THE CINEMA OF SINGAPORE
I.
INTRODUCTION
A.
During Singapore’s “Golden Age” of movies, two studios dominated
film production, distribution and exhibition
1.
These two studios were the Shaw Brothers’ Malay Film
Productions and Cathay-Keris
2.
Although contemporary audiences tend to think of the films of
each of these two companies as being very similar to those of
the other, they were, in fact, quite different in many ways
B.
Films, in some important ways, are not unlike other products
1.
There is a great degree of standardization necessary, for a
variety of reasons
a)
In terms of technology, films need to conform to the
same industrial standards in order to be usable in all
types of equipment
b)
For reasons of marketing, films need to conform to what
audiences expect “movies” to be (in the United States,
as well as in most of the rest of the world, this means
adherence to what has become known as the classical
Hollywood cinema)
c)
In addition, movies need to be within certain limits in
terms of length in order to fit into theater schedules
1
(this was much more important in the past than it is
today)
2.
Finally, movies tend to be standardized aesthetically due to
artistic standards within the industry
a)
Film artists and technicians tend to learn what is “good”
by noticing which films win prestigious awards and
achieve box office success
b)
They also learn by participating in trade groups and
receiving other kinds of formal and informal feedback
from superiors and colleagues
C.
At the same time, movies must be differentiated from one another
1.
Otherwise, there would be no reason to choose one over
another
2.
This differentiation usually takes the forms of genre, stars,
and/or directors
3.
Just as the model they used – the Hollywood studios – Malay
Film and Cathay-Keris created products that were immediately
recognizable as not just movies, but movies of a particular
culture
a)
In this case, they produced “Malay films”, with a number
of similar conventions
b)
In addition to a basic conformity to the classical
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Hollywood model in terms of editing and fundamental
cinematic conventions, Malay films borrowed the
concept of the musical from Indian cinema and the
native theatrical form of bangsawan
c)
This concept, unlike the Hollywood model, included, and
in fact often required, musical numbers in almost all
movies
d)
And some genres of Malay films had their own
conventions (different from those of Hollywood, but
often similar to those of similar genres in other Third
World cinemas)
D.
Despite these similarities, and again like the Hollywood studios, each
of the two Singaporean studios needed to give audiences a reason to
choose its films over those of its competitor
1.
Therefore, despite the necessary similarities, the films of each
studio needed to be clearly differentiated from those of the
other
2.
These differences include directors (most notably P. Ramlee
and Hussein Haniff), stars, and genres
II.
EARLY MALAYSIAN CINEMA
A.
As early as 1898, films were being screened in Kuala Lumpur;
according to newspaper accounts, some members of the audience
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thought that the projectionist was a magician, went to him for advice
B.
By the 1910s, most of the larger cities had movie theaters (usually
owned by the Chinese), & travelling film shows visited smaller towns
& rural areas
C.
THE BRITISH
1.
Established the system of censorship that still has persisted
2.
Concerned about the effects of movies on the “natives”
3.
They accused Hollywood movies of the 1920s of:
a)
Spreading communist propaganda
b)
Undermining the image of the white race as superior
c)
Teaching locals undesirable things about white women
(that they were wanton & independent)
d)
Causing an increase in the crime rate & promoting
interracial marriage
4.
A series of laws established began in 1910
a)
All films screened by the official censor in Singapore
b)
In 1925, 12% of the films examined were banned
outright, & 90% of the rest were censored in some way
5.
1927, stricter laws
a)
Films fined US$500 for indecency, & films were banned
b)
There was an appeals committee, but only for more
censorship, not less
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c)
1927, more than 128 films banned for the following:
(1)
“Immodest dress” of Western women
(2)
The portrayal of gambling & criminal
behaviourThe showing of interracial marriages &
“attachments”
(3)
The targets of these measures were primarily
Hollywood films, & British films were not as
affected by censorship
D.
EARLY FILM PRODUCTION
1.
Out to the Sea
a)
1st film made in Singapore?
b)
Account in the Singapore Daily News, 1932
c)
Directed by Ward Wing of World Wide Pictures, featured
bangsawan actors
d)
“A simple story of love amid smiling brown pearl fishers”
e)
The heroine “resembled a little brown butterfly with
coloured wings”
2.
