[mother!]

Directed by Aaron Aronofsky

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfieffer & Ed Harris 

Mother! Opens with a woman burning with flames all around her. She's being burnt alive and yet she is not dead. 

And the husband putting a crystal on a mantel which transforms everything anew - the entire house and trees around the area.

The lead actress wakes up to find her husband not in bed. Her husband has a mental block and she encourages him on by staring him down while he writes. She plays the role of a dutiful, stifling wife who uses a lot of reverse psychology at home. For eg she re-builds this home herself, cooks everything by herself even when she was heavily pregnant later and is intent on rebuilding her home. This could be read as the boundaries she has against anyone which gets slowly pushed down and finally trampled upon. 

A stranger appears at the door looking for a room for rent. The husband is unable to reject him especially after knowing his ardent love for him as a fan, even more so as a fan dying from some illness. We see, through the wife's eyes, the escalating horror of intrusion, starting from this stranger, to his wife, two sons, Family and friends and finally with Publisher, fans and SWAT team.

However all starts out tranquil although extremely tense in the way everything was framed - tightly cropped leaving me at the edge of my seat all the time. From no smoking in the house, to the strangers wife barging in and treating it like her house, asking intrusive questions such as "Why do you not want kids?" Which parallels what I get sometimes at CNY during family gatherings, to the lead actress stumbling onto her strangers having sex in their room. When she wanted to throw them out she faltered at the last min. 

The last straw came when the couple breaks the crystal and the husband boards up the writing room in his fit of anger. The lead actress throws them out.

But the next day, the stranger's sons barged in, and began quarrelling as the elder son was furious that his younger brother gets possession of wealth. He stabs him and his brother dies. The blood stains flow down to this huge basement which the lead finds the beating heart in the wall turning slightly black. Previously when she was painting the house, the heart was a healthy reddish form. 

The husband, supposedly a protector of the wife and head of the household, leaves the wife to clear up the bloody mess. He goes to the hospital with the strangers and their dying son. I keep thinking that crazy son will enter and stab her. 

The husband returns and she blows up. She blames him for inviting people in without her consent and we can tell the writer loves the adulation of the strangers. They quarrel over him not wanting to touch her and make love to her, to which the husband promptly did to prove her wrong. The next day she announces that she's pregnant. After she had given him life, the husband could write again and he produced another story which moved her to tears. She dumps the medicine which is energy itself that sustains her heart and forms the crystal, into the sink. Maybe she knows her mission is almost complete.

The phone calls start coming in and during her preparations for a candlelight celebration at home, fans began crowding the doors, then streaming in, finally breaking down all doors. What begins as cordial fun with fan signing time, moves to club-like party and escalates to beheading by the publicist and SWAT team. There is a cult-like fanaticism, with alters filled with the husband's image, candles everywhere and signing of the forehead which bears much resemblance to Christian imagery and practices. 

The lead actress is saved by her husband and they find sanctuary in the writing room. She gives birth to a son and the cult outside bears gifts of nourishment and water. She mothers her son and refuses to allow the writer to hold him, for fearing that he would be taken away. When she closed her eyes for a second, her son is gone and the husband has sacrificed him to the crowd. They beat her up and the husband tries to save her. They have eaten his flesh and the lead stabs them all. The heart in the wall has turned Black. She runs to the basement and the crowds want her blood. She spills open the oil tank and sets herself on fire. All is dead including the house. It was charred to the grounds and the trees surrounding it. She's badly burnt and the husband us unscathed. He asks for a final wish from her - her heart - and she obliges. The precious stone lays inside. 

The writer puts this precious crystal on the mantel once again and the place is transformed. A new wife, his muse, is born. 

A writer is never for himself or for a wife alone. He does not love her but just the love she shows him. It is sad. She can never build any house with him because he is a creator and does not belong to any one.

Upon reflection, my house (boundaries, things I hold dear, things I spend years building and pruning, things I love and give my heart to) is also constantly being invaded & trampled upon. Shit dished on me and sometimes I've no guts to stand out to them.

Mother! might be a muse which a creator has to constantly create and is the source of his or her inspiration. This artistic creator is totally self-centred and narcissistic and mother! is always giving and giving until nothing is left to give. Mother! tries to protect her son but even that is taken from her. It is sad but true and reminds me of what we're doing to Mother Earth as well.

Singapore Heritage Short Film Competition 2017

By Singapore Film Society 

1) Nautical Miles (PG) by Lighthouse Pictures
About lighthouse and its origins in Singapore with interviews from academics in NUS

2) Set A: The Singaporean Breakfast (G) by S.M.J Productions
How the breakfast has evolved in Singapore

3) Old of Things (PG) by Honest Visuals
Yee Geok Eng is a resident of the now-demolished Dakota Crescent. It is a very moving story of loss, memories, identity and home. She has to move out of her beloved cluttered home. Her sister gets her to throw almost anything that is "useless". There is this sense of loss in the elderly, unmarried Yee. Her new home is devoid of character and she has to make do.

