Rubbers

套

Singapore, 2014, colour, 16:9, 85 mins.

Director: Han Yaoguang 韩耀光.

Rating: 5/10.

Variable sex comedy swings between gross-out juvenilia and sweeter moments.

STORY

Singapore, the present day, 14 Feb. In the middle of having sex on Valentine’s Day, womaniser Guo Yadang (Zheng Liangxiong) is dumped by girlfriend Xia Wa (Chen Minxue) for refusing to use a condom. Unable to get any other girlfriends to come round to slake his desire, Guo Yadang fantasises about his favourite AV star, Kawaii Momoko (Wen Shu’an). Meanwhile, the aged Hua (Sun Yuhui), fed up with husband Niu (Chen Jianbin) always visiting a prostitute, Mai Chun (Yaya), in Yalong [Geylang] red-light district, considers divorce. However, she delays her decision after being sold a dildo on a three-day trial by sex-aids salesman Leslie (Zhang Yaowen). Elsewhere, journalist Baoling (Yang Yanyan), 40, who’s been man-less for the past six years, comes home and imagines a human Durian Condom (Li Zhaomin) in her flat; begging to be used, as its expiry date is due, the condom urges her to get laid quickly. Baoling contacts a “plumber” called Thor (Xu Lihua) and waits in readiness. In the meantime, Guo Yadang wakes up to find he’s wearing a condom that he can’t get off. He calls the civil defence, but a female officer (Zhong Qin) brands him a pervert. Kawaii Momoko then appears and tells Guo Yadang she’s punishing him for his refusal to use condoms. However, when she offers to suck it off, she becomes attached to his crotch. Baoling’s efforts to have sex with Thor all lead to nothing, and he finally admits that he needs some human understanding before he jumps into bed with a woman. Meanwhile, Niu, reminiscing about a stunt involving condoms that he pulled on Hua at high school 50 years ago, has an idea about how to woo her back again.

REVIEW

An out-there comedy on sexual frustration, Singapore style, Rubbers 套 starts like a collegiate gross-out movie but develops a typically Southeast Asian sweetness in its second half that goes a long way to excusing some of the movie’s more juvenile moments. Working again with a cast of regulars that includes veterans Chen Jianbin 陈建彬 [Marcus Chin] and Sun Yuhui 孙於惠 [Catherine Sng], as well as fine Malaysian Chinese actress Yang Yanyan 杨雁雁 [Yeo Yann Yann] (Being Human 做人, 2010; Ilo Ilo 爸妈不在家, 2013), writer-director Han Yaoguang 韩耀光 in his fifth feature vastly improves on his gender-bending comedy When Hainan Meets Teochew 当海南遇上潮州 (2010) but lacks the more sustained craft of his earlier (and best known feature) 18 Grams of Love 爱情18克 (2007). Singaporean to its fingertips, from the dialogue mixing Singlish, Mandarin and Hokkien to its schoolboy approach to matters sexual, it’s most memorable for Yang’s atypical performance and for disguising a conservative message of safe sex under a ribald, anarchic exterior.

Set on Valentine’s Day, Rubbers focuses on a trio of stories: over-horny Guo Yadang, who refuses to wear condoms and ends up with one permanently attached to his member, a 40-year-old professional woman who’s desperate to get laid by a hunky plumber, and an elderly couple who need to rekindle their desire for each other. Partly financed by crowd-funding, the film was originally pitched as three separate stories – Balloons 老套, The Plumber 圈套 and Nightmare 套牢 – but has ended up as a regular feature that cross-cuts between them. Two episodes were shot in 2013 and the third in 2014.

Assembled together, the stories don’t always smoothly segue back and forth, with Balloons (the elderly couple segment) sitting uneasily with the gross-out Nightmare (centred on the condom-trapped Guo Yadang) and more bitter-sweet The Plumber (which combines bawdiness and romance). In retrospect, Rubbers may have worked better as a three-part portmanteau movie. Despite that, editor Cai Fengming 蔡逢明 [Jack Shuo], replacing Han’s usual cutter Xiao Yixin 萧一欣 [Grace Xiao], does the best possible job, and regular d.p. Liu Longfei 刘龙飞 comes up here with a neat, simple look that’s attractive and believably conveys the setting of average HDB Singaporean life, with a slightly ochry look for some flashbacks to the 1960s.

As in Hainan, Han’s script relies more on the comic subtleties of the local patois – basically, untranslatable – rather than inherently humorous situations or comic timing. Only Yang manages to really rise above the script’s sit-commy limitations, though Chen and Sun do have their moments as the elderly couple. As an imaginary durian-flavoured condom, actress Li Zhaomin 李昭敏 (the butch Hainan in Hainan) seems out of place here; better is theatre/TV actress Wen Shu’an 温淑安, as an enthusiastic Japanese AV star whom Guo Yadang fantasises about. Despite the often fruity dialogue and up-front sexual shenanigans, the film is visually as clean as a whistle, with no on-screen nudity.

CREDITS

Presented by 18g Pictures (SG). Produced by 18g Pictures (SG).

Script: Han Yaoguang. Photography: Liu Longfei. Editing: Cai Fengming [Jack Shuo]. Music: Lin Haixian [August Lum]. Songs: Han Yaoguang. Song arrangements: Lin Haixian [August Lum]. Art direction: Feng Jianhong, Han Yaoguang. Costumes: Yang Xiuling (durian condom), Hong Yujie, Han Yaoguang (others). Sound: Zhuang Riguang. Titles/animation: Mojo.

Cast: Chen Jianbin [Marcus Chin] (Niu), Sun Yuhui [Catherine Sng] (Hua), Yang Yanyan [Yeo Yann Yann] (Baoling), Xu Lihua [Julian Hee] (Thor), Li Zhaomin (Durian Condom), Zheng Liangxiong [Alaric Tay] (Guo Yadang/Adam), Wen Shu’an (Kawaii Momoko, AV star), Chen Minxue (Xia Wa/Eve, Guo Yadang’s girlfriend), Luo Peiwen (Siyue/April), Chen Wenhui (Wuyue/May), Xiaomei (Liuyue/June), Yaya (Mai Chun/Summer/Virgin Forsale, Niu’s prostitute), Zhang Yaowen (Leslie, sex-aids salesman), Cai Enlai (Takashi, AV star), Wu Peishuang [Boris Boo] (Bing, plumber), Zhong Qin (Jin Yindao, civil defence officer), Huang Jiaqiang (exorcist), Huang Yingying (teenage Hua), Zhang Xiong (teenage Niu), Hong Yujie (Jiao, teenage Hua’s classmate), Huang Ying (Mei, teenage Hua’s classmate), Feng Xiaorong (Lian, teenage Hua’s classmate), Xu Changchun, Yang Lisi (old couple), Han Yaoguang (doctor), Lin Xiusong, Wu Yunkai, Lin Jingxian, Jiahua (masturbating men), Lin Dawen (Momoko’s AV co-star), Li Xinshang (AV director), Lv Jiyuan (AV cameraman), Zheng Minghuan (AV gaffer).

Premiere: Singapore Film Festival (Singapore Panorama), 12 Dec 2014.

Release: Singapore, 30 Apr 2015.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 12 Mar 2015.)