Since 2020, we have worked with Cartoons Underground to interview their up-and-coming student animators. Some returned to the festival to show their later work, such as Olivia Griselda and Sarah Cheok; others have begun to make waves abroad, such as Calleen Koh; and still others are hard at work on their own life trajectories.
This year, we spoke to the directors Jaime Ng Shu Yi (“Neh Neh Pok”), Wang Xiruo and Emily Tan (“The Seamstress’ Secret”), and Ning Xuan Tan (“I Think I’m Going to Die”). The three animations are wildly different in style, displaying a fine flight of Singapore’s up-and-coming animators. “Neh Neh Pok” is a 2D-animated memoir on a young girl‘s journey towards accepting her flat chest.”The Seamstress’ Secret”, on the other hand, introduces repressed seamstress’ crush on her client, a singer, beyond the hazy crimson curtains of 1940s Shanghai. Finally, “I Think I’m Going to Die” is a stop motion explosion about a child’s first menstrual cycle. Jam-packed with clay puppets, sand animation, paper cut-outs, and more, we watch the protagonist fantasize the many different ways she should deal with her suddenly bleeding body.
During our roundtable this year, we spoke about thematic overlaps, the current and future state of Singaporean animation, and the animators’ own personal dreams. They shared with us some behind-the-scenes details about their productions, too – but read on for more details.
This interview has been edited and redacted for clarity.
Let’s start with the basics. How did you all get into animation?
Ning Xuan Tan (“I Think I’m Going to Die”): I didn’t think about animation until I first stepped on the campus of Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design, and Media (NTU ADM). There, I saw a senior’s stop-motion set for “Strange Occurrences: Bukit Bulabu” (2020). One of the professors told me that NTU has the best stop motion studio in Singapore. I decided that it would be worth it, doing stop motion at NTU.
Jaime Ng (“Neh Neh Pok”): I decided on the NTU ADM because it was one of the few universities that offered an animation program. For me, animation is about making my stories come alive.
Wang Xiruo (“The Seamstress’ Secret”): I was fifteen years old when I first learned that I could be an animator or storyboard artist for work. I watched a lot of cartoons and liked them, and wanted to make them.
Emily Tan (“The Seamstress’ Secret”): I was more interested in games than animation, but somewhere down the line I figured that I should give animation another shot. I like animation as a medium.
Some of you mentioned that you liked animation growing up. Who were your role models? What were some series, movies, or directors you liked?
Ning Xuan Tan: Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride” (2005), Henry Selick’s “Coraline” (2009), Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006). I was so in love with “Coraline” that I could recite the script from heart. I liked how uncanny and creepy all three of them can be, and how they bring inanimate objects to life.
Jaime Ng: “Over the Garden Wall” (Patrick McHale and Katie Krentz, 2014) – I think that animation is one of the best things ever. The animation is so beautiful, but the themes are so adult. I like how there are so many Easter eggs in the show.
Wang Xiruo: “One Piece” (Eiichiro Oda, 1997-present) and Naoki Urusawa, who is responsible for “Pluto,” (2023) and “Monster,” (2004). “Steven Universe” helped me choose this career though. The crew of that show would share their storyboards [to the public], which helped me realize how shows are done and that I could do it, too.
Emily Tan: “Madoka Magica” (2011) and “Mawaru-Penguindrum” (2011) by Kunihiko Ikuhara (who is also responsible for “Revolutionary Girl Utena,” (1997)). Also “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (2005-2008). Very formative.
These inspirations are all Japanese or American. Did you all watch any Singaporean animation growing up?
Emily Tan: Not really. (laughs)
Wang Xiruo: I didn’t grow up here [in Singapore]; I spent the first four-five years of my life in China. I think Shanghai Animation Studio, which I would see on TV, was a big subconscious influence.
Ning Xuan Tan: I just watched the cartoons on TV.
Emily Tan: Kids Central.
Jaime Ng: I don’t think I saw any Singaporean animation. Maybe Malaysian? It’s quite sad.
This is why places like Cartoons Underground exists, right? What does the field of Singaporean animation look like today?
Jaime Ng: Personally, I think it could be better. Now I’m working at IMDA, a government company that is trying to build the media industry in Singapore. Hopefully things will get better in the next few years.
Wang Xiruo: I don’t think the public really values animation.
Ning Xuan Tan: Two of our professors did talk about how they tried to make a children’s show [here], but it’s hard to meet the criteria to get on Singaporean TV. It’s a high barrier to entry, especially for people who don’t have the fame or influence that other shows [from abroad] already have. But it’s changing. The fact that they could do it eventually is pretty amazing.
So it’s about prestige?
