Xin.sg - Tuesday, September 7
An intricate short film peppered with explicit sex scenes,
emotional complexities and dark secrets, Hush, is a 20-minute local
production which centers on themes such as kinship and sexuality.
It tells the story in a day of the life of a typical Singaporean
family made up of a widowed father (Vincent Tee), his three
daughters (Evelyn Marie Ng, Janice Yeo, Cassevonrie Chia), and
their personal struggles in life.
Director Jeremiah R. Oh decided to release Hush after a three
years hiatus because of the personal attachment he felt for the
project back in 2007. He also thought that Singapore "was not
ready" for it yet.
True enough, Hush almost did not make the cut due to a
provocative scene shown in the movie, which makes heavy references
to a group sex activity undertaken by its three main leads. Apart
from that, the film is also interspersed with cuts of brazen
bedroom activities with a brief full-frontal nudity shot of one of
its female lead, Natalie.
Passed with a rating of Restricted 21 (R21) without a single
cut, Jeremiah revealed that he was initially "all prepared for a
ban" due to the Hush's provocative sexual scenes that are
"never-seen-before" in local films.
In his 30s, the director spent "quite a bit of time" convincing
lead actress Evelyn Marie Ng to go nude for the scenes in Hush. The
duo first got to know each other when he was still schooling and
doing his first production, Eden, which also featured the
actress.
"I worked with her and I realized 'Hey, she's quite cool, I
thinks she can fit this role' and because the roles that she play
are always 'Moulmein High', 'Light Years' -- very quirky, kawaii
(Japanese for 'cute') kind of girl. So I thought 'Why not I play
her opposite of that and see what happens?'" he chuckled.
Believing that mutual trust between director and actor is the
essence behind making things work; the Singaporean filmmaker spent
a total of six days filming the bed scenes featured in Hush.
While rehearsals took up to a month-and-a-half, "the nude scenes
alone took up two full days [of filming]," he said. The toughest
challenge to him was filming the most provocative scene, which
strongly hints at the trio performing group sex.
Filmed in "one take without any cuts," he revealed that the crew
ended up reshooting that particular scene for a total of 12 to 15
times.
For lead male actor, Darren E.Scott - who was taking part in a
film of this genre for the first time - his only condition to the
director was "no frontal nudity".
Despite that, the Canadian-Chinese actor's working
professionalism from his stuntman days kicked in and "you can't
just say 'No, I can't do it'. You have to go, you have to
jump."
"I'm used to that kind of pressure. Yes it was uncomfortable but
once you get into it, it is okay," said Darren, who has chalked up
acting credentials in various Hollywood flicks and drama series
such as Smallville and Dark Angel.
Trying to convey the message that "everyone has a secret",
Jeremiah hopes to relate that underlying notion in his film through
a "human-like" manner.
"Everyone has a secret. Everyone is keeping hush about it, but
how much can you contain in a few years -- especially with your
family and friends?
"This is like 'our lives', we don't talk about 'our lives much
to people." There are a lot of secrets that people will choose to
keep to themselves," he added.
And as if to validate his point, when asked if family and
friends were supportive of his decision to film such a
controversial flick, Jeremiah confessed that "I haven't let my
family watch the film yet."
There happens to be a clash in views on this matter with his
"very staunch Christian" parents, as they would question his
objectives behind "making such a film."
"Horror and sex just don't go very well," he quipped.
Virally marketed as "Singapore's most erotic film," Jeremiah
admits that it is hard to keep his work under wraps away from his
family and "sweep things under the carpet."
"They have seen my picture in the papers, but that's just
it.
"I'm keeping it 'Hush'," he cryptically added.
Hush will be screened at Sinema Old School from Sept 3
onwards.
Source:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/xin/20100906/ten-795-singapores-erotic-film-director-3c1b9bc.html
