Lecture 7 - 12 Storeys

A. Introduction

The viewer is invited to:

1. Explore parallels and contrasts between different characters
2. Engage with Khoo’s use of silence in the film
   • the silence may contain a complex emotional reality
3. Discern that there are other stories beyond what is represented

• 12 Storeys depicts a few sets of characters within a certain milieu, similar to Chungking Express

A1. Dramatis Personae

• Different sets of characters do not interact with one another, similar to Chungking Express
• They do, however, encounter one another

    E.g.
  
    1. Meng encounters San San in the playground
    2. Meng encounters his Malay neighbor 
  

• Similar themes of relationships in an urban context
  • Proximity without reciprocity
  • Living in the same block, but no significant interaction

A2. The Title “12 Storeys”

• A pun: 12 storeys, 12 (or innumerable) stories
• The film opens and closes with shots of HDB blocks
  • Shows other families and characters
  • Suggests there’s more to the main 3+ stories we focus on

A3. Duration

• Set in one long day
• Starts with a character in pain (Spirit), ends with other characters in pain

B. Themes

B1. A Critique of Economic Progress

The film is a criticism of Singapore as having made great progress in terms of economic development but lacking in the area of relationships and emotional development.

HDB Block: Icon of Singapore’s successful economic development

• Economic progress at the cost of other priorities, values
• Shown through uniformity of HDB flats

Playground: Play and creativity

• To Ah Gu, represents longing for children
• To Meng, reminder of happier days past

Spirit: also play and creativity

• Associated objects:
  • Figurines
  • Comics
  • Video camera (self-reflexive reference to Eric Khoo himself)

B1-i. About Meng

Represents overbearing paternalism and hypocrisy

Model Citizen

• External image of the model citizen — the character most fully shaped by the policies of the Singapore government
  • Hence what happens to him is ironic
  • Repressed sexuality
  • Double life, suggested by the mirror (hypocrisy)

Metaphor for the Government

• Paternalistic, like an overbearing father
  • Seeking to regulate the lives of his wards, without respecting their individuality

    "I am what I am" - Trixie
    

  • Has provided for his siblings but uses this act to demand their conformity and give up their individuality
  • Reflects style of the Singapore Government

B2. Breakdown of Human Relationships in Singapore

Contrasts with image of successful Singapore propogated by the government and media

E.g. Shot of skyline when Spirit commits suicide

- Ironic juxstaposition of economic progress with relationships breaking down

B2-i. Relationship Breakdowns

1. Parent-child relationships
   • Meng and Trixie
   • Spirit and parents
   • Rachel, her son, her Filipino maid
2. Husband-wife relationships
   • Ah Gu and Lili
3. Community relationships

B2-ii. Alienation

The characters in the film are deeply alienated, have no meaningful connection to others

• Meng is a “model citizen” but deeply lonely and alienated at his core
• Lili is deeply lonely and alienated in a foreign country

"Men never know what women want" - Lili

B2-iii. Characters in Pain

At its close, 12 Storeys climaxes in a crescendo of pain, and presents successive characters - Meng, Lili, San San - in pain

1. Meng
   • Pain from repressing his own desires, due to his morally-upright image
2. Lily
   • Relational pain
3. San San
   • Silent pain

C. Narrative Techniques

C1. Character Parallels

The film constantly invites the viewer to juxtapose and compare the characters

Parallels indicated by:

1. Parallel mise-en-scene
2. Parallel actions

C1-i. Parallel Mise-en-scene

See Mise-en-scene

C1-ii. Parallel actions

E.g. Trying on a dress

C1-iii. Lili and San San

• Parallel indicated through editing
• One character’s concerns become mirrored in another’s
• Both victims of physical appearances - the plight of women
• Film ends with the pain of female existence
  • Both have relational and sexual needs
  • Both experience displacement (as local and as foreigner)

C2. Character Juxstaposition

C2-i. Meng and San San

• Use of mise-en-scene in playground
• Use of contrasting character actions in playground:
  • Meng: actively exercising
  • San San: sitting in stillness and silence

C2-ii. Rachel and Lili

• Implicit comparison, as they never meet
• Lili’s experience mirrored in Rachel’s
• Rachel as the “Singaporean bride”

C3. Short Snippets

The film presents short snippets so that the viewer needs to read the implied story

E.g.

1. Spirit and his physical pain
2. Rachel and her marriage to an American man
3. Joyce talking to the other homesick maid, who misses her son
    - Passing reference to parent-child separation
    - Resonates with other stories

• Fuller story behind snippet is left untold
• Vieewer is invited to imagine untold story behind snippet

C4. Silence

The viewer has to read certain characters’ silence, makes for more ambiguity and richness

E.g. San San, Spirit

Their silence contains complex feelings

• The film sensitizes us to the many people who struggle in silent pain around us
• Silence contains unexpressed pain

C4-i. Silence vs Speech

Silence indicates relational and communication breakdown.

However, speech is also used to indicate the breakdown.

E.g. Ah Gu and Lili’s relationship is loud and noisy but still it indicates relational breakdown

• Multitude of languages used in 12 Storeys
  • English, broken (Eddy) and proper (Meng)
  • Chinese
    • Mandarin (Lili, Ah Gu)
    • Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew (Ah Gu and Coffee Shop uncles)
  • Malay
  • Tamil
  • Tagalog
  • Silence

C