TalkingCock The Movie Screening @National Museum of Singapore (28th Singapore International Film Festival) | November 25, 2017
The 28th Singapore International Film Festival happens from November 23 to December 3 and as part of its Singapore Panorama section, the 11-day event celebrated the 15th anniversaries of local films I Not Stupid, directed by Jack Neo, and TalkingCock The Movie, directed by married couple Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen.
Based on the now-dormant satirical website TalkingCock.com, TalkingCock is a farce which teases and caricatures the quirky personalities and lingos of the city-state in the early 2000s, back before online social media, smartphones and cryptocurrencies became a thing.
The National Museum of Singapore served as the screening venue for the film on November 25 and saw an attendance of close to a hundred, which included former cast members and production crews.
Following the screening, Singapore-based writer Neil Humphreys — who played Singapore’s founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, in the 90-minute movie — moderated a hilarious Q&A session with Goh, Woo, and some of the actors and crews, who shared interesting facts and experiences of making the comedy.
According to Goh, TalkingCock’s production began soon after his friend acquired a video camera, and its filming was completed in a few days. Despite the relatively short production time, the former practicing attorney considers the process as “the hardest” but the “best film school you could ever ask for because everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.”
“First day of the shoot, we have no idea what we are doing,” he revealed, adding that locations were selected based on their availability while the cast was formed by roping in friends and relatives as well as people they met in public.
Woo also let out that the role of an innovative mama san (brothel mistress) was actually portrayed by her mother, a disclosure that elicited laughter from the audience.
“There are a lot of improvising and making up as we go along, and I just thought it was a wonderful, liberating experience,” Humphreys commented about the exuberantly independent spirit of the “no budget” production. “We were all paid chicken rice! I became a vegetarian after doing that film!”
However, the production attracted unwanted attention on the streets during filming. Goh recalled that the crews were once threatened by some “local fellows” who tried to extort ‘coffee money’ from them.
Another anecdote he shared was when he was called up by film censors to remove a certain portion of the film. That particular scene in question — a turban-wearing Sikh dubbed ‘The Turbanator’, who punishes a passer-by for insensitive racial remarks by twisting his nipples — ran afoul with the censors who suggested that it may offend moviegoers although acknowledging it as a social commentary on race.
“It was the most serious issue in the show,” Goh said, at one point choking lightly with emotion. “We then have to decide: Do we fight this or do we cut it? And nobody has ever fought with the censors before.”
Undeterred, Goh stated his case before the appeals committee of the Board of Film Censors, with Professor Kirpal Singh, the current director of the Wee Kim Centre in the Singapore Management University, providing a letter of support for the controversial scene. He then invited members of the youth wing of the Central Sikh Gurdwara, the highest Sikh authority in the country, to review the clip.
“If you are offended for any reason, I will chop it without hesitation,” Goh remembered telling them. Anticipating he could be grilled for the supposedly sensitive nature of the scene, he received an unexpected surprise.
“The president (of the youth wing) came to me and said, “Hey… Do you think you can get Turbanator t-shirts”,” Goh described the funny moment. “And they happily (approved) it.”
TalkingCock eventually caught the attention of local distributors and was shown on a dozen screens in 2002. Woo attributed the initial interest to the popularity of Jack Neo’s 1998 film, Money No Enough, which, like TalkingCock, employs a conspicuous usage of Chinese dialects and Singlish. But on the same day of TalkingCock’s release, the local screening of Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man feature also started, resulting in the former’s quick pull-out.
While its run in the theatres was short-lived, memories of TalkingCock continue to linger for several years. Professor Singh, who was also in the film, believes that it does have its place in the cultural discourse, especially when scrutinising the art of ‘talking cock’ — the Singaporean colloquial for talking nonsense.
“It is even more relevant today than it was 15 years ago, in terms of what (the film) is saying to the nation that is on the brink of asking itself once again: “Who are we?” There are a lot of serious issues that are discussed in our ‘talking cock’ way,” Professor Singh opined.
“It’s a pity that while (the practice) of talking cock continues, the level of intellectual engagement now is a little bit different, perhaps going in a confusing direction.”
For Goh, he sees TalkingCock as a landmark in its own rights given that, back then, “Singapore films were mostly Chinese.” Moreover, he relishes its politically incorrect tone coupled with a free-for-all vibe.
“We tried to bring as many people together. We had people of all ages, all races, and this was very deliberate,” Goh said.
“We made something that we thought was funny and I guess it was the ‘punk rock’ kind of attitude — just go with it and try.”
