IT’S OUR
PARTY, WE CAN DO WHAT WE WANT
Filial Party Press Conference
By Jedd Jong
F*** was at
Orchard Hotel on Tuesday, attending the press conference and round table
interviews for Filial Party. The
Singaporean film, starring an ensemble of faces regular Channel 8 viewers will
doubtlessly find familiar, is being released in conjunction with Mother’s Day.
In the film, Mark Lee plays Millionaire Liu, a producer and TV host who devises
a television game show that will reward the most filial contestant with a $1
million cash prize. Christopher Lee, Ann Kok and Hayley Woo play the three
finalists vying for the coveted prize money.
“I was able
to fulfil a long-time dream of mine on this film: hitting Mark Lee,”
Christopher Lee, in shades, tousled hair and silver studded shoes, said to much
laughter. “Ever since I’ve entered the industry, I’ve always wanted to hit Mark
Lee.” Despite this potentially disturbing glimpse into Christopher Lee’s
psyche, it was amply clear that the cast got on like a house on fire.
Christopher’s
significant other, currently pregnant with her first child, was on everyone’s
minds, so much so that Mark Lee jokingly instated a “$300 fine” for the next
person to mention “Fann Wong”. Christopher Lee said he eventually hopes to
become a good friend to his child, still withholding the baby’s gender. “I
think she looks cute when she’s pregnant,” he said rather sweetly about Fann.
Veteran
actor Richard Low plays Christopher Lee’s onscreen dad, a lecherous, unfaithful
cad. Christopher Lee insisted that Low is nothing like his character in real
life. Low, who celebrates his 30th wedding anniversary this year,
said he has never had any big arguments with his wife. Lee vouched that while
having dinner with the couple, both Low and his wife spoke to each other very
gently. Low sheepishly admitted that he was a little ashamed to face his wife
after filming a scene in which his character hired a prostitute.
“I heard
the girl gave up her citizenship,” Mark Lee teased. He had taken it on himself
to play team leader during the press conference. “I had a good time making this
film because they had to do the heavy lifting,” Mark Lee said referring to the
rest of the cast. “They have parents, children, they have to strip, be in
traffic accidents, I had a comparatively easy time of it.” On the topic of the
brief tussle towards the film’s climax that Mark and Christopher’s characters
share, Mark said “I don’t think there’s any contest between Christopher and I.
He’s just that much stronger. If we were to get into a fight for real,
Christopher would definitely win.”
“If I were
betting on the fight between Christopher Lee and Mark Lee, I’d definitely put
my money on Christopher,” Kym Ng affirmed. Ng sported hot pink hair, having
dyed it blonde for the film. Ng, who is Christopher Lee’s onscreen wife in Filial Party, said “I was anticipating
playing Christopher’s wife but I was afraid that we wouldn’t be sufficiently
familiar with each other, having not worked together before. But we got along
very well, even the scenes in which we had to share a bed, there wasn’t any
awkwardness about it.”
Getai
performer Liu Ling Ling plays wife to Richard Low’s character, mother to
Christopher Lee’s and mother-in-law to Kym Ng’s. “His character in this film is
such a dirty old man, but Richard was a gentleman in real life,” she said. Last
year, at age 50, Liu gave birth to her first child. “My child in real life is
eight months old, but in this movie, Christopher plays my son!” she said with a
laugh.
Ann Kok is
no stranger to the small screen, but Filial
Party marks her feature film debut. “It was a very happy experience making
my first movie,” she said. In a crucial scene, Millionaire Liu stages a traffic
accident, forcing Kok’s character to make a difficult choice: saving her
elderly mother or her young son. When asked who she would save if it came down
to her significant other or her mother, Kok replied “If I answer this question,
I won’t be able to find a husband,” leading Mark Lee to point out that she had
indeed answered the question anyway. For what it’s worth, she did confirm that
she is still single.
Japanese-American
actor Jimmy Taenaka plays the supporting role of Ann Kok’s onscreen husband in Filial Party. Not proficient in the
Chinese language, Taenaka attempted a sentence using the only Mandarin phrase
he knew, and ended up saying “Ann Kok tastes great,” which naturally got him
quite the ribbing from Mark Lee. On the difference between working in Singapore
and in Hollywood, Taenaka said “I think there are bigger egos in Hollywood and
everybody here is very nice, the cast and crew.” Director Boris Boo shared that
Taenaka had diligently come up with a detailed backstory and character history to prepare
for his relatively minor role, a method of preparation that isn’t the standard
practice in Singapore.
Irene Ang
plays the mother of Hayley Woo’s character and the wife of Guo Liang’s. The
multi-hyphenate actress joked that she had been “promoted” to playing mothers
in films such as Ah Boys to Men and
TV shows like Spouse for House. In Filial Party, Ang’s character suffers a
heart attack and is loaded into an ambulance. This was the first such scene she
had filmed and some crew members, taking it to be a bad omen, offered her a red
packet to ward off the supposed bad luck. She brought her mother to see her in
the Ah Boys to Men musical and it was
the first time her mother had seen a stage show. “I’ve found that humour always
works when talking to parents. I try to keep it light because when we discuss
serious issues, we tend to get into arguments,” Ang said. Ang is not a mother in
real life, but said she views the 43 artistes managed by her company FLY Entertainment as her own “children”.
To show
their devotion to their daughter, both Irene Ang and Guo Liang’s characters
dressed in garish K-pop attire. “I had the shock of my life when I was told
that I had to wear these outfits,” Guo said. “I could identify with the idea of
being the father of a teenager because my son is 15, but all the rest,
especially these K-pop outfits, that was alien to me.” In the film, it appears
that Guo’s character might be having an affair with a younger woman. “I had a
scene where I was sneaking off into a hotel and it seemed as if I was stripping
and getting into bed. The script was ambiguous on the specifics of this.” He
was also bewildered by the lack of direction given to him, Boo evading any
questions he had about the scene prior to shooting it.
Filial Party marks the second movie in Hayley Woo’s résumé.
“It’s a great to honour to work with actors that I’ve seen in TV shows and
never thought that I’d have the opportunity to work with,” she said. In the
film, her character is something of a brat who is completely doted on by her
parents. “I feel that my generation is more self-centred and that many young
Singaporeans treat their parents as if they were their maids,” she commented.
Ang added that teenagers seem more entitled these days. “Mark Lee always mangles
my name,” she lamented. Lee went on to call her “Hali-copter” and “Hali-leg”.
Director
Boris Boo said the project’s inception happened during a brainstorming session
when producer Lim Teck suggested he do a film along the lines of Money No Enough, about the pursuit of
wealth in Singapore society. “I can’t outdo my master,” Boo conceded, referring
to mentor Jack Neo. “I didn’t want to do a typical Singaporean movie where the
focus is on just one family, so I suggested ‘why don’t we do a (film about a)
game show?’” He described his original idea as a more extreme Hunger Games-esque take, but scaled it
down due to budgetary concerns. Boo admitted that he made full use of the TV
show-centric premise to pile on the product placement, saying his instructions
were “go and find all the sponsors you can, whatever you find, let’s put it
in.” He claimed that it would be unnatural for a TV show to have no product
placement but admitted that Filial Party
probably still is too “blatant” in this regard.
“My primary
aim for making this movie is that audiences will make a call to their parents
or have a meal with them after watching the movie,” Boo said, echoing what many
of his cast members had said over the course of the press conference about
filial piety being a day-to-day thing expressed mostly through small gestures.
Filial Party opens 8 May 2014.
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