Word: singaporean
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...name a Singaporean film of the 1970s and '80s, it's because hardly any were made. The city-state's movie industry still hadn't recovered from the once dominant Shaw Brothers and Cathay studios' decision to relocate almost all production to Hong Kong decades earlier. Only in the mid-1990s did a new generation of filmmakers - taking advantage of new technology and lower production costs - take up cameras again. Among them was Eric Khoo, whose 1995 debut Mee Pok Man told of the tormented relationship between a noodle cook and a prostitute, and inaugurated a new wave of films...
...Does social and political conservatism explain the dearth of Singaporean film before the 1990s? KHOO: No, basically we had a very thriving film industry. But when Sir Run Run Shaw left for Hong Kong and [influential Malaysian actor and director] P. Ramlee went back to Malaysia, things changed. If you think of movies produced back in the '50s, the budgets were, like, up to a million, and they were huge in Southeast Asia. UEKRONGTHAM: It's not so much about social control but trying to focus on economic progress. And maybe now is the time when they can focus...
...Keeping the roe in gives the crab a more distinctive flavor," insisted leading Singaporean gastro-pundit Raymond Lim of Les Amis, as we sat outside at his packed local Ting Heng Seafood (tel: (65) 6323 6093), on the edge of the Geylang (red light) district. Here the crab is served ready cracked and the roe adds a crunchy intensity that's offset by a light yet pungent sauce. Now I understand why for the true chili crab cognoscenti, texture is as critical as spice...
...Instead, Poon's stories succeed when she examines Singapore on its own terms. Take the love with which she describes a Singaporean-Chinese cook in Queens: "In Singapore, there were men like him who sat around hawker centers at night over a Guinness Stout and a cigarette - men who wore open-necked shirts and small gold chains around their neck. They would sit for hours at a time, then grunt an observation, tap the cigarette on the ashtray and then shake their heads." Images like this make the reader want to read Poon on Singapore, not London, Toronto...
...fact, by far the best story in the collection is about the very Singaporean dilemma of national service. So that their male scions may escape this obligation, some Singaporean families flee the country - like the family of Eddie in "Those Who Serve, Those Who Do Not." In this story, as in life, an absconder like Eddie can't return to Singapore without facing prosecution. But his sister Joanne returns from her comfortable, pseudo exile in Sydney to visit Uncle Sam and cousin Peter. They did not have the means of escape and instead relied on a powerfully Singaporean stoicism...