Cinema Reclaimed: DRIVING, KICKING, AND PUNCHING!
Programme 1: Cinema Reclaimed Talk: DRIVING, KICKING, AND PUNCHING!
by Ben Slater
Sun, 14 May 2023 | 2pm - 3:15pm
Venue: Oldham Theatre
Fee: Free with registration
Registration: cinemareclaimedtalk.peatix.com
This year’s Cinema Reclaimed talk provides a quirky survey of how sport and transport have been glimpsed in the cinema of Singapore, and are ways to bring us around the city-state. As we work our way through the moving image archive, there’ll be digressions on film locations, different eras of filmmaking, the loneliness of taxi drivers (and before that, trishaw drivers), as well as how films have struggled to portray team-sports as opposed to individual athletes’ journeys. Many films will be covered, from the iconic and well-known to the rare and obscure, from the post-war studio era right through to the 2000s.
Curated by Cinema Reclaimed with support and collaboration from the Asian Film Archive.
Programme 2: Hantu Rimau (Tiger Ghost) 1960
Directed by L. Krishnan, B. N. Rao & S. Roomai Noor
Starring S. Roomai Noor, Mary Lim, Siput Sarawak, Yem, Safinah
Malay, Black & White, 117 mins
Sun, 14 May 2023 | 5pm
Sun, 21 May 2023 | 2pm
Venue: Oldham Theatre
Fee: $10 per pax
Registration: hanturimau.peatix.com
Produced by Cathay-Keris, this omnibus of three stories (with different directors) was adapted from mystery tales featuring Detective Inspector Latiff (S. Roomai Noor), a character created Pelham Groom, a former British officer and genre writer who settled in Singapore. Latiff’s ‘Watson’ is a female Chinese forensic doctor (Mary Lim), and the first story hinges on the romance between an English expat and a Malay woman. The third tale ’Double Knock Out’, heralded as the first depiction of a local boxing match, was shot in Happy World (later renamed Gay World), one of the night-life amusement parks known as the ‘Worlds’. A fun, stylish entertainment with lots of wonderful locations and contemporary details.
Curated by Cinema Reclaimed with support and collaboration from the Asian Film Archive.
Programme 3: The Complete Hosaywood Football Shorts, 2005-2020
Directed by Jacen Tan
In Mandarin, Malay, English & Singlish
Colour, 75 mins
Sun, 21 May 2023 | 5pm
Venue: Oldham Theatre
Fee: $10 per pax
Registration: hosaywood.peatix.com
In 2005, just before YouTube launched, a video went viral hilariously depicting the life of local football fans: sneaking around to play in public spaces, evading authorities, placing bets and arguing over S-League. That film, Tak Giu, was the debut of Jacen Tan and his collective Hosaywood. While he’s satirised other aspects of Singaporean life, Tan’s greatest subject remains closest to his heart. His documentaries about football capture the passion for the game, and the struggle to create spaces for it in Singapore, often against the odds (and in spite of the system). Here for the first time ever we present all the Hosaywood football films and what emerges is a funny, moving and joyous celebration of the resilience of Singaporean football.
Films included: Tak Giu (2005), Lions All The Way (2013), Homeground (2015), Ultramen Johor (2014), Table Football Fanatics of Singapore (2020), Kwa Giu - Tribute to the National Stadium (2011)
We’re excited to announce that cast and crew will be present at the screening to introduce the film and for a Q&A afterwards!
Curated by Cinema Reclaimed with support and collaboration from the Asian Film Archive.
Programme 4: Insan (Human), 1955
Directed by K. M. Basker
Starring Siput Sarawak, Omar Rojik, Ahmad Mahmood, Sa'adiah, Latifah Omar
In Malay
Black & White, 96 mins
Sun, 28 May 2023 | 2pm
Venue: Oldham Theatre
Fee: $10 per pax
Registration: insan.peatix.com
The same year Shaw’s Malay Film Productions released P. Ramlee’s Penarek Becha, they also produced this melodrama centred around another humble trishaw driver. Like Ramlee’s film it was co-written by young literary upstart Jamil Sulong (who later became a director). Similar issues around class, wealth and modernity are explored through the tale of a kindly older trishaw driver (Omar Rojik) who adopts Jamilah, an orphan and marries her guardian, offering her a simple but better life (including a very, very long visit the circus). As the years pass Jamilah pulls away from her impoverished kampong life towards a world of motor cars and monied families, while kind Omar’s health is failing. A classic slice of social-realist melodrama.
Curated by Cinema Reclaimed with support and collaboration from the Asian Film Archive.
Programme 5: Perth, 2004
Directed by Djinn
Starring Lim Kay Tong, Sunny Pang, A. Panneeirchelvam, Qiu Lian Liu
In English, Hokkien, Mandarin, Vietnamese
Colour, 107 mins
Sun, 28 May 2023 | 5pm
Venue: Oldham Theatre
Fee: $10 per pax
Registration: perthcinemareclaimed.peatix.com
Echoes of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, but Perth is its own film. Lim Kay Tong’s Harry Lee, an ageing, angry ex-Navy veteran struggles to make a future in a modern city-state that doesn’t want him any more. He becomes a taxi driver to save up towards his dream of escaping to Australia, but gets stuck ferrying drunk yuppies late at night. When he starts chauffeuring sex workers pimped by sinister gangsters operating out of a bar in Geylang, Harry faces the heart of Singapore’s darkness, and believes he can find redemption for his past sins. The details of a taxi driver’s life are spot-on: pandan leaves in the back, the over-sharing conversations, but Djinn’s film is best viewed as grotesque black comedy (often wallowing in misogyny and brutal violence), led by Lim’s intense go-for-broke performance.
We’re excited to announce that cast and crew will be present at the screening to introduce the film and for a Q&A afterwards!
Curated by Cinema Reclaimed with support and collaboration from the Asian Film Archive.
