Fifteen (15) – Whilst Japan and China are firmly established players in world cinema, with Korea fast making a name for itself, other East Asian countries have yet to enjoy such a presence. From Singapore comes the teen-punk rebel picture, 15.
Plot:
Melvin (Chen), Vynn (Soh), Armani (Melvin Lee), Erick and Shaun (Tan) are all fifteen-year-old gangsters in Singapore. They get into fights, worry about school and take drugs, but mostly they lounge about being teenagers, topless and smoking.
Film:
Royston Tan seems more interested in directing a 97-minute music video than a story with weight and depth. 15 isn't easy to sit through, but there are ample rewards. ‘15’ (2003) by Royston Tan – The underclass of Singapore The Singaporean society, which has always been associated with words like family-oriented, cultural, developed, and well educated were not what Royston Tan portrayed in his featured film, ‘15’. ‘15’ uncovered many insights into the Singapore society that was left undiscovered. Actor in Royston Tan's 15 interrogated by Singapore police. With his spiky hair, infectious bonhomie and casual dress sense, the 27-year-old Singaporean film-maker Royston Tan is not obvious as a threat to national security. He has more than two dozen awards and his debut feature film, 15, last year became the first movie from Singapore to. Royston Tan, Director: 15: The Movie. Royston Tan was born on October 5, 1976 in Singapore. He is a director and writer, known for 15: The Movie (2003), 4:30 (2005) and 7 Letters (2015). An honest, dark and sweet portrayal of 15-year old inner city kids in Singapore City that is a visual and audial feast, and one of the most honest films about Millenials ever made. WHAT IT’S ABOUT: To make the film, Royston Tan followed a bunch of 15-year-old gang members in Singapore City. Dealing with issues like school, parental.
Fifteen is full of stylistic flourishes. Slow motion, sped-up footage, reverse playback, numerous film stocks, music video interludes, video games pastiches and every so often the screen will flash with cod-philosophical slogans whilst the boys pull poses like a perfume ad. While Fifteen is rarely boring, that doesn't mean it's good. There is one stomach churning scene where one of the boys swallows numerous condoms stuffed with pills – make sure you've not eaten recently should you decide to watch it - and depending on your feelings about piercings and self-harm there are a couple of other scenes you may want to avoid.
The only women in the film are middle-aged ladies who get picked on by the boys on a bus and in a lift – despite the mention of girlfriends and the boys watching straight porn (from the screen's perspective – sound only) there are no girls to be found, which seems odd for a film about teen boys, except for a roof-top suicide who we only see after she hits the pavement. On the whole the acting is pretty poor, unless the monotonous delivery was intentional, though to be fair these are first time, non-professional actors.
Royston Tan 15 full movie, online
The director's admiration for the young men is obvious, as the skinny pretty boys prance around topless and pouting for the most of the film. After no less than three long shots of three of the boys crying, Royston's fondness for this phenomenon in particular is explicitly emphasised by the line “Men's tears are precious. Don't waste it.” at the end. There's nothing wrong with a film that so lovingly looks at the bodies of teen boys, after all Hollywood is chock full of excuses to ogle teen girls, but it's odd that a film which sets out to shock and be on the ‘cutting edge' seems to still be in the closet. There are plenty of films based on growing pains, often with boys as the focus with little time spent with females, but rarely do they dwell on scenes of effeminate tenderness without inklings of same-sex relationships bubbling under the surface.
Disc:
The director's commentary gives a fair amount of background behind the filming, but doesn't offer any explanations for choice of style and content beyond pointing out the parts that the boys ad-libbed, and the commentary inexplicably halts for around the last half hour. There are two deleted scenes that don't really seem to have needed deleting, seeing as the film doesn't really have a plot. One does includes crying so maybe Royston thought it was overdoing the anti ‘boys don't cry' angle.
The nine minute interview with the producer and director does feature the director mentioning that some scenes could be labelled as homosexual or queer, but explains that they are in fact just expressions of intimacy or comfort, moments which seldom happen in the boys lives, especially as they are usually trying to project a tough, masculine front to fit the gangster image. The extras are topped off with the original trailer, accompanied by no less than fourteen trailers for other features in Pecadillo's stable.
