Hearing Voices

While cleaning up my phone memory, I found some interesting voice-over (VO) audition samples that I had recorded on my phone, over the years.  They are in English, Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew.

Audition Track 1 (for a short film):

"A long time ago, we used to live in a simple house. Back then, it was just me and my papa. We did not have much money but at least we had each other.

When the 1985 recession hit, papa's hardware business was severely affected. However, I knew that he loved me very much.

But we all know that happiness is always temporary one..."

In English with Singapore Accent

A bit changed.

In English With Hokkien Accent


Audition Track 2 (for a documentary, I think):

为了推翻满清，华侨慷慨解囊相助，甚至义无反顾，投身革命事业。我绝对不会辜负你们的一番心意.我相信 这次起义，必能成功！

Roughly, it means: In order to overthrow the Manchus, the overseas Chinese have generously helped each other and are committed to the objective of the revolution. I will never disappoint you.  I believe that this uprising will succeed!

In Hokkien

In Teochew

In Cantonese  

This one for "Forget Us Not" - a support group for people with dementia and their caretakers



This one for the National Problem Gambling Council Ad in 2012





For other VO posts in this blog, click here.

Dinner - An Honour Singapore Short Film

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This is an Honour Singapore Short Film called "Dinner" (2015), dedicated to all working fathers, particularly those who have difficulties expressing their love for their children. 

Honour Singapore is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting a culture of Honour and Honouring. For more about the organisation, click here.

To watch the film, CLICK HERE.

2015 was a traumatic year for me, as an excruciating pain that started from my spine, persisted and took over my body. I was living through electrifying pains every single moment without a break! Despite that, I tried to live as normally as I could, enduring every second that passed by slowly.  Not wanting to miss out on life and acting, I continued to go for shoots, rehearsals and auditions, keeping quiet about my ordeal from those around me. For more about my trauma and how I overcame my chronic pain,  click here.

I had to drag myself to go for the audition of this film. I remember I had two other auditions that day and this was the last in the evening. I was exhausted just enduring the pain through the day. Ironically, the director. Saraniyah Saranavan, then a final year student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Film Sound and Video Course told me later that the moment she saw me entering the audition room, she thought, "This is exactly the father character I need! He looked so tired!" lol

I am impressed that Saraniyah, an ethnic Singaporean Indian, directed the film in Mandarin, as I know of some directors  that would only direct films in their language of proficiency. In some ways, that made her focus more on how the actors deliver the emotions.

Generally the production went smoothly, apart from a supporting actor pulling out, or rather, failing to turn up. That meant that I had to work with a hastily installed actor plucked out from the crew, who was unfamiliar with acting, whom I had not  rehearsed with, whom had no time to learn his lines and whom had some difficulty getting into character (and understandably so). The rude shock is that the absentee actor is supposed to be a friend, or at least I thought he was! Clearly, he was not honoring his commitment! Honour! Honour! Where is the honour!

I have worked with Evalee on several other productions. One of them had her acting in a TV episode of a plastic surgery gone wrong, and the other, of her being a victim of a school bully. lol

I think she did well playing the rebellious daughter, particularly those awkward and subtle reconciliatory moments at the dinner table. Eventually, love finds each other.

Overall, I enjoyed the production. I even learned to cook from a professional chef, whom happened to be the director's father! :)

For other short films pertaining to 'dinner', click here.

Stray Roads

This is a Temasek 20/20 Project, written and directed by Royce Tan.

It is about old taxi drivers losing clients and going out of business with the presence of private hire cars competiting for passengers.

Technology is becoming ubiquitous and a disruption to traditional businesses. This is a reality that is already happening and will persist.

In the taxi business, even the private hire model like Uber, will be overtaken by the use of automatic driverless cars. Prototypes are already there and statistically, they are safer than human driven cars. 

Many other professions will also be disrupted by technologies, for instance:

• Artificial intelligence software can diagnose cancer at 90% certainty compared to a human oncologist achieving only 50% certainty.
• Real time credit ratings will tear current banking processes apart.
• Genetic engineering

Information security will be a big issue. See Augmented Risks.

Here is the behind-the-scenes:



So where do we go from here? Today's young people will be tomorrow's 'old people'. How will they cope with yet newer technologies coming into their lives? Or will even the meaning of 'old people' be redefined?

For more short stories about how old dogs must learn new tricks to move on to new jobs, watch:

- Hentak Kaki

- Unemployed PMET Achieves

And another vision of the future... year 2022:

- PRISM

Reminiscence 忆 "yi"

"Reminiscence", directed by Lee Dong Sheng, a Puttnam School of Film, Lasalle College of Arts production.

Story about: 

A father and his autistic son's closure to a family tragedy that happened during his childhood. 

An autistic child's behaviour may appear odd from common perspectives, but beneath that awkward exterior lies the same truthfulness and love - like anyone of us.

In the last three years, there seems to be more films about autistic kids and old folks with dementia. I have acted in several already! A sign of the times.

Here is the film itself:

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Here is the behind-the-scene clip I shot and edited together using my mobile phone, while waiting in-between-takes:

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Last day of shoot. In an open field at Woodlands, Singapore. Midday sun hot!

For films about dementia in this blog, click here

Bloodline Blues

"Bloodline Blues"
Written, produced and directed by Michael Chua. 

Cinematography, choreography and editing by Elliot Chan.

This 23-minute action film has taken longer than we have expected to complete, as we were not under any commercial pressure and wanted to give it a good finish. There were some production obstacles in the beginning, but once they were weeded out, it never had been easier since. Such a bliss to have everyone else working together through those long hours amid the humid sticky Singapore environment to make things happen. All just for the sake of art and passion. 

"Bloodline Blues" is about a young heir to a English noble family escaping from his family obligations to be reconciled with his lover in Asia (in this case Singapore). 

The main characters Philip (the young heir) and his lover Cindy, have their origins as supporting characters in another of my feature length script "The Next Plot" (see the short version of it here). I wanted to peer into their lives and create stories to make them lead characters in their own right.  Just like we are all lead characters in our own life. So listen even to meek and quiet, as they too have their stories.

"Bloodline Blues" is inspired by the sinister friends that I have made, the stories that they have told me and my observations during my many years living in Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe. Power, money, ego and sex are common motivations for conflicts across cultures and ethnicities. I think this will go on, until we elevate ourselves to Nirvana or Heaven. Until then, there will always be stories to tell and lessons to learn.

Here is the trailer:

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The poster shoot:

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For other productions that I have written and directed:

The Next Plot

CPIB Video Competition: United Against Corruption

Caishen (财神)

"Caishen" (The God of Fortune, 财神), directed by Ding An, is a 20-episode web series in Singlish, shot in the year 2016 and released in time to greet the start of  the Lunar New Year in 2018.

Singlish is a version of English patois spoken in Singapore, often associated with the funny bits of a conversation and its informality. It is English spoken with Chinese speech structure, spiced with Chinese dialect, Malay and Tamil vocabulary.

This series is about the calamitous adventures of Roy Kee, a middle-aged anti-hero and gambling addict who is given a phone app that ironically can only make others, but not himself rich.

For non-Singaporean viewers, do not be put off by the quirky delivery style. Trust me it is quirky even for Singaporeans. That gives it the charm and uniqueness, amid the surreal nuggets of wisdom that you will find useful. They are usually interwoven into the recurring silly moments. Overall, it has this unexpected sarcastic undertones that cynics will  certainly love. I particularly like the deadpan moments.

Here is Episode 1 of the series [19 minutes]. After finishing it, click on the prompt to proceed to the next episode. If you are unable to link to the next episode at some point, then continue watching it via Youtube.

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In Between Takes

Actors wait a lot in between takes. During that time, there is little we could do other than rehearsing our lines. Some actors read light novels and yet others get some work done on their laptop off their other full-time/part-time job. Mostly, time is wasted browsing Facebook and indulging in mindless chatter.

I tried exercising, but that will make me sweaty and ruin my makeup and costume.

Lately, I have started taking photos and videos of the crew while they are setting up. So they shoot me 'on-air', I shoot them 'off-air'- all just using my mobile phone to shoot and edit them into one-minute videos, on the same day - all in between takes.

Here are some of them...
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4th Feb 2018 @ Changi, Singapore (lots of mosquitoes).
Production of "The Road", an original music video, directed by Lesha, music written by Yiam, with crew and cast supported by a bunch of students from Yale-NUS university.

I played the role of the father - an depressive one.

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5 Feb 2018 @ a coffeeshop at 503 Jurong West Avenie 1, Singapore. 

"Silhouette", directed by Ashley Tan Han Wei, is a story about two boys looking for their missing father. A Puttnam School of Film, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore production. 

I am the missing father. :)
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8 Feb 2018 @ 15 Kismis Road, Singapore.

"Stray Roads", directed by Royce Tan, is story of an elderly taxi driver who cannot cope up with technological advances and competition from private-car hire cabs.  A Ngee Ann Polytechnic student production.

I acted as the taxi association leader speaking out against the competition.

Incidentally, I found this online article: 

S’porean, 70, feels too old to study 298 pages for private hire driver license tests

Shooting and editing on 'rapid-fire' is addictive. I find myself doing more and more of it. I will post them here when they are done.

For more photos and videos, follow me on 
INSTAGRAM: jupilier.

Have a Happy Lunar New Year!