4) Getting Tough 纸扎止扎 (PG) by 小火 PorDuckSions 
 Mr Ng and Mr Soh are paper effigies makers. But this is now a vanishing trade, especially in Singapore, with people embracing other religions.

5) Apache Over Singapore (PG) by The60sApaches 
Joseph Pereira, author and SG-Malaysia 1960s music researcher, takes us to the golden decade of 1960-1970s local music in Singapore music industry. I never knew there was so much talent then! What happened?? Where have the people gone to? Where are the creatives? What has happened to the soul of the city?

6) The Last Line (PG) by SNP Collective 
This group of boys follow fishermen out to Pulau Ubin and document their livelihood and disappearing trade in Singapore. They set out from Jenal Jettey and are met with thunderstorm. Unable to do anything they wait it out and catch close to nothing. 

Never knew that people still make a living out of fishing in Singapore. This group won the competition of the Junior category. Maybe it is beginners luck.




7) The Nine Emperor Gods (PG) by Broadcast Media Team 2 
I observe how there are still the young who show interest in this tradition. This is burnt during the celebration of e.g. 九王爷. All is not lost.


8) One Track Mind (G) by On The Rocks Productions
Five men of different races and background show their love for the model railway, with a Caucasian who aims to build Singapore's first model railway museum. And a Malay who has this huge working model railway in one room. An Eurasian. A Chinese. Reminds me of my bf with his collection of toys. There is this congenial spirit between them as they become friends, collectors, buyers and sellers. 

West Side Story

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!

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.

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.

I Still Hide to Smoke

At the Projector as part of the Middle Eastern Film Festival in Singapore

A young lady, twenty nine and a half, living in Algiers, is forbidden to go up to the roof of her flat. All she wants is to gaze out and daydream under the sun, with the sea beneath her. The ladies will gossip and her mom gets angry. So she hangs the laundry as a means to be there. To daydream.

She works for her aunt, who is a head masseuse. They clean the public baths. An elderly lady retells her story of innocence on her wedding night. She was only 11. She could not escape the clutches of her husband. She banged on the martial bedroom door but it was locked. Her mom was seeing. They could not have any children and her husband beat her. But after that she had six, fathered by her brother-in-law. She loved him dearly.

A teenager escape to this bathhouse and was taken in by the aunt. Her brother threatened to kill her for adultery. She is heavily pregnant and about to give birth.

Her brother shows up at the door and the lead takes him to be his future husband. She promises to return call if she sees her sister, not knowing the consequences.

A widow is shunned by everyone. Her husband is a 'martyr' of the country for the Islamic cause but everyone lives in fear. No one offers her shampoo except the one who was thrown acid on by this regime.

This strong lady has just got her divorce. Bearing the marks of acid burns on her chest for having breasts, she cries out to the widow, "Your Islam is not our kind of Islam" with its punitive laws and punishments. No contraceptives. The women cannot smoke, orgasm not spoken about and the woman's place is in childbearing and child rearing. Women cannot enjoy sex.

The aunt's husband sees sex as a dirty thing and engages it from the back only. Ouch!

The lead calls the brother. He arrives with a mob out for blood of his sister.

The widow offers to assist in the labour process as as trainee professional in the medical field.

In the Last Days of the City

At the Projector
12 Aug 2017
Part of the Middle Eastern Film Festival

Nice cinematography but i was disappointed by the lack of depth in the issues that could have been addressed. Four friends who gathered in Cairo, Egypt, for a final farewell. Lead actor goes around looking for a house to rent to no avail. The final house he viewed was really cost but way too expensive. The little girl in the picture which hung in this house bears semblance to the homeless lady on the street seeing the same white flowers or maybe she's just carrying that same white flowers and looking like she's looking for her list love on the streets of Egypt.

One friend migrates to Berlin, one lives in Beirut, another in Baghdad. His girl moved to somewhere in the last few scenes. What was disappointing was the lack of exploration as to why she moved. Maybe it was hinted at - the lack of affectionate display in public? Or maybe it could be the lead actor - he was far too sorrowful and constantly bemoaning the past. They clearly still have some feelings for each other though.

The lead films Hanan a storyteller, his mom, Leila his ex, his friends, the streets of Egypt with her strikes, arrests of protestors, the old giving way to some new. For ex i see Macs on the streets together with the conservative costumes.

The lead gets a phone call from one of his friends and finally opens his window to the stuffy room. Who was that? Is it good ex? She died? All we know is this friend cried which caused the change in voice.

The massive prayer on the streets which actually does cause traffic to show down.

Poetry survives despite hardship and war. It might even flourish.