Sandcastle

沙城

Singapore/Netherlands, 2010, colour, 1.85:1, 94 mins.

Director: Wu Junfeng 巫俊锋 [Boo Jun Feng].

Rating: 5/10.

Good-looking debut feature is stronger as a family portrait than as a teen’s sexual-political awakening.

STORY

Singapore, the present day. Soon to do military service, 18-year-old Tan Xiang En (Chen Wenquan) goes to stay with his grandparents while his family’s house undergoes renovation. While there, he learns from his grandfather (Tan Gut Ghee) that his late father was a student activist in the anti-colonial, leftist movement of the 1950s that took root in the island’s Chinese-speaking universities. After the death of his grandfather, and his grandmother’s worsening Alzheimer’s, Tan Xiang En finds himself more and more isolated from his elders. Even his mother (Elena Chia), who has a new (military) man in her life, won’t talk about the past. So, with the help of his girlfriend Ying (Chen Enyun), Tan does his own research.

REVIEW

In its early scenes, as the National Day Parade song Stand Up for Singapore is (ironically?) played over archive footage of the island, and the teenage protagonist learns about his late father’s activism prior to independence, Sandcastle 沙城 throws out the teasing promise that it’ll be a coming-of-age story wedded to the still sensitive (and so far, unfilmed) subject of leftist political activity in Singapore during the 1950s. However, this strand is frustratingly moved to the back-burner for most of the rest of the movie, which focuses on the boy’s growing sense of isolation as he feels shut out by his mother, distanced from his grandma by her worsening illness, and deprived of the company of his grandpa, the only elder with whom he had any real communication. Though the back story of the father’s political activism reappears at the end, this is simply too big a bone to throw the audience and then ignore for over an hour – local political sensitivities or not.

Despite this, and the rather woollily written relationship between the boy and his next-door girlfriend – who sit by the seashore and talk about birds and sandcastles – this first feature by 26-year-old Wu Junfeng 吴俊峰 [Boo Jun Feng] largely avoids being another navel-gazing study of youthful anomie, Southeast Asia-style, thanks to handsome, un-arty photography by Luo Peiwen 罗佩文 [Sharon Loh], tight cutting by editor Su Zhiyun 苏智韵 [Natalie Soh], and a range of well-played adult characters who keep the film moving even when the teenage lead is emotionally in neutral. However, it’s never quite clear from either Wu’s script or the lead performance by non-professional Chen Wenquan 陈文全 [Joshua Tan] – a bassist from a local band – exactly what the central character is thinking at any time. For audiences familiar with Singaporean society, there are occasional hints, as in his disparagement of the family baptising his gaga grandma against her will. But with no suitably dramatic resolution to the strand of the father’s political past – the mother simply says, “Let bygones be bygones” – the film never makes the vital connection between son and father that would have made Sandcastle into a potentially original and powerful movie.

CREDITS

Presented by Zhao Wei Films (SG), Singapore Film Commission (SG), Fortissimo Films (NL), Peanut Pictures (SG). Produced by Zhao Wei Films (SG).

Script: Wu Junfeng [Boo Jun Feng]. Photography: Luo Peiwen [Sharon Loh]. Editing: Su Zhiyun [Natalie Soh]. Music: Huang Zehui [Darren Ng]. Production design: James Page. Art directors: Iskandar Safuan, Lei Yuanbin [Looi Wan Ping]. Costumes: Veloce Wong. Sound: Chia Jenn Hui, Lim Ting Li, Warren Santiago. Effects: Wendy Liow.

Cast: Chen Wenquan [Joshua Tan] (Tan Xiang En), Elena Chia (Tan Hian, his mother), Chen Enyun [Bobbi Chen] (Ying, his girlfriend), Ng Jing Jing (Mrs. Choo, his grandmother), Samuel Chong (Wilson), Yap Gut Ghee (Tan Xiang En’s grandfather), Andrew Seow (Tan Xiang En’s father), Ian Tan (Andy), Sally Poh (Leng, aunt), Ma Tianling (Ying’s father), Tan Soon Cheong (voice of Tan Xiang En’s father), Vasu Deu s/o Ueerappa (nurse), Koh Tiang Choon (funeral director), Muhammad Yazid Kelana bin Salim (army barber), Haris bin Mohd. Razak (young Tan Xiang En), Himis bin Mohd. Razak (Tan Xiang En’s young cousin), Luo Peiwen [Sharon Loh] (Tan Xiang En’s mother, younger), Prinya Lovajana (Ying’s friend), Huang Yaoliang (computer technician), Chen Binbin [Tan Pin Pin] (doctor), Zaliha Binte Abdul Hamid (Fatimah), Nota Samosir (Fatimah’s daughter), Freddie Yeo (priest), Daisy Yeo (head nurse).

Premiere: Cannes Film Festival (Critics’ Week), 13 May 2010.

Release: Singapore, 26 Aug 2010; Netherlands, tba.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 14 May 2010.)