Word: neos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Neo was born in Singapore, and knew he wanted to perform when, at 14, he wrote and acted in a comedy sketch for his secondary school. His family, as focused on Singaporean success as the characters in his film, thought it was a rotten idea. "For my generation, our parents only concentrated on normal life, making some money so you've got food to eat," Neo remembers. "Acting, performing-my parents just didn't know. I didn't know if I had talents either." First came a string of small stage roles Neo says he can barely remember. Then television...
...Neo is most recognizable in women's dress, but in person he's closer to the Singaporean everyman persona. Dressed in a tan golf shirt and black khakis, he could be a systems analyst on his tea break; only his designer Dolce & Gabbana glasses hint that, unlike much of his core audience, he doesn't go home to a housing block at night. There's little evident ego, and when Neo finds out his interviewer has seen I Not Stupid, he begins firing questions: Was it good? Too local? In the next room, a television is showing the Academy Awards...
...Stupid has plenty of light moments, but it's hardly as broad as his earlier movies. And that was a risk for Neo: his previous film That One No Enough bombed at the box office, earning only $650,000, and he was nervous about taking on a film with a semi-serious theme. "Deciding not to go with slapstick definitely cost Jack some sleepless nights," says I Not Stupid executive producer Daniel Yun. But Neo feels it was a necessary move: getting gags in drag was good to him, but it was time to move on. "I realized my audience...
...Though I Not Stupid trips over its many messages and flirts with melodrama, it has an unerring sense of place. Neo's true inspiration was to present Terry's overbearing, white-wearing, all-controlling mother (Selena Tan) as an allegory for Singapore's famous Nanny State. Just as Terry's mother wants to run her kids' lives, Neo says, the Singaporean government has been slow to let its own children grow up. The buzz that Neo's adroit criticism has produced shows that it may be time for the government to give the kids the keys...
...Minister of Information even praised it. "The censorship issue is basically a non-issue now," says Khoo, whose short film Pain was banned by the government way back in 1994. "The board of censors are concerned with racial harmony and religion. Other than that, you're pretty much okay." Neo concurs. "I think that our government is quite open," he insists. "They want people to speak out. They want constructive criticism...