Happy 9th of August!
Okay, so that still doesn’t quite have the same ring as 4th of July, but we think it’s about time we start getting used to that date – by acting on it.
Yes, the bright lights of the West with its megawatt stars and giant-budget films are impressive and bubblegum friendly. But what we have here on our shores ain’t so bad either, even though we’re a little sticky on the bubblegum bit. It’s all a matter of perception, though we must admit it’s tough to shake the pre-conceived notion that everything Hollywood-made is somehow glossier.
That’s why, while we’ve always gone that extra mile to update you on the popular Hollywood fare, we also hope to enrich the film-lover in you by exposing you to more locally-made films.
Two very different Singaporean-made films open here this month. Although they don’t fall into the national-favourite (read: commercially safer) genres of horror or comedy, they are still set on familiar territory. They just come with a breath of fresh air.
Set during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, homegrown director Anthony Chen’s Camera d’Or-winning Ilo-Ilo is the story of an ordinary Singaporean family and their maid from Ilo-Ilo in the Philippines; while Chai Yee Wei’s That Girl In Pinafore, which recently premiered at the Shanghai International Film Festival, is a musical movie about an important element of our Singapore heritage: the ‘xinyao’ movement. Read our exclusive interview with Chen and the in-depth reviews of these two films inside.
On the Western front, there’s also a slew of exclusive stuff inside: our interviews with Logan Lerman for Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters; director Neill Blomkamp for Elysium; director Shawn Levy for The Internship; Jamie Campbell Bower and Lily Collins for The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones; Hank Azaria for The Smurfs 2; and more.
So, Happy National Day, support local films too, and see you at the movies!
Cheers,
Royston Loh
Editor-In-Chief
Check out what`s inside this issue:
Giant Posters:
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