Slangs, Lingo and Colloquialism

Recently, I sent a letter to the Straits Times Life, about the use of standard English in films. The letter, edited for brevity, is published as follows:

As in most articles edited for brevity, some interesting details are lost. So, here you are... the original letter:

Dear Sir/Madam

I refer to the letter by Mr Yeoh Teng Kwong, of the above-mentioned reference.

I agree with Mr John Lui about promoting local music and films. I also agree with Mr Yeoh about producing art with universal appeal and standard English to reach a wider audience.

I know this because I have acted in the lead role of two short films that have gone viral on the Internet.

The first one "Hentak Kaki", about an army Warrant Officer hitting his glass ceiling due to his knee injury, was scripted in a typical Singapore Armed Forces lingo. It speaks to all male Singaporeans instantly and went viral as they can identify deeply with every word spoken. It has a combined online hit rate about 200,000 hits. This is a good score considering that local  full feature film trailers with a significant marketing budget barely hit 50,000 hits. However, I suspect that because of the very localised lingo, the film did not travel much beyond Malaysia and Singapore, even though the film expresses issues that are common in any army in the world.

The other short film that has gone viral is "Gift", which is a story about a misunderstood father and his disgruntled son. This film has a combined online hit rate of about 5 million hits and counting. Besides South East Asia, USA and Europe, the film has gone viral in far away and exotic places like Brazil, Ukraine, Russia, Croatia,...etc. Moreover, we are also getting a spontaneous response from audience from all over the world volunteering to translate the subtitles into their native languages as they want to make the film more accessible to a yet wider audience. Incidentally, the film uses standard English. :)

"Gift" is so successful that I am now getting calls to give talks in schools, to act in foreign feature films and from investors who want to produce feature films of a similar story line between a father and his son.

Below are the links to the two films, so that you can experience them for yourself.

"Hentak Kaki"
http://youtu.be/TukUlXU6P84

"Gift"
http://youtu.be/1DUYlHZsZfc

Further, another short film worth studying would be "Detour", which I acted in and had won a handsome swoop of four categories for the Best Director, Best Script, Best Performance and Best Fiction awards at the recent 5th Singapore Short Film Awards 2014. The film uses Hokkien, with one or two English words. The full film is not online yet as it is making its rounds in the film festival circuits, but a trailer is available at:

http://youtu.be/XvgMSX5XH90

I think films with universal values travel, but films with mainstream languages travel further. Let's see. The jury is still out there.

Michael Chua

Comchest : Gift

With Jon and Daniel.

This is one of my favourite short films. It is produced by The Creative Room, directed by Daniel Yam, for the Singapore Community Chest (Comchest). Comchest initially wanted a corporate video style of presentation, but Daniel sold them  this compelling short story instead.

During the audition, Daniel asked for a monologue with my (imaginary) son going through his growing pains, his delinquency and consequential jail sentence. Next, Daniel asked for the contrary, that I celebrate this (imaginary) son's jail term and urge him to make the most out it - to test how far my emotions can stretch and my ability to take directions. 

The script was one of the more challenging ones as it required  me to be in a cheerful disposition, but with an underlying sadness that culminated into sheer dispondence. This, when he realised that he will miss out seeing his son again in his final moments.  I guess there may be many people that too live through such situations, given that it is common for one to leave their hometown for cities to etch out a career. So this is some food for thought. I can relate to some of that personally. In addition, I also learn that I ought to smile more in my own life off-reel, as it does make life feel a lot happier.

This was the first time that I have acted as a clown. It was energy sapping to deliver extreme expressions continuously to entertain. A clown cannot let his guard down for even one moment, as all eyes are constantly on him to deliver the comic. 

And so I wonder, "Can a clown be truly happy inside?"

Though I was exhausted and stretched by the broad range of emotions in this production, I really enjoy and treasure the experience. I am satisfied with the result as it tells a story that both entertain and inspire.

Post scriptum:

The scenes at the old folks home and children's home reminded me of my student days in the Polytechnic. Then, we visited and served the homes every weekend. It was also the time when I performed sobbing stories on stage to encourage freshmen to become volunteers to serve the underprivileged. Those were truly happy days. Happy, because we gave.