"Anita" the movie is beautifully made, complete with 1980s fashion chic and scored with several of Anita Mui's hits in that era. It chronicles her singing for a living from a very tender age of 4, leading to her superstardom in adulthood. Yet, like many superstars, she dwell in loneliness much of her life, as she had never seen her father, had several failed relationships and was never married. All these probably culminating in her succumbing to cervic cancer and her eventual demise.
Watching it in Cantonese allowed all the little nuances of her life to be felt more closely, something that would be lost in the Mandarin version. In Singapore, we managed to watch the Cantonese version only after an online petition to the government, but even with that, only a limited number of screenings were allowed and only in one theatre. Quite expectedly tickets sold-out in no time. Isn't this telling of what the people really miss deep down?
I managed to get one of the last tickets for a seat right in front. I had to tilt my head as much as I could to capture the entire screen within my peripheral vision. Luckily, I don't need the subtitles, otherwise my eyeballs would have had a hectic workout.
There were happier and lighter moments in the movie of her performing on the small stages of community theatres and nightclubs in the 1980s. Then, she sang HK Canto pop songs, many of which were heavily influenced by their Japanese counterparts at that time.
The later parts of the film are more emotional - of her relationship breakups,; her brush with a mob boss, that drove her to take refuge in Chaing Mai, Thailand; her losing her sister to cancer; and then her own battle with the same disease and death.
I was living in the West and was absent from HK pop fandom in the 1980s and 1990s. We didn't have the Internet like now, so I listened and watched Anita's music and concerts from CDs and VHS cassettes; and eventually on Youtube and TV from the 2000s till 2003 before she died.
"Anita" the movie, fills a bit of the cultural blackhole I missed as a result of living in the West for a long time. In that sense, it feels like a home coming for me.
That is how you can cheat your way into influencer super-stardom. Well, it still takes a lot of hardwork and time, but here is a formula:
Influencers must add value to their audience and
build communities and then monetise.
The days are over when influencers are just
people who look good.
Post your content consistently, then you will
build followers.
Don't worry about people not following. They
will, when you show your sincerity and authenticity.
Different influencers go along with different
followers. So, there will be some that will follow you.
Ignore the haters or those that will discourage
you. There are far more supporters than haters. Don't allow them to pull you
down into the Imposter Syndrome.
Your content is likely to be something you have
always wanted to talk about for a long time.
Work out a systematic way of creating your
content. eg. Create 10 min youtube videos, that can be easily formatted into a
podcast; bite-size video clips; transcribed blog posts...etc. Organise
one day a week to do enough content for the entire week. That way, you won't have
to worry about content every day.
There are software platforms that you can
subscribe to for a fee that will do all the laborious 'sales funnel' work for
you. Eg. Sending out emails at allocated times, reminders,...etc.
Dwell deep into yourself first. Its often about understanding oneself first. :)
Kid Hero, written and directed by Andy Hui, is about a kid's fantasy about his superpowers and his mini roadtrip adventure to look for his father, who is his idol and hero in his life. I enjoyed working with the very talented actors Ricky Lo and Estovan Reizo Cheah; and Esther Leong.
The Will To Wheel is a short film based on a true story of wheelchair bound food delivery lady in Singapore and her will to be a useful member of the society.
"Sure, you could say that we should treat the disabled no different than the able-bodied. But folks are finding it inspiring that even someone with limited mobility would (be) willing to go beyond what was expected of her and find work that involves traveling distances to pick up and distribute food orders."
- Yahoo! News 23 November 2018
The film is directed by Florence Look and produced by a bunch of students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Film Sound and Video School (FSV) which I have acted for in many of their films over the last ten years.
The Will To Wheel has also been shotlisted by ciNE65 for the Favourite Actor, Favourite Actress, Best Sound Design & Best Cinematography awards!
3. The Favourite Actor and the Favourite Actress Voting Page appear.
4. Vote for Michael Chua and Agnes Goh ☺
Thank you in anticipation.☺
The awards ceremony will happen on the 15th June 2021. I supposed the winners will be announced then. Will keep you posted.
ciNE65 is a an annual short film competition that explores the Singapore Identity and expresses what Singapore means from the perspective of the film makers. It is supported by Nexus, a Singapore Government initiative.
