Since it is the month of my great nation's independence, I decided to go on a marathon of local films. I saw everything from camp to downright terrifying, but the best was the debut from NDP creative director Boo Jun Feng.
Sandcastle follows a young man, En, who has is currently at the stage of his life between JC (Pre University education for Non Singaporeans) and conscription. During these few months he and his family pay a visit to their family home, a crumbling house situated right next to a giant commercial tower, presumably the last one standing on the block. A sign of how things have changed. It turns out his grandmother has dementia, and his grandfather takes care of her. En reserved, and hardly ever communicates with his grandparents. One day while looking through old family stuff, he comes across a photobook of his father back in his school days, and is shocked to find out that his father was involved in the Chinese middle school protests of the 50s. When he brings this up to his family members, specifically his mom, he is met with a rather terse response. She says she didn't know much about it and heard his dad was "brainwashed". His grandfather was more dissident, but unfortunately he died before he could elaborate further.
Determined to find out more, he continues looking for old artifacts while also facing many tribulations, from his first love to a military stepdad he doesn't like. The film intertwines his coming of age with his increasingly complex view of family history, thus highlighting the intersection of the political and personal. His views (on religion, on what to do with his dementia ridden grandma) becomes increasingly at odds with his mom, perhaps reflecting the challenge that people like his father pose to the government's account of Singaporean history. Its narrative (the consecutive deaths of two elders in the family bring the motivator for development), the repeated use of transitory spaces, and the film's thematic content (most importantly the connection between personal and historical memory) all strike me as being similar to A Time to Live and The Time to Die, though less extreme and notably lacking Hou's fascination with geometricisation. Sandcastle also doesn't compare to Hou film, for reasons I will discuss later.
Like Hou, Sandcastle makes liberal use of metaphors. Grandmother's dementia being the most obvious representation fragility of memory, and also less obvious ones like the subplot of En's childhood memories potentially being lost forever on his PC, and the contrast between the impassioned cheers of the protesters and a subdued rendition of Home in the opening scenes. There is some irony in that En needs the help of his PRC girlfriend to understand his father's letter. We soon realise that Grandma and Mom's attempts to bury the past are not very successful, Grandma's memory deteriorates, buried memories start to haunt her in her dreams, and like the grandma in Hou's film, she yearns for the place of her past. Mom disavows her chinese past, and instead wholeheartedly embraces a narrative she once had to be forced to accept. She doesn't make the trip to Malaysia to see her husband with En during Qing Ming festival, but is reminded of her past when her husband tells her to be true to herself. Boo asks difficult questions about whether two different narratives of history can ever be reconciled, and makes a clear stance about the importance of acknowledging ones history.
Unfortunately, these questions aren't adequately addressed; the film only briefly touches on these topics, whether its because of censorship fears or simply overambition is up in the air. The most striking thing to me is that his father's identity only really becomes relevant at the start and end of the story; not really enough time integrate the parallel threads in a satisfying manner. Compounding this is the unshakeable feeling of self consciouness, like the film desperately wants to seem "arty", thanks to many long and seemingly random diversions to look at scenery. Contrast this to Hou's slower yet rigorous visual style that often powerfully redefine spaces over the course of the film as well as reveal their relationships between people and historical events. The treatment of the protesters in Sandcastle also feels overly romanticised, which may work given that their idealism and drive is the focus of En's coming of age, but at the same time the Hou film just has a better balance of personal and a more objective, historical perspective. Nevertheless, to match a Hou masterpiece is a tall order for any film, let alone a debut and you know what, Sandcastle is still light years ahead of recent Jack Neo attempts at "history". 25 years removed from when the film was set, the dream of alternative viewpoints being embraced in this country still lies beyond our shores
(Good lord that girl is a walking red flag)
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