11:36 p.m. - 2003-02-20
a tribute to our forsaken neighbourhoods
A new film
There's this deserted, rundown town. A neighbourhood of empty flats, decomposed playgrounds, delapidated shophouses and barren roads.
K, a buildings and land surveyor, is sent by the authorities to take a look at the place. He drives his car on a long winding road flanked by messy trees and vegetation that threaten to spill over onto the tarmac. Finally, he reaches the town.
His car screeches to a halt on a gravel patch by the side of the road. He comes out of the car with his assistant behind him. The sun burns everything bright and warm.
They stand there, in front of the looming flats of the town, the broken windows, the bare concrete walls, the rotten yellow of the playground slide, the broken electric wires hanging from the ceiling, the stench of doorless rubbish chutes, signboards missing letters; a whole defiance of modern living.
Putting on his white protective helmet, K walks up a brick-pavement and enters the cradle of the town. His bumbling assistant, carrying large mahjong-paper sized plans and measuring tapes, follows.
They walk around the place, looking at the paint stripped walls, and recording down notes on their plans, occasionally stepping out of the way of broken chairs and open drains that lost their drain covers, exposing their wet brown stomachs.
What proceeds is what you shall see and hear on your screen:
K walking along the corridoor of the 3-storey tall flat. As he walks past the snapped windows and boarded up doors, we (the audience) hear the sounds of ordinary HDB living, sounds of afternoon television programmes stuck on channels, mahjong tiles slapping ecstatically against one another, babies crying reasonless and mothers trying their best to placate hush them, grandmothers watering their plants, people making a fuss of their woks and pans and dishes clanging... K walks on unperturbed. Evidently, he is too engrossed in his recordings and calculations. He pauses ( the sound atmosphere cuts abruptly) and he turns around. Mild puzzlement.
Well, a hard days work, the sun is setting. He walks down the way he came, towards his car, going to go home, all work is nearly ended, soon this place will be gone.
As he passes the decomposed yellow plastic playground, we hear a faint glimmer of children playing their nonsensical games. He glances left, at the ridiculous fat elephant balancing on a spring. No one around.
His assistant comes up behind him.
K turns round and stretches out to help him carry some of the papers and wooden measuring rods and sort of hurries over to their car.
As they dump their stuff onto the back seat, K feels a sense of being watched.
(A wide shot from the perspective of an entity on the building looking upon the small car and two figures standing beside it, one bending over into the car with activity, the other standing stock-still and straight.)
K stares at the town.
---------cut
Driving back home.
Nightime.
K, in pyjamas and wet hair, takes off his specs, climbs into bed and switches off the table lamp.
Close-up of his face, and eyes.
Ten seconds.
His eyes suddenly snap open.
He looks around.
where is he?
This isn't his room.
where is he?
All is dark and there's a familiar musty smell to the air. He hears a deafening silence. Some faint light by the gaping holes in the wall, a liberated window.
where is he.
he is back in the town.
He looks around bewildered and scared.
Panic.
he gropes around in the dark, pressing his body close to the walls, walking awkwardly looking for a way out of the flat.
he comes out into a coridoor.
The long dark path. unknown depths and crevices of ancient apartments.
he starts to run.
panting strides.
a stumble and
all turns to
shroud.
(Sound of bulldozers, pneumatic hammers, cranes, destruction, tearing down walls... it rises in the back.)
The End
-------------------
This film is inspired by
1. A ghost town article:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/top/story/0,4136,7934-1037894340,00.html
2. A trip to the ghost town with my friend.
3. Silent Hill, the Playstation game.
4. CS203, Basic Audio Video Project requirements: "Explore the theme of culture clash."
5. Late night Malice Mizer from Kazaalite.
a tribute to our forsaken neighbourhoods!
