The local film production,
881, is making quite a splash in Singapore this month. Its release coincides with the
7th month on the Chinese calendar, which is known as the
Hungry Ghost month. The film centres around the local tradition of setting up “ge tai,” stages where singers perform for the spirits who are returning from the netherworld. 881 is Singapore’s
“ge tai” film, and its first musical in the cinema.
881 makes good use of two main genres of Chinese film, the ghost movie and the soap-opera-like drama. Both elements are woven nicely into this film, and it is odd because, in many ways, the two genres seem so different from one another. Chinese ghost films are not generally scary, but provide a comical, silly look at the interaction between ghosts and humans who seek only to appease them. The dramas are, like most soap-opera-style shows the world over, rather melodramatic.
Neither genre is a favorite of mine, so one might expect me to be none too impressed with 881. However, while the film isn’t going to make my list of favorites in Chinese cinema, I do have to say that it worked for me, and that it did something interesting. Despite its participation in genres that might typically be considered “lightweight,”
881 managed to explore a few themes successfully and effectively.
I was especially impressed with the movie’s exploration of the themes of silence and secret keeping. The interaction between the two singers, the boy who drove them to all of their engagements, and his mother (their “agent”) was very nicely done, and it circled nicely around the theme of silence. The boy (Guan Yin), a deaf/mute, served as narrator of the film, and that made the whole thing an experiment in the unfolding of secrets, and making effective uses of silence to do so.
Another thread of the film involved Ling Yi, Guan Yin’s mother, who served as the singers’ “agent” and mother figure. It unfolded slowly — and very nicely — that the patterns the three young people found themselves in were a reenactment of Ling Yi, her sister, and a man. However, the choices that the younger generation make prove to be very different from the older generation, and a theme of friendship and the bonds of love emerges. And, beautifully, it is the silence and secret keeping that keeps the bonds of friendship intact.
My first reaction when the film ended was that the hype surrounding it in Singapore at the moment is a bit overdone. But, I found that when I got home, I continued thinking about the film, puzzling over the various themes raised and how they were addressed. At the end of the day, while 881 participates heavily in genres that are not much “my thing,” I have to give it real credit for being an interesting film. It works, and it says something that is well worth continued thought. And really, that is enough.
