On film and Singapore society-
To those who have already caught this masterpiece, these are my own personal reflections invested in social media. I disagreed with those who found the film too sentimental or tepid to qualify as a good piece of work.
To the many who missed it, look out for it some day on your onward journey. I hope it will find a place in your heart.
1. 'These films tell the stories of our relationship to place , sculpted or framed by the wisdom of those who gazed upon and imprinted their lives on this land long before we came...land as gift, memory , identity & kinship, not to be wrenched without thinking or traded like commodity. The reductionist agenda many governments take in clearing the land of its former markers (even to the point of re-naming them) has made some of us feel all the more alienated from time to time.
In our attempts to 'develop' a country, we have altogether omitted a deeper recognition of the actual country itself, forever tied to our elders, their wisdom and their remembering, one that makes us whole.
2. Having watched, lived n experienced (in and against) some of the clips (Pontianak) , landscapes (rural setting) and also participated in some of the rituals featured (Qing Ming n dad having worked in tP railway station ) , I read it all quite
differently.
It worked in terms of social memory and at an allegorical level, the connection to language, place , identity and memory was very moving.
Friend helped to interpret the song that was played at the end of the final clip . Am still trying to search for it online--- to do with the liminal gaps n interstices of the heart... the Chinese language puts it best in ways that can never be fully translated into this medium.
3. Pineapple town was difficult to execute to begin with. It was an embodiment of identity- orphaned by a sense of loss and alienation within an alternative family setting which not everyone may be familiar with.
In fact, All 7 clips hint of an attempt to explore our kindred ties with Malaya of the past. The rail n station scenes , always incomplete , emptied or hollowed out (a motif of sorts?) map the emotional realities we feel whenever we sever ties with place or with people.
It was also compounded by a renewed desire to reconnect with time , through travel, language , folklore , custom and ritual. These become useful paths, tools or practices we rely on just to stay human.
There's a deeper meditation on the greater peninsula in which our national identify is tied against.
The 2 feature songs here and Tong's final piece embraced all of that for me. The hauntingly rich lyrics and imagery stitch together a type of nuance best expressed in the language they were first composed in and can never be fully translated into English.
And so be it :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEXPV4NtMuk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVaao4Sftxc
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Other perspectives-
From undergrads-
http://studentry.sg/2015/09/07/7-letters-a-love-letter-to-singapore/
From an academic and diplomat
http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/mda-deserves-a-bouquet-for-taking-a-risk-with-7-letters
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