15

another movie that dash finally caught on dvd this weekend is royston tan's "15", about the lives of five teenagers aged 15 in singapore. their lives revolve about the darker side of society, where tattoo-covered young teenagers who play truant, peddle drugs for their livelihood, and are involved in gang fights and self-mutilation.

the hilarious magical realism thick with chinese pugilist references, characters' amazing fluency in the dialect hokkien in their songs (whether it is their re-mix version of the national anthem or songs about loyalty and brotherhood) and their immense grasp of vocabulary for swearing are just a few of the captivating elements in the movie!

on a more sombre note, other than the above cited entertainment value, the movie has a number of solemn messages. and dash thinks one of them must be about responsible parenthood. afterall, the teenagers' parents are all conspicuously missing in the movie - while the audience journeys with the characters to find the best building to jump off from in a bid to make his suicide headlines on the newspaper; and while the audience watches one of the character swallow bags of drugs to smuggle them. the only time a parent makes his appearance, we only see his hands from behind the camera slapping the boy copiously and hear his voice berating the boy in a stream of flawless hokkien vulgarities.

and also, like the hongkong triad movies, "15" the movie also examined the notion of "loyalty" and "brotherhood", values so often waved in the air when one talk about relationships in the underworld. dash wasn't sure if she should be laughing or be sad at how suggestions from a character's underworld brothers came in fast and furious on which building is the best place for one to jump off from.

yeah, dash enjoyed most part of the movie : ) save for dash's personal aversion to the prolonged close-up frames of facial piercings and self-mutilation, the stories of the five teenagers were well-told and well-integrated in the movie. dash thinks the director royston tan did a very good job! :D