Close eric Khoo looKs bacK at his film‑maKing career and lead characters, and charts his next spine‑tingling chapter enCounters Words HONG XINYI Photography ERIC SEOW Fashion Direction DESMOND LIM Hair MESH Subra, using L’ORÉAL PROFESSIONNEL Make-Up JUNE GOH/INDIGO ARTISANS, USING MAKE UP FOR EVER or those who came of age in the 1990s, the popular imagination of those years pulsed with a sort of vivid ennui. Even as the era’s blockbusters dazzled with new digital wizardry, independent cinema was entering a new golden age. Its auteurs—the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater and Wong Kar Wai—became the arbiters of cool, and their distinctive visual languages shaped the emotional palette of a whole generation. In Singapore, where a once-thriving film industry dominated by Shaw Brothers and Cathay-Keris had withered by the late 1970s, everyone had gotten used to not having movies of our own. And then, suddenly, there was Eric Khoo. This year marks the 20th anniversary of his sophomore feature film,12 Storeys, which featured interwoven stories about the residents of a single HDB block. From a distance of decades, it can be difficult to convey how strange and compelling it was in 1997 to see Singapore reflected FOODIE CONFIDENTIAL back to us in a film that had no interest in glossy surfaces or nation-building Director Eric Khoo slurps platitudes. Quite the opposite, in fact—the flats, coffee shops and mee pok at the location his first playgrounds in its universe were tinged with grit, grime and no small measure movie, Mee Pok Man, was shot. of gloom, painting a different portrait of Singapore’s journey from third The food lover’s next film will world to first. It was a moody meditation, in a minor key. feature ramen “I think what Singaporeans enjoyed was seeing a part of Singapore that Clé de Cartier Skeleton Automatic was not shown on Channel 8 and Channel 5,” Eric muses. “It was real life, it watch in palladium by Cartier was people talking in a mix of languages and dialects. It was not sanitised.” 1 hong kong tatler . month year 12 Storeys became the first Singapore film to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival LADY LUCK Lum May Yee got in the Un Certain Regard section, and was her first break in Eric’s sophomore also screened in many other international outing, 12 Storeys film festivals. That it followed on the heels doesn’t miss her career in front of the camera, she does value Cashmere turtleneck and cotton of Eric’s debut feature film, the well-received what those years taught her. “What it gave me was a sense of cord skirt, both by Max Mara; Mee Pok Man, in 1995, added another current self-confidence. And I’m still very proud to have been part of Panthère de Cartier brooch and of excitement. That first movie (about the his movies, for sure.” Indeed, Mee Pok Man and 12 Storeys made ring in white gold with emeralds, titular character’s obsession with working stars out of their leading ladies—Michelle’s kittenish charm onyx and diamonds, and High girl Bunny, played by Michelle Goh) had not and May Yee’s gamine cool added a different kind of enigmatic Jewellery bracelet in white gold with lacquer and diamonds, been a fluke. Maybe it really was possible glamour to Singapore’s celebrity landscape in the 1990s, and all by Cartier for Singapore to their indie aura still lingers. have its own film The sight of these erstwhile industry again. It girls greeting each other Time flies. In July “whAt It gave me fondly at this shoot would this year, independent warm the heart of any ’90s kid. cinema The Projector wAs A seNse Of Isn’t it great that Bunny and held a special seLf‑cONfIDeNce. Trixie turned out ok? screening of 12 Storeys, Like May Yee, Michelle hailing it as a classic of AND I’m stILL has left acting behind, except Singaporean cinema. when Eric asks her to make “It was really fun to veRy proud tO the occasional cameo, she watch it with a new jokes. “The things I do for audience, a young hAve beeN pARt you,” she quips to her first audience,” says Eric. Of hIs mOvIes” director. But she’s still in the Prod him for memories game, in a different capacity. of the shoot, and he — Lum May Yee on 12 Storeys Now a talent agent, she helps remembers that he had and working with Eric to manage the careers of two cameras. Because up-and-comers such as Hong he was working Kong-American action star with many first-time actors, “I knew I’d get Celina Jade and Canadian-Korean