My Radio Interview at 988

I was interviewed at Radio 988 on the 30th Oct 2012. It was fun!

Radio interviews are vanity fairs mostly. That said, I hope that my unusual and very late entry into acting, as shared during the interview, has given others the courage to take action upon the aspirations they (secretly?) harbour. It can be any aspirations, not just about acting.

Life is short. Just do it! A whole new world awaits you! :)

IPS PRISM: Year 2022?

This is Insitute of Policy Studies Singapore PRISM's projection of what Singapore is like in 2022. In involves a lot of audience's contribution by expressing what they want their future leaders and society to be.
This is their official trailer.




This is the part that I played - as the salesman for Licken, a laboratory grown synthetic brand of meat.


Outside the theatre, one of the ushers asked me if I was the Licken salesman, then pursued with whether I would eat synthetic meat myself. I told her that I am only an actor. :)

Greed is Good

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This is a three-minute short film produced by Ngee Ann Polytechnic School of Film and Media Studies and directed by Nicholas Wang. Cinematographer: Ms Sabiruna Madhzar. July 2012.

It is a reflection of the ills that had befallen numerous people in aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse; and how some rogue traders had behaved in the name of obeying instructions from the top.

This is the smallest set for a short film I have ever been in, with two actors and two crew members. The director doubled as the sound man and sometimes also holds the reflector board at the same time. Clean sound was hard to capture as we were on a roof top of International Plaza, right in the Central Business District of Singapore.

So it was not just my messy hair blown against the wind that was the problem!
Though it does looks like it was my fault. :)

Presenting Fort Canning

This is a presentation of Fort Canning Park in Singapore for the web portal "Locals Recommend", sometime last year. It was unscripted, unrehearsed and done mostly over one-take in about an hour - for  spontaneity. I chose to present Fort Canning, precisely for what is said - that it has nature, history and also fun.

Locations

I have posted the following photos to help location directors seek out-of-the-beaten-track places in  Singapore; so that they can shoot somewhere different and save the other lovely, but over used spots like Pulau Ubin, Lorong Buangkok, Arab Street and Chinatown for some other time.

If you are not a locations director, then just sit back and enjoy the pictures - dwell into the history and charms of the locations, by clicking on the links. 

12 Mount Sophia Road 

This building constructed in 1892 by the Crane brothers, and bought by the Methodist Church in 1932, became part of Methodist Girls' School. It was affectionately called the "Tower House". In 1998, the building was acquired by the government is now leased by a Mr Bettin who used it as a pre-school called "The House on the Hill". For more about this lovely house 'on the hill', click here.

Hong Lim Police Station  

This old world colonial style police station still sits by Hong Lim Park and operates as one. It goes almost unnoticed amid the hustle and bustle of the city and could well be used as a backdrop of some romantic stories set in the 1960s.

Aloha Changi Chalet K 

I like this one as it exudes the colours of autumn. It is also snapshot in a virtual time capsule, as it is very unlike elsewhere in Singapore. For more details about the bookings, click here.

National University of Singapore (NUS) Bukit Timah Campus 

The Bukit Timah Campus was the site of Singapore's first tertiary educational institution, Raffles College. It is now occupied by the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, the Bukit Timah Campus and has been home to generations of students for more than 80 years. For more details, click here.

Aston Mansion, Lorong 42 Geylang 

This modest lorong in Geylang is surprising and regal looking entrance to this mansion. With the yellow car in front, it even looks a bit like New York! :)

Sian Keng Tong Temple, Changi Road, next to Lorong 107 

This is one of the few Heng Hua dialect (a southern Chinese dialect in the province of Fujian) temple in Singapore. Very ornate. For more information about the temple, click here.

Yan Kit Village Chinese Temple, Mariam Way, Off  North Upper Changi Road

This temple worships Matsu, the Goddess that fishermen pray before they go to sea. Which means that where it is now used to be very near the seashore. For more information about this temple, click here.

Kushu Island Chinese Temple 

Kusu Island is one of the Southern Islands in Singapore, located about 5.6 kilometres to the south of the main island of Singapore, off the Straits of Singapore. The name means "Tortoise Island" or "Turtle Island" in Chinese; the island is also known as Peak Island or Pulau Tembakul in Malay. From two tiny outcrops on a reef, the island was enlarged and transformed into an island holiday resort of 85,000 square metres. Story passed down by both Malays and Chinese in Singapore says a magical tortoise turned itself into an island to save two shipwrecked sailors - a Malay and a Chinese.

This location has the advantage of housing a Chinese temple and a Malay Kramat (shrine) all in convenient reach,. Being an offshore island also means that sound quality is clean.

For more about Kusu Island, click here.

Kushu Island Chinese Temple 

Kushu Island Malay Kramat  

http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel/travel/travel_id_47475/travel_site_1/

Somewhere along Race Course Road, Little India 

This almost look like in India isn't it? This is a backdrop in one of the feature film, "Back Alley Bulls", by Naicoman (US) Inc, which I acted in last year.

9718 Upper Changi Road North (Opp the Prison) 

Old coffeeshop charm like this is is fast disappearing. Where life is still unhurried in this corner of Singapore.

9718 Upper Changi Road North (Opp the Prison)

9718 Upper Changi Road North (Opp the Prison)

Sim Choon Huat Temple at Moonstone Road 

Former Aerated Water Co, 1177 Serangoon Road, 328231

Former Aerated Water Co, 1177 Serangoon Road, 328231

In 1929, three businessmen Yap Shing Min, Cheng Sze Boo and Tan Kah Woo established the National Aerated Water Company at Hamilton Road, off Lavender Street. It was 1954 when the company moved its premises to the new $500,000 factory near Moonstone Road, off Serangoon Road.

For more details, click here.

The backyard of National Aerated Water.

Former Aerated Water Co, 1177 Serangoon Road, 328231

National Aerated Water, view by the river.

Whampoa River where the National Aerated Water is along.

A quaint house opposite block 2 of Haig Walk.

This very odd zinc house sits in between two condominium properties. It is a village house in the unlikeliest of places.

Same quaint house

Along Balestier Road 

For other posts in this blog that are useful to the production team, click here.

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.

Still

Producer: Geraldine Lee

Director: Sean Ng

Script: Scene Ng, Rona Edwards, and Diyanah Mustapho'
Actors: Michael Chua & Chiaki Kawamura

This is a film I have been looking forward to act in, as a challenge to deliver its crucial and subtler aspects. It is about the emotional struggles of a middle-aged man caring for his beloved wife who is in mere vegetative state, and burdened by the tedium of making ends meet in modern-day Tokyo.

I am usually very careful with taking up emotional roles, as too much of them can affect me off-reel. Emotional roles draw a lot from within as one gets into character. So I took up the role in "Still" on the merits of its script. It is also the first time that I have to deliver my lines in Japanese. "Japanese 101"  for me was a long time ago in University, so most of the help in the language came from Ms Chiaki Kawamura, who plays the character of the wife.

Production was shot at night. There were a few difficult scenes, among which was the suicide which I have no experience in! :)  I was also literally shivering in the cold bath, as by then, it was already the wee hours of the morning. And so I endured, while the technical aspects (lights, angles, props...etc) were being contemplated and sorted!  A bit of hot water would have been nice, but I think the crew had so much to take care of that it was overlooked. Actually, even I didn't think of it before hand. By then, everyone was also exhausted and I didn't want to make anything more difficult. :)

We wrapped near day break. I was satisfied, but emotionally drained!!!

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