A Contemporary take of Romeo & Juliet
Showing at MBS
Most wonderful singing and graceful moves, love the choreography, beautiful set and lighting.
Love the scene where Maria and Tony envisions a better world and pairs start strutting around in white, climaxing with the two slain characters in white with blood on their shirts. The subtle shift is poignant and gave me a jolt.
Tony is shot by Maria's friend but Maria is unharmed. Her sister in law was raped by the whites, who were themselves immigrants of America. Talk about irony!
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Alt Screen: In Transit: My Brothers and Sisters in the North
This film by woman film director Sung-Hyung Cho documents the journey of a South Korean who could enter North Korea only through her German passport. It starts with her taking pictures with women and men of The Army and the unspoilt beauty - lush mountains and lakes - all around North Korea.
She follows a local North Korean household - son who works in a swimming complex, daughter who does secret services for the Army and Grandma whose Father was killed in a war. We see how bikinis are not allowed in the public swimming pools with slides as such western ideologies corrupt the minds of the masses. News of the day is being read from a two page four sides newspapers mostly about praising the people for their productivity and pledging loyalty to the ruling political power. Son wanted to continue working for the Army but after repeated requests to study University he finally relented. The Grandma is a very strong woman who yearns for reunification and urges the director to speed up this process. The son hopes for change due to economic reasons and the Grandma because of political reasons.
Next she enters a garment making factory and interviews a young girl who is the "star" of the week. Motivated by a rewards and punishments system, they have a daily quota of 150-200 clothing's to make for export. This girl shares how she likes to work in a factory as it is a womanly skills like cooking and she aims to design and sew her own clothes in future. The factory's working hours are 8am - 6 (or was it 7pm), with a lunch break from 12-2pm and a dance routine in between work. It's a bit staged. The factory workers know the move by hard and just do this dance routine for a good 3 mins.
A scene in a nursery and kindergarten compares the differences between the all-praising of the political power among the kindergarten to the attempts to get the very blur-looking nursery children to enact the same praise actions.
In another scene we see the children in a sports school who live in boarding schools on site. It's sad. How can they not miss home? These primary school children. We happen upon a dorm where the teacher was invited to play musical instrument for the children because they wish to sing. For real?! There was pride when the teacher showed those foldable tables which save space.
Next we see a tractor farmer and his family- wife and eldest primary level daughter and lower primary son. It's a very simple family. Dad fell in love with driving the tractor when he was in the Army and requested to be a farmer. Wife fell in love with his willpower and they have two children. They eat a lot of rice for dinner and don't talk during dinner time. They have solar power to charge their electricity and TV. If there was enough electricity they'd watch color TV. Else it's black and white.
She follows a local North Korean household - son who works in a swimming complex, daughter who does secret services for the Army and Grandma whose Father was killed in a war. We see how bikinis are not allowed in the public swimming pools with slides as such western ideologies corrupt the minds of the masses. News of the day is being read from a two page four sides newspapers mostly about praising the people for their productivity and pledging loyalty to the ruling political power. Son wanted to continue working for the Army but after repeated requests to study University he finally relented. The Grandma is a very strong woman who yearns for reunification and urges the director to speed up this process. The son hopes for change due to economic reasons and the Grandma because of political reasons.
Next she enters a garment making factory and interviews a young girl who is the "star" of the week. Motivated by a rewards and punishments system, they have a daily quota of 150-200 clothing's to make for export. This girl shares how she likes to work in a factory as it is a womanly skills like cooking and she aims to design and sew her own clothes in future. The factory's working hours are 8am - 6 (or was it 7pm), with a lunch break from 12-2pm and a dance routine in between work. It's a bit staged. The factory workers know the move by hard and just do this dance routine for a good 3 mins.
A scene in a nursery and kindergarten compares the differences between the all-praising of the political power among the kindergarten to the attempts to get the very blur-looking nursery children to enact the same praise actions.
In another scene we see the children in a sports school who live in boarding schools on site. It's sad. How can they not miss home? These primary school children. We happen upon a dorm where the teacher was invited to play musical instrument for the children because they wish to sing. For real?! There was pride when the teacher showed those foldable tables which save space.
Next we see a tractor farmer and his family- wife and eldest primary level daughter and lower primary son. It's a very simple family. Dad fell in love with driving the tractor when he was in the Army and requested to be a farmer. Wife fell in love with his willpower and they have two children. They eat a lot of rice for dinner and don't talk during dinner time. They have solar power to charge their electricity and TV. If there was enough electricity they'd watch color TV. Else it's black and white.
Sunday, September 10, 2017
7 Days
A film at The Arts House as part of the Israeli Film Fest in Singapore
9/9/17
The scene opens with a corpse being lowered into a grave. Women clad in black mourn and cry hysterically. It's a cropped view of these glorious women of varying ages mourning the death of Maurice. Suddenly a siren goes off much like a war siren and people scramble to put on gas masks. Sadly they can't find their mom's mask and none of the children or grandchildren offer their mask to her.
