9 Nyawa - 9 Lives

9 Nyawa (9 Lives) (2016), written by Christopher Yeo, is a Mediacorp Suria TV police and crime drama series. Chris is also the writer and director of "A Land Imagined" (2018) that won the Lugano International Film Festival's prestigious Golden Leopard Award. 

You can watch 9 Nyawa for FREE, here .

I played the factory supervisor of a glue factory, incidentally also called "Mr Chua". 

There was supposed to be a stunt double for the dunking and drowning of Mr Chua, but he turned out to be a lot shorter and smaller build than I am, so it did not work. As the show had to go on, I did the stunt myself.

This is what appeared in the final cut:

This (below) is the behind-the-scene shot. It wasn't as difficult as it looks, as there is a method to the struggle. The difficult part was when I had to remain totally motionless in the water while playing dead. Then, the water rushed into the nose along with the piercing and stinging pain. It probably only lasted for about 15 seconds, but it felt a lot longer. Such a relief when I heard 'cut'.

We did about 3 takes and it was done. We got it. It actually felt quite relaxing after that, just like how it feels after a good swim.

 

To check out the Malay shows I have been in (including this post), click here 

The Nasty Bits

Here are some nasty bits they asked me to do on set... This one plays the beggar at a urine stinking corner in Chinatown. It is a pity that cameras cannot capture smell.

This one is for a scene in Jack Neo's "We Not Naughty". The most painful part was not having to be sprayed upon, but rather the need to over-act.

This one is for Suria TV's "Nine Lives" drama, coming soon to a TV near you.

It is not as difficult as it looks. You just have to get used to seeing the world upside down and going underwater for a few seconds at a time, blowing out bubbles from your nose. The hardest part was to play dead at the end - motionless enduring the discomfort of the water flowing into my nose.

They planned to have a stunt man for me, but he was too small and it was hard to disguise and match. So I did it myself - (thankfully) in one-take. More about "Nine Lives" in another post.

Hired & Fired, episode 2

With Wendy Toh 

Watch me as I morph into a nasty boss in:

"Hired & Fired"

Monday 18th November 2013, 10pm

Mediacorp Channel 5

This is a docu-drama series that portrays the malpractices that occur in the workplace. This episode educates viewers about the prejudice against pregnant women and the reluctance of companies to incur the overheads of maternity leave and benefits.

The office scene was at Golden Mile Shopping Centre, some called "Little Bangkok" (of Singapore) with delicious Thai curry and retail shops. We chanced upon a friendly garment shop next door that was kind enough to lend us some extra clothes as costumes for the actresses. Thank you so much.

Stop Press:
After the broadcast of episode 1, Mediacorp has decided to take the series off-air.

 

In Cold Blood Season 3 Episode 8

Mediacorp Channel 5 

10 pm, 7th October 2013.

 

In this episode, someone is going to die during the familiar HDB Residents' party. It is based on a true story, so watch it and see if you can figure out Whodunnit!!!!  

The plot unravels the surprising intensity inside the petty minds of some volunteers and RC members that leads to the tragedy; ironically amid their quest to serve and better the community.

This is one of the most enjoyable shoots I have done to date, with lots of laughter and twisted humour, particularly from our star, Henry Heng. :)  The happy chatters persisted via WhatsApp beyond the end of the shoot at 11pm... until I had to switch off the phone at midnight to catch up with some sleep.

For those who have missed the programme on TV, here it is:

Mediacorp TV Drama Mata Mata Ep 2, Behind the Scenes

Singaporeans call their policemen "mata mata" ('eyes' in Malay) and this TV series specifically depicts the formation of the first Singapore Woman Constabulary in the 1950. It was a time when 'the police wear shorts', as we call it, and this phrase now used to express that one shouldn't romanticize about the past too much and live life by the practice of today.

I acted in episode 2 as Officer William and trainer of the women mata mata. I allowed my voice to hit the high decibels too much, forgetting that I was on set, and unlike real life had to repeat the same commands and yells many times. So, just before my voice cracked, I paced myself not shout my lungs out too much.

Singapore is a linguistic oddity. The marching commands are in Malay, the National language, and the dialogues are in English. If it were in real life during those days, the Chinese girls would likely be speaking to each other in a cocktail of dialects like Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew...etc. But that will be too confusing for many today I think.

