The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies
The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies |
| Posted: 13 Jul 2011 01:25 AM PDT Singaporean singer and theatre actress Joanna Dong makes her big-screen debut in Forever. WHEN Singaporean singer-actress Joanna Dong first saw Royston Tan's musical drama 881, she was totally awestruck by its performances and catchy songs. Little did she know that some years later, she would be starring in the stage version of the movie, which recently ended its run in the island state. Then she saw Wee Li Lin's film, Gone Shopping, and was impressed by the director's vision. Again, little did she know that she would end up as the lead actress in Wee's latest movie, Forever. "It's very strange how I always end up working with people whose works I appreciate," she said with a laugh in a telephone interview from Singapore. "I get to work with them and appreciate them at an even deeper level." In the film, Dong plays Joey, a wedding videographer who turns stalker when she finds Mr Right, played by Taiwanese singer-actor Mo Tzu Yi. It's a challenging role, no doubt, and Dong had to go through one round of audition and two rounds of callback to land it. It's also her big-screen debut, although she has long been involved in acting of a different kind – in musical theatre. She was the recipient of the 2008 ST Life! Theatre Awards' Best Supporting Actress for her role in the hit musical If There're Seasons. "I always thought it would be really cool to be in a film," said Dong. "And I'd also wondered what it would be like to be a part of the process. But I never planned for it, so when the opportunity came, I took it. I was very, very lucky." So lucky is she that despite Forever being her first screen endeavour, she still shone enough to garner the Star Hunter Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival recently. She was among 10 nominees for the inaugural award that recognises new acting talents. "There are so many great actors from Singapore who deserve an award," she said. "I just feel that I did the right thing at the right time." Playing a stalker drunk on love must have been tough for Dong, who admits her only training in acting was in junior college where she studied theatre and drama. But she said she had a lot of help from director Wee, who she described as patient, generous and sensitive. Wee's first film, Gone Shopping, showed off her keen observation of Singaporeans and life in the island state, drawing out the dreams, aspirations, hopes and disappointments of a society in the fast lane. "It is a very female perspective of the world, it's quite dream-like, and the line between reality and the psyche of the woman is blurred," said Dong. "And that is amplified in Forever." Wee's second film tackles the issue of love and romance in a country where the government does not hesitate to give a helping hand to couples and their budding romance. Wee drew inspiration from the time she made an instructional video for the government and the Registry Of Marriage. But what is love and romance like in Singapore? Dong explained: "I think for most people of my generation and the generation before me, love and romance are actually an important part of our lives. Everything we see on TV, there are love stories and love triangles. "I think most Singaporean youth hope to be able to find some kind of romance. In that sense, my character Joey fits that profile, except that she's a bit extreme in the ways that she tries (to find love)." The Wedding Education Department (W.E.D.) in the film is, in fact, a spoof of a real government department dedicated to helping couples have a happy marriage. "In Singapore, we have this huge worry about the declining birth rate," said Dong. "The government tries to encourage young people to get married and procreate. So this thing is not just in the public's consciousness informally, but it is also almost legalised and institutionalised. And a lot of people are very concerned about getting married and having a wedding." Being a singer, she has sung at enough weddings to know what it is like. "It has become a benchmark for (people's) lives," said Dong. "Getting the perfect marriage and wedding seems to mean that the rest of your life will go perfectly as well." Asked if she has someone special in her life, Dong admitted she is seeing someone. But is she stalking him? "No!" she said, laughing. "I don't believe in forcing someone into love. I just don't believe in that. If someone doesn't reciprocate my affections, then I'd just leave it at that." But do Singaporean women have a rose-tinted view of love and romance like her character Joey? "I think there is a (good mix)," she replied. "Many Singaporean women are independent and quite pragmatic. But I think there's always some level of romantic idealism, in the sense that Singaporean women are more likely to marry for love than for money. That's my personal view, but I could be wrong! (Laughs)" Like her Taiwanese co-star Mo in the film, Dong also started her career in music before anything else. In fact, she still lives a double-life as both a singer and an actress. She sings for the DJ-musician-vocalist group coll.ef (collective effervescence). She is also a pioneer in Singapore of what is known as free vocal improvisation, where the singer improvises to a DJ's tracks. After Forever, Dong is now working on her debut album, a collection of Mandarin jazz songs. Incidentally, she wrote the lyrics to, and sang, the movie's theme song. She had also released a jazz EP in 2008 called Lullaby Nomad. She said of her upcoming album: "I'm collaborating with some lyricist friends, and we're writing Mandarin lyrics for these (known) jazz melodies. I think most listeners of jazz are English-speaking. So I'm hoping Mandarin audiences will warm up to the music as well." > Forever, in Mandarin, distributed by Golden Screen Cinemas, opens tomorrow. