45 year-old Meng, toiling as a factory worker in a steel
manufacturing plant, is determined to find an easier way to make money.
Burdened with raising a teenage daughter alone, he dreams of a way out of this
dead-end life. His 13 year-old daughter, Ying, a frequent shoplifter, becomes a
pawn in his scam.
Screened at the 4th Singapore Short Film Awards, 'Villain' by Ric Aw is a chilling exploration of the dark recesses of the human
soul, an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for survival can make
the most ordinary people do the unimaginable. It won best Script and the female lead Brittany Low got a special mention award for performance.
The film sheds light on the moral
dilemmas the have-nots face in Singapore. Is this a true or imagined story?
There are many actual
incidents that inspire this story and I can’t seem to pin point one. The
research leads me to incidents documented in local newspapers from the past and
the present. Some of the facts that struck me are parents having their children
to beg for money, mothers selling their babies online and other true revelations.
The characters in 'Villain' are shaped after some of these people.
What inspired the film? It does not
seem to be pegged to anything recent except the growing income gap in
Singapore. It seems like an evergreen tale.
For 'Villain', I am interested in the adverse version of a dutiful father – the bad
father. In this century, what are the new definitions of a bad father –
negligence, violation or overbearing affection? Paternal deviants, how are they
like now? Some evils are timeless and universal. 'Villain' looks at these new
monsters of a parent.
Besides
that, modern society has no place for certain breeds of men. There are those
who stick by the old ways, a traditional set of rules on how a man should
behave or bringing up the next generation to meeting obstacles in a noble way.
The world has no place for them, of their ways or even their presence. What
then becomes of a man from yesteryears? Do they assimilate or bash through with
their steel resolve?
From your previous short films like 'Garden Girls' and 'Silent Girls', there is a common thread of young girls going
astray (or being somewhat deviant). Could you share your fascination with the
motif?
I am interested in moral beauty, rather, the
desecration of it. Specifically, I investigate the traditional values that are
eroding in modern times. Unfortunately, moral beauty captured on film – like
physical beauty in a person – is extremely perishable. It has a tendency to
decay very rapidly in the progress of society. What is shocking news today
becomes just another article tomorrow. Its short-lived presence accounts for
this contemporary story but I hope the essence of this moral beauty stays as
long as it can in the minds of the audiences.
The film exhibits attention to visual
textures and sound e.g. focusing on the drainage tide, adding to the ambience
of the film. Can you share your artistic direction in this area?
Central to creating this film is to reflect on human conditions by
magnifying the everyday man and their difficulties. We tried to present an intersection between
documentary and fictional narrative. The visuals and sounds observe how life
unfolds. The water, at times, is a metaphor for the characters’ emotional
state.
This work
reflects on human conditions by magnifying the everyday man and their
difficulties. Central to the creative process is the idea of uncovering
obsolete individuals; searching for their place and adaptation to modern
Singapore.
What were the biggest challenges in
making this film?
The greatest challenge is keeping the treatment as minimal as
possible. We had to remove a lot of fluff for the real story to be heard. There
are certain eras that are too deafened by confused sentiments, historical and
intellectual experiences, to hear the voice of sanity. The truths we respect
are those born of affliction in which I hope this short film can carefully
portray a possibility and an understanding.
Check out the full winners list of the 4th Singapore Short Film Awards.