The 1st film known to have been made in Malaysia was Laila
Majnun in 1933
a)
This was made by 2 Indians, producer Chisty & director
B.S. Rajhans
b)
They employed bangsawan actors for the film, a practice
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that became quite common in Malaysian cinema
3.
The mid 1930s saw the founding of 2 film empires:
a)
The Shaw Brothers (Run Run & Runme) in Singapore
(1)
They used 2nd-hand equipment they had found
in an abandoned building in Shanghai
(2)
As with the Hollywood film studios, the Shaw
Bros. realized that to really make money they
would have vertically integrate, so they
distributed their own films & bought theaters
b)
At about the same time, Loke Wan Tho began Cathay
Productions, based in Singapore & Kuala Lumpur
c)
Unfortunately, just as these companies were becoming
somewhat successful, WW II broke out
III.
MALAYSIAN CINEMA DURING THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION
A.
CONTROL OF THE FILM INDUSTRY
1.
All film exhibition came under control of 1 of the “kaishas,” or
official Japanese occupation government monopolies, the The
Eiga Haikyu Sha (Film Distribution Co.)
2.
THE CAMPAIGN OF “NIPPONISATION”
a)
Japanese films were used in the campaign of
“Nipponisation” carried out by the occupation forces
b)
Given a choice, the Malaysians preferred British &
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American movies to those of the Japanese
c)
Popular belief: fearing the influence of western films on
the Malaysians, the Japanese banned western films, & in
fact banned all but Japanese films in Malaya
d)
In fact, after about a year of occupation, banned only
films from Allied nations
(1)
Showed some movies from Germany
(2)
Never a time when Indian & Chinese films were
not playing in local theatres, sometimes pre-war
Malay movies
e)
But the majority of movies available were Japanese
(1)
Locals patronized them and, apparently,
appreciated & enjoyed them, realizing that
these films were being used for propaganda
(2)
B.
Had an influence on later filmmakers
Despite all the negative aspects of the Japanese control of film
exhibition in Malaysia, it did serve to expose the work of such
filmmakers as Ozu & Mizoguchi
C.
The Occupation would have 2 important influences on later
Singaporean films
1.
It provided a source of stories and themes for a number of films
2.
The films provided stylistic models for later Singaporean films
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(esp. those of P Ramlee)
IV.
POSTWAR SINGAPOREAN CINEMA
A.
Despite all the measures of the British government (which returned
after the war) to control film content, thus rendering movies fairly
bland, by 1950 Malaya led the world in per capita filmgoing (today,
Singapore does)
B.
It was also during these post-war years that a truly indigenous Malay
film industry emerged
C.
The first important post-war film studio in Malaya was Malay Film
Production Ltd, established at 8 Jalan Ampas in Singapore by the
Shaw Brothers in 1947
1.
In the 1950s, as in the pre-war years, they imported Indian film
directors to Singapore
2.
Remade Indian films as Malay-language films
3.
This would prove to be a major influence on Malay films, which
even today are similar to Indian films in some important ways
(including the predominance of songs and romantic stories, as
well as clichéd techniques)
4.
Indian film directors remained a major force in Singaporean
films throughout the 1950s, 60, and early 70s
D.
Malay Film Productions was soon followed by Cathay-Keris
Productions, the result of a merger of Cathay Productions and Keris
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Productions
1.
Production facilities first in Singapore’s Tampines and later on
East Coast Road
2.
V.
1st film of the new company was Buluh Perinda in 1951
THE “GOLDEN AGE” OF SINGAPOREAN CINEMA
A.
The decade of the 1950s is generally regarded as Singapore’s (and
Malaysia’s) “Golden Age” of filmmaking
1.
Production increased, as Malay Film and Cathay Keris released
a film every month
2.
More Malays entered the film industry, and Malay film genres
began to emerge and develop at this time
B.
GENRES
1.
Of course, the musical, inspired by both bangsawan and Indian
cinema, flourished
2.
But even more interesting were the crime dramas (inspired by
Chinese films and the dark, cynical Hollywood crime films
known as film noir) and the horror movies
3.
Films of the latter genre featured such indigenous Malay
characters as the pontianak (vampire), the polong (an
unfortunate creature with his intestines trailing behind his
severed torso) and the talking mouse deer, and were inspired
by local beliefs, legends and superstitions as much as they were
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by old Hollywood horror films
C.
But even more than these genre films, the public flocked to local
cinemas to see the newest films featuring their favorite film
personalities
1.
A number of popular movie stars emerged at this time
2.
Including, of course, the greatest figure in Malaysian film
history, P. Ramlee
D.
P RAMLEE
1.
Ramlee was by far the chief asset of Malay Film Productions,
and his influence at the studio was profound
2.
Ramlee was discovered singing in a nightclub by director the
Indian director B.S. Rajhans, who cast him in the film Cinta
(Love) in 1948, as the villain (he also sang for the hero)
3.
Although he had a very good singing voice, he was considered
ugly, and was cast as the villain in all of his early films
4.
He also worked on films in a number of other capacities,
volunteering for any work and learning all aspects of
filmmaking
5.
Ramlee eventually was given major roles as the hero, and
achieved a macho look that was widely imitated by young
Malay men
6.
In 1955, he finally got a chance to direct a film, Penarik Beca
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(The Trishaw Puller)
a)
his film was very successful, both artistically and
economically
b)
Led to Ramlee’s career as Malaysia’s most successful
director as well as actor, writer, songwriter, and singer
c)
Almost a one-man production crew, Ramlee wrote
scripts, wrote songs, sang, acted in movies, and directed
(1)
Almost everything, in fact, but run the cameras
(2)
Although there is evidence from his films that he
probably specified camera angles and lighting
plans
d)
His films, especially the comedies, were very popular
among the not only the Malay population of both
Singapore and peninsular Malaysia, but much of the
Indian and Chinese audience as well
7.
Just as a sports team can sometimes begin to take on the
personality and character of its star athlete, Malay Film
Productions came to be “Ramlee-fied”, and his influence could
be seen throughout the studio’s products
a)
A great number of these films featured the direct
participation of Ramlee, but even many of those that
didn’t showed the impact he made on the studio
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b)
In other words, the characteristics of his films became
the standard for Malay Film Productions
c)
The majority of his films are contemporary comedies or
melodramas, and were filmed partly on locations in
Singapore (an especially interesting example is his 1961
comedy, Seniman Bujang Lapok, known in English as The
Nitwit Movie Stars, with its scenes of filmmaking at the
Malay Film Productions studio)
d)
Over time, contemporary comedies and melodramas
became the norm at Malay Film Productions
e)
These comedies and melodramas also tend to contain
social criticism, although this aspect is usually not foregrounded
(1)
For example, the Singapore of Ramlee and the
other Malay Film movies is almost totally devoid
of Chinese
(2)
Just as African-American filmmakers of the
1920s-1940s made films featuring an almost
completely black America, Malay Films feature a
Singapore in which racial difference, and the
tensions it sometimes brought, did not exist.
(3)
Certainly there were exceptions, but most of
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these films were made primarily to entertain,
and social commentary seldom was aimed at
ethnic, racial, political or religious conflicts
(4)
Criticism tends to be directed more at class
conflicts, especially those class conflicts that
resulted from the tension between the kampong
and the city
(a)
City life is dangerous, and city women are
even more dangerous, in these films
(b)
A kampong boy could make it in the city,
but only if he retained kampong values,
and, preferably, married a kampong girl
(c)
The kampong girl was better off just
avoiding the city altogether
8.
Malay Film Productions did, of course, sometimes make films in
other genres
a)
The majority of these, however, are period pieces that
were, like other films at Malay Film, “Ramlee-fied”
b)
In other words, they are often historical fantasies in
which Ramlee (or another leading man) is featured in a
comic role (Ali Baba Bujong Lapok [P. Ramlee, 1961] is a
good example of this kind of movie)
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c)
Even the horror movies at Malay Films, such as Anak
Pontianak (Vampire Child; Ramon A. Estella, 1958) and
Ramlee’s Sumpah Orang Minyak (The Oily Man; P
Ramlee, 1958) tend to be less serious than those of
Cathay-Keris, and are much more playful with these
Malay myths
E.
Cathay, unlike the Shaw brothers, relied, in addition to the foreign
films it distributed, to a great extent on films made at its Hong Kong
studio
1.
These films were made mostly in Mandarin, but sometimes,
especially in the early years, in Cantonese
a)
In 1997 Cathay re-released three of these Mandarin films
-- Our Sister Hedy (Tao Qin, 1958), Her Tender Heart
(Evan Yang, 1959) and Mambo Girl (Evan Yang, 1957)
b)
Reveal the inventiveness that became a standard feature
of subsequent Hong Kong movies
2.
Back home in Singapore, Cathay-Keris made movies in Bahasa
Melayu
a)
It lacked a star of the magnitude of P. Ramlee, but did
have a number of stars
(1)
Leading ladies Maria Menado and Rose Yatimah
were quite popular
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(2)
b)
Comedian Wahid Satay
Cathay-Keris did, however, boast of at least one
outstanding film director: Hussein Haniff
(1)
Unlike the small, personal films of Ramlee, the
films of Cathay-Keris’s Hussein Haniff used a
much a larger canvas, often featuring large
battle scenes filmed outdoors (but with limited
resources) with what look like fairly large
numbers of actors and extras
(2)
Instead of contemporary subjects, Haniff worked
with historical stories, setting his social
commentary and criticisms in Malaya’s feudal
past
(3)
As seen in Hang Jebat (1961) and Dang Anom
(1962), the films by Haniff that were shown at
the 1997 Singapore International Film Festival,
he was a master of mise-en-scene -- scenery,
precision acting, lighting -- as opposed to
Ramlee, whose chief concerns were camera work
and the emotions expressed by the human face
and voice
c)
Although not directed by “big name” directors such as
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Ramlee and Haniff, the genre films, especially the horror
films, made by Cathay-Keris were popular and worth
seeing even today
(1)
Horror
(a)
Better remembered than the more
prestige films are such Malay-language
horror films as Sumpah Pontianak
(Vampire’s Curse; B. N. Rao, 1958), and
Orang Minyak (The Oily Man; L. Krishnan,
1958)
(b)
These films, based on Malay mythology
and legends, all seemed quite scary when
they were seen in theaters at the time of
their release
(c)
Now, they are just as entertaining, but
maybe not quite as scary, and a little
funnier than they were intended to be
(although humor, as well as songs, were
an important part of the genre), and not
quite what we regard as realistic
(2)
Crime genre
(a)
Cathay-Keris secured the rights to the
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Inspector Latiff detective novels
(b)
Roomai Noor played the inspector
(c)
Was a major star at Cathay-Keris, also
became a director & important figure at
the studio
(d)
Father of Anita Sarawak; mother was Siput
Sarawak, another Cathay-Keris star
(3)
In the contemporary genres (like the crime
movies), Cathay-Keris movies were much more
racially integrated than Malay Film Productions
movies ever were
(a)
The Inspector Latiff series features a
Chinese pathologist played by Mary Lim
(b)
Indian Singaporeans also often appear in
secondary roles
(4)
The contemporary genres also gave Cathay-Keris
an excuse to use its Ocean Park nightclub
(5)
(a)
Next to its studios on East Coast Rd
(b)
Gave them a cheap location
(c)
Also helped advertise the nightclub
Finally, Cathay-Keris movies – in general - were
technically much more accomplished & polished
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than were those of Malay Film Productions
(a)
There was more care taken with the
settings (although special effects were
just as bad)
(b)
The editing & cinematography were much
smoother, more like that Hollywood films
3.
Because Cathay-Keris, unlike Malay Film Productions, lacked a
strong presence like Ramlee, it tended to rely more on a
diversified product line
a)
What its films tend to have in common is a reliance on
history and/or Malay myths
b)
They tend to take this history and these myths more
seriously than do the movies of Malay Film
VI.
In order to see how these differences are manifested in specific films, we
can take a closer look at two films dealing with the same story.
A.
The story of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat is a based on real incidents
that occurred more than 500 years ago, and the legend has been told
many times in many media
1.
Friends from childhood, Tuah and Jebat learned martial arts
together and eventually became guards of the Sultan, with
Tuah as the chief guard
2.
Tuah’s enemies at the Sultan’s court frame him; they trick
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Melur, his girlfriend, into becoming one of the Sultan’s
concubines, in order to be closer to Tuah
3.
Although Jebat urges Tuah to rescue Melur, Tuah refuses, as his
loyalty to the Sultan is much more important to him
4.
After Tuah explains this to the grief-stricken girl, the Sultan
sees Tuah leave Melur’s room
5.
Convinced that Tuah has been having an affair with one of his
concubines, the Sultan orders him beheaded
6.
However, the Sultan’s Captain General, whose life was saved
by Tuah, cannot bring himself to kill Tuah, and hides him in the
prison
7.
Enraged at the injustice done to his best friend, Jebat runs
amok in the palace, vowing to take revenge and kill the Sultan
8.
The Captain General reveals to the Sultan that Tuah is still
alive; the Sultan forgives Tuah, and orders him to kill Jebat
9.
B.
Still loyal, Tuah obeys, and kills his best friend
In 1951, Malay Film Productions filmed the story as Hang Tuah, their
1st color film
1.
In some ways, the film is not typical of the products of Malay
Film
a)
It is based on a historical subject, was not directed by
Ramlee, but by Phandi Majumdar (before Ramlee began
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directing)
b)
It is typical, however, in that it features Ramlee in the
starring role, and in that it “Ramlee-fies” the story to a
certain extent
c)
Although it remains relatively faithful to the story,
especially in that Tuah is seen as right, it was filmed as a
musical, with Ramlee singing when he isn’t fighting
d)
Also, the emphasis is very much on romance; Ramlee
spends much of the early film courting Melur, and a
great deal of the middle portion seducing a princess of a
neighboring state, only to finally tell her that he
convinced her to run away with him only so she can
marry the Sultan (he gives her a magic betel leaf to
make her forget him)
e)
The inconsistencies and seeming amorality in the
character of Tuah, like so many other inconsistencies in
Malay films, especially those based on history or legends,
are simply accepted by the audience
f)
And, although Hang Tuah wonders aloud at the end of
the film, “I wonder if I did the right thing,” there is little
to indicate any awareness on his part, or on the parts of
any of the characters, of the questionable values
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expressed by the film; in fact, even Hang Jebat
understands why Hang Tuah must kill him
C.
The same story was filmed by Cathay-Keris in 1962 as Hang Jebat
1.
Not surprisingly, the film was directed by Hussein Haniff, as
this is exactly the sort of movie in which he specialized: a
historical epic based on a Malay legend, one which was taken
very seriously by Malays
2.
As is indicated by the difference in the titles, Haniff clearly
meant for his film to be different from Malay Film’s version
3.
Haniff emphasized fighting and downplayed music and
romance, in an effort to impart his film with a sense of
seriousness and drama
4.
Instead of merely reinforcing popular beliefs regarding the
correctness of Hang Tuah’s actions, Haniff sought to emphasis
Hang Jebat and what Tuah’s disloyalty to him might mean
5.
Although technically excellent, Hang Jebat tended to leave
audiences cold; Hang Tuah’s confirmation of accepted values,
coupled with songs, color and a popular leading man, made a
much stronger and lasting impression on audiences
VII.
These two films help illustrate how Singapore’s two studios both conformed
to a model of filmmaking that audiences recognized as “Malay film”
A.
They also illustrate the ways in which the two studios sought to
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differentiate their products from one another, in an effort not only
to sell their own products and mark off their “territories”, but also to
respect the boundaries set by the other
B.
In other words, Malay Film Productions and Cathay-Keris established
product lines that were not only differentiated, but also
complemented one another
C.
In this way, each could capture a sufficient share of the market to
survive…at least until Hollywood and Hong Kong came along and took
it all
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