The type of films that are made in Singapore hardly resemble the big budget spectaculars of Hollywood cinema, which now make up a large majority of what is shown in theatres. What then is the influence that has made Singapore films the way they are? It has been said that Singapore cinema mimics Italian Neo-realism, a film movement during the 1940s, which took place in Italy. That much would seem to ring true, but only to a certain extent. In order to see how much of an influence Neo-realism films have on Singapore cinema, let us compare a couple of prominent Neo-realism films with some well known films borne out of Singapore.

Both Neo-realism and Singapore films possess similar qualities that clearly show the former’s influence on the latter. One such similarity lies in the tendency to portray films that reflect contemporary issues in relation to the society and the country. In the case of Italian Neo-realism, a film like “The Bicycle Thief” reflects the social status of Italy during the post World War II period that it is based on. In the film, the society of the time is portrayed to be plagued with poverty; one whereby jobs are scarce and where people fight hard in order to earn enough to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. This quality is similarly present in most of the films on the Singapore front. In the film “I Not Stupid”, the filmmakers depict the highly stressful situation that local students have been placed in as they struggle through in keeping up with the standards of the education system of the country. It portrays social issues in regards to the forming of ‘classes’ and ‘ranks’ between students and their parents in relation to the grade categories the students have been placed in by the ‘streaming’ system in primary education.

Another quality that links the two camps is the way in which filmmakers of both sides deeply ground their films in reality. The films are usually set in realistic situations and portray characters that champion the everyday life of urban, working class folk instead of placing focus on the upper class citizens or on fantastical settings and characters. Once again for Italian Neo-realism, “The Bicycle Thief” acts as an exemplar for such a quality in its portrayal of the events involving a factory worker in his search for his stolen bicycle and the difficulties and failures he goes through in doing so. Likewise for Singapore cinema, a movie like “Money No Enough” bears just as much of such a trait in its portrayal of working class characters concerning themselves with monetary issues and how they are affected by governmental policies regarding money matters. Yet, despite the strong presence of such a characteristic in most Singapore films, it should be noted that this similarity with Neo-realism films is not always present. With visual effects and Computer Graphics (CG) becoming more and more accessible to filmmakers all around the world, Singapore made films such as the recent “881” and “Ah Long Pte Ltd” have begun to include depictions of somewhat fantastical situations that take away from realism rather than further enhancing it; evident in instances where characters seem to possess somewhat superhuman abilities and powers.

The third and last similarity we are going to take a look at is present in the dual faceted nature of films from both camps. One facet presents a reportage view of whatever social conditions that are present at the given time period of the film, while the other concerns the morality or moral struggles in people as portrayed in characters. In “Bicycle thief”, the Neo-realism filmmaker ‘reports’ in a way on the political and social situation of poverty in the society in its realistic portrayals. By doing so, the film indirectly calls out for reforms and changes to be made. As for the moral facet, it surfaces when the main character of the film finally breaks down and succumbs to temptation when he himself tries to steal a bicycle out of utter desperation. Similarly, in terms of Singapore cinema, “Ah Long Pte Ltd” ‘reported’ somewhat on the practices of loan sharks that are considerably prominent in certain parts of Asia and the harm they cause to the public. Its portrayals, though accompanied by sometimes exaggerated and slapstick situations, call out for the ceasing of such cruel and harmful practices. The moral issue is this case, arises when a young teenage girl whose parents are killed as a result of such practices, lashes out to claim vengeance upon those responsible by use of similarly violent and cruel methods. It questions the morality of the seeking of vengeance and the use of violence against violence, cruelty against cruelty.

Yet as prominent as are the similarities between Neo-realism and Singapore films, so are the differences between them. One of the most apparent of these differences stands out in the use of actors for films of both camps. In Italian Neo-realism films, mostly non-actors or a mix of both professional as well as non-actors are picked to fill roles in the films. This means that people are mostly picked to fill roles based on their suitability to a particular role rather than their experiences as actors or their ability to act. “The Bicycle Thief” for example, has its main character, a factory worker, played by a man who was in fact an actual factory worker before joining the film as a cast member. This is something that greatly differs in Singapore made films. In fact, it is one area that Singapore films actually more closely resemble Hollywood or Hong Kong productions. Singapore cinema makes use of mostly professional actors that largely consist of recognizable names from television or stage. The practice can be seen in a film such as “Just Follow Law” in which household names like Gurmit Singh and Fann Wong are cast at the main characters.

The differences of course, do not stop there. One of the other differences present is in the narrative structure adopted by films of either side. Neo-realist films had during its time, sought to break the standard narrative structure of films from other regions and films that came before Neo-realism; films that focused heavily on narrative continuity. Neo-realism brought out content that was more episodic in nature and contained loose cause and effect connections. It meant that events could simply just take place without proper justification for its occurrence and that at times, what would be considered as a ‘cause’ in a cause and effect chain would yield no ‘effect’. In such instances, even mood and emotion could sometimes change drastically without clear motivation or justification if any at all. One good example to show this quality is in the film “Rome, Open City”. In this exemplary Neo-realist film, the death of a character is shown to happen with no reason or rhyme whatsoever and the effect of her demise is never portrayed or addressed in the film. The death simply happens and is almost immediately ‘pushed aside’ as the film returns to show subsequent events completely unrelated to what is shown previously, never returning or ‘looking back’ to the event again all throughout the rest of the film. In addition to the episodic nature and loose cause and effect of these films is the lack of closure in their narration. This is something that can be evidently seen in “The Bicycle Thief” in its use of an open-ended finale with the father and son walking on towards an unknown fate. On the other side of the fence, Singapore films rather contrastingly, adopt mostly a mix of both standard narrative and episodic structures. In numerous cases, events are not only shown to have proper cause and effect chains, but also contain proper build-up towards emotional scenes followed by an eventual release of emotions and the allowance for what is shown to set in. As can be seen in the film “881”, the events portrayed in the film follow the characters in a narrative that tells of a group of ‘Ge Tai’ singers in their pursuit to emerge tops in the year’s performance while at the same time interweaving it with episodic content that depict characters in situations that may or may not relate to their preparation to the final performance day. In stark contrast to the example in “Rome, Open City”, the interactions between characters here move on to setup the final outcome of the film concerning the death of a major character. In this case, the effects of the death are instead given sufficient screen time to draw out, working in hand with the victory of the protagonists to offer proper closure to the film.

The final difference we will look at concerns the use of sound in Neo-realist and Singapore films. Italian Neo-realism deals with sound entirely in post production. Once again drawing upon the example of “Rome, Open City”, the film had all of its footage filmed entirely in silence. Sound was only later added onto the recorded footage in post production to produce its final product. Films of Singapore cinema however, tend to make use of both sound that is recorded on location as well as that which is done in post production. This is evident in practically all of Singapore made films in their use of on location dialogue with sound effects being a mix of on location and post created and music that is done in post production. Not all of the various similarities and differences between Italian Neo-realism and Singapore cinema have been discussed, yet the comparison of some of the more prominent similarities shows truth in the opinion that Singapore cinema does indeed draw influence from Neo-realist films. The evident differences between the two camps however also point out that the films made in Singapore do not mirror Neo-realism is its entirety, bearing not only possible influences from other film movements and trends as well as some qualities perhaps unique to Singapore cinema.

Written by Eugene Tan