2SSFA - 'Labour Day' by He Shuming

'Labour Day' provides a National Education-esque commentary of Singapore’s social landscape, thrusts a limelight on the foreign minorities residing here, and attempts to create awareness and empathy towards them. The film is aesthetically and stylistically mature and it shows that the Putnam School of Film’s LaSalle College of the Arts First Class Honors graduate is clearly at ease behind the camera, and his film knowledge is alluded through his clear attention to detail. He varies his cinematic angles, plays with depth of field, utilizes apt music compositions, dabbles in appropriate color schemes of mutes with bright overtones, and expresses sensitivity to framing and lines in a shot (the misè-en-scene of the toilet scene was impressive). Right down to the typography of his opener and his subtitles – which, by the way, gets me started on how irksome the standards of subtitles are in most of the short films I watched.

While Labour Day was the easiest to sit through for the evening, it falls prey to tackiness in the end when metaphorical chimera takes over in the style of the 1980s music video that simply espouses the myth in the plus-sized lady’s head. But my bad if that’s an innuendo to the golden adage “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings”. Unfortunately, too, character arcs are lightweight and one-dimensional – and it being a short film is no excuse for fleshing them out at least adequately. The film easily perpetrates the stereotypes that local minorities fall prey to, under the veil of job opportunities in this concrete jungle.

Production Talk - 'Labour Day' by He Shuming

Synopsis

Cik visits her old flat to collect rent from her two foreign worker tenants who are on their way to work – Zoe, a frumpy 30-year old Malaysian Chinese whose second application to be a Singapore citizen has just been rejected, and Purple, a study-mama from China, who is hiding a secret from her 12 year-old son.
LABOUR DAY is a quirky and quiet observation of how one goes to great lengths to pursue a better life in a city obsessed with progress and change.

*****

What inspired you to create this film?

It was initially an idea of making a Singaporean film with non-Singaporean characters. Most of the time when I try to write something, I turn to my mother who's always provided me with much inspirations unknowingly. This is very much a story about women who are mothers, daughters, sisters and wannabe actresses.


How did you go about casting?

We sent out casting calls online, scour through drama groups, etc. Jasmine Koh (Zoe) is a theatre actress from Young & W!ld. Xiang Ling auditioned for Traces (another graduating short film) and we invited her to audition for the role of Purple. Zaliha (Cik) is a veteran TV actress known for her roles in Malay dramas, she was the Chinese opera singing macik in Chicken Rice War. I found the little boy from my alma mater, Maris Stella High School - there are plenty of Mainland Chinese students in the school's table tennis team.




Any interesting anecdotes to share about the production?

One of the other characters of the film was the spaces these characters occupied. The film was mainly set in Hougang New Town, where I grew up. The rainbow flat's been there for ages and in fact, the neighbourhood hasn't changed much. Well, it is an opposition ward but I think that's the nice thing about a neighbourhood that doesn't get upgraded much. There's something tranquil about it and you get a mix of foreign workers from Malaysia and China, new immigrants from India as well as your usual Singaporeans. There is something less 'plastic' about this suburbs than most HDB neighbourhoods.

When we were shooting at People's Park, we had to devise a plan to make sure people aren't going to stare into the cameras. The scene was when Purple solicited at People's Park, known to be a popular area where old retirees and women from Mainland China, well, hang out and be friends. It was a small crew that day - just me, my DP, his CA, and the AD with the actress Xiang Ling (who was dressed quite provocatively). The camera would be placed far away from Xiang Ling while she's instructed by the AD (who's on the phone with me) as she walked around, watched hawkers selling their wares, etc. She was approached by a few men, some whom were pimps, asking her if she had an 'agent' and how much her rates were. Xiang Ling was such a trooper, playing along and being in character.


What were your biggest challenges in making this film?

Hmmm, to bring out the realism out of the actors and make these characters believable. The very fact that these characters who are very real people, and portrayed by professional actors was a challenge.

For Jasmine especially, it was hard for her because she doesn't speak Malay and had to learn her line phonetically before progressing further in rehearsals. That was initially a problem for me, to have a Singaporean Chinese actress portray a Malaysian Chinese. But I realized it could be interesting to see if those differences between a Singaporean and a Malaysian. I guess in a way, not everyone were convinced. Well, the audience can decide for themselves I guess.


Any future plans after graduating from The Puttam School of Film, LASALLE?

I'm currently working on my reel for TVCs, looking at other types of collaborations and writing my next short film.

I need to get out of Singapore for awhile, I think. There are plenty of stories to be told here but sometimes we need to look at it from the outside. But realistically I will need to work for awhile first. We will see. :)

Director's Film Blog

LaSalle AVANT Showcase - 'Labour Day' by He Shuming

Coming in as the longest film of the showcase at 25 minutes, Labour Day captures the collision of idealistic dreams and harsh realities through the eyes of its two protagonists – Zoe, who dreams of a better future for her family back home while escaping from the clutches of a failed relationship; and Purple, the oft-stereotyped study-mama with the unfavoured but sole route of providence for her child.

If pensive stares into space epitomise the dead-end conundrum the duo are resigned to, the desperate measures and untenable dreams they seek add some light-hearted,

albeit pitiable situations to the mix.

The scenes between the two and their landlady Cik – who serves as a smart plot device to intertwine the three – flesh out their personas well, but if there was any criticism, the dialogue comes across as somewhat awkward and contrived – made worse by the attempts in using a bilingual Zoe to bridge the language barrier between Cik and Purple.

What one takes away though is merited by an inventive ending and the poignant plot premise of those seeking the notion of “a better life” on our shores and the aged left by the wayside.