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Table of Contents
GONE SHOPPING Screenings
From left: Jackie Ong (cinematographer), Kym Ng (actor who plays Clara), Li Lin Wee (director/screenwriter/co-producer) and Aaron Kao (actor who plays Aaron) JASON SOEDA: Aloha, Li Lin! You certainly are a dynamo. You directed, wrote and produced GONE SHOPPING. Do you enjoy handling all these duties at once? LI LIN WEE: Hey, Jason! To be honest, writing, directing and producing a feature film was a bit too much to chew on. I would have liked to have done it without co-producing it, but there are very few experienced and committed producers in Singapore, so I had to step up and do quite a bit of producing. But I learned a lot so that was good, but it did take away time from the other two aspects which was not so good, so I wouldn't do it again anytime soon. JS: What inspired you to write the script for GONE SHOPPING? LLW: As a Singaporean, I grew up in shopping centers. In fact, my high school was right in the centre of Orchard Road (the prime shopping district of Singapore). My weekends were spent at shopping centers. Shopping centers are really the main landscape of Singapore. As our weather is tropical and humid all year round, a lot of activities in Singapore are centered in shopping centers and around shopping centers. Singaporeans love to shop; it's really our national pastime. So I wanted to reflect on my relationship with shopping centers and shopping as well as on my observations about shoppers and the space of the shopping center. But I was interested in portraying all this in a whimsical and romantic way. JS: Your stars, Aaron Kao, Adrian Pang, Kym Ng and Sonja Nair, are wonderful in this movie. Can you explain how you chose these particular actors? LLW: Thanks! I think they are wonderful too and I really lucked out to get all of them. Aaron (who plays Aaron) was my student when I was a part-time teacher years back and he just charmed me. I also found him unusually handsome. Aaron had also acted in some short films and played in a band so I knew he liked performing, but he has never had any formal acting training so I think his achievement on the film is something else. I wrote the role of Aaron for him. Adrian Pang (who plays Valentine) is an old friend who has acted for me in a short film before and if you have ever had the privilege of working with Adrian, it's something you relish and you probably want to do again. He is simply the finest actor in Singapore and possibly one of the finest in this part of the world. Very experienced, very intelligent and very sweet to boot. In my opinion, Adrian's got loads of sex appeal too. Kym (who plays Clara) was not my first choice actress. The first choice actress fell through, but when I met Kym she just understood Clara so well and felt a real affinity with her. Furthermore, Kym is this incandescent, vulnerable beauty who wears her heart on her sleeve. She made Clara hauntingly lovely and endearingly naive. In Singapore, Kym is well known as a bubbly television hostess. As an actress, she tends to play more spunky roles so this was a big stretch for her and she really stepped up to it beautifully. And there is no nicer, no more professional actress than Kym. She is pure joy to work with. Now on to Sonia. She came to us during the casting call where we auditioned about 60 talented Indian girls. Sonia was a relative of one of our confirmed cast members Menon (who played the mean security guard Soman) and when she came in she had already memorized her sides and even tackled a crying scene with real tears. She delivered every line naturally and very quietly. I was sold! Again, Sonia has no prior acting experience so we just lucked out. Sonia also had a natural precociousness and cheekiness which I wanted Renu to have. I wanted Renu to be the rebellious waif lost in the shopping centre and I think if Sonia was ever lost in a shopping centre, she would probably be very much like Renu. JS: As an independent filmmaker, do enjoy the challenge of working with limited resources? LLW: GONE SHOPPING was made with mostly my own resources and about 30 percent from investors and corporate sponsors. It hurt, financially, so I wouldn't do it this way again. It was very hard to raise money for GONE SHOPPING and I could not get help from the Singapore film commission at that time. For my next film, it will be made with the help of the Singapore film commission and hopefully the help of an experienced production company or studio. One lesson I learned from GONE SHOPPING is that it's not just about making a good film, it's about making a good film and getting it sold to audiences. There was a lot of naivety that went into the marketing and selling of GONE SHOPPING in Singapore and I won't make those mistakes again. But in terms of working with a tight budget for the production, I'm quite use to it from my low budget short filmmaking days. I think my art director Karen and my DOP Jackie did a super job with all the limitations we had. For example we couldn't afford to build any sets, everything is shot on locations, so it's a matter of choosing locations that suit us and making them work (within the constrains of the location). We also had a lot of fluorescent lighting in the malls so there had to be a lot of tweaking on camera and with our own lights as well as during the color grade in postproduction. But it all pulled off well and I think the film looks quite beautiful! JS: What was your biggest challenge in the production of this movie? LLW: The biggest challenge for me on the production of GONE SHOPPING was working with my ex-producer. She eventually resigned from the film shortly after its theatrical release in Singapore. I can't say anymore than that it was a friendship and partnership that started with the best intentions but just could not work out. All said and done, I could not have made the film without her help and I'm certainly very happy and proud that GONE SHOPPING was realized. JS: What do you want audiences to take away from this film? LLW: I would like audiences to get a bittersweet and whimsical look into the lives of these inhabitants of the shopping centers in Singapore. JS: What's next for you? LLW: I'm working on my second film, which is about a female stalker! The film will be set in Asia and it's a dark comedy. It has been a great start so far. The film is one of the selected projects for the Tokyo Project Gathering (TPG) and we have also gotten funding from the Singapore film commission and may be working with a major Asian studio as well. I'm also doing my MFA in dramatic writing at Tisch Asia in Singapore which I'm thoroughly enjoying. So I'm really busy in the best way possible.
Watch a trailer from GONE SHOPPING
Just For Fun: HIFF Survey
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