actor Peter Lee Jae Yoon. their best on the first take. I wanted a lot of Like Michelle, who worked as an actor in Vancouver, Canada conversations in this movie, so you see a lot for a good decade, these are bilingual, bicultural performers of talking heads. One camera would be on one whose successes increasingly hinge on the thriving markets of actor, the other camera on the other actor. I’d Asia rather than Hollywood. Her past experience makes her be in a room next door, just watching them on uniquely suited for the job. “I’ve been through this before, the monitor. If the performances were good and I know what they feel insecure about, what they may on the first take, that’s it, we’d use that”. have concerns about.” One of these first-timers was Lum May Yee, The vivacious Michelle is also a diehard romantic, and says who was in university at the time, and she agreed to play the part of Bunny because “I just thought dabbling in some part-time modelling. She it was a beautiful love story”. Eric also has fond memories was already friends with Eric when he asked of Mee Pok Man, which he affectionately calls his “firstborn”. her to read for the part of Trixie, a rebellious “None of us had made a feature film before. It only dawned teenager with an overbearing older brother. on us when we premiered the film at Majestic Cinema, for “I just came with an open mind, because I had the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), that we nothing to lose. It was just something I tried had actually finished this film.” He made the movie with film for fun,” she recalls. “The whole experience stock from Kodak, part of a prize he had won for an earlier was quite an eye-opener. The hours were long, short film,Pain. “I had a lot of master shots, but I didn’t have but the crew were just amazing people to enough film to do more cutaways. My shooting ratio was very work with, and Eric was really chill and fun, small, just 2:1, which means the final film used half of all the he just wanted us to be natural.” footage shot. That became the tone and look of Mee Pok Man. May Yee is now a businesswoman and If I’d had more film, maybe I’d have done more coverage, and mother of two young boys, and while she it’d be different in terms of tempo.” NOODLING AROUND Both Mee Pok Man and 12 Storeys have been recently restored, and these newly digitised versions can be found in a new box set of his work, which will be released this month. An Eric Khoo movie usually features an alienated protagonist. An Eric Khoo anecdote, on the other hand, involves meeting interesting characters over drinks, at least judging by what he shares during this interview. My Magic, his 2008 Tamil-language film about his roots. “It’s a heartfelt drama about forgiveness and about the relationship between a father and compassion,” says Eric. “I’ve always been fascinated with his son, was inspired by Bosco Francis, a Japanese culture, there’s something very sublime about it. And magician he first met years ago. “We became it was a dream to have singer Seiko Matsuda as the female friends, and once when we met up in a bar, lead, I’ve been a big fan of hers since I was a kid.” A serious he asked, do you want to see me eat glass? foodie himself, Eric’s eyes light up when he talks about the So first I told my friend, who owned the bar: hybrid dish that lends the movie its title—a combination of if he succeeds, don’t charge me for the glass. ramen and bak kut teh. It will feature prominently during Then Francis starts, and the movie’s promotion in I kid you not, everyone Japan, and he has hopes that there was squirming it could become an enduring watching him eat the “It wAs fusion dish. glass. I said, I’ve got to If you include Ramen Teh, do a film with you. The A qUIeteR, he has made seven feature opening scene will be you mORe INternal films. After 12 Storeys, he eating glass, and the great also started producing other thing is I won’t have to do kIND Of film-makers’ work, because special effects, because it’ll “I wanted more people in the be all real.” peRfORmANce industry. It’s nice to have a In 2011, he made community that can work and Tatsumi, an animated —A DIffeReNt create together”. His work in feature based on chALLeNGe” this area links him to significant the life and work of Singapore film-makers such seminal Japanese manga — Ezann Lee on Be With Me as Royston Tan, Boo Junfeng artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and Anthony Chen.