Those of you who manage to read my blog on a regular basis will know that I’m a fan of Singapore. Singaporeans on the other hand always gripe about the place and look with envy upon Hong Kong.
From the film world point of view, Hong Kong has produced world-class movies like, er - well maybe not exactly world-class but now and then there have been moments of glory. If nothing else, when you say Hong Kong, everyone thinks of Kung Fu and the Blessed Bruce Lee and Saint Jackie Chan. There is also now a steady trickle of known names heading into the international market. The Tony Leungs, Chow Yun Fats, Jet Lees and Donnie Yens are all leading what will one day be a flood of Chinese stars coming out of the greater China market. But then, this indicates more that Hong Kong is being absorbed by the Chinese industry rather than any particular vibrancy of the Hong Kong SAR’s own film scene.
No matter what the realities of Hong Kong’s present state are, Singapore, with a not too dissimilar history, scores zilch. Gurmit Singh and Jack Neo are about as big as it gets and talented though they are, they aint projecting much of an awareness of Singapore further than Malaysia.
Jack Neo in his latest Singaporean comedy.
And yet, unless one can step across the border into the Chinese film world, Singapore is by far the more interesting place for a gweilo like me. It is more active in building a film industry than Hong Kong, which seems to have produced little more than Sex and Zen in 3D lately - a production heavily dependent upon Japanese actresses because the local talent pool is not there. Which speaks volumes in its self. Either they had to go to Japan because the locals were not good enough, or because they were not bad enough!
One can see Hong Kong’s industry is continuing its decline despite an upturn in local production. A quick look at the Shaw studios latest attempts at comedy should inform you that most present local production is a bad bad idea!
Alexei Sayle shows us what is was like when Hong Kong was shooting over three hundred movies a year! As you can see, they were mostly a bad idea then. But doing that sort of thing now is... really really bad!
What one sees is the absorption of the Mainland censor’s dead hand as part of the local culture and filmmakers scratching around for subjects that can be vaguely seen as glorifying Chinese culture in order to get their hands on Mainland money. Sex and Zen in 3d is doing wonders for Hong Kong's tourism because mainlanders are being bussed in to see it in the local cinemas. But it aint being shown on the Mainland, at least it wont be without all the good bits being removed. Which does make one wonder what the point is, other than having a ball making the show. But all we are doing in this landscape is covering costs and dare I say it, doing some creative book keeping? Who knows? One wonders.
If one wants to shoot a film about the joys of Inner Mongolian goat wrestling and the beneficence of the Communist Party in supporting this cultural pass time, there are funds you can apply for. And I'm not above applying for them but frankly, there is a big trust issue with any dealings with the Hong Kong and Mainland industries. In short, I've had lots of promises and no money and as far as I am concerned, probably unfairly, everyone in the Hong Kong and Mainland industries are time wasters, at best.
Which leaves us with a few enthusiasts who are trying to continue the tradition of the old kung fu movie in the hope of sales of the DVD to an English speaking audience. There is only so much room for such a product and one suspect the best guy for that is Bey Logan, who could fill a few cinemas in the US both with his talks about working within the industry, followed by showing his latest oeuvre. Check out Snow Blade with the delectable Sable Yung as a naked sword fighter. If ever there was a film aimed at the Frat Boys this is it. My only complaint about it is that it looks too good.
Which brings me back to why Singapore is a very interesting place at the moment. It might be taking a long time getting a film industry up and running but Singapore is certainly beginning to get more products into the international Broadcast/Broadband space. It might only be iffy chat shows, magic shows and Asian versions of Mark Burnett shows, but it is Singapore and not Hong Kong that is doing it. Singapore was the first country in the world to shoot its TV in High Definition, and the first to make its shows available, at a price, for download on the Internet. And when a Singaporean says he will pay you, he pays you. Which endears me all the more to them.
And yes I wrote the Life Line sections of Cheryl Miles show reel. Beautiful woman and a good actress, trapped in the Singapore market space. I wrote it, they paid me, they made it, showed it and what more can a writer ask for?
In Singapore the under-sixties age group is educated, liberal, open minded and itching to make it big on the grand stage. They are weaning themselves off generous government grants because they no longer feel they can conform to the restrictions that surround that money. And one sees Mediacorp trained producers opening up new companies with the single purpose of creating big budget international productions.
At the moment the charming people I meet in Mediacorp or the Media Development Authority, talk about the cutting edge, testing the limits, being innovative, but always fall back on a very narrow, and self-defeating, interpretation of the Singaporean dream. They understand that this promotes cynicism and that it excludes them from the wider market they crave, and yet the attitudes, or perhaps rather the skill levels, of the older generation still in charge, prevail. But sooner or later the over sixties will be relaxing their grip. Probably about the time I'm over sixty, which is frighteningly close. But then my version of over-sixty is not quite theirs.
Here are the basic requirements of all TV shows produced in Singapore:
(1) Promote social values, including family,
community, youth, sports, active aging, volunteerism, social inclusiveness
(2) Celebrate our culture and heritage; including
the arts, design, cuisine etc and/or promote cross-cultural awareness
(3) Promote racial and religious harmony, including
minority programming, minority representation in other programming
(4) Promote the Singapore Spirit, including Singaporean identity, Singaporean’s responsibilities as global citizens.
I don’t find any of that problematic. Active aging, social inclusiveness, count me in! Arts, cuisine, cross cultural awareness; I’m your man! Racial and religious harmony! Who does not want that? And as for the Singaporean Spirit… well, I’m not sure what that is. Bitching about the People’s Action Party seems to be a major component, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what they mean. And frankly, everyone should have their responsibilities as a global citizen spelt out! Give me my Singaporean Citizenship right now. I have definitely got the spirit!
These sort of public service broadcasting values are not the problem, as so many people think. It is the lack of a creative skill base that is also attuned to the political and social environment of the region.
If you observe Singapore's government policies closely one does get the overwhelming feeling that all this informs their decisions. Hence, I suspect, the welcoming arms I keep walking into when I arrive in Singapore. Not to mention those casinos, and all that money being pushed into developing the media, the night life, the good housing, the educational standards and the quality of the local English, not to mention less pollution, and an easier system of work permits and residency, conspiring to make people and companies as well as me, want to be there rather than Hong Kong.
The Singapore government
is always attempting to re-invent the City as the regional “hub” of some
industry or other. And probably that is the best it can hope for, rather than
being a cultural powerhouse in its own right. The place is very small and that
in itself puts limitations on its influence. But if there are enough films and
TV being produced with Singapore as the base of operations, it is hard to
imagine that the city will not develop a unique creative image less overshadowed
by a ban on chewing gum. Probably anybody who still sees Singapore as the once
dull backwater it was, should spend a night in one of its occasionally
outrageous comedy clubs to see that beneath the surface there is a lot more
going on than meets the eye. The key word there may be “occasionally” but
outrageousness is happening and so are a lot of other things too. Whereas here
in Hong Kong… not so much any more, and even less for a non-Chinese. It is getting to the point where people are even thinking that living in Beijing is a more exciting prospect than living in Hong Kong, especially if you are in the film and TV industry.
As for me, I'm placing my feet firmly in both Singapore and Hong Kong. HK drives me nuts but it is the fact that I can bring a bit of Hong Kong to Singapore that makes Singapore so interested in what I can offer.