Not every film that adopts a stark ‘black and white’ palette
gains a genuine art-house aura. ‘Ash’ by Taj Musco was a dark horse, pardon the
pun, in this year’s Singapore Short Film Awards. Though not nominated for any
categories, it shines brightly as a film with one of the most lucid direction
and message-to-tell.
The film seamlessly weaves social commentary into a simple
story about 2 people who, brought together by society’s oppressive regulatory
shackles, develop a friendship. One is an old man, seemingly larger-than-life
from wearing a suit at East Coast Park, but who speaks the hearts of many
equivalents who are unhappy and helpless about the government encroaching into
the what little is left of personal space, like the act of exhuming graves. The
other is a seemingly rookie of a policeman who is young at heart, struggling to
asset his duty and yet not entirely enslaved in his mind to civil service
guidelines.
Around them are faceless (except for that auntie
‘administrator’ from the Ministry of Death) characters who nicely fit into
‘unnamed society’s units’, sharpening the message the film presents to the
audience. The film demonstrates a ‘practised’ hand at crafting stark visual
metaphors, each heightening the intense ambience of the film. Shots including
the morbid looking elevator, the tiled multiplicity of the many storeys of the
building interior, the sterilized look of the Ministry of Death and the finally
the shot of the 2 ‘other’ policemen scrutinizing the story’s main pair, ‘colour’
the film and accentuate the overhanging sense of oppression the directors is
seemingly conveying.
Highly recommended. If
you missed its screening during the Singapore Short Film Awards, we hope some
other venue would pick it up. We also interviewed Musco in our ‘Production Talk’ series earlier in the year.
Review by Jeremy Sing