Film about homosexuality may not be screened at Siff 
By Jeanine Tan

Singapore director Kan Lume wants to "fire up" audiences with his new film, which may not be too difficult considering its theme.

Solos is scheduled to premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival (Siff), which kicks off on April 18.

While Solos is in the running for the Silver Screen Awards at Siff, it remains to be seen whether it will even be screened.

The film is still with the Board of Film Censors for classification. Siff has a policy of not screening films that have been censored.

Solos' producer Florence Ang said that even if the film has to be withdrawn from Siff, it will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Made on a budget of $200,000, the film explores the fading relationship between Man (Lim Yu-beng) and his lover Boy (co-director Loo Zihan).

Meanwhile, Boy's mother (Goh Guat Kian) struggles with the fact that her son has abandoned her to be with a man.

Kan told TODAY after the Siff press conference on Tuesday "I wanted to make a film that fires up the audience. A lot of times, local films are received very coolly.

"The film is neither for nor against homosexuality. It's really a story with many controversies."

The poster for the film seems to have been designed to raise eyebrows. It pictures Lim and Loo, each nude and lying on his side, facing away from each other.

Kan, however, was quick to defend the more controversial elements of the movie.

"There are a few sex scenes but they are not there to be sensational. People who go in to be titillated will be disappointed," he said.

 
Singapore is trying to develop a film industry. Kan and Loo are very talented young film-makers and Lim Yu-Beng needs no introduction (at least not to Singaporeans) as a highly-regarded actor. But once again, the Media Development Authority (MDA) is doing all it can to NOT develop our media industry.

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Bill and Joe

In the middle of March, I received an email from a reader. He informed me that in the current series of Amazing Race – All Stars is a gay couple. Bill and Joe are described by CBS as "life partners" on the Amazing Race website. The reader wrote, " [they] are often effusive of their love for each other" and "kiss each other quite often".

He suggested I take a look at direct satellite broadcast, shown at 8 am on Monday mornings, Singapore time.

"Then try watching the repeat telecasts [at around 8 pm the same evening] and spot the difference," he added.

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The same week, I saw a posting on the SiGNeL email forum, describing what happened on a Taiwanese game show, shown over one of Mediacorp's Chinese-language channels:

Not sure if anyone else watched this Taiwanese variety programme by the name of 'Gai4 Ku4 Bing1 Tuan3' (which I loosely translate as 'The Cool Troopers'). It is broadcasted on Channel U every Monday evening at 8 p.m.

For this Monday's episode, there was a game segment where one of the celebrity-participant (by the name of Peizhen) was blindfolded, and another person was selected to perform a 'safe kiss' on her, i.e. to kiss her with a divider (made of transparent cling-wrap-like material) held up between their lips.

Next, Peizhen had to guess who was the real 'kisser'. If she guessed correctly, she would win a cash prize. If she guessed wrongly, she would be punished - all the other celebrities on the show would get to whack her with foam batons.

The 'kisser' was actually one of the two male hosts (Qu Zhongheng). He planted a soft, tender kiss on the celebrity-participant, which was shown in its entirety.

Peizhen was dubbed into thinking that the real 'kisser' was a woman, and picked a fellow female celebrity (can't remember her name) as her answer.

To allow Peizhen the chance for a final confirmation, the kissing act was re-enacted by that female celebrity whom she picked as the kisser. However, after Peizhen closed her eyes and the other female celebrity held up the divider and leaned in, the rest of the 'safe kiss' was censored! The next scene shows the two of them standing apart and laughing away.

It is very clear from the onset that this whole segment was a game, in the name of jest and fun, and there was the use of a divider, so there was definitely no lips-to-lips contact between Peizhen and the other female celebrity. This being the case, I seriously wonder why there was a need for censorship of that 'safe kiss' act.

 
Such censorship comes across as absurd, almost hysterical. It takes no account of narrative, context or humour, treating the kiss as some sort of infectious agent that must be excised lest a pestilence spread over the country.

