Sex and Singapore By Boon Chan
Publisher:The Straits Times - Publication Date: 27-06-2008

The film begins with a couple having energetic sex in their bedroom.
A scene from a European arthouse flick? Well, no. The 20-minute Bedroom Dancing (2006) was directed by Singapore filmmaker Sun Koh, 31.
She is not alone in tackling nudity and sex in homegrown films in the past couple of years. In fact, some say, there seems to be more and more sex in Singapore movies.
Directors Loo Zihan and Kan Lume's Solos (2007) was an experimental film with no dialogue, focusing on the relationships between a male teacher, a student and the boy's mother.
Anthony Chen's short film Haze (2008), which was in competition at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival in February, chronicles a teenage couple's relationship over the course of one hot and hazy day, including them having sex for the first time.
Sex was a major theme in more short films and at least two features in the past two years - Solos and Pleasure Factory (2007). The latter was set in the red-light district of Geylang.
Dr Kenneth Paul Tan, assistant dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and author of the book, Cinema And Television In Singapore, says that with the revival of filmmaking in Singapore in the 1990s, directors such as Eric Khoo and Jack Neo have also tackled sexual themes in movies such as Mee Pok Man (1995) and That One Not Enough (1999).
Still, there are some observations to be made about how the subject is portrayed today.
The National Museum's assistant programming manager and co-festival director of the Singapore International Film Festival next year, Zhang Wenjie points out that, in general, "it's either sex for the arthouse crowd or sex for the Yangtze crowd", the latter referring to the cinema which has regular screenings of R21 movies.
While places such as Hong Kong and Korea have a history of mainstream sex comedies which a couple or group of friends can watch together, there is no such culture in Singapore, notes Zhang.
People are not comfortable going together to see sex in the movies.
In fact, Jack Neo's lowest-grossing directorial feature with S$1 million (US$732,600) in receipts was That One Not Enough, about three men dealing with problems of marriage, love and sex.
Singapore Film Commission figures from 1991 to 2007 show that comedies dominate the top 10 Singapore-made grossers, including Tay Teck Lock's Money No Enough (1998) and Neo's I Not Stupid (2002).
Another well-received movie with no sex was Royston Tan's getai hit 881 from last year.
Zhang observes that if there seems to be more films dealing with sex these days, it is partly because more people are making films and more of the films are getting released and seen.
The films are also coming from filmmakers known for their arthouse credentials. They are young, in their 20s and 30s, and taking on a diverse range of topics, including sexuality, globalisation and politics, in a wide array of styles.
Tan says: "A common approach to sex in many of these Singapore films has been the idea of sexual repression, where a materialistic, rigid, conservative and authoritarian culture is presented as a severe constraint on authentic human creativity and the erotic impulses."
Or as Zhang put it: "The sex depicted is usually quite depressing and is very stark."
Filmmakers and industry-watchers point out, though, that the sex itself is not the focal point of these films.
Bedroom Dancing, for example, was inspired by a newspaper report of a man who was fined for being naked in his own home, and it was made to celebrate sex and voyeurism, according to the production notes.
But filmmaker Koh says she did not set out to push boundaries.
"All that filled my mind was, 'How do I bring people into the film?' Basically I didn't want them to look like they're pretending to have sex," she says.
Bedroom Dancing was passed uncut by the Board of Film Censors (BFC) with an R21 rating and so far has only been shown here at film festivals and private screenings.
In contrast, Solos was rated R21 for its homosexual theme, with cuts to some 'prolonged' sex scenes. It had its international premiere at South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival and its American premiere at the American Film Institute Fest last year.
Loo, 24, says that he is no longer disappointed that Solos has yet to be shown in Singapore.
"Everything will happen in due time, there's no point contemplating or feeling angsty about it," he says.
Zhang says that nudging at the boundaries is a back-and-forth process.
"The filmmakers will push a little bit and the censorship board will say no at some point, but still, the envelope has been pushed a little."
Is sex in the Singapore movie here to stay or is this a phase filmmakers will outgrow?
Chen says: "I don't think that the industry is going through a phase, or that we are at a pubescent stage and we have to explore sexual stuff.
"It's about the stories that film-makers want to tell individually."

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