City of Angels – in development

This film is currently still at the script development stage.

Logline

Suspicion is a Mandarin language feature film set in the notorious and seedy quarters of Geylang.

The film’s main characters are a gunman, a prostitute, and a swindler. You would not usually term such people as “angels”. Yet, this film does just that. It looks beyond their criminal and desolate lives spent in the depression and darkness of notorious Geylang, and shows them to be more than typical underworld caricatures.

A gunman is not just a killer. He is also a father searching for his long lost daughter. A prostitute is not just a woman of loose morals. She is also a girl providing a living for her distant family. A swindler is not just out to deceive. She is also a person looking for love.

The resulting film is a cinematic exploration of a delightful mix of crime and the underworld, but of love and loss as well.

Director’s notes

Geylang has always been one of the few places in Singapore which I felt had enough colour and character to serve as the setting for a feature film. Reknowned for its nightlife and prostitution, it has a natural vibrancy and richness which you cannot find in other locations in Singapore, which I find to be too man made and mundane.

It has always been one of my greatest desires to shoot a film set in the vibrant nightlife of Geylang. Visually, the Geylang area provides a film with a wonderful template of colours and life to draw from. It provides a luscious backdrop of busy main streets of nightwalkers gorgeously lit by warm streetlight and neon signs, and dingy derelict apartments hidden in the quiet corners with aged and grimy walls, lit by moody flickering fluorescents.

Taking Geylang the location as the foundation for the film, I decided to research into the type of stories which could fit into the environment. Ironically, I found my inspiration right before my very eyes – from the newspapers. Recently, the Straits Times has been running many stories in the home Section about some kind of sensational crime happening in Singapore. Recent examples would be of the gang gunman nicknamed “The one-eyed Dragon”, or the numerous stories of mainland china prostitutes murdered in crimes of passion, or stories about the on-goings of illegal gambling dens and their activities. Even though all of these were real life stories, they packed enough drama and conflict in them to serve as full bodied fictional stories. To me, these sensational stories were the perfect match to set in the seedy and notorious environment of Geylang.

After a lot of research, by drawing upon a mixture of those real life stories together with a generous dose of fiction and imagination, I narrowed it down to the stories of three characters which were to me, the most unique and interesting and memorable, and which would translate well onto film. The stories did not just have a lot of visual and dramatic potential, but more importantly, those stories were also very human and moved me a lot emotionally too.

I chose three characters which I felt were the most typical caricatures of the underworld that people would relate to – A Gunman for hire, A lady owner of an illegal gambling den, and a young prostitute from China. This allows for audiences to have an immediate recognition of the characters. However, I went on to develop their stories so that as the film progresses, the characters would develop layers and grow into more than mere stereotypical caricatures. Their stories would look beyond the superficial portrayal of them as hardened, vulgar, desolate characters and reveals the more human and softer side to them, the more “angelic” side, if you will. It is from this idea that the film title “City Of Angels” is derived from.

Hence, as the film develops, so do the characters. We learn that the hired gunman is more than a cold blooded hired assassin. He is also a father yearning for reconciliation with his long lost daughter. The lady gambler is more than a hardened vulgar woman with a swindling and deceptive mind. She is also a sister trying hard to win back the favour of her estranged younger sister. The young Chinese prostitute is more than a money minded girl of loose morals. She is also a daughter sacrificing her flesh in order to give her family in china a better life.

The common thread which connects the three characters is that they all live in the same dingy apartment building in small and cramped one roomed flats. Though they meet each other in the course of their lives from time to time, they never really acknowledge each other’s presence. However, by the end of the film, their paths will cross for the first time. Ironically, that is when things will come to a tragic ending for all of them.

Suspicion – in development

This film is currently still at the script development stage.

Logline

Suspicion is a Mandarin language feature film, and it is a modern take on the classic “who-did-it” type police/crime/forensics thriller. The film begins with the simple murder of a prostitute, but things get more complicated when more murders are committed, and Inspector Li, the police officer in charge of the investigations, is soon suspected for the murders. But as the film progresses, Inspector Wong, Li’s boss who tasked him to solve the crime, seems to have just as much motive for the murders.

And in spite of the films’ constant plot twists and turns, the final twist at the end still manages to throw up a shocking surprise when the identity of the murderer is revealed.

Director’s notes

Inspirations for the film -

Being a strong genre-type thriller, my inspiration was derived from so many previous great films of this genre – from the early Alfred Hitchcock films, to Michael Mann’s police thrillers Heat and Collateral, Curtis Hanson’s LA Confidential, even the Andrew Lau’s HK film Infernal Affairs.

This film borrows heavily from the genre, and employs a commonly used storyline – two cops, who also happen to be best friends, are pitted against each other. But I took the concept further, and whereas it is usually quite clear from the start who the good cop and the bad cop is, in this film, both cops are suspected of the murder until the ending. Inspectors Li and Wong are also not typical best friends. While it is clear that they have known each other for a long time, there exists a tension and distance between them, and a strong mistrust, as if the had fallen out from their friendship. Once again, only towards the end do we learn why.

Another big source of inspiration is the critically acclaimed forensics thriller TV series CSI. Just like the series whereby the forensics evidence discovered as the story progresses will drive the plot forward, this film borrows that technique as well, making forensics evidence a crucial aspect of the film.

Approach for the film –

The film is mostly set at night because the darkness adds on to the mystery and suspense of the film.

As the film’s outdoor scenes are mostly set in Desker Road, that itself determines the mood and look of those scenes – dark, grimy, clustered, and somewhat sinister.

We try to carry over the mood and look to the interior scenes in the CID HQ. We make the lighting harsh and moody. But we must also not forget that because they operate in the highly advanced forensics lab, there should be a high level of technology and equipment as well.

A good reference for the kind of mood and look I would like to achieve for this film would be David Fincher’s Seven, the crime thriller starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.

Execution of the film -

Before making Minority Report, a crime thriller set in the future, Steven Spielberg assembled a “think tank” of science and technology experts to devise and create as realistic as possible the futuristic look of the film.

Similarly, this film concentrates a lot on how the CID and Investigations Sections function and operate. As such, I think it a very necessary to consult a team of people very familiar with the workings of the CID to advise on all these aspects:

- The operation procedures of the CID and Investigations Section – both on the field and in the lab.
- The layout and look of the CID HQ.
- The communication lingo between the CID officers.

Trishaw Script

This is the final draft of the script used to shoot “Trishaw”.

trishaw.pdf