retrospective: Wang Sha & Ye Feng

although they are mostly remembered for their TV skits, the legendary Singaporean comedians Wang Sha & Ye Feng starred in over 40 Hong Kong films. reviewing their transnational body of work for the literary quarterly Mekong Review was a chance to experience the sheer diversity of their legacies that go beyond comedy, the so harsh-it’s-funny socioeconomic realities of 1970s HK, which resonate today globally, and the melodious fangyan of Cantonese and Teochew, still silenced here by the Speak Mandarin Campaign.

out of the 26 films in Asian Film Archive’s retrospective, which continues until 7 April and includes an exhibition and talks, here are a few that stood out: the Crazy Bumpkins series—especially Return of the Crazy Bumpkins (1975) for its moving, almost transcendent ending, and Crazy Bumpkins in Singapore (1976) for its being a rose-tinted time capsule of the expunged, like the National Theatre and Satay Club; another John Lo Mar–directed film The Happy Trio (1975), perhaps the duo’s most well-rounded standalone film; and the historical gem of Farewell to a Warrior (1976), an evocative Teochew opera by the renowned Chor Yuen.

in my writing and research, i was aided by Su Zhangkai’s lovely book on Wang Sha & Ye Feng, 《弟喂，做人阿甲阿甲就好》 (2019). thanks also to Kirsten Han for her editing, the Mekong Review team, Yeo Min Hui, Toh Hun Ping, and the Asian Film Archive. written as part of the ArtsEquator Fellowship, my review is behind a paywall, so do consider subscribing to Mekong Review, or encourage your institution to do so. single issues are also available online and at stores. glad to be in print (!) in an issue with writers i respect, like Philip Holden, Liew Kai Khiun, and profiled subject bani haykal.

my fave films of SGIFF 2023

some thoughts on the limited films i saw at this year's Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), its 34th edition (though we were born in the same year). they were written on the fly, and emerging from the darkness of cinemas, on IG Stories, because we seem to prefer limited words as part of time-limited pictures nowadays!

limited to mid-length and feature films, in no particular order:

Jow Zhi Wei, 'Tomorrow Is a Long Time', 2023

Tulapop Saenjaroen, "Mangosteen", 2023

Badrul Hisham Ismail, 'Maryam Pagi Ke Malam', 2023

Komtouch Napattaloong, 'Hours of Ours', 2023

Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, 'Werckmeister Harmonies', 2000/2023 (restoration)

Thaiddhi, Nay Wunn Ni, Myo Thar Khin, Aung Min, and Lamin Oo, 'Ten Years Myanmar', 2023

Phạm Thiên Ân, 'Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell', 2023

Amanda Nell Eu, 'Tiger Stripes', 2023

Christian Petzold, 'Afire', 2023

P/S: Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell ended up deservedly winning Best Film!

the long day closes

Terence Davies was easily “Britain's greatest living film director,” as the Evening Standard recognised: from his transcendental trilogy of shorts, to his pointilist, absolutely essential pair of debut features, interrogating familial memory, religion and sexuality, and the adolescent self, plus his lyrical documentary on his city, Liverpool; from, more recently, his adaptations of classic novels and plays, which stick out in time, to his still highly personal biopics of poets. his passing, at 77, aches as hard as Abbas Kiarostami's (who was 76), because they both still had so much more to share—Davies just released a short film last month, entitled "Passing Time".

i first watched his cinema, on DVD, at 18 and i still think of certain fades, musical sequences, and even wallpaper patterns, half a life later. he was a true auteur; pure poetry and passionate pain on screen. he arrived without precedence and leaves without a successor. his epitaph quotes Horace: “Pulvis et Umbra Sumus” (“We are but dust and shadows”). vale, maestro.

'The Long Day Closes,' 1992