Interview with Singapore Film Director Ken Kwek

Abstract

INTERVIEW WITH SINGAPORE FILM DIRECTOR KEN KWEKKen Kwek is a Singapore filmmaker whose fresh satirical comedy Sex.Violence.FamilyValues (2012) stirred the relatively calm waters of the city-state’ s film production. It consists of three stories: “Cartoons,” “Porn Masala” and “The Bouncer”. In “Cartoons”, a mother is called by the kindergarten teacher concerning the drawings of her son; the “Porn Masala” is about the shooting of a pornographic film about a middle-aged Indian man having sex with a young virgin; in “The Bouncer”, a nightclub bouncer becomes anxious when he realizes his daughter is about to perform as a pole dancer there. The three stories challenge, through irony and unexpected twists of the plot, some conventional per- ceptions of contemporary Singapore society. Apparently misunderstood by some, the movie was banned in Singapore after its scheduled premiere in October 2012, but was eventually re-released in March 2013. ...