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S’pore film-maker Tony Yeow: Dreaming the impossible dream

SINGAPORE — Even the most avid follower of local movies would be forgiven for not having heard of Tony Yeow Park Swee, the producer, writer and director who passed away in June this year. Yeow spent most of his career trying to achieve the virtually impossible – to make a successful film in Singapore.

Film-maker Tony Yeow described himself as the 'has-been that never was'.

Film-maker Tony Yeow described himself as the 'has-been that never was'.

SINGAPORE — Even the most avid follower of local movies would be forgiven for not having heard of Tony Yeow Park Swee, the producer, writer and director who passed away in June this year. Yeow spent most of his career trying to achieve the virtually impossible – to make a successful film in Singapore.

He’d be the first to admit he didn’t pull it off. Instead, Yeow’s life is full of setbacks and disappointments, enough to end multiple careers, but Yeow kept going. Until a few years ago, he was still developing scripts, hustling for projects and taking meetings.

He was driven by a love for film and an enduring belief in the next opportunity. He joked that he was a “has-been who never-was”; but in the highly success-driven society of Singapore, Yeow is an inspiring figure.

He is also the subject of Remembering Tony, a talk that traces his life history, as part of the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) this weekend.

“He’s one of the true unsung heroes of the Singapore film industry,” said Zhang Wenjie, director of the SGIFF. “Although he didn’t achieve great commercial or critical success, his invaluable contribution to the fledging local film industry paved the way for the subsequent revival. Tony always believed his next project would be better, and never stopped dreaming.”

Perhaps it’s ironic that Yeow passed away in a year with so much focus on all things local, including local films. “It’s a shame that we lost Tony just as the industry is beginning to take off,” said director Kelvin Tong, one of the seven directos who contributed to the 7 Letters film anthology.

He got his start in the 1960s as a producer in the early days of television and radio broadcasting in Singapore. He was in the studio when Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, broke down after announcing the country’s separation from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965. He also produced the “Stop At Two” public service announcements in the late 1960s; and he was a key crew member for Peter Bogdanovich’s film, Saint Jack, in 1978.

An encounter with Bruce Lee in Hong Kong inspired him to make Singapore’s first gong fu film in 1973. Ring Of Fury is probably the best Singaporean film you’ve never seen. It has stylish camerawork, realistic fights, superb locations, and a coolly charismatic star – local karate expert Peter Chong.

But it was banned. The depiction of local gangsterism was considered too dangerous for audiences here. That didn’t stop him. Yeow next made a family comedy, The Two Nuts, about a pair of kelong fishermen bumbling in the big city. That one flopped. According to Yeow, “it was an awful film.” (Although we have to take his word for it, because no print or copy apparently exists.)

By the late 1980s, feature film production in Singapore was non-existent, but Yeow planned to direct an English language film based on the notorious Adrian Lim murder case that could be marketed internationally, called Medium Rare.

Film director Wee Li Lin recalled when Yeow tried to get the film off the ground. “Tony came to see one of my relatives to try and get investment in Medium Rare and left this storyboard for the film. It was a racy comic book telling the story and was really great.”

The film was released in 1990 – the first Singaporean feature film to be released for a decade – but Yeow’s involvement was non-existent: He’d quit on the first day of shooting after being pushed out of the creative process.

As the Singaporean film scene gradually revived in the 1990s, Yeow, who’d long been a lone voice in the wilderness, watched as younger film-makers such as Jack Neo and Eric Khoo found success at home and abroad. He embarked on his most ambitious project yet, a relatively big-budget ‘spiritual’ comedy called Tiger’s Whip (1998).

It was flatly rejected by critics and audiences.

Most people would have given up by now but Yeow endured. He started developing projects with writers, including Malaysian screenwriter Choong Chi-ren, who listed a few scripts he worked on.

“A ghost story about dog’s tears allowing you to see the dead; an underdog sports movie about a bunch of kids coached by the invisible spirit of Jackie Chan; an epic love story set against the backdrop of the Long March,” said Choong. “Yeow never stopped coming up with idea after idea after idea.”

If you visited Yeow’s HDB flat in Hougang, you’d see these scripts, neatly bound and laminated, complete with key art featuring the movie stars he hoped to cast. When you showed a passing interest he’d give you one to read. “Let me know what you think,” he’d said, and he might even offer you the chance to direct, or star, or both.

Given how things went wrong so often, you might imagine he’d be bitter, or blame other people. Instead, Yeow laughed at himself and smiled. As he said then, he had a lot of fun and enjoyed himself thoroughly.

“Tony was making films during a period when making films in Singapore was truly an uphill struggle,” said Tong. “He did it when it was neither hip nor profitable, yet he persisted. His passion and determination always impressed me.”

“Tony Yeow could be considered a pioneer-generation independent film-maker, an underdog in the early years of Singapore cinema dominated by studios such as Shaw and Cathay-Keris. He will still be remembered by the few of us who knew him and had the opportunity to discuss film with him,” said independent producer Juan Foo.

Yeow always believed there was another film, another dream to come.

“He was a larger-than-life presence. You had to admire his relentless zeal,” said Wee.

It’s not the films he did; it’s that optimism about the future, as well as his endless love of cinema, that is Yeow’s real masterpiece.

 

Remembering Tony, which includes a screening of the documentary Tony’s Long March by Sherman Ong and Ben Slater, takes place on Nov 29 at 4pm at Filmgarde at Bugis+. Free registration at http://www.sgiff.com/talks.

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