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 13 Jul 2011 01:25 AM PDT Singaporean filmmaker Wee Li Lin explores erotomania in her latest dark romantic comedy. In her latest movie titled Forever, Singaporean filmmaker Wee Li Lin takes audiences into the wacky world of an erotomaniac woman "who falls in love too easily and gets irrationally fixated on the man she loves". Also known in Mandarin as Wo Ai Ni Ai Ni Ai Ni (literally, I Love You Love You Love You), Forever is Wee's second feature film, the first being Gone Shopping (2007). Speaking at a press conference held at GSC Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur, recently, Wee revealed the inspiration for her movie. "I was at a film festival in Italy for my first movie called Gone Shopping and had a meeting with some filmmaker friends. We were talking about strange projects we had done that left a strong impression and I had an interesting story to tell. "A couple of years ago, I was doing a lot of government videos – anti-drug, anti-smoking, anti-gambling – and I was actually asked to do a video to promote marriage in Singapore. Through the process of making this pro-marriage video, I met this lady who was my client." Wee became friends with this attractive lady who is about 40 years old, who ironically did not believe in marriage. She had a bad breakup and declared that she did not care to be in another relationship again. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she revealed the novel way in which she punished the man. "She proceeded to tell me how she stalked her ex-fiance for two years. And all the while I was doing the wedding video for her so I thought it was really ironical. I told this story to my filmmaker friends in Italy and they said I should make a movie out of it," shared Wee, 38, who was initially hesitant about documenting personal details. The very same night, Wee told the story to her husband, and proceeded to write the entire outline of the film "just for fun" and showed it to her friends over lunch the next day. Wee even managed to make it a husband-and-wife team project by roping in her artist husband Charles Lim as art director. With funding from the Singapore Film Commission's New Feature Film Fund, Wee's just-for-fun story gave birth to her new movie Forever, a rom-com with a dark twist. The movie starts off on a romantic footing, but things are not what they seem. Joey (Joanna Dong) is a sweet girl who works as a video consultant commissioned by W.E.D. (Wedding Education Department) to produce wedding videos promoting romance and marriage to young Singaporean singles. Gin (Mo Tzu Yi) is a handsome music teacher from Taiwan. While shooting a romantic wedding video in which she plays the bride and he plays the groom, Joey is thoroughly convinced that Gin is the man of her dreams. Madly in love, the obsessed girl starts stalking Gin to make him see that she is the perfect bride for him. But things get complicated when Gin's feisty fiance Cecilia (Sarah Ng Li Wen) shows up to stake her claim. Shooting for the quirky romantic comedy began late last year and wrapped early this year, but it was casting that literally took forever as Wee insisted on getting fresh faces to play her main characters. Having auditioned many young Singaporeans, Wee finally cast Mo as she was taken in by his "shy, cannot-say-no" quality, while Dong's crooning ability prompted a rewrite to include several scenes of her singing. Singaporean actresses Dong and Ng make their big screen debut in Forever while upcoming Taiwanese star Mo features in his first Singaporean film. Dong is a theatre enthusiast and recording artiste while Ng is a model-turned-actress. Mo, who has featured in various theatre, TV and cinema productions, will next be seen in Hong Kong crime thriller Smile For Me and Australian movie Triple Happiness. The prolific award-winning short filmmaker studied film in the United States and worked in television after graduation. Wee started off making short films, documentaries, and public service announcement videos before moving on to full-length features. A third feature is already in the pipeline for Wee, who is currently working on a new screenplay for a musical comedy called Singapore Cowboy which revolves around a "Singaporean man who wants to be the world's first Asian country singing star". Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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