Carissa AbidinFinally, a local film that meets the standards of an international art house production. After being in several screenings and competitions across countries like Tokyo and Hong Kong, the film would have felt incomplete if it didn’t return to its roots, writer-director and lecturer Liao Jiekai tells his family, and press at the screening last Wednesday. His first feature-length film, Red Dragonflies will screen exclusively at Film Garde Iluma on 5 May.
With elements of visual arts, poetry and imagination, rather than fast-paced action, big name actors and special effects, it doesn’t appeal to the masses. But your patience will leave you pleasantly surprised and moved by the complex structure of this simple story about friendship, loss and nostalgia.
Rachel, Tienwei and Junjie are 3 friends who at 17 are searching for an abandoned railway track. In the midst of their quest, an unexpected event pulls the plug on their adventure.
Filmed entirely in Singapore, the movie’s easily relatable to local audiences. One scene shows the 3 teenagers at a pasar malam (Malay for night market) buying tea eggs as a mix of Singlish and Mandarin is spoken in the background.
While foreigners get an insight into modern Singapore and its well-kept traditions like the pasar malam, they can also relate with the universal antics of teenagers as they tease each other and have fun. Rachel and her friends are jumping on a plank in the forest. O for the lost innocence that something so simple can bring that much joy when you’re with the right company. The film also suggests that there’s something natural and beautiful about how comfortable children are in their own skin. This is probably why Liao chose to cast non-actors for the teenage roles.
Cutting through time, present-day Rachel is a 26-year-old New York-based artist who comes home to Singapore for an art exhibition. Ng Xuan Ming, who plays Rachel, is herself a painter. The setting of her character’s art exhibition was so authentic that passers-by walked in casually without knowing it was a shoot. They ended up being in the frame.
In Red Dragonflies, a familiar young boy constantly visits her in her dreams, taking her on routes she only vaguely remembers. She meets up with Tienwei and nostalgia sets in. Rachel finds herself revisiting places from her childhood.
One of these is the house of her grandmother (played by local veteran artiste Chen Mei Guang), who embraces her with home-cooked food. As is the case when she was a girl, her grandma would wave goodbye, only retreating back into her home when Rachel is out of sight.
The film goes back and forth, whether in space or in time, it’s for the audience to figure out. Mysterious, with a touch of childhood innocence, this film portrays an alternate universe, where the same people go through different situations concurrently. The last scenes leave hints of the past and present meeting each other.
Red Dragonflies is a work of art that literally takes you on a journey into a dreamlike world where time seems to have lost its structure.
Music is only heard at the start and the end of the film, probably marking the beginning and the end of a journey. The rest of the film features magnified sounds from the environment in the forest to the café where Rachel and Tienwei meet – rain, cicadas and even a sugar sachet tearing. This aural purity brings out the beauty and intensity of each scene.
Although this is his debut feature-length film, Liao, a lecturer at School of The Arts Singapore (SOTA) has directed quite a few short films since 2005, including Cloud in a Shell and The Inner City, which was selected for competition at the 2nd Asia Berlin Hot Shots. At the movie preview, he explained that cast and crew held day jobs and for this film to be screened in a commercial cinema in Singapore is a great achievement.
Although it’s never explained why this is called Red Dragonflies, like its namesake, this movie has an ephemeral beauty that you will cherish long after the final frame fades.
Red Dragonflies was screened on 27 April.
–
Rating: 3/5
Directed by Liao Jiekai
Written by Liao Jiekai
Cast: Ng Xuan Ming, Jason Hui, Chen Mei Guang
Language: English, Mandarin, Japanese, Malay
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese
Photos courtesy of Liao Jiekai.