On S11
The dual black and red washed-out tone of the film’s publicity posters show the three main characters standing precariously, each in a posture that exemplifies their personalities in the film; The Loner, The Loser and The Lolita-like babe. The tagline reads, ‘Welcome to the worst day of their lives”. Well, welcome to the worst day of my life.
S11 revolves around a day in the lives of three individuals; Terence (Timothy Nga), Chen Hao Nan (Kevin Murphy) and Michelle (Cindy Teo). It explores how fate messes up with the lives of these three individuals who are similar to one another only for their bad luck. Terence is a lonely clerk of a jewellery store who usually happens to be at the wrong places at the wrong times, Hao Nan is a loser who fantasizes about being a hero someday and Cindy sells pornographic videos to help support her younger brother’s education. The lives of these three characters are interwoven cleverly by Gilbert and Joshua, displaying how each of their actions end up affecting one another in just a single day.
 The film starts with the robbery of a petrol kiosk where Terence and Hao Nan are threatened. After much struggle with the robber who is wearing a Doraemon mask, the two characters manage to break free from the seemingly threatening situation. This is where the film starts to deviate from a usual narrative structure, flowing wonderfully into a non-linear one by first cutting into an introduction of Hao Nan’s life. The film from this point explores the individual lives of the three characters and follows through the day of each, leading into the events which cause their paths to cross.
This non-linear structure is one that is worthy of praise, employed effectively to unfold the story. In fact, the film can be compared to many others which thread along the same lines of structure. Michel Gondry’s award-winning ‘Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind’ and Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ are examples of films which disregard the normal narrative structure and do so with great ingenuity. ‘Hoodwinked’, a recent animated feature by Cory Edwards is another film which is worth-mentioning with  regard to its unconventional but clever structure. In terms of structure and even characters, S11 also resembles Tom Tykwer’s ‘Run Lola Run’. Cindy, like the protagonist in ‘Run Lola Run’, wears a red wig and is compelled to raise enough money for the repayment of her boyfriend’s debts to a gangster boss. With such a unique way of story presentation, one in which is rarely seen in a Singaporean film, it is no wonder that the script of S11 was awarded the top prize in the Singapore Screenplay Awards in 2001 and the MDA (Media Development Authority) Scriptwriting Competition in 2002.
With such prestigious awards attesting to the ingenuity of the film’s story, one would expect that the photography and directorial efforts play up to the same standard. It is disappointing to note however that the photography and direction of the film did not exactly reflect that of an experienced filmmaker. There were a few instances where the film was filled with blown out white edges and graininess, of which could have been caused by poor lighting techniques. In addition, certain scenes (such as the one with Cindy and Hao Nan at the grave yard) were ‘lazily lit’ with probably just a single directional key light entering from the side of the characters. This caused the characters to be too bright as opposed to their surroundings, which were dark and gloomy. The lighting decisions did not in any way add on to the content and meaning of the film but was distracting to the viewers for no reason.
The audio in S11 were mostly dubbed, causing yet another set of disappointments. The dubbing attempts of the filmmakers to achieve cleaner sound and to battle on-location audio recording problems were paid off with many moments where the dialogues were not in perfect synchronisation with the picture. In addition, the sound design to make the dubbed voices sound natural was poor. With only an added sound of the ambience, details of sounds in the surrounding were lost, thus losing the authenticity of particular scenes. This technical incapability of the film made it hard to watch at certain points in the movie.
In terms of performance, the film did fairly well. Kevin Murphy’s performance as the cowardly Chen Hao Nan was comical but doubtful at certain points in the film. Using unnatural stutters to play the character’s lack of confidence, Kevin threaded along the dangerous line of being too fake. Timothy Nga and Cindy Teo however, were more natural in their performance and reflected very well the human condition of certain Singaporeans in Singapore.
As a firm believer that a good film should resemble a smooth marriage of elements such a cinematography, sound, direction, editing and story, S11 fails to impress me very much. Although the story in S11 is indeed commendable, it irks me to see that the directors fail to treat all the elements of filmmaking with equal respect. This has caused the filmmaking elements to therefore contradict in terms of quality and results in a bad experience for the viewers. It would therefore be understandable that one, after watching this movie, would be tempted to comment with great disappointment, ‘This is the worse day of my life’.
Written by: Josiah Ng
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