This kind of cut is done by the broadcaster, not by MDA, but it's done in response to the Authority's Free-to-air Television Code. Part 5.2 says,

5.2 Information, themes or subplots on lifestyles such as homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexualism, transsexualism, transvestism, paedophilia and incest should be treated with utmost caution. Their treatment should not in any way promote, justify or glamorise such lifestyles. Explicit depictions of the above should not be broadcast.

 
Reading it, I wondered: since a kiss between 2 women is considered an explicit depiction of "lesbianism" and must be cut, so by the same token, shouldn't Mediacorp be reminded to cut all scenes where a parent kisses a child? That would be an explicit depiction of incest -- another banned category as per the same clause. I mean, if you're going to be hysterical, why not go all the way?

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The cast of Without a Trace

Interestingly, on Thursday, 15 March 2007, Channel 5 did air a kiss between two women. It was towards the end of an episode of Without a Trace. One woman went missing and an FBI team in New York had to piece together her life in order to find her. Turned out she was agoraphobic but still forced herself to leave her apartment to take a birthday gift to her lover's father -- because her lover was estranged from her father and couldn't do so herself. Anyway, by the end of the story, the missing woman was found, the father and lover both showed up and there were hugs and kisses all around. The father was totally accepting of his daughter's sexual orientation, and the lovers were reunited. Kiss, kiss.

Did Channel 5 slip up and failed to make the usual excision? Or did the broadcaster think that since this show was aired close to midnight, they could escape via another clause in the MDA's code.

3.2 All programmes broadcast between 6am and 10pm must be suitable for family audiences. The transition from family-oriented to more adult programming after the watershed time of 10pm should also be executed gradually.

 
I bring this to the public's attention to throw the gauntlet down to the MDA. You either swoop down and fine Mediacorp for breaching your clause 5.2 and make yourself look like some crazy-eyed banshee, or you accept that same-sex kissing is acceptable after 10 pm, thus establishing a precedent. You cannot pretend you didn't know about this incident after I have written about it.

(I have reason to believe that the MDA monitors Yawning Bread regularly. Anyway, I am going to email them pointing to this article.)

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11.2 Films and music videos disallowed under the Films Act should generally not be broadcast. However, if suitable edits can be made, such content may be deemed passable for broadcast. Songs disallowed or otherwise prohibited under the applicable laws and regulations in Singapore must not be aired. Music associated with drugs, alternative lifestyles (e.g. homosexuality) or the worship of the occult or the devil should not be broadcast.

(emphases inserted by me)

 
If ever Mediacorp should air a Pet Shop Boys retrospective... well they can't or they would be fined.

Neil Tennant is completely out and Chris Lowe is believed to be gay too. Homosexual references can be read between the lines in many of their songs. Their 1993 chart-topper remake of the Village People's Go West was treated by gay communities as a gay anthem. Its lyrics refer to migration and escape to another land where they -– and who "they" are is implied -- would be free.

(Together) We will start life new 
(Together) This is what we'll do

(Go West) Life is peaceful there 
(Go West) In the open air 
(Go West) Where the skies are blue

The Pet Shop Boys themselves never made explicit references to homosexuality in Go West. In fact, in their video, the graphics tend to use Soviet icons. The brotherhood of man, perhaps? (Though you'd also notice that all the figures in the video are male). But given that a gay strand runs through their total oeuvre, not forgetting that the Village People (from where Go West came) were also gay icons, you'd need to be deaf and blind not to see the subtext.

And sure enough, we have the deaf and blind, with decision-makers completely unaware of Go West's reputation. One of the laughable results of the ignorance produced by censorship was how, at one National Day parade in the 1990s, the police band played it as a crowd warmer just prior to the arrival of the President. The gay anthem played just before the national anthem.

Pity the TV rules didn't apply to National Day parades, so the MDA wouldn't be able to fine the organising committee. Now that would be really hilarious.

© Yawning Bread