Overall:
Fifteen does present an intimate snapshot of the teen boys left behind by Singapore's education system that is no doubt rare (the director explains that if kids find themselves on the lower tier after they are split into two streams in their early teens, they often give up, feeling themselves worthless, and some even kill themselves.), but in the end it feels like a coating of stylistic bells and whistles around so much nothing. It may achieve a particular resonance for those familiar with Singaporean culture, but with their boy-band looks and the film's (mostly) glossy treatment, it is hard to feel particularly moved by it.
Ross
Opens June 10 in SF, UA Galaxy 4.... help support! If you want to get directly invovled and see a sneak preview leave me a comment. | |
OPENS JUNE 10 in SF ! UA Galaxy 4 Cut! Royston Tan's 15 The notoriously controversial 15 has finally broken out of its native Singapore and into the eyes of the rest of the world. Royston Tan's nihilistic attitude towards the traditions of both his country and the filmmaking process within have attracted more attention to the film than it probably deserves - although how can one turn down an invitation to view a film considered 'a threat to national security' by the Singaporean censorship board? Tan's exploration of the alienated and disturbing lives of five fifteen year-olds on the glossy streets of Singapore's metropolis provides a chilling insight into the degradation of overlooked fringes in a wealthy Westernized society. Abandoned by disintegrating value-systems, such as their schools and families, the boys drift through an aimless routine of skipping school, dealing drugs, indulging in tattoos and piercings, not to mention other ills of consumer-focused societies. One sequence follows a boy with his friends seeking to find a suitable building from which he can leap to his death, commenting on the rising suicide rates of children in school. Another sequence shows a beautifully shot drug-taking experience, filmed in a similar light to desirable products in adverts. But then this is followed by a harrowing, gritty hand-held sequence showing us how the drugs are trafficked. As one of the boys suffers in swallowing bags filled with ecstasy, do we suffer watching him grow sick to his stomach. Tan's use of real life street kids who reinterpret his vision from their eerily similar lives certainly drives home the point, but more provocative than the violence, bad language and drug use (of which the films of Larry Clarke have portrayed more extremely) is Tan's heavily stylized and unconventional style. His fast-paced slicing of the film is muddled with MTV chapter titles and scenarios depicted in true video game aesthetics. But, simultaneously, Tan presents the friendship and comraderie of these gang members in some patient sequences with stunning, if sometimes inconsistent, cinematography. Tan uses the cut with skill and precision - sometimes to present the apathy and emptiness of these boys lives, while other times extending their suffering, editing repeated shots into extended sequences (such as boys cutting themselves or the torturous drug-trafficking). continue... Tan's criticism and confrontational style is what makes the film an interesting study in what is technically familiar ground. The backdrop of the sleek modern metropolis is more than just a location, but a cause of the many symptoms from which these boys suffer. Tan seems to be angrily questioning the post-colonial identity of modern day Singapore. Possibly the most interesting scene of the film is not exploited enough, when the delinquent teenagers crash heads with their nemeses: a group of preppie English-speaking students who look down on their poor education and lower class vices. Tan's film is dramatically torn between the conflicts of an Asian country's sub-culture, which has had its values distorted by an economically obsessed society. The boys obsession with popular music and its image is amusing and distressing at the same time, much to Tan's credit. A very funny animated sequence is also a disturbing insight into young adolescent's attitude towards suicide - an Itch & Scratchy-like recklessness with no consequences. The lack of respect for their own bodies seems to be another focus of the film's as Tan goes out of his way to repeatedly show close-ups of body piercings, tattoos impaling skin, drug use and relished violence. Where Tan's film falls short is in the characterizations of these rebellious junkies portrayed as victims whose actions are merely reactions. Whether it is the result of Tan's record-breaking 27 edits to the film (courtesy of the censorship board), or simply his victimization of the same aesthetics that have corrupted his protagonists, is unclear. Despite Tan's filmmaking skills and unpredictable originality, his characters find little time to reflect on their lives, encouraging the equally thoughtless behaviour of banning this study of suburban adversity.Ziad Semaan http://www.firecracker-magazine.com/review 3 | |
Royston Tan 15 C
| |||
| http://www.comingofagemovies.com/titles/15/index.html Hi, This site will include eveything you need to know in the upcoming weeks about 15, as it will open in San Francisco, June 10 at the UA Galaxy 4 . |