Film-maker Liao Jiekai's memories of hiking along railroad tracks inspired his debut film
boon chan Straits Times Life 4 May 11;
When local director Liao Jiekai wanted to make a film exploring the railroad tracks that fascinated him as a junior college student, he knew he had to do it quick.
There was some urgency in capturing that journey as he noted things could change in the blink of an eye.
'When we were shooting the film in June 2009, the 'No trespassing' signposts were from the Malaysian High Commission. A few months later, it was still 'No trespassing' but they were now from the Singapore Land Authority.'
Last September, Singapore and Malaysia finalised a land swop deal: the exchange of the Malayan Railway land in Tanjong Pagar, Kranji, Woodlands and Bukit Timah for other parcels of land in Singapore.
Liao's debut feature, Red Dragonflies, is a contemplative drama about friendships, growing up and exploring old railway tracks. It opens at Filmgarde Iluma tomorrow.
Over the past year, it has been screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Bueno Aires International Festival Of Independent Films and Tokyo International Film Festival. It won a special jury prize at the Jeonju International Film Festival.
Its 26-year-old writer-director tells Life! that he has received a whole range of responses. He says: 'Best of all was when they asked, 'Why are you speaking English?'
'Audiences were also very intrigued about the Singapore they saw in the film as they think of it as a big metropolitan city, and yet half the film is set in the forest.'
He was inspired to make the film when he came across old video footage of him and his junior college schoolmates hiking along the old railway tracks.
It is a trek that fascinates him as it passes through very different neighbourhoods - backyards of private houses, HDB flats, forest, farms and even shrines.
Made on a shoestring budget of $30,000, including $6,000 from the Singapore Film Commission's script development grant, the film is a labour of love with Liao putting in about $20,000 of his own money into the project.
He acknowledges though that film-making has to be a financially sustainable process so that he can go on to make his next film. He points out: 'I cannot pour in all this money so it goes into this hole.'
Thus far, he has made back some of it from the Jeonju Film Festival prize money - around $7,000 - and screening fees.
He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently lectures on media education and visual arts at the School of the Arts.
Apart from Red Dragonflies, his work can currently be seen at the Singapore Biennale 2011 as he did the text scribblings for Nedko Solakov's The Flying Method Of An Artist With A Fear Of Flying, a whimsical site- specific piece at Old Kallang Airport.
The bachelor's next feature film project, There Once Was A Mountain, will be a history of Chinese communities in Singapore from the 1970s to the present.
As a film-maker, he would like to see local audiences varying their diet of Hollywood hits with less mainstream fare.
One reason Red Dragonflies is being screened only now, more than a year after he completed it, is because he was pushing for a commercial release rather than a smaller run at venues such as The Arts House or Sinema Old School.
He hopes the film will find an audience beyond the arthouse cinema crowd: 'I hope a regular person wondering what to watch will pass by and then take a leap of faith to try this Singapore film he has never heard of with no name actors because the poster or trailer attracted him.'
Even though the film has journeyed around the world, Liao says: 'I've not really felt the film is finished until I show it to a local audience. After all, this is a Singapore film.'
Exploration veers off-track
RED DRAGONFLIES (PG)
96 minutes/Opens tomorrow/
boon chan Straits Times Life 4 May 11;
The story: Junior college students Rachel (Oon Yee Jeng), Tien (Yeo Shang Xuan) and Jun (Ong Kuan Loong) explore disused railway tracks and then an accident happens. Years later, Rachel (played by Ng Xuan Ming as an adult) and Tien (played by Jason Hui as an adult) cross paths again.
The title references the 1990 Mandopop hit of the same name by the now-defunct boyband Little Tigers. The song is a light-hearted affair about youthful idyll and chasing after one's dreams.
While the film takes on some of the same themes, the mood here is different. It unfolds at a leisurely and ruminative pace and works best when it focuses on the friends as they follow the abandoned railway tracks. It is an exploration for the audience as well as they wend through tunnels and lush foliage, and past homes with backyards and walls with graffiti.
What also helps to draw one in is the unforced banter and naturalistic interaction among the non-professional actors.
But since this is not enough to fill out a full-length feature, writer-director Liao Jiekai adds another dimension to the story. A 26-year-old Rachel returns to Singapore from abroad to hold an art exhibition and she reconnects with Tien.
The fact that they never mention Jun is intriguing at first but it soon becomes frustrating. Also, the ending of the film introduces some unexpected elements and throws up questions which remain unresolved.
Subtlety and a low-key approach are too often under-rated qualities in local productions but in this case, they are taken to the extreme and the movie ends up feeling murky rather than illuminating, on themes such as nostalgia, growing up and how the past shapes people.
The spirit of exploration is alive and well in Red Dragonflies but, unfortunately, this feature debut feels like it may have wandered off the tracks.
Links
More details of the movie on the We Support the Green Corridor in Singapore facebook page.