Set in 1991 during the first Gulf War, this large family, the Ohayon - seven boys and two girls - are stuck in the same house for seven days to morn for the loss of their brother Maurice, as with Jewish tradition. There are glimpse of Jewish culture e.g. no consumption of meat during mourning, good things will befall you if you do good e.g. you will get a good husband if you do more good. And many other issues which manifest as gossip, confrontation, fights, bitching, adultery, desire and power struggle. Over money, coveting of e.g. a brother's brother.
Maurice is clearly the favoured son who is filial. There's talk about how his wife Ilana drove him to his grave with her materialistic demands. She recounts the moments before her death - they were dancing their four in the morning. He refuses to go home as if he knew what awaited - the final demand requiring his life - and dropped dead with his last drink and dance, due to a stroke. A good way to die I must say.
The eldest brother, Meir, did not take over the factories after the death of his father. Because of his lack of responsibility as eldest son, his youngest brother Charlie loses respect for him. Now Meir wants to run as mayor.
Before that the brothers were all poor and they depended on Maurice who gave them work in the factory, provided sister Simone with a monthly allowance. The family drove Maurice to his grave. He treated his brothers as co-workers but they wanted more and having sucked him dry and broke, only one brother is willing to mortgage his house to bail him out.
Lili thinks that Maurice loves her even though she's married to one of his brothers. The new widow, Ilana refutes her.
Vivianne this stunning woman has mutual affection for Ben Lulu, a family friend, and reciprocates her affection. She confronts her sister Simone who airs her grief - no one gave her support both emotionally and financially, after the loss of her husband. The brothers say they did try to reach out but she refused support.
Therese's sister, Evelyne, an unmarried woman of 44.5 tries to seduce Ben Lulu with a red butterfly scarf on her neck (not supposed to wear colours during mourning) to no avail. Her efforts are pathetic but identifiable as a woman pining for her lover. Ben Lulu is the least bit interested. She throws in the last straw by inviting him to her "birthday party" which he agrees to go. But it's obvious he only has eyes for Vivianne.
Ita loaned her money and her brother's money to her husband for the factory. Now that it has gone bust she wants her portion of the money back. Husband Jacques is left in a tight spot - piety to his immediate family or to his wife's?
The scene ends with the mom giving Meir the eldest son one right slap. He weeps silently and there other siblings express remorse while the Mother laments the loss of her most filial son.
9/9/17
The scene opens with a corpse being lowered into a grave. Women clad in black mourn and cry hysterically. It's a cropped view of these glorious women of varying ages mourning the death of Maurice. Suddenly a siren goes off much like a war siren and people scramble to put on gas masks. Sadly they can't find their mom's mask and none of the children or grandchildren offer their mask to her.
Set in 1991 during the first Gulf War, this large family, the Ohayon - seven boys and two girls - are stuck in the same house for seven days to morn for the loss of their brother Maurice, as with Jewish tradition. There are glimpse of Jewish culture e.g. no consumption of meat during mourning, good things will befall you if you do good e.g. you will get a good husband if you do more good. And many other issues which manifest as gossip, confrontation, fights, bitching, adultery, desire and power struggle. Over money, coveting of e.g. a brother's brother.
Maurice is clearly the favoured son who is filial. There's talk about how his wife Ilana drove him to his grave with her materialistic demands. She recounts the moments before her death - they were dancing their four in the morning. He refuses to go home as if he knew what awaited - the final demand requiring his life - and dropped dead with his last drink and dance, due to a stroke. A good way to die I must say.
The eldest brother, Meir, did not take over the factories after the death of his father. Because of his lack of responsibility as eldest son, his youngest brother Charlie loses respect for him. Now Meir wants to run as mayor.
Before that the brothers were all poor and they depended on Maurice who gave them work in the factory, provided sister Simone with a monthly allowance. The family drove Maurice to his grave. He treated his brothers as co-workers but they wanted more and having sucked him dry and broke, only one brother is willing to mortgage his house to bail him out.
Lili thinks that Maurice loves her even though she's married to one of his brothers. The new widow, Ilana refutes her.
Vivianne this stunning woman has mutual affection for Ben Lulu, a family friend, and reciprocates her affection. She confronts her sister Simone who airs her grief - no one gave her support both emotionally and financially, after the loss of her husband. The brothers say they did try to reach out but she refused support.
Therese's sister, Evelyne, an unmarried woman of 44.5 tries to seduce Ben Lulu with a red butterfly scarf on her neck (not supposed to wear colours during mourning) to no avail. Her efforts are pathetic but identifiable as a woman pining for her lover. Ben Lulu is the least bit interested. She throws in the last straw by inviting him to her "birthday party" which he agrees to go. But it's obvious he only has eyes for Vivianne.
Ita loaned her money and her brother's money to her husband for the factory. Now that it has gone bust she wants her portion of the money back. Husband Jacques is left in a tight spot - piety to his immediate family or to his wife's?
The scene ends with the mom giving Meir the eldest son one right slap. He weeps silently and there other siblings express remorse while the Mother laments the loss of her most filial son.
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