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Royston Tan pushes new boundaries with latest short film
ROYSTON Tan's latest film effort is headed for the toilet. Literally.
The 31-year-old filmmaker will be shooting his eight-minute short Mandarin film in a public toilet.
The translated title of the flick is called My Sars Lover and will star getai veteran Liu Ling Ling and actor Qi Yuwu.
The duo was in Royston's hit homage to getai, 881, where they played mother and son.
Speaking with The New Paper over the telephone, Royston summed up his film as a love story set in a toilet in the time of Sars (Severe acute respitory syndrome), which hit Singapore in 2003.
He said: 'I wanted to remind people of the difficulties we had during the Sars period.
'And that even during that difficult time something positive could blossom.'
The film centres on a toilet cleaner who falls in love with a handsome young man who uses the toilet she cleans.
True to his quirky sense of filmmaking, Royston's characters will not have any dialogue.
Instead he will be weaving Mandarin radio news reports about Sars with music from old vinyl records.
You must be thinking that a film about a romance in a toilet will surely involve some sex. But Royston said there would be no 'sex scenes'. Instead, there will be dancing.
'The characters will be doing a Chinese opera-style dance of love in the toilet,' he said.
'And we will be using whatever we can find in the toilet, like the toilet brush, as props.'
The characters will be dancing to a Chinese opera track called Xi Shi. Xi Shi was one of Four Great Beauties of ancient China.
Royston explained that he picked the track because Xi Shi sounded similar to the Mandarin pronunciation of Sars.
As his lead actors don't know any Chinese opera moves, he has organised a one-day crash course for them.
'But my requirement is that they can't do it (the dance) too well.
'I want to balance the quirkiness and seriousness of the story,' he said.
The inspiration for the musical came from a roll of toilet paper in - where else? - a public toilet.
Said Royston: 'I was thinking about what I can do with this long roll of toilet paper.
'Then I thought about the current bird flu situation and I remembered Sars was the worst time we went through.'
THE RIGHT LOO
At the moment, his biggest challenge is finding the right loo location. And he needs it fast as he is shooting this Friday.
Royston is looking for a toilet that is large enough to hold the cast and crew and yet have a retro 1980s feel.
He said: 'Now, most of the public toilets are upgraded. The older toilets used to have those small blue tiles and were quite large.'
He has one public toilet in mind located in a shopping centre near the heart of the city.
But nothing is confirmed yet until he gets permission from the mall's management.
His other challenge is to finish the film in a day as Qi Yuwu, who is shooting a film in China, has little time to spare.
The short film, when it is ready, will be sent out to film festivals.
Royston hopes that people will not see this effort as a film about Sars.
He said: 'I hope they will look at it as a fun romantic love story set in a toilet.'
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/show/story ... 52,00.html?
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