Just a couple of weeks ago my friend and I watched a movie called lotus 12 at vivo city. The movie is by Roystan tan and what struck me most about this movie is the different perspective that the director used to portray the tragic story of love, Chinese opera and betrayal.
In most movies, the director usually uses a script which dictates the character movements and speech. Similar to the scripts in communication where it is a framework of interaction for an event and how they are suppose to occur in chronological order. Such system of delivery is seen very common in most movies however for this show, delivery of messages were through songs and plays. The songs played during this movie reflected very much on hokkien culture and the nature of the expressive language. In terms of communication, this is a very apparent example of the modern period where Francis bacon proposed the 4 idols where one idol being idol of the theatre states that it is culturally driven. In this movie it shows the culturally driven biasness in certain songs where the portrayal of being poor is the most miserable thing in the world. As in Chinese culture, rich is prosperity hence such cultural biasness can be clearly seen expressed in hokkien songs such as ‘一百万 which directly translated as one million dollars. This song expresses the hope of an individual obtaining one million dollars where achieving that would solve all life problems.
Other tools of communication used in this movie were songs where this is known as the ‘Lexis’ of communication. In other words, how the message was delivered to the audience. The ‘Lexis’ used here was by songs and with songs, music which is a form of phonemes help further enhance the delivery of the intended message.All in all, directors use different communication tools on developing, enhancing and ultimately potray a certain theme or message to the targeted audience. However for Roystan tan, he explores the world of flim differently and potrays certian life lessons through the use of songs, dramatic opera style acting and the embrace of local singapore hokkien culture!
7 comments:
Good read. It's interesting to see how Singaporean films have progressed through the years. However, I feel majority of them takes a stab at Singaporean cliches and culture, to draw local attention. Few have made a movie where it is praised for depth of plot and/or cinematic showmanship.
Never was a big fan of local films, but is this one any different?
Regards,
Shawn Lee Wei Bin
Hi Shawn! To me this film was indeed different than the stereotypical local films. Firstly there was a strong message delivered although certain scene might seem comical and lack deeper meaning. Messages of love, raw human emotions and also the hardness of a human's heart are all portrayed subtle in the action, songs and script of the movie. Go catch films by Roystan tan, he might be able to tickle your interest in local film and might even captivate you! Cheers!
Hi Amos! Even though I have not watch this local film but I have watched the another film which is similar to this '881'. In these 2 films, the main targeted audiences would be the previous generations whereby they could relate better to the objectives of these films. Hence because lotus 12 is not targeted to our generation, this is probably one of the reasons where the songs are sang mostly in a dialect which our generation are not familiar with.
However, he is using this as one of the tools to attract more audiences. Knowing that our parents would be interested in this film, we would bring them to watch. Thus, it allows him to draw more audiences in watching this film.
Interesting. Movies directed by Royston Tan had depicted the Singaporean culture in a meaningful way. Through the movies, foreigners can get a taste of the various Singaporean mentality and events that they might not know of. For example, Royston Tan's previous movie, 881, is a movie that shows the traditional 'getai'. He communicated to the audience on how this traditional performance had impacted our society and the Singapore culture as a whole. Other than Ethos, i believe the other rhetoric characteristics helps in the transmission of the message on Singapore culture and its uniqueness. Let's show more support for Singaporean movies!
Personally, I do not like many Singaporean films. The reason being that many of these films rely too much on Singaporean culture as a plot point or to draw the audiences.
As Singaporeans, we do not find these films hard to understand or relate to. However, a foreigner may find it hard to understand certain aspects, such as getai or 4d or simply the slang.
In my opinion, that is why Singaporean films do not go far overseas. I feel that many local directors rely on this Singaporean feel too much to sell their movie, often neglecting plot or cinematic style, what like Shawn said.
All in all, the director have to keep in mind his target audience. If the movie is meant mainly for locals, I have no issue.
hi, phoebe here! I watched lotus 12 a few weeks ago and this movie really showcases communication in different settings and speech. Royston Tan, having had a cert in communications delivers his films well and incorporates many different elements of communication into this show. I find this very interesting to read about and to be able to identify the lexis in this show is something that i would never have thought about.
Targeting mainly the local audience, the director is able to incorporate different mix of songs like hokkien and mandarin songs to appeal to the audience. Communication can be just interacting with the audience and i applaud Royston Tan to be able to deliver that very well.
True that foreigners will have a hard time understanding local films like lotus 12, especially with half the movie filled with songs sang in dialects.Moreover, songs especially in the form of an opera holds messages that are harder to decipher than directly spoken or written messages.
However, dont you think its nice to have a film that is only understandable by locals and unique to foreigners?
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