SIGHT&SOUND@
presents
A
Film by Toh Hai Leong
A
“mockumentary” which premiered at this year’s Singapore International
Film Festival, Zombie Dog is directed by and features Toh Hai Leong as a
fast-talking director helming a snuff movie and taking sideswipes at the
Singapore state's cookie-cutter mentality. The plot follows the maverick
director around his cluttered HDB flat as he interviews potential actors for
his movie and scoffed instant noodles because he cannot afford anything else.
From a broader vantage point, Zombie Dog is a candid appraisal of Singapore as
a nation of monotonous economic producers, who fail rather more dismally when
it comes to desire and sexual intimacy. "We copulate without any sense or
purpose," says Toh to the camera in one of many asides. It
lays bare the monotony of daily existence, so banal it is deadening. The
protagonist Lim Poh Huat (Zombie Dog) is the “everyman”, the average
Singaporean who goes through the motions and whose life contains very little
by way of real, engaged living.
At
once funny, sad and bizarre, this film will be celebrated in time to come as a
Singapore cult.
WARNING:
This film contains strong language and sexually explicit scenes.
TOH HAI LEONG
Toh
Hai Leong is a Singapore-based freelance film critic who writes for
independent film publications such as Screen International and World Paper. He
has covered the Hong Kong Film Festival since 1985 and specializes in the
cinemas of East Asia.
Toh’s
passion for films and encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject are unmistakable,
whatever else one may say about him. Viewed
by many as an eccentric, this film critic turned film maker also hawks at
Sungei Road as and when necessary.
Date:
Friday, 5 November 2004
Time:
3.00 pm to 5.00 pm
Venue:
ISEAS Seminar Room II
You
are cordially welcome to this screening. Toh Hai Leong
will be present to discuss his work.
Please
complete the attached Reply Form and return by fax: 6775-6264/6775-6259 to the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies or email: betty@iseas.edu.sg.
For further enquiries, please call
Betty at Tel: 6870-2472/6778-0955.
|
REPLY FORM |
By Fax: 6775-6264 / 6775-6259
The Seminar Coordinator
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Singapore 119614
I
will be * able/unable
to
attend the SIGHT&SOUND@ISEAS on Zombie Dog, a Film by Toh Hai Leong
on Friday, 5 November 2004 at 3.00 pm in Seminar Room II, ISEAS.
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(please underline surname)
Designation:___________________________________________________________
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Please
complete the Reply Form and return by fax to the Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies or email: betty@iseas.edu.sg
by Thursday, 4 November 2004. For further enquiries, please call Betty at Tel:
6870-2472/6778-0955.
*Please delete appropriately.