Random Musings

I once mentioned that while we should always give local productions a chance, we should not evaluate them on a less stringent criteria just because they are “local”.

There is a difference between supporting local productions and being unfairly lenient to them just because they carry the “local” tag. I really don’t see why local productions are disadvantaged in any way as compared to non-local productions. It’s not an issue of lack of resources or talent or expertise or what, so everything should be fair game.

I recently gave “Sing to the Dawn” a chance…but I am very sad to say that I thought it was bad.

Real bad.

It was so bad that it hurt.

One of my saddest movie-going experiences.

Last month, 8 Days magazine gave it a 2 out of 5 star rating. I felt they were being kind. I think it’s quite sad that this is the end product after 4 years of production and a budget of $7.5 million.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie crowd (meagre as it was) as disinterested and as detached from the movie as I did when I was at “Sing to the Dawn”. It was rather painful.

• The characters were largely unidimensional, and the graphics were alright. (I won’t pick on the graphics too much, cos not every movie has the budget and the resources of a Pixar or a Dreamworks production. Besides, there were some bright moments with the graphics, so I’m cool with that.)
• The screenplay was weak, cheesy and predictable at times.
• The visual humour seemed pretty outdated, like what you’d see in a children’s cartoon 20 years ago.
• The plot seemed like it didn’t know where to go.
• The rapid scene changes were confusing at times. (Case in point: The “kung fu” scenes.)
• What, ultimately, was the thrust of the story – the villagers’s fight for survival, or Dawan’s struggle for credibility as an intelligent and independent girl in a male-oriented society? The movie seemed to not be able to decide on which one to focus on.
• What’s with the whole gathering of talking animals and stuff? Was it meant to be taken seriously or not? Ultimately, the audience was unsure of the “tone” of the movie – whether to take things seriously or light-heartedly…and I think that was one of the major downfalls of the movie.
• Why was there such a mishmash of English accents in one single South-East Asian village? Where did all these poor villagers acquire such exotic accents from? Are we to believe that there are villagers who somehow had acquired crisp British accents somewhere in the course of their lives?
• The whole movie had this “80′s kids cartoon” feel to it, right down to tacky Elvis-like villain with huge beefy henchman…just that it was all done up in snazzy 3D graphics and all that.

Lest you call me a traitor for slamming a local production, let me reiterate once again that I believe one should judge all productions objectively, and not be any less lenient just because it is “local”.

As I said before, just because it’s a local production, that doesn’t mean it deserves a free pass.

I prefer to judge all movies at the cinema by the same standards.

After all, the tickets for all movies cost the same.