15: THE MOVIE

Singapore, 2003, 96 minutes, Colour.
Melvin Chen, Erick Chun, Melvin Lee, Vynn Soh, Shaun Tan.
Directed by Royston Tan.

Royston Tan is a Singapore documentary and feature film-maker. In 2002 he went out into the streets in the fringes of Singapore society to interview teenagers and to film them in their lives. He expanded this in 2005 to make a feature film.

He filmed five teenagers. What we see is their authentic action and reactions. Whenever Tan felt that they were performing for camera, he eliminated this material as inauthentic. With his hand-held camera, he went out into the city, to homes, to the streets, to tall buildings – for suicide attempts, to the range of city life in Singapore.

The film is a grim picture of these young outcasts. It seems to be without very much hope. However, he seems to suggest that church groups may be interested in helping these men. Tan then went on to make the feature film 4:30.

1.A portrait of Singapore, Singapore life, the fringes? In comparison with other cities in the world? In Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa? Particular focus? Universal message?

2.The city of Singapore itself, the variety of locations, buildings, streets, wealthy areas, poor areas? Perspective? Schools, fashionable districts? Highlighting the contrasts? The musical score?

3.The focus on the boys themselves, their age, fifteen? Their attitude towards the law? Singapore and its strict laws and injunctions? Penalties?

4.The autobiographical tone of the film – Tan and his sympathy for these adolescents? Their life stories?

5.The five stories, the boys, non-professionals, the temptation to act, Tan seeking their genuine experiences?

6.The intersection of the lives, the various influences – on each other? How much friendship? How much peer pressure?

7.The role of parents, the glimpses of parents? Off screen? The authoritarian tone? Rejection of different behaviour? The teenagers seeing themselves as outcasts from their families?

8.The portrait of schools, the boys at schools, ordinary students, uniforms, orderliness, curriculum? The teenagers as acting against this? The final attempt of the boy to go to school – but the rejection because of his tattoos?

9.The significance of the drug world of Singapore, the access to drugs, the young boys and their addictions, money, the drugs themselves, the drug experiences?

10.The world of pornography, the temptations to perform, to be available? Sexuality at this stage of their life?

11.The issues of sexuality, the homoerotic film – and the absence of the feminine in these boys’ lives?

12.The meaning of life, meaninglessness, the issue of suicide, the peer pressure, seeking out buildings for suicide attempts?

13.How much future for these boys, hopes? Lost?

14.The tone of the film, observation, presenting their lives – without a specific moralising tone?