Here is the official TV trailer:




And here is a short clip I captured secretly on my phone.

It was a fun production. There were quite a bit of improvised dialogue for my role, much of which was of Officer William's motivational speeches or announcements to the trainees. Off-reel, the action didn't stop as these young  actors have too much  spare  energy and needed release... You will see what I mean...

On my last day of shoot, the assistant director handed me a small gift left by one of the mata mata girls. It was two bars of chocolate and a note, saying that she recognised me from "Hentak Kaki", as Warrant Officer Lee Teck Hong and that she was delighted to work with me.  What a pleasant surprise!!!

Thank you so much! You made my day! :)

Do support Episode 2. Watch it on Mediacorp Channel 5, at 8pm tonight (Monday, 12th August 2013). At the time of writing, I haven't watch it myself.

To help you catch up, this is episode 1:

For those of you who have missed it yesterday, here is episode 2...

Crimewatch 2013 Ep04 Part 1 - Online Sex

Acted in this episode last month as the father of a boy who got tricked into showing his willy  to a crafty girl online and subsequently blackmailed. This is a reminder to the mischievous, adventurous and gullible.  Amid the lifestyle intensified by the Internet and smartphones, a little titillation and side track can lead one down the slippery slope of moral decay played out in accelerated time. It is amazing how our procreational instincts can often land us in deep waters. :)

Production was swift, executed chop-chop with the Mediacorp crew at a beautiful penthouse, conveniently near my home.. I think both the lead actors delivered their roles very convincingly. Applause!

Tamil TV Comedy 2

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Finally, I managed to get hold of the video and edit my gangster scenes together. This was my first time acting in a comedy, and a Tamil comedy at that, so I was searching for my style - one that is hopefully  exaggerated aesthetically.

For more about the series, click here.

For my other acts in Hokkien, click here.

... for acts in Mandarin, click here,

... for acts in Japanese, click here.

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Tamil TV Comedy

This is not a "Good Food Guide" programme with Vasantham star and funny man Vadi Pvss, but a photo taken during the production of "Thiru Valluvan - Season 2". "Thiru Valluvan" is a Mediacorp Vasantham (Tamil) Channel 15-episode Comedy Series, produced by Silverscreen International and directed by Sivakumar, about a central character of the same name. The story in the second season revolves around the mystery of a murder that happened in a condominium.

I acted as one of the condo dwellers who operates a covert loan shark business on the side, out of his wheeler-dealer instincts and greed for the rapidly multiplying profits; supposedly also due to the bad influence of a friend (or so he claims). My dialogues are in English with a smattering of Hokkien and Mandarin, to reflect the multi-racial environment. So you get lines like:

"Your Tamil and English campur ("mix" in Malay) like chap-chai ("mixed vegetables" in Hokkien),... I don't understand anything..."

Acting in comedy is fun. It is a lot like bantering with old friends and capturing them on camera as evidence! Some of the jokes actually came right out of our playful improvisation in between takes. 

I had to remember the dialogue cues (in Tamil) that triggers my dialogue. It was a bit of a challenge at times, as I had to express myself without fully understanding the nuances of what was said. It got easier later on as I learned to respond according to the whole performance of the co-actor.

The cast and crew is a closely knitted bunch and it  feels like family in an outing on set.  Lunches were packs of delicious curries with a mountain of rice. Yes, "mountain of rice" - such is the quantity typically found in Indian food take-away. I feel very happy after every shoot. It was pleasurable and definitely didn't feel like work.

The TV series is expected to be broadcasted sometime around the coming Deepavali.

For my other acts in Hokkien, click here.

... for acts in Mandarin, click here,

... for acts in Japanese, click here.

Crimewatch 2011 Episode 6

Crimewatch (since 1986), produced by:
National Crime Prevention Council, Singapore and Singapore Police Force.
Original Broadcast Channel: Mediacorp TV

This episode was shot last summer.


In this scene, I was coached by the director Joey Cheung, to blow my top and be fuming mad about the club premises being broken in for 3 times in a month. Sporting that formidable beard helped in looking angrier than the character actually was. The beard was a remnant from a feature film character (in "Back Alley Bulls") where I played the role of a big time gangster.  It was not a requirement for this club manager role. :)


This angry scene was there  to allow the investigating officers to exercise restrain and the opportunity to demonstrate to the audience, their patience in dealing with the difficult members of the public they meet sometimes. The two investigating officers in the scene are real police officers and were surprisingly soft spoken. Actually too soft spoken for the sound man to pick up their dialogues! :) I don't know if that is their normal pitch in an actual crime scene or was it that they were new with acting in front of a camera and crew. :) Anyway, we had to repeat the take a few times. It was ok, they are police officers, not actors, and one of them is on air only for the first time.

