What's in a name? Whenever arts institutions re-brand themselves - a potentially awkward step - it's best to invite a big star in to provide a bit of pizzazz. This month, the SF International Asian American Film Festival becomes CAAMFEST (March 14-24 at the Castro, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, New People Cinema, Great Star Theatre, and Pacific Film Archive), emphasizing its sponsoring organization, the Center for Asian American Media, and its commitment to a wider cultural agenda, embracing not only film but music and food.
Fortunately, CAAMFEST's big star is the one-time boy wonder Singaporean director Royston Tan. Every great artist needs a conventional wisdom-defying hit, and in 2003, the then-27 former teacher provided it with a first feature, 15. The B.A.R. brazenly labeled our cover feature on Tan and his movie "Singapore Tattooed Love Boys."
"I only wanted to make a film about their lives. However, in the process of filming, I've reconciled with a part of myself that was forgotten," said Tan. With a possible life of crime aborted at 17, Tan found himself running a kind of reform school for Singapore's dead-end kids. The five 15-year-olds in his class - their skinny-boy bodies cut, pierced and tattooed to advertise their street gang - started sharing their karaoke gang anthems. As the boys began to trust their young teacher, their ready-to-rumble braggadocio gave way to poignant tales of broken families, abusive dads and suicidal thoughts.
"I got to know one of them really well, and he opened his world to me and started sharing a lot of his stories. The problems he shared were similar to ones I encountered years ago. I was 100% like them, except that I didn't have a tattoo. We haven't made much progress at all since I was a kid."
Without realizing it, Tan had met the cast of his first feature film. "15" was a clarion call addressed to disaffected youth everywhere. Naked to the waist in most of the scenes, talking trash in Mandarin, flashing their weapons of choice (short steel knives and a longbow), the boys boasted of their exploits with girls while their body language and furtive glances hinted at pent-up homo lust.
Tan chose not to shoot his gangbanger ballet from a script, but instead relied on his on-the-fly observations of his rude boys' daily lives. The boys, quick to grasp the game, were eager to raise the stakes, proposing shocking stunts. "Hey, we'll watch porn together and we'll jerk off one another. Do you think we can film that?" "No, that's more than enough for me to film. Don't give me an additional heart attack!"
Tan bears the emotional scars of the jolt when his father went bankrupt, a victim of the volatile Singaporean real estate market. Since then, Tan has been like his frisky-boy subjects, a creature of his own invention. His film is structured to reflect the highs and lows of the kids' lives. "A great example would be taking drugs. The first 25 minutes is almost like you get a high and everything is fun, the second part is you anchor yourself and the effects of the high are over, and the final segment is the withdrawal syndrome that brings you back to reality, the painful truth you need to deal with."
The badges of distinction sported by these gang boys are elaborate tattoos and body piercings. I told Tan that observing young Eric get his lips pierced on camera was akin to watching a horror film. "When we first saw him he was piercing himself. I asked him why he liked to pierce. 'Is it because it's fashionable?' He gave a very good answer. 'No. When you're feeling pain, you just need an additional pain from the outside to forget the pain you have.'" Eric would later serve a three-year prison term for stabbing another boy.
"15" features an unexpectedly tender moment where one bare-chested boy reaches over to another in bed and asks, "Can I give you a hug?" Tan explains that the boys aren't gay or straight, just lonely youth looking for affection. He notes that the original version of "15" shown in Singapore was marred by 27 deletions, brutal jumpcuts that made no aesthetic sense. For instance, the police ordered that all the gang-related karaoke songs be excised, leaving Tan severely depressed. "I had to leave the country for a while."
"15"s PFA screening (3/20, 7 p.m.) will be followed by a conversation between Tan and critic Valerie Soe. Tan's 2012 feature "Old Romances" screens at PFA (3/17, 6 p.m.) and Kabuki Cinemas (3/19, 6 p.m.) Tan's 2007 feature "881" plays PFA (3/17, 7:45 p.m.) www.caamedia.org