Award winning film maker and Cultural Medallion recipient Eric Khoo who helms Zhao Wei Films has been credited for reviving the Singapore film industry and for putting Singapore onto the International film map in 1995. He was the first Singaporean to have his films invited to major film festivals such as Toronto, Busan, Berlin, Telluride, Venice and Cannes. Together with 12 Storeys‘ co-writer James Toh and actress Lucilla Teoh, he also wrote a White Paper which resulted in the formation of the Singapore Film Commission. Khoo was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Letters, from the French Cultural Minister in 2008. Besides his filmmaking achievements, Khoo has produced several award winning films including 15 (2003) and Apprentice (2016).
Be With Me opened the Directors Fortnight in Cannes 2005 and My Magic his fourth feature was nominated for the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2008. Khoo has been profiled in Phaidon Books, Take 100 the future of Film – 100 New directors. The Pompidou Centre in Paris held an Eric Khoo film retrospective and he served as President of the Jury at The Locarno International Film Festival in 2010. The following year, he released his first animated feature, Tatsumi, which was invited to the 64th Cannes Film Festival and made it’s North American premiere at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). In 2012 Khoo headed the juries at Asian Film Awards, Rotterdam International Film Festival and in 2013 the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. He was invited to be on the official Cannes, short film competition jury in 2017. In 2018, Eric was the show runner for Folklore a HBO Originals series Asia, which was followed by two seasons of Foodlore. In 2018, he also came up with his last feature to date, “Ramen Shop”
As we have reviewed 15 of his 25 films, we thought it was about time to publish a list about our collective work, while we continue searching for the rest. The list was derived from IMDB with some corrections when needed. You can check the full reviews by clicking on the titles. You can follow the project here
1. Pain (1994)
If one was to describe “Pain” with one word, that would be raw. The short is filmed in truly guerilla fashion, with almost no budget and in essence, with all scenes just being shot once in monochrome, with no dialogue. This rawness however, is what gives the movie its tremendous energy, through both the images and the speed of the succession of the scenes, which is implemented by the very fitting editing, again by Khoo.
2. Mee Pok Man (1995)
“Mee Pok Man” offers no solution, only pain and solitude. Shot on a micro-budget in 16 days, the crew and the director accomplished an amazing result. Of course, there is a superficial portrayal of prostitution and the lower class, which is way too romanticized and especially the acting of the two lead actors, Joe Ng and Michelle Goh, is not convincing. Besides, the overall charm lies in the atmosphere and the striking pop-cultural references within the sequences. The pulp-like story was inspired by Damien Sin‘s “One Last Cold Kiss” (1994). In 2015, Eric Khoo dedicated his film “In the Room” to the deceased author. (Alexander Knoth)
3. 12 Storeys (1997)
Eric Khoo uses satire in order to present a rather thorough portrait of the then Singaporean society, with his characters functioning as archetypes of different types of people and situations. San-ans represents the alienation of the urban centers and the harsh importance people give to appearances. Ah-gu’s arc satirizes the concept of the man as the main provider of the family, by including a wife who constantly wants more, in a metaphor for the materialism that dominates society.
4. Be With Me (2005)
Displaying a keen eye and a talent to depict small details of everyday life in different types of households, streets or professions linked with the film’s protagonists, “Be With Me” creates a set of the believably realistic and intriguing world(s) inhabited by even more intriguing persons and recreates one admirable and amazing life story. What it shows is not always nice, but the way it portrays it is endearingly and strongly gentle (yet unsentimental). Very beautiful. Very human. And the question “Is true love truly there, my love?” might linger in your head for years. (Anomalilly)
5. No Day Off (2006)
Eric Khoo directs a very humane film, which deals with the issue of the in-house maids in dramatic, but very realistic fashion, almost bordering on the documentary in its approach. Jason Tan’s cinematography moves in this direction, with him presenting much of the film in a first person perspective, through Siti’s eyes. Even when the perspective changes to the third person, her employers are never shown on screen, just their voices are heard. This tactic ensures the focus remains on Siti and her hardships, who, in essence, represents all maids working in Singapore, while it also functions as a visualization of the facts and numbers Khoo periodically shows on screen.
6. My Magic (2008)
This aspect becomes obvious from the introductory scene, as we watch Francis eating the glass he was drinking whiskey from, while the plethora of lengthy scenes where he performs his blood-chilling “tricks” also point towards this direction. In that fashion, the turn towards exploitation the film takes just before the finale seems like the most natural path, with the grotesque torture scenes and particularly the last one with Francis’s boss being meaningful, as they are shocking. At the same time, these scenes also establish the distance the father is willing to take for his child, thus justifying the conciliatory aspect of the ending. Keng Yew Seet as the big boss, Jason Lim as the bar owner and Sunny Pang as one of the torturers are great picks for their roles, with their villainy benefiting the most from their physical appearance.
7. Tatsumi (2011)
From a more technical perspective, “Tatsumi” is a brilliantly made animated movie. The animation style is the same as that of gekiga. So, the audience gets a good taste of the artwork to be expected should they choose to read one. Their intermittent appearance of Tatsumi, in between the memoirs, keeps changing the pace. Given that each of the stories is different and have their own unique selling points, it is almost like watching a TV series. It also helps us get a peek inside the mind of an artist.
8. Recipe (2013)
Dementia and its consequences are the main theme of “Recipe”, with Khoo presenting both with a subtle realism, avoiding any kind of melodramatic moments, in a tactic that I feel benefitted the message the film aimed to communicate. Apart from this concept though, Khoo also deals with the theme of tradition-localization versus progress-globalization (revolving around food ) and the connection between parents and children, particularly regarding the always sensitive subject of if the latter will follow the professional footsteps of the former. These two concepts receive a rather definite answer here, with Khoo’s solution being a conciliatory one, that the tradition and the parents’ footsteps should be followed, but with the addition of new elements introduced by the next generations.
9. Cinema (2015)
As stated in the ending titles, Eric Khoo directs a film whose purpose is to highlight the Golden Age of Singaporean cinema during the 50’s, and particularly the fact that this success came because Malays, Indians and Chinese from the region came together to shoot films. The message is quite eloquent and presented throughout the short. Cinema joins us all, regardless of ethnicity, religion, language or age. The fact that initially there are children watching the film and later the elderly highlights this last aspect.
10. In the Room (2015)
Eric Khoo had a very difficult task in his hands, since he only had 10 days to shoot a film that would function as a tribute to Damien Sin and his beliefs (according to Khoo, he had had very strong political values and felt strongly for the underdog), a time journey capturing the multicultural history of Singapore, and the first erotic movie of the country. Expectantly, in such a short time and with 104 minutes of duration, it was impossible for all goals to be achieved fully. In that fashion, the differences in Singaporean culture, particularly regarding sex, are presented well enough, but the same does not apply to the sociopolitical context, while the metaphor for the crumbling relationships and Sin’s life through the crumbling of the hotel is difficult to discern. (Panos Kotzathanasis)