Ning Xuan Tan: Shows that are already seen widely elsewhere, like “Bluey” (Joe Brumm, 2018-present) and “Peppa Pig” (Neville Astley and Mark Baker, 2005-present), have proven their educational value already. For newcomers, they have to start from scratch to prove to themselves to the government.
Emily Tan: It’s also because Singapore is a young country. We just haven’t had as much time to develop our own visual style. I also don’t know if many children watch TV nowadays, with streaming and other alternative platforms.
It’s interesting that you bring up visual style, because all of your films are so vastly different from each other in style and medium. How did you choose the aesthetic for your film?
Ning Xuan Tan: From the very beginning, I knew that I wanted to experiment with a lot of different mediums. The different worlds that exist in the story are portrayed with different mediums, some more subconscious decisions than others. For the fish, for example, I just thought it would be natural to use sand animation. All of this ended up from my desire to experiment.
Jaime Ng: I thought about doing a mixed media film as well – with stop motion and 2D. 3D was not in question since I don’t like working with it. When I pitched [“Neh Neh Pok”], a lot of people told me that 2D would work better for the story. In the end, I thought that 2D would work best because we could have the vibrant colors, I could portray the character’s imaginative world. In 2D, I could do weird wacky things in a very practical way.
Wang Xiruo: My mom likes watching Chinese spy dramas, which are usually set in WWII and the Chinese Civil War era. I used to watch those with her. Those aesthetics seeped into my work. I always thought they looked so pretty – the people, the clothes, the architecture. In terms of medium… it’s not profound. I really like anime, and I wanted to do something like that.
Emily Tan: We definitely wanted [“The Seamstress’ Secret”] to be very theatrical. It shows in the way we staged the scenes and the lighting. We also thought it would be more cinematic to achieve in 2D animation over live-action, since we have more control over everything.
It’s interesting that all the films underscore femme-specific experiences: “Neh Neh Pok” is about small breasts, “I Think I’m Going to Die” revolves around menstrual cycles, and “The Seamstress’ Secret” features a queer romance. How autobiographical was the storymaking, if at all?
Jaime Ng: Mine is inspired by events that have happened in my life. So, 75%. Some things have been dramatized for entertainment’s sake and some characters do look like their real-life inspirations, but some don’t.
Ning Xuan Tan: [“I Think I’m Going To Die”] is not my experience alone. I did a lot of research just to write it. I looked at 18th century practices, Australian aboriginal myths, and so on. The craziest thing I heard was from a friend. She has a sister who wrote her will, put it under her bed, and then went to sleep crying because she thought she was really going to die [after getting her first period]. That really struck me. A lot of us go through this, thinking that we’re really going to die. I did this for all of us.
The father at the end is very kind and reassures [the main character] that everything will be alright. My father is like this. Once, when I had my period and it got all over the car, he told me that he doesn’t mind if he gets his hands bloody. He doesn’t think it’s dirty. I did this for him, too.
Wang Xiruo: I am a trans guy, so I wouldn’t say I wrote it from a feminine perspective. It is kind of autobiographical, but I also think an unrequited crush is a universal experience. It shows two women in that setting – I wanted to convey the repression that queer people have to go through when it comes to romance.
Emily Tan: It’s not really autobiographical for me. I think, even if you’re not queer, you can understand the general sense of wanting something that will never be yours, and the despair that comes with it. Everyone can be familiar with that one way or another.
Desire comes through in the tactility of the seamstress, as she pores over the fabrics she dresses her loved one in. This leads me to realize that all of your films also think through bodies. What are your takes on bodies in animation?
Jaime Ng: There is a big emphasis on the body with naked girls in “Neh Neh Pok,” but I also don’t think that the body is something that society should be so focused on – especially for women.
Ning Xuan Tan: All the medical diagnoses [in my film] are real examples from the past. They often approached the body as supernatural, but – the biological is actually just normal.
Wang Xiruo: I wanted to focus on unconventional attractiveness. In Chinese, maybe East Asian circles in general, European features are idealized to a point of self-hate. We should love our features more. For the character design, I wanted both the seamstress and the singer to look very obviously Asian. The singer is attractive not because she is white-adjacent, and the seamstress has a beauty that doesn’t immediately catch the eye.
Emily Tan: There’s a big emphasis on the cheongsam, and how the seamstress makes clothes for her muse. With bodies, there is a certain level of shame – and clothes are a way to hide them.
Not to make a hard pivot – but how long did your productions take?
Emily Tan: 4 months.
Wang Xiruo: Our project was a semester-long.
So “Neh Neh Pok” and “I Think I’m Going to Die” were final-year projects?
Jaime Ng: I wrote the film in about three months, and then my group mates and I animated, composited, and did the backgrounds for around a year. It was a long journey.
Ning Xuan Tan: We had a pre-production class, so we spent that on our story. Then we had one year until the end of July.
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