SINGAPORE: Film-maker Ekachai Uekrongtham observes wryly that Singaporeans - the media included - are mainly focused on the sexual elements of his new film, Pleasure Factory.

But then with the red light district of Geylang as its theme and full frontal male nudity, Pleasure Factory, which opens in cinemas on Thursday, is not quite the kind of flick Singapore’s young film industry has been turning out.

The movie, shot almost entirely in Geylang, goes behind the scenes in an area notorious for its brothels. The film is composed of four loosely intertwined stories, that of a foreigner (Thailand based, Pan-Asian actor Ananda Everingham) who views the area through the eyes of an outsider; a jaded middle-aged prostitute (Taiwan’s Yang Kueimei, best known for her collaborations with art-house auteur Tsai Ming Liang) whose daughter (Isabella Chen) gets involved in the sex business; a National Serviceman (Loo Zihan) who is in Geylang to lose his virginity; and a young sex worker (Jeszlene Zhou) who has just serviced her last client for the night.

The Board of Film Censors has rated the film R21, but even so, Uekrongtham had to trim about two minutes from the final cut. Excluded from the cinema version is a homosexual sex sequence, Loo’s character masturbating in the nude and Chen’s character performing oral sex on a customer.

Not that Uekrongtham, whose last film was 2003’s Beautiful Boxer, is bothered by the cuts: He had prepared himself for the possibility that the film would not even be screened here. “Maybe I was expecting the worst, so when it turned out the board wanted cuts, I could deal with that,” he said.

But if in-your-face sex in a local film - admittedly rare - is what audiences are curious to see, then that is what they are going to get. Thanks to his role, actor Loo now holds the honour of being the first Singaporean male actor to bare all in a local film that is also screened domestically.

Due in part to Uekrongtham’s demand for realism, some without professional acting backgrounds were cast.

Take for example, the prostitute - billed as Xue Er in the credits - that Loo’s character eventually has sex with. Uekrongtham declined to say if she was a real-life sex worker.

“Whoever comes into my world is real to me,” was his cryptic reply. “In Europe, because they weren’t familiar with Yang Kueimei, they thought she was a real prostitute!”

Pleasure, he said, is a very transient thing, which was what the film is trying to explore.

“A place like Geylang is not quite the right place to find pleasure. Sometimes, the characters manage to touch it, and sometimes they don’t.”

The nature of pleasure is probably not going to be a talking point in Pleasure Factory. Early publicity for the film centered on newcomer Loo instead of the film’s headliners Everingham and Yang, both established names in their own right.

The 23-year-old Loo, currently among the pioneer batch of students at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media, is well aware that sex is the film’s selling point.

“I’m sure people are going to watch it for the sex, but maybe someone will see the sentimentality in the film and change the way they view erotica,” he said.

“If the audience wants to regard the film as porn, then that’s how they’re going to see it. But if they go in with an open mind, they’re going to be able to take away much more from the film.”

Loo is also the co-director of Solos, another controversial film, this one a homosexual-themed one about the relationship between a teacher, played by Lim Yu-beng and his student, whom Loo plays.

Solos has been invited to be screened at the American Film Institute’s film festival next month, but will not be released here because the producer did not agree to any cuts.

Both Uekrongtham and Loo are firm that sex and nudity was never an issue in the filming of Pleasure Factory. Loo was aware that full frontal nudity would be required - although not the extent of it. But he said: “I gave Ekachai my trust and respect because the actor’s body is an instrument that you mould and use to tell the story.”

Uekrongtham said he was never tempted to self-censor in order to second-guess the censors, nor was Pleasure Factory a deliberate attempt to break boundaries.

“I don’t think as an artist you should think: ‘I want to test boundaries.’ This was a small little project until we heard Cannes might be interested, and then we got so stressed … Then we thought, let’s just go ahead and do whatever we planned to do. You should always go with your guts,” he said.

“The hardest part was capturing the raw emotions. It was the emotional nakedness that was difficult to capture. The question was - how could the camera capture this transient thing called pleasure?”

Will audiences be able to empathise with his intentions? That is the risk faced by a film like Pleasure Factory, which so far has received mixed reviews.

Unfazed, Uekrongtham used the analogy about the fifth generation of Chinese directors who faced tough opposition at home for films which were initially considered controversial, but which were eventually regarded as art when they gained international acceptance.

“It’s always toughest in your own country,” he said. -

Channel News Asia

SINGAPORE: Parliament looks set to pass wide-ranging changes to the Penal Code in the most comprehensive review since 1984.

The laws were refined after consultations with the public and legal sector over a period of two to three years.