The story is about a real life single-mum, Ng Bee Hong, who was given a job at the club as a cashier but was tempted to steal the money, foolishly thinking that there will not be enough audit trails to nail her down quickly. What was more silly was that she even took her daughter to commit the crime together. The story ended with the police cornering and arresting them in their apartment  in the presence of her lived in boyfriend, who was also living off the finances of the wrong-doing Bee Hong.  Bee Hong was sentenced to 26 months jail, the boy friend to 3 months jail and the little girl let off without a charge given the circumstances.

This  real life story is one of the cases that the two investigating officers (that you see in the video) handled. Kudos to them. By the way, investigating officers lead very busy lives. I know that through my time teaching them in the Advanced Diploma in Police Studies at Temasek Polytechnic some years ago. 


So the next time you have to meet an investigating officer in a scene, be nice to them, don't blow your top like how Mr Wong did!

Let us know if you are a film producer, director, actor,... or just someone interested in films,... in the survey, so it will help us to post articles of more pertinent issues.

The Pupil Season 2 - Episode 10

The Pupil, by Film Formations
Executive Producer: Lee Thean-Jeen
Original Broadcast Channel: Mediacorp Singapore Channel 5

I enjoyed watching Season 1 of the Pupil so much that I ended up playing a part in Episode 10 of Season 2, as the taxi driver key witness, sometime July 2011. So be careful with what you think, for they will come true.

During the shoot, I was overworked and down with a mild flu, and so was struggling to remember my lines. At those very critical moments, all I really wanted was just to close my eyes and sleep, but no, the show must go on. It is very important to be reliable and committed as an actor to perform, in sickness or in health. That said, I see one too many young upstarts foolishly giving that away, pulling out of shoots just a day before, or even not turning up at all!

In the story, Mr Chua's part was to blurt out the tell-tale signs of homicide he witnessed while ferrying  Regina Toh (played by Mindee Ong) in his taxi, back to her apartment after she had killed the flamboyant stud and blackmail artist Wayne (played by Benny Soh). The hearing was cross-examined by the defence lawyer Wendy (played by Rebecca Lim) and  SPP Vivienne Lau (played by Vernetta Lopez).

The courtroom was a mock-up of freshly lacquered plywood props, as the real old Supreme Court was going through renovations. I can sympathise with the cast and crew for having to work in the closed circulation of intoxicating lacquer for such prolonged hours. Also, a few times during my takes, the fake window frames fell off. But those were no show stoppers - just some inadvertent comic reliefs! 

I have not updated this blog for the last four weeks because I was busy on set and also was looking for a video editing tool to cut out clips to be uploaded here. So, here it is.


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A Busy Week

I have been on a back-to-back acting schedule for three NYU Tisch films and a Mediacorp TV programme and so have not posted fresh articles in the last week. It has been a satisfying experience, but one that was exhausting. Below is a sneak preview of what I have been working on...

With an insane wife that locks herself in the bathroom and refuses to come out, the mundane trip for groceries becomes an escape from the daily torments at home, for the lead character "Liang".

This short film is called, "Alone/Together", directed by Abigail Prade. It is about the struggles of a husband with his depressive spouse who locks herself in the bathroom for two-and-a-half years!

Confronting the daughter for purportedly speaking to imaginary characters in the night.

This short film is called "Yishun" (working title), directed by Philip Liao. It is  a suspense story of a man trailing an attractive young lady from the train to her apartment that ends with unexpected results.

An otherwise happy family during Reunion Dinner, before tragedy struck

This is a Mediacorp TV production called, "UnNatural", directed by Joey Chan. It is about a tragedy of a family when they moved into their new apartment.

This is not an aftermath of the wrap party!

It is an act and part of the production for a Peranakan sci-fi film called "Ersatz Aria", directed by Elizabeth Lyon.

More about these productions later. Meanwhile, I have to catch up with some sleep as call time is early tomorrow! It is Good Friday, but the show must go on!