Word: neos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...addition to the case's bizarre back story--the defendants kept the dogs for a neo-Nazi gang member serving time in a maximum-security prison--the defense provided other fireworks for the media circus in attendance. In her opening statement, Knoller's attorney Nedra Ruiz (who studied at the American Conservatory Theater) cried, kicked the jury box and crawled on the floor to re-create the attack. During closing arguments, Ruiz played the lesbian card (Whipple was gay) and accused the victim's lover, Sharon Smith, of perjury. She also suggested that the prosecution withheld evidence "to curry favor...
...Singapore, where citizens learn from a tender age to watch what they say, do and even think. But as Sigmund Freud would say, where there is a censorious superego you shouldn't have to look too far to find a subversive underlying id-the perfect description of Jack Neo, an actor, writer and director who doesn't keep much of anything inside. Ask him about any topic-sex, money, Big Brother-and he'll unleash his Gatling gun laugh. And that's what Singaporeans adore about Neo: the fact that he's willing to be their megaphone on the issues...
...Stupid, which Neo wrote, directed and acts in, takes on one of the core frustrations of Singaporean life: the city-state's ruthless education system, which, of course, is where citizens first feel the claws digging in. The film follows the lives of three struggling boys and their stressed parents, all feeling the pressure of a society that demands a narrow type of success at all costs. The movie and its themes-including subtle criticism of the government-have resonated with local audiences, earning some $1.8 million since its release in mid-February. That makes I Not Stupid the second...
...year-old Neo credits his success to his willingness to put on the screen what his audience actually thinks, feels and even how they talk. He broke artistic ground by writing dialogue in Singlish, the island's distinctive twisting of Shakespeare's tongue, widely spoken by Singaporeans but absent from local broadcasting. "As a director, I like real," he says. "Everything in my movies is real." Singaporean director Eric Khoo, whose gritty cinematic style puts him on the opposite end of the artistic spectrum, agrees that Neo is a master at getting at what lies beneath Singapore's stolid sterility...
...grief from their family and scorn from peers for ending up in the slowest class in school. That shame extends to their parents, who have parallel problems. Terry's father (Richard Low) fears his company will be destroyed by foreign competition, while Liu Kok's father (played by Neo) loses out at work to an incompetent expat because his English is lacking. His wife (the anguished Xiang Yun) is so tormented by her son's academic failures she canes him, only to dress the wounds later in the film's most touching sequence. And then someone gets cancer...