Monday, April 07, 2008

[SIFF08] Haze (Short)

Ah Beng Ah Lian?


Anthony Chen unfortunately wasn't able to make it to tonight's screening because he's in London studying. Haze had premiered in Berlin earlier this year, and now has made its debut back home under the Singapore Panorama section of the SIFF.

I thought it was a fairly interesting bit of observation on the youths of today. Many times you would see teenage couples hanging out together, but I found it sometimes peculiar that the guys do seem to not pay any much attention to their girlfriends, as they go about doing their own thing, while the girl just sits around and waits. I always thought that was a complete waste of time though, where both could have utilized their quality time in a more constructive manner. A very strange generation (signs I'm getting old!) and I thought he captured such observations succinctly in his follow up short to Ah Ma.

Here, you have a delinquent couple who decided to play hokey, and hang out at the guy's home. Whether the guy's sleeping in, playing his PSP, or complaining of his hunger, the girl dutifully obeys, though made a comment questioning of her purpose in his presence. Production wise, I thought the actors were quite natural in delivering their lines in a mixture of languages in an authentic manner, and touching fleetingly on the theme of insecurity after they did the deed to earn this short its R21 rating, though it played out at times in a comic fashion.


The SIFF Singapore Filmmakers Interview Series
Kan Lume, Writer-Director of Dreams From The Third World
HAN Yew Kwang, Writer-Director of 18 Grams of Love
ENG Yee Peng, Director of Diminishing Memories II
Sherman ONG, Screenwriter-Director of Hashi
James LEONG and Lynn LEE, Directors of Homeless FC

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