morgueville,heartland living.

i think singapore has an identity crisis. perhaps this is because we are too westernised an asian city. and we have yet to milk on this asset, in ways losing our roots and wondering who we really are. or what being a singaporean means. and perhaps the only time we truly think about what it means is when racial harmony day or august nineth are just sneaking around the little corner. or sometimes it takes an islandwide epidermic for us to spew some touchingly heart-felt thoughts. me, however, personally feels that's only until a made-in-singapore novel make it to the top of new york times bestseller list so we will sit up and awe. but that's just me. perhaps the closest we have to an arundhati roy is catherine lim. where are the catherine lims today? sometimes i do wait in anticipation there is one local writer that is writing not just about opinions. opinions and basically more opinions. catherine lim can do that, too. but she can paint a dreamy landscape out of a stoic heartland as well. and create a beautiful narration out of it, often leading her readers to an orgasm of the literal kind - pun unintended and i don't mean it that way. i love catherine lim's short stories. i just think other catherine lims should quit their dayjobs and write.


sadly, sometimes i feel jack neo's heartland films are the closest to say martin scorsese's new york. though i think they have got too much slapsticks and the same old, same old actors, making it mainstream, targeting at only a niche audience. and besides, his heartlanders issues seem to be based on the local majority. kelvin tong's eating air was a nice local film. perhaps if singaporean films move away from being slapstick (since it's not funny at all, just cringe-worthy. like one leg kicking.) and being sincerely honest. not extreme, like royston tan's 15, which i think garnered way too much publicity - overseas. and when someone like royston tan making a controversial film on troubled juveniles go on to direct some thrash cheena boyband like 5566 in a local telcom advertisement, it doesn't exactly spell d-i-v-e-r-s-i-t-y. oh well, geniuses do get misses. don't even get me started on the local television productions. i think the only one i thought wasn't that bad was growing up. some of the telemovies channel five was surprisingly intelligent enough to screen were not too bad. the singapore shorts series on central are worth mentioning, too.


but nothing has yet to hit a deep impact. we are still drowning in hollywood.