The changes are aimed at better protecting the more vulnerable in society and to take into account technological advancements and crime trends.

The Penal Code Amendment Bill was read the second time in Parliament on Monday.

The day’s session started with Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong submitting a much-publicised petition to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code that criminalises sex between men.

Over the past days, activists have called for the abolishment of Section 377A, which they deem as discriminatory.

To facilitate discussion, the House Leader moved to suspend a standing order which requires a petition to be referred to the Public Petitions Committee and its content not discussed until the committee has met.

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, who is the House Leader, said: “This motion will enable Members to air their views and raise their concerns on the matters raised in the petition during the debate on the second reading of the Penal Code Amendment Bill.

“Matters in the petition can therefore be thoroughly and properly debated and discussed and decided by Parliament.”

Presenting his views, Mr Siew said Section 377A is unconstitutional and should be repealed, even though the government has said it will not enforce the law actively. He also spoke against the retention of Section 377A, just because the majority of Singaporeans disapprove of homosexuality.

Part of his argument stemmed from the fact that Section 377 will be abolished to legalise private, consensual anal and oral sex between heterosexual adults.

So why differentiate for adult males? Mr Siew asked.

“It is not harm that results from such acts being performed between adult men, but the moral disgust, that the majority says it feels. But there is a very good reason why the criminal law should not reflect public morality, and that is because doing so can lead to the discriminatory oppression of minorities,” he said.

In his speech on amending the Penal Code, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee said that public feedback on Section 377A has been emotional, divided and strongly expressed, with the majority calling for its retention.

Associate Professor Ho said: “Neither side is going to persuade or convince the other of its position. We should live and let live, and let the situation evolve in tandem with the values of our society.

“Whilst homosexuals have a place in society and, in recent years, more social space, repealing Section 377A will be very contentious and may send a wrong signal that the government is encouraging and endorsing the homosexual lifestyle as part of our mainstream way of life.”

Moving on to the other amendments to the Penal Code, the law will be tightened to prevent the use of electronic means and media to commit crime.

This includes the sale of obscene objects through the Internet, making statements with the intention of wounding the racial or religious feelings of others or sending SMS messages inciting violence.

Amendments were also introduced to curb sex tourism and child prostitution. Under the new law, it will be an offence to engage in commercial sex with minors under 18 years old in other countries.

Another change is to criminalise sexual activity with persons who has mental disability, where consent has been obtained through inducement, deception or threat.

Eleven MPs spoke on the amendments.

Parliament will continue the debate on Tuesday. - CNA/ir

Channel News Asia

BANGKOK: A detained Canadian paedophile suspect has said nothing about allegations that he sexually abused young boys across Southeast Asia, a Thai police official said Sunday.

Christopher Paul Neil, who was arrested in Thailand on Friday following a global manhunt led by Interpol, was “smiling and chatty” during questioning but refused to speak about the child sex allegations, the official said.

“He smiled a lot and talked a lot. He answered questions about his family, the schools he graduated from and other casual topics,” said Police Lieutenant General Wimon Pao-In.

“But once questions turned to the child sex allegations, he stopped smiling, only saying that he did not want to answer questions,” Wimon said.

The 32-year-old schoolteacher was caught after Interpol made a groundbreaking appeal for the public’s help in finding the man seen in 200 Internet photos showing him abusing a dozen young Asian boys.

Neil could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted over accusations that he abused a nine-year-old Thai boy in Bangkok four years ago, police said, adding they were collecting more evidence from Interpol.

“We are getting more information from Interpol to strengthen the case against him. Interpol has a lot of pictures showing him sexually abusing boys. Some pictures showed him having oral sex with boys,” Wimon said.

Canada’s Broadcaster CTV reported that Neil had denied the allegations against him, saying in a jailhouse interview that he had a “good defence”. He also said he did not want to be extradited to Canada.

On Saturday, a Thai court granted a police request to extend Neil’s detention in a Bangkok prison by at least 12 days.

The suspect, who is from a suburb of Vancouver, flew to Bangkok from South Korea on October 11, when security cameras documented his arrival at the airport.

He was found on October 19 in Nakhon Ratchasima, around 300 kilometres northeast of the capital.

Neil’s face had been digitally swirled in the incriminating photos, but German computer experts reconstructed the images which Interpol then posted on its website along with its public appeal for help.

The operation was codenamed “Vico” because the images were believed to have been taken in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2002 or 2003.

More than 300 people replied to Interpol’s appeal, with five people on three continents offering critical information, the agency said in a statement on its website.

- AFP/yb

Channel News Asia