Come May 20, some of the biggest names in the local film industry—the likes of Kirsten Tan, Boo Junfeng and Royston Tan—are coming together to work on a cool new project called 667 that will be voiced almost entirely in various Chinese dialects. Royston, the executive producer of this project, is once again naming the film project using three numbers (just like 881), but this time, it’s derived from the average size of a three-room flat, and is meant to symbolize the exploration of a dialect group within a given boundary.
667 is commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) and is actually a compilation of five short films by five different Singaporean filmmakers. The directors are Eva Tang, He Shuming, Liao Jie Kai, Jun Chong and the aforementioned Kirsten Tan. Each of the directors are tasked to find inspiration from their own dialect group and to give their own interpretation on it. Boo is taking off his director’s hat for this project and will be putting on his acting cap instead.
Kirsten Tan, whose entry will be titled Wu Song Sha Sao, bases her film on the namesake Teochew opera classic, presented with modern elements. Meanwhile, Tang’s The Veiled Willow is titled after a lost Cantonese dish, which highlights the importance of food to the dialect group. Other films include Chong’s Ke, focusing on Singapore’s only Hakka cemetery; He’s Letters from the Motherland, a documentary inspired by his father’s letters to his Hainan hometown; and Liao’s Nocturne, a Hokkien film where Boo will basically be playing himself.
Catch the five films (with English subtitles) on May 20 at SCCC’s auditorium. Tickets are $15 via Sistic.
