively exposed the city's transsexual lifestyle and prostitution. Last year, however, the government censorship bureau stopped the screening of Royston Tan's film, 15, about a day in the lives of five 15-year-old delinquents. Ironically, 15 was funded by the SFC. Bi literally plucked Rice Rhapsody's three young male actors (Tan Lepham, Craig Toh and Alvin Chiang) off the streets of Singapore, one from atop his skateboard. The youngsters quickly bonded with seasoned film star Chang, particularly while they spent a week filming at a Hainan rice restaurant. Visually, the film is delightful, juxtaposing images of modernity with traditional Singaporean life. It flits between the glittering downtown skyscrapers, thumping nightclubs and the back alleys of Chinatown, and captures beauty in the most mundane objects, be it raw chicken in a restaurant kitchen or a neighborhood mahjong set. The film's central setting, Bi says, is Jen's dinner table where the boys congregate each evening to indulge in her Hainanese chicken rice. The film's website cleverly uses an Oscar Wilde quip: "After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one's own relatives." Rice Rhapsody is due to be released in Singapore on January 27. "At the end of the day, the film commission saw that this was a project worthy of a good bit of discussion," says Jepson. "There is a large gay community in Singapore. Rice Rhapsody does not make its point in a brash and boldface way. And it doesn't really question or look at the politics at all." The irony is that homosexual acts remain a criminal offence in Singapore, punishable by imprisonment. "This government is very unused to social controversies. Sometimes they relax policies and sometimes they clamp down. It's very hard to read what their intention
is," says Au.
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