The Worst Film Ever

Simply Perfect

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Major Disappointment

This is a show about the lives of Singaporean boys, mostly from broken families and how they go astray. They end up in gangs, forming some sort of "brotherhood". It's fantastic how well they managed to portray a typical day of a Singaporean gangster, their mischief and their "violent tendencies". It may seem like fiction but I do know of incidents such as these that actually go on in Singapore that most people do not see. Matter of fact, I do know some people who are exactly like the characters you will be seeing in the show. Show starts off with Vynn and Melvin, 2 good friends who had just fallen out with Shaun, who had gone on to join another gang. Show moves on to the life of Shaun and his posse, getting into gang fights, drinking, clubbing, smoking and taking drugs. Shaun and his new friend Erick are pretty much inseparable, but shows no sign of homosexual tendencies. I can account for this from the things they mentioned throughout the show, always speaking about brotherhood and loyalty. They are extremely good and close friends, but are not emotionally involved in a homosexual manner. The show has occasional graphic scenes, like the piercings, and the drug smuggling. Viewers be warned.

basically this is the story of two 15 year old Asian boys living in singapore. they are what we would categorize as "at risk" in the good ole USA. both of them are into drugs and into smuggling drugs. and there is this one scene where a condom filled with pills is being forced down the throat of one of the boys. he is doing this himself and is in obvious pain and discomfort. his eyes are watering and saliva drips from his mouth and he tries to shove this giant pill stuffed condom down his throat. luckily we do not get to see the illegal contraband exiting the other end. but the movie has a lot of comedy in it, for instance when the boys buy a blow up doll and run thru the city center throwing it to the ground and humping it. and then there are scenes where the 2 boys place the doll between them and the guy on the top simulates a violent rape of the doll. the two boys spend a lot of time together but other friends are featured also. eventually the two spend some time in bed together and their attraction for each other is homosexual, and there are some tender scenes where one gently hugs the other one. this movie does not pull any punches, this is the reality for these boys in the circumstances that they are faced with. it is more of a documentary than a movie, sort of like pixote, but not as long or as complex. an excellent examination of teenage boys in singapore.

I've seen the short and it was truly great, so I went to see the feature-length version with great expectations. I was totally disappointed.The first section is actually the short version, where the story of the 3 friends unfolds, but then the director focuses on 1 protagonist. I guess he might not be able to get the other 2 actors to 'complete' the story.Shaun as the only one remaining acted quite well, but the story would've been much better if it explored deeper into his love-hate relationship with Vynn. The movie fell flat on several scenes because the director just couldn't build the story based on Shaun alone. He introduced 2 new characters but they really couldn't help much.I guess Royston should've just left the short alone until he managed to build a stronger plot. All in all, 15 is a heart-warming short film, but a disappointing feature-length.

*Spoilers Warning*15 is an extension of the award-winning short film of the same title and the long-awaited Singaporean work starring real-life teen hooligans (all 15 years of age at time of filming) whom Royston picked up from schools and streets. The film is an honest yet provocative insight of the world of several disenchanted, tattooed youths rejected by their own families and sidelined by the mainstream of society. Shot in a disjointed MTV and voyeuristic style with mixed paces, the show is like a rollercoaster ride with dizzy, intense outburst of vulgar Hokkien and "brotherhood" gangster songs and occasional prolonged scenes of quiet emotions. There was a couple of confetti-filled performances and even a small segment of crude animation to add some ironic exuberant touches to their sad journeys in life. Because of its presentation, subject matter and nature of characters, it is quite reasonable to describe 15 as a semi-documentary of a lost generation.Through the direction of the lens, the lives of these boys were laid bare to the audience with little actual acting [Royston claimed that he discarded 5 rolls of film, approximately 30 minutes worth of footage because the boys had somehow picked up and gone into method acting instead] .......so whatever you see on screen (the tears, behavior, etc) are authentic aspects of their personalities and backgrounds. Because everything is almost real, the film is embodied with a quality as raw as sashimi. Apart from their young faces, there wasn't a shred of innocence found in the boys. 15 was essentially a platform for the display of the teenagers' pain, loneliness, hopelessness, despair and frustration. Yet it's more than watching a violent heavy rock concert [rock bands are commonly made up of angry men anyway?] or a sort of satirical social commentary. The depressing slant is moderately balanced by several points of humor and entertainment, which would be better appreciated in a Singaporean context.One of the most poignant scene, to me, came from the search of a suitable, grand building for one of the protagonists to jump off ---- yes, a suicidal site recce. After scouting and assessing several landmarks, from familiar HDB flats/condominiums to more prominent landmarks like commercial skyscrapers and hotels, they finally found the best location......gloriously revealed as the Esplanade. I saw the choice as deliberate, staining the symbol of our (so-called) cultural excellence with the blood of a 15 year-old street urchin, profaning the icon of elitism and artistry. A subtle stroke of tragic brilliance here, I feel.Mirroring real life, there was no fairy-tale ending for the film. The sad fact is that most were not able to free themselves of their troubles or find a new leash of life and hope even after the completion of filming. As Royston related, out of the 6 boys, one went missing, one got jailed for stabbing another youth almost to death, one attempted suicide over a failed relationship. Only one desired to go back to school but was rejected by government schools because of his tattoos. Fortunately, a church group is looking into sponsoring his education thru private tutoring. The film may seems to be a one-sided effort in generating sympathy for their plight without considering personal responsibilities and choices....but then again, what sort of accountability can be reasonably demanded from a 15 year-old? Where or what were most of us doing when we were 15? All I remembered of myself was being a mugger tackling class tests and exams......even years down the road I do not think I would have the capacity to deal with or relate to the emotional complexities that the boys in the film went thru. A matter of circumstances? Perhaps so. Anyway, their counterparts will never be able to watch this film to find any identification as it is very unlikely for the film to get a rating below R(A). Himself an ITE-graduate whose lecturer destined himself to be nothing more than a clerical assistant, Royston may qualify himself in filming this as he isn't part of the echelon which society heaps its recognition and approval but a filtered by-product of a national system with narrowly-defined parameters of success. Comparing it with Jack Neo's light-hearted I Not Stupid [whose characters were also marginalized individuals], 15 is definitely not a crowd pleaser. Besides being real, the boys were older and far more repressed than Neo's trio. There were disturbing, nauseating scenes of drug-smuggling by swallowing condoms filled with ecstasy pills as well as real bodily mutilation: skin-piercing without anesthetic and a particularly heartbreaking scene where one boy repeatedly slashed his forearm with a penknife [Royston later explained that this scene was shot in reality whereby the boy was given complete freedom to express himself to the world in 2 minutes; he just keep cutting himself while a doctor was on stand-by]. Some may find his approach exploitative (as voiced by an audience in the Q&A session after the screening) in a bid to shock, offend and earn the label of notoriety thru' controversy. I felt discomfort too but I did not doubt his sincerity in wanting to raise general awareness of some of our troubled youths and that his objective is not to "wash our dirty linen in public".Royston has clearly shown his undeniable talent in filmmaking after a series of outstanding short films and I am happy that he has fulfilled his personal dream to make a full feature. A few foreign distributors are already interested in 15 but Shaw's intent for a general release in Singapore is yet to be finalized, uncut or otherwise. Whether 15 are the most important Singapore film to date may remain a subject of debate but I believe many would say that it is the most unforgettable.