Nanyang Technical University student Mok Yuin Peng will play their graduation film “It Grows On You” at this year's Cartoons Underground, Southeast Asia's largest festival dedicated to animated film. This entry enters as one of seven in the Singapore Student Competition.
“It Grows On You” is Screening at Cartoons Underground
“It Grows On You” follows a recorded interview about one's name. The interviewee recalls how it took time for her to appreciate her natal name, despite the teases and mispronunciations in school. The film accompanies this sentimental interview by delving into the rabbit hole of childhood. Contrary to the interviewee's gentle tones, the film follows vibrant walls of color and two-dimensional strokes, emphasizing a hidden dimension of hurt in the seemingly simple superflat. This illustration-esque environment is both sobering and stunning at once; the interviewee's experience dilutes into “blocks” (toy ones, at least) of color.
On the whole, Mok Yuin Peng's film is well-executed, but it is not different. The childlike simplicity expressed in the images of playtime is a clever extension of the interview's contents; not a single cut moves out of line. Peng pays careful attention to shifts in perspective, too – another pleasure to see in a film about changing perspective. While the verbal narrative tugs at heartstrings, “It Grows on You” is not special. It regrettably reads as a standard festival film – it is sentimental and experimental in visuals, but not innovative to its core. But Peng is still young, and the film is only 1:36 long. Perhaps with more time, Peng's work is sure to grow on someone, too.
