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SINGAPORE : For the past 10 years, MediaCorp Raintree Pictures has given audiences more than 20 movies spanning various genres from horror to humour - some Raintree-produced and some co-productions.
Along the way, hits like “The Maid”, “Infernal Affairs II” and “The Home Song Stories” had gone on to snag awards, and horror flick “The Eye” was even sold to 25 countries and the remake rights acquired by Cruise Wagner Productions.
Where there are hits, there are also misses. The first that comes to mind is “2000 AD”, a co-production with Hong Kong. Starring movie star Aaron Kwok, Raintree Pictures' Managing Director Daniel Yun said the film which was partly shot in Hong Kong and Singapore, had "total disregard for the authenticity of the setting".
“We learnt what makes a good co-production. It doesn’t mean that everything needs to be balanced, but instead, it needs to be real to the material, and needs to bring out the best of the talents around the world, from the people you are working with,” he said.
“We don’t get stuck in our misses and in our mistakes, and we really learnt. Because of that, we set our eyes fully on the light at the end of the tunnel, in terms of viability of the movie business in this part of the world.”
While Raintree, which celebrated its 10th anniversary on July 22, has achieved its goal of producing box office hits, Yun lamented that “there’s always an ongoing battle between the battling and balancing of commerce and art”.
“A good film is a film that can find an audience. We’re not in a business of making artistic art house films so definitely commercial viability would be the main criteria for what we would consider as successful movies,” he added. “I think the most important thing for the next 10 years would really be how we can move this business beyond Asia.”
In coming months, Raintree will release a slew of movies including Jack Neo’s “Money No Enough 2”, a sequel to the highest grossing Asian movie in Singapore of all time.
Opening July 31, some 10 years after the first one hit screens, Yun said “Money No Enough 2” which revolves around three brothers from a middle-income background in Singapore, will be “a different film”.
“It's pushing the envelope in terms of telling the story not just about not having enough money but also the idea of being poor,” he said.
Also on the cards are musical drama “12 Lotus” by “881” director Royston Tan, “Chinese Rose”, Eric Khoo’s tribute to Rose Chan the strip-tease queen of the 1950s, as well as Kelvin Tong’s “The Monsoon Murders”.
Yun revealed that Raintree is also working on a political film called "1965", “It is a film that talks about the people who found Singapore, about our Minister Mentor, and the political people who helped make Singapore what it is today.”
“I think a lot of people will be wondering why we are making a film like that, if we will be tripping over OB (out-of-bound) markers, or tripping over areas that are sensitive… If we are going somewhere that's more sensitive, we'll tread carefully. But the more important thing is to get it right.
“Doing the right thing means you need to start doing things that are not so easy, like making a political film or a film with political content. I think the Singapore environment and system is mature enough to want something like that.”
The movie is still in its initial stages and the cast and director have yet to be finalised.
- CNA/il
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