Giving Voice to a Museum Objectl

I gave voice to animate a piece of paper, a relic from the Second World, at the National Museum of Singapore two weeks ago. It is part of their "Facetime with History" event, where visitors can get a feel of history by chatting with the exhibits. 

The owner of the piece of paper had used it to take notes during the mandatory Japanese language classes during the Japanese Occupation (from the years 1942 to 1945). The owner, likely a Hokkien speaker, had used Hokkien to phonetise Japanese words, which ironically are themselves Kanji, and therefore are borrowed Chinese characters.

This is the gallery where the piece of paper is exhibited. "Syonan", meaning "Light in the South" was the name of Singapore during the Japanese occupation.

These are some of the exhibits. 

This is the said piece of paper, the one on the bottom left.

This is it.

This is a game to illustrate how Hokkien words were used to phonetise Japanese words, by ethnic Chinese in Singapore at that time.

For example, Ashita is phonetised approximately as "Ah Si Ta" in Hokkien.

The visitors on Friday were more earnest learners, mostly young adults. When it came to Saturday and Sunday, the visitors were mostly young families, whom many of the adults were happy to let their children play the above game to their hearts content - transforming it virtually into a playground.

I had some problems keeping to character as Peng (the paper), with these kids messing around. "Peng" stands for "Peng An", which means Peace in Hokkien, I must have repeated that a hundred times. LOL.

Here are the other voice actors. They acted as a writing desk, a rocking horse and National Stadium seats.

In the end, it was quite a blast. We did our part to entertain our visitors with our improvised voice acting.

For more about Voice Acting ,click here.

For other articles about Hokkien, click here.

Crazy Rich Asians

Crazy Rich Asians the movie, brought a horde of netizens screaming about the lack of minority representation in the movie - that among the super-rich in Singapore, only the Chinese are depicted. The online and offline press were abuzzed with such outcry, with the local tabloid, The New Paper, joining in the fray. See, "Crazy Rich Asians should have been called High SES Chinese" by columnist S.M. Ong (The New Paper, Sept 3).

The article hits a little 'below the belt' in some parts (see quote below), but then, hey it is a tabloid. What do you expect?

Quote:

Dear Kevin (the author),

….

Not everyone in Singapore is Chinese as depicted in the movie, they complain.

But that's not your fault.

Coming from old money yourself, you emigrated from Singapore at age 11 and evaded national service so you probably didn't get to interact much with other races here.

"As a child, you're cloistered in this world," you said in an interview.

"You don't know how other people live until you leave that world and realise not everyone has an airplane in their garage."...

Unquote.

While I respect the opinions of those crying out loud, I too have my views, so I wrote to them and was surprised to get it published.

Here:

(A rewrite of the print, in case display resolution is poor in small devices.)

No reason for Crazy Rich Asians to be like MediaCorp drama

I refer to the article "Crazy Rich Asians should have been called High SES Chinese" by columnist S.M. Ong (The New Paper, Sept 3).

I assume the article is written tongue-in-cheek and I should take it with a pinch of salt. Crazy Rich Asians in not a documentary. It is a film version of a book based on the author's observations of super-rich Chinese in East Asia. So let it be.

Minority inclusion in this instance and context is not necessary. I would hate to see it turn out like a MediaCorp drama with minority races artificially inserted. That is understandable for MediaCorp as it is a national broadcaster. 

But this movie has not such obligations or objectives. Neither should it set out to sterilise or pontificate. It is fiction. It is satire. Cut it some slack. 

Audiences don't want to watch real life. They want drama, art with creative licence to entertain.

For all movie reviews in this blog (including this post), click here.

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