Here is the film:
.
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Behind-The-Scenes...
With Agnes Goh.
For all the cINE65 videos that I have acted in over the years, including this one, click here.
At the time of writing, this episode of Titan Academy has hit 1 million views, 71k Likes and 14.5k comments, barely 48 hours from being released online. From their recent track record, the viewership will likely grow to 3 million hits by the end of its 4th week. These numbers are music to the ears of advertisers and the Titan team.
JianHao is currently the number one Youtube channel in Singapore, with a subscriber base of 4.7 million and growing. It is likely that their subscriber base has already extended beyond Singapore, to include Malaysia, India and other English speaking countries.
Perhaps it is time to consider creating content for the Chinese market and distribute it via iQiyi, QQ and Youku. It is a vast market waiting and the Chinese are curious about how life in Singapore is like. Singapore is to China, what Australia is to Americans. Same same, but different. The latter is evident in 1986 when the Aussie movie Crocodile Dundee took America by storm.
Currently, JianHao's channels comprise mostly listicles, but we may see more short film style episodes in future.
This is my second time working with JianHao and his company Titan Digital Media, but my first in a Youtuber style video.
My first time working with them was in a short film called "Majid The Legend", commissioned by 15 Shorts. In that short film, I acted as Singapore's football legend and coach Uncle Choo Seng Quee, in Pulau Ubin, an offshore island of Singapore.
In this short film episode "Welcome to Titan Academy", I played the corporate raider that buys over the school to run it ruthlessly for profits.
Compared to my first time working with them 18 months ago, they have made impressive strides forward in film making. There is now a lot more focus, precision and efficiency. The team's youthful enthusiasm and energy are also a breath of fresh air.
Most of the cast you see in their videos play multiple roles in front and behind the camera. So the girls and guys you see on screen, will also be running around adjusting lights, supervising scripts, setting up props, buying lunch,...etc, when they are not in front of the camera. Even the camera guy appears in some of the videos. But most of all, it is JianHao, who writes, produces, directs and acts; and I guess, runs the company too. How does he ever find such time and energy?
TRIVIA:
Did you know that Titan Digital Media's
real-life accountant also plays a
reel-life role in Titan Academy?
This is the kind of efficiency that mainstream media companies will find hard to fathom, let alone catch up with. In some jurisdictions, such flexibility in labour deployment may not even be permissible, as the unions will come down on you like a pile of bricks.
JianHao and several other celebrity-influencers in Singapore are chipping away at advertising revenues that traditionally went to mainstream media companies like Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Mediacorp, in the context of Singapore.
SPH's revenue has dipped so much, that their media arm is now hived off to form a non-profit charity organisation that will tolerate losses, even huge ones, as they will be propped up by government funding. See SPHMedia. In other words, they have surrendered.
Let's see what will happen to Mediacorp in a few years' time, as it is also suffering from sharp falls in revenues. Will they be restructured into an entity insulated from the harsh competition of the real world too?
The morning after the episode was released, I woke up with a lot of new followers on my Instagram account MichaelChuaActor. I didn't see that coming, as I don't get new followers at all on my social media platforms when Mediacorp TV programmes that I am in, got broadcast.
JianHao's subscribers are young (18 to 35 years old), thus inferring that in future, this may be how content will be created and distributed.
Traditional free-to-air TV will continue to struggle to stay relevant and respond to their viewers' changing tastes, interests and demands; and also the disruption by yet more cheaply available new technologies. They will face rapidly declining viewership and advertising revenues that will eventually compel them to transform into the new media or face their own demise.
This is a documentary about the 'Perfect Language' for humans. I was there because I speak Teochew.
For the documentary, I was asked to bring an item that is symbolic of the language. It was hard to think of something, so I asked around. Unsurprisingly, all my Teochew friends came up with something to do with food. lol
Eventually everyone agreed on the Teochew Glutinous Rice Cake mould.
Can you think of something else symbolically or uniquely Teochew?
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.
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
