I do not plan to go into details on each of these films even though there were some which didn't really interest me. Given that this is a celebratory gift for the nation, I guess it's better that I keep my criticism to a minimum. Nonetheless, I would like to share my thoughts on the stories which did strike a chord with me in one way or another.
The Girl directed by Jack Neo
Jack Neo's films are usually commercial hits in the cinemas because the themes of his stories tend to be on things which affect most of us, be it NS, family problems and bread-and-butter issues so they can easily engage an audience of all ages and genders. On the other hand, he always gets rather harsh reviews from critics on the value of his films. Frankly speaking, it's not easy to achieve commercial success in a small market like Singapore. To go out of Singapore is yet another feat. Not all arthouse or indie directors can succeed too. Although I don't really see his films as those food-for-thought type of films, they aren't always as bad as how the critics make them out to be. I've watched a number of his films in the past especially during the Chinese New Year period because honestly, there's not much you can do during those few days other than head to the cinemas. In addition, the elders in the family tend not to be keen on Hollywood movies so it's always a natural choice to go local. Then again, after his highly publicised affair scandal years ago, it just feels terribly odd to see his films preaching the goodness of family ties or doing good so my interest in his films have dwindled a lot since then,
This short film however gives off a slightly different vibe. Signature-style of humour with a mix of dialects and Chinese, the story is as simple as it gets. A girl has a crush on a boy in the same class and would even sacrifice her well-being just to help him even though the guy treats her like trash. However, what really hooked me was how the simple story ended with this really sad twist of the girl's family moving to another kampung and the boy had no chance to repay her for what she did for him. Cliche or corny you may say, but sometimes, an emotion as simple as regret like in this instance is what really gets to you.
The Flame directed by K. Rajagopal
The entire film is in monochrome and depicts how an Indian family is faced with the choice of staying behind as Singaporeans or taking up the offer of British citizenship on the eve of the British's military withdrawal from Singapore. The father insists that his son and daughter-in-law go to UK with him but the son is caught in a dilemma especially since his wife refuses to go and become second-class citizens. On hindsight, it's easy to applaud the daughter-in-law for standing up to her father-in-law and insisting on staying in Singapore. However, at that time, nobody knew what was going to happen to Singapore after the British left so you can't blame the father for believing that things in the UK would be better for the family. What impressed me about this story was the great acting between the three characters and how they managed to convey the conflict convincingly to someone like me who didn't go through those difficult times and didn't have to make such a tough choice. It made me feel a sense of admiration to those who decided to stay despite the uncertainty and honestly speaking, if not for those who believed in a future for the nation, we might not have made it. Of course, for those who left, I can't blame them too because they thought that it was the best way out at that time. Luckily for the film, it doesn't choose to judge either side for the decisions they made which I thought was a good thing.
4:30 by Royston Tan
I can empathise with the little boy in this story because I used to be a latchkey-kid myself where I returned to an empty home after school. Eating lunch all alone with no one to talk to until someone returned home in the early evening is really not fun for kids of that age. Other than this "familiarity" with the lead character's situation, the nostalgia of seeing things from the past and that community spirit which is sorely missing nowadays brings back a lot of fond memories. Now, we hardly know our neighbours, let alone allow them to come into your place to borrow the shower room or offer them kueh like that Malay grandma did.
Grandma Positioning System (GPS) by Kelvin Tong
Again, this is a relatively simple and straightforward story of a Chinese family which has to travel to Johor every year during the Qingming festival to offer prayers to ancestors. Despite doing it every year, the family actually has little time and patience as seen from their eagerness to wrap things up quickly and get back into their routines. Even the route to the grandfather's grave is always "forgotten" by everyone except the grandmother who spends a huge amount of time talking to the grandfather about how to get home from the cemetery with her grandson seemingly listening without a care at the side. However, when the grandmother passed away, the family finds themselves stuck again in a bid to find the grave the following year and manages to find the location with the help of the grandchildren who remember what the grandmother said in the past. Just when the family is glad that they can wrap things up quickly unlike previous years, the grandson heads back to the graves and repeats what his grandmother said in the past so that the grandparents' spirits will be able to go to their new house. The significance of this film is probably not so much about mocking the impatience showed by the family members when paying respects to their ancestors and how much they were focusing on their own lives but rather the fact that everything is changing so quickly around us that there are hardly any landmarks of the old times which we can remember or see these days. That could be why the grandmother was insistent on telling her dead husband's spirit about the directions back home in case he got lost without the old landmarks along the way. Good thing that the grandson remembered what she said or else the "tradition" would have been lost with her passing.
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