Cinespot : An Exclusive Interview with Singaporean Director Djinn

An Exclusive Interview
with Director Djinn
(Part II)

Filmmaking

Cinespot: In your movies like By the Dawn's Early Rise and Return to Pontianak, your characters always seem to have a hard time communicating with each other. Although you cannot say they are outcast, you really could feel the detached relationship among the characters. So why this aloof atmosphere?

Djinn: It's kind of like Rashomon.

I know it's rather bleak to say this but essentially as part of individual human experience, you are born alone and you die on your own. We are essentially on our own. My grandmother once quipped that you can sleep next to a person all your life but you will never know what truly goes on in his mind. This is very true.

I guess the characters in my film are essentially lonely or alone. They might think they are connecting with others but the point of view that they hold against the other could be very different. They might agree with what the other is saying but they might interpret the meeting of minds differently.

Furthermore, the characters that I've had in my films are always pretty strong and in some ways on the precipice of falling away from society. Charles Wilson in By the Dawn's Early Rise is on the onset of senility and losing his sense of being. The trackers in Return to Pontianak are the sort of opinionated fools who do not bother even trying to connect with their environment which is exactly the point of that film. Similarly the character of Harry in Perth is so full of avarice that he cannot see what is going on around him or even within him.

Detachment can come in many forms but I think for my characters, it is from within that are disconnected, they are not even in touch with themselves...but frankly who is?

Cinespot: In related to that, it seems that your camera is always "observational". Similar to documentaries, the scenes are always captured from a distant position. Can you tell us more about your aesthetic considerations?

Djinn: I like Cinema Verite. I like to offer a glimpse into what would be someone-else's altered reality without necessarily telling the audience how to interpret the scene. I much prefer the audience to do a little work and take home what they personally feel the scene means.

The documentary point of view helps. The long shots would add to the loneliness of the character concern. Since most of my main characters in my films are essentially lonely, this works rather well.

Cinespot: By the Dawn's Early Rise and Return to Pontianak do look quite experimental to a certain extent, they definitely don't appear very mainstream. Does it make it easier or harder for you to get financing and distribution?

Djinn: It's never easy with financing. People always come up to me to offer scripts free advice and sometimes even actresses but I really wished that they came up with an offered investors!

On the surface, my films do seem a bit edgy but I think they've always demonstrated reasonable commercial potential.

We did reasonably well with Return to Pontianak with a 2 week run at almost full house. We also managed to get distribution with Hollywood Videos in the States despite the fact that our film was the most foreign film in a basket of films offered to them by our distributors out there! In the case of By the Dawn's Early Rise, I managed to get my money back for the project securing distribution with the International Channel (Even though the film was 30 minutes long and did not fit conventional TV duration - They were actually looking for 30 minute films so you never know!!!

Cinespot: Apart from directing, you also write your own films. So how would you define yourself as a filmmaker? Which process do you enjoy most and why?

Djinn: Personally (and perhaps because of my history background) the part I really enjoy about filmmaking is the fact that I am archiving Singapore and characters and locations which one day will be lost to history books, especially with fast pace of change in Singapore.

So I guess in some ways, maybe I am a documentarian!

Cinespot: What is your favorite movie? Or in another word, which movie or individual influence you most as a filmmaker?

Djinn: I like the old American socio-realist cinema back in the early seventies. There's a certain honesty to the filmmaking free of gloss and a little rough on the edges but certainly very humanist (If that's the word).

Some of the films that stand out for me are Dog Day Afternoon, The French Connection, Taxi-driver, and perhaps a little later but still in the same vein, Bad Lieutenant.

What I like about them if you really watch the film, it's not just that there are so many layers to them but that they smell real. I can smell the dirt and fumes, the cheap leather. Maybe I'm just thinking of the lousy cinemas I've been to but I think that's my ultimate maxim for a good film, that you'd have to be able to smell it.

In Bad Lieutenant, the end shot is with the camera locked off for almost eternity with Harvey Kietel's character seated in a car out front by the central railway station. A car pulls up and shoots him as we see all this unfolding before us from a far. People keep walking by (some turn to look) others just carry on as if nothing has happened and life goes on. You could smell the street. Perfect.

Cinespot: Please tell us a bit about the local film market and community in Singapore.

Djinn: There isn't any. It's a tiny market and after the distribution and exhibition cuts, you'd be luckier pirating your own film!

Jokes aside, it's pure mathematics. Local films have traditionally (With a couple of exceptions) not done well for distributors and they are less willing to take the risk opening with more screens. You cannot fault the distributor for being prudish about screens. It's just business. But that means that for the filmmaker, anything less than 8-10 screens is most probably suicide and you won't see your money back because there are so many films shown these days that you'll be taken off in 2 weeks tops!

On the plus side, although the film community is small, working with them is like family.

The Future

Cinespot: Are you working on any new project recently? Can you tell us more about any of your future project?

Djinn: I am actively re-working a war script out here about the 442 Combat Regiment of the US army. It is the highest decorated unit in the history of the US army and was raised almost predominantly out of Japanese Americans in WW2. It has never been told properly and that's a right disgrace!

Also have several other projects in the States including one with my wife Hiep Thi Le (Oliver Stone's Heaven and Earth).

Finally of course, there are several more very personal stories to tell of Singapore.

Cinespot: Have you every thought of co-producing any films with other countries' filmmakers?

Djinn: Well I reside in Los Angeles now because my family is here.

However, I am always looking for good people to collaborate with around the world.

Point in case was editing with Bin Li in Sydney. He was one of the assistant editors for Moulin Rouge and a real talent in the making. I told my producers that I was willing to travel all the way down under just to edit with him despite my "Mister T" fear of flying syndrome.

Also whilst I was doing sound edit in Singapore, I employed our composer Marcello De Francisci who was in LA and who had worked under Hans Zimmer. Another good find.

My next move will most probably be to make a film out here for the US market. Since I have successfully tackled non-Singaporean (and strictly American) topics with my very first film By the Dawn's Early Rise (an award winner I might add shamelessly) so I feel very confident that I can make a fairly compelling film out here without too much difficulty.

Cinespot: Thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions.

Djinn: Thanks for the ear! It's cheaper than seeing the shrink! I feel more connected with myself already and less detached!

In conclusion, the interview was a huge success. Director Djinn was very generous and answered all of our questions in details (and also with a unique sense of humor). Again, we would like to appreciate director Djinn for taking his valuable time and sharing his insight with us. Please give a round applause to director Djinn!

Special thanks to Karen Yeo of Kazworks! and my pal David Ng for coordinating and making the interview possible.

Thank you!

Written and compiled by K. Lui
Assistant: B. Lui

Click here to go back to Part I.