Seeing as Singapore Dreaming's charity premiere is in 3 days time, and I saw it on Friday, I should post my review:


Singapore Dreaming is a poignant and moving film about the Singapore Dream - it's allure, banality and ultimately its emptiness. We meet a seemingly normal and happy family but as the film unfolds, we see the underlying cracks in their relationships as each reveals how far they are from attaining their individual dreams. Yet, watching the movie can't help but give one the feeling that one has just been hit by a sledgehammer, albeit a nice one.

The film bites off too much, more than it can chew. Although it does its job admirably considering how much it is trying to do, a tighter focus would have been great - for example, the case where a maid who's been well-treated for years spits on the ground in front of her employer after a stress-induced episode on the part of the latter, or the lift-peeing incident feel unreal and contrived in trying to make its point.

Singapore Dreaming has a rich Singaporean texture, which it achieves not by means of cheap shots and obscure references but by endowing its dramatis personae with hopes, dreams, fears and character flaws that Singaporeans can associate with. These characters may angst, but at least it is in a way that people other than art critics can identify with.

The production has the fortune to have a great cast who convey the nuances of the characters' feelings, and this is helped by ample characterisation, even if it is un-subtle at times and the overacting has shades of Channel 8. The characters seem too dysfunctional to be believable, though, which is part of the sledgehammer effect. After a while I got the feeling I was watching a screen adaptation ("Singapore Nightmare") of one of the Chinese essays I used to write, in which the father gets eaten by a lion while in Africa on safari, the mother gets a stroke, the paternal grandfather gets knocked down crossing the road, the maternal grandmother falls into the shark pool at Underwater World and is savaged, the dog gets kicked to death by the neighbourhood bully et al.

The voice of the directors is also too obvious, giving the movie a didactic tone. Oftentimes, one gets the feeling that the directors are sitting on a platform raised above the viewers and waving their fingers at them. This is most apparent when the PRC lectures the Singaporean about his life being good and his never having the courage to pursue his dreams, instead worshipping at the altar of materialism; the viewer does not have room to take his own meaning and message from the film - they're handed to him on a plate.

As a film Singapore Dreaming also has assorted minor problems - there was at least scene with bad colour, where the image went grainy, back to normal and then grainy again, but these are essentially minor.

Despite these minor flaws, I still recommend this movie, especially to those who are so caught up in the pursuit of the Singapore Dream (be they Singaporean or not) but yet cannot see that it is bringing them no happiness but instead leading them on a never-ending quest which ends in bitterness (case in point: A friend who has a take-home salary of ~$7,000 and yet spends all of it and whines that he's poor). It may verge on self-indulgent emotional masturbation, but at least it loses the usual vacuum.


Miscellany:

The remix of the Hokkien song (望春风, Bong Chun Hong, "Pining for the Spring Breeze") is in Chinese and is damn irritating. Luckily the website offers the original Hokkien version for download.

Why is Michael Moore thanked in the credits?!