8 DAYS | 13STORY (^) DOUGLAS TSENG PHOTO KELVIN CHIA
characters spoke the way they spoke. Because the
problem with Channel 5 is that everything is in perfect
English. In 12 Storeys, you could throw in the dialects
to make the characters even more real. At that time,
James Toh, my co-writer, and I were reading a lot of
local news. We were also very inspired by the works of
Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki, and that sort of
worked its way to one of the stories with
Jack Neo as a yong tau foo seller and
Quan Yifeng as his China bride.
Back to the box-set. You’re re-releasing the films on
a dinosaur format. The DVD market isn’t what it
used to be...
I’m very sad lah, because I like [my DVDs in a] physical
box. Whenever I’m in Japan, I’d make a pilgrimage to
Tower Records, because they have everything, and I will
still buy CDs. Then when I bring them back, my kids
would say, “Oh, I already downloaded this.” But I like
the [feel of a] physical disc very much and I still love
going into shops to find DVDs.
You should get your movies on Netflix or iTunes.
Those are the new platforms for young people to
discover films.
That’s how [Guardians of the Galaxy director] James
Gunn saw it. We were at a film festival in Tokyo and
he asked what I did. I said Tatsumi, and he went, “I
[expletive] love the film!” I was like, “Where did you see
it?!” And he said, “On iTunes!”
Do you remember the first scene you directed?
It was with Jack and Yifeng and they totally cracked me up.
It was the scene where Jack was on his exercise bike and
wanting sex so desperately from his China bride.
12 Storeys was Quan Yifeng’s first movie.
She was excellent. She’s Taiwanese and had to put on
a Mainland Chinese accent. You couldn’t find anyone as
good as her who could do that sort of accent.
How did Jack Neo get involved in the film?
You two went on to make Liang Po Po.
I met Jack at this production house
called A&T Studio, where they rented out
cameras and simple editing suites. If you
were doing something low-budget, you’d
go there. So I met him there and I was
thinking of this transition link to connect
the three stories in 12 Storeys — there
would be a TV set in everyone’s home
and they are watching this comedian, which
I wanted Jack to play. But Jack went, “I don’t
want to be inside a TV! Give me a bigger role!” I said,
“But we don’t have the budget.” He said, “It’s okay lah,
you give me an ang pow!” Then I said, “But then you
need to look ugly.” He said, “Oh, I’ve got these prop
teeth that look really ugly. The next time we met he had
those fake teeth.
Do you think the film still holds up?
We did a 20th anniversary screening [at The Projector
recently] and what was really cool about that was the
audience — it was a younger audience who had never
seen the film. It was wonderful to hear them laugh and
relating to what they were watching — a social satire
set 20 years ago that’s still relevant. It still resonates
with Singaporeans because we all haven’t changed that
much.
Your next movie is Ramen Teh, a drama
about a ramen chef from Japan trying
to learn more about his Singaporean
mother. It stars Mark Lee, Jeanette
Aw ... and 1980s J-pop idol Seiko
Matsuda.
I’m a Seiko fan. I even got her vinyls
from back in the day. She is a gem to
work with. You know who went gaga
over her? Mark Lee. I kept telling him
that we got Seiko Matsuda, and he just
went, “Orh.” He only knew her by her Chinese
name. So one day before filming, he discovered
who she was and went crazy. (laughs)
Come to think of it, food has always played a part in
your works.
I’ve been watching cooking shows ever since I was
a kid. Before Nigella Lawson and Gordon Ramsay,
there was this British celeb chef Keith Floyd in the
1970s. I’m always watching all these delicious shots,
wondering [how to combine them with] a story. My main
love is horror but I always make it a point to watch
every food film out there. There’s a lovely Indian film
called The Lunchbox. Fantastic.
The Eric Khoo Director’s Collection is out in stores this month.
Ramen Teh will be in cinemas next year.
Soul food: Jeanette Aw and
Ihara Tsuyoshi in Ramen Teh.
Khoo says he became a Jeanette
Aw fan after watching her on The
Little Nyonya. “When I first met up
with her a long time ago, I didn’t
know what exactly to put her in,”
recalls Khoo. “But I wanted to
meet her so that if I finally do get
to make a film with a character
[that’s suitable for her] to
play, I’d rope her in.”
Odd couple: Jack
Neo and Quan
Yifeng as estranged
husband and wife
in 12 Storeys.