12 LOTUS
Singapore, 2008, 121 minutes, Colour.
Mindee Ong, Ling Liu, Damos Lim, Hao Hao.
Directed by Royston Tan.
12 Lotus is an exotic Singaporean film. Royston Tan made a number of more realistic films about youth in Singapore, 15, 4.30. He then moved into musical presentations with 881.
12 Lotus is a mixture of Chinese cabaret with American television shows. The musical numbers are staged with American pizzazz even though the language and some of the melodies are Chinese. However, linking the various songs is a basic realistic narrative. The focus is on the getai clubs, the singers and performers. However, a little girl, Lian Hua, wants to be a singer but her gambling father is ruthless in training her, being brutal. She grows up to be a successful singer, encounters a little boy whose mother is just as severe and takes him under her wing. She also falls in love with a singing partner who is taken away to pay the gambling debts of her father. She is also attacked and raped. As she grows older, she does not take care of herself, grows fat and reclusive. Meantime the boy grows up. This is where the film moves between fantasy and reality – the singer in her old age wanting a comeback, encountering a young man (acted by the same performer who did her partner in singing) whom she mentors and who ultimately attacks her to get a jade necklace to pay his debts.
All this is to illustrate a song called 12 Lotus with the film indicating the twelve chapters of poor Lotus’s life, her struggles, her success, her failure, the tragedy of her last days.
The film is interesting as coming from Singapore, but is for tastes for more exotic Asian films.
1.The work of Royston Tan? Realism? Social observation of Singapore? The staging of musical numbers?
2.The settings, the theatres, the gambling houses, homes? The Singapore background?
3.The staging of the songs, costumes and décor, choreography? The mood of the songs, the response of the audiences? The lyrics?
4.12 Lotus as the basic song, an adult song, the child wanting to sing it, not understanding, understanding better as she grew older? The fatalistic development of the song and of Lian Hua’s life?
5.The setting of the getai, the theatre, the singers? Lian Hua’s father, his gambling, playing in the orchestra? His debts? The card players? Lian Hua wanting to sing, her lack of ability, her father beating her?
6.Her growing up, successful as a singer, performing, Ah Long and his attraction towards her, working with her, in love with her? His appeal to her father? Taking on his debts? The gamblers wanting payment, threatening Ah Long, beating him, taking him away? Raping Lian Hua?
7.Lian Hua and the little boy, his dominant stage mother? His nervousness? His performing, growing up, a skilled performer? The friendship between the two?
8.Lian Hua getting older, putting on weight, reclusive? In her home? Her encountering the young man? Reminding him of Ah Long? Taking him in, mentoring him, clothing him? The relationship and her tenderness? His gambling, in debt, the gamblers wanting the money, the threats, the beatings?
9.Lian Hua, her disappointment in the young man? His threatening her, the jade necklace, her refusal, reminding her of her father? His trying to choke her? Swallowing the necklace?
10.Lian Hua, being abandoned, the tragedy of her life? The finale and the flashbacks to the various stages, the chapters of the pitiful lotus’s life?
11.The overall effect of this kind of Asian musical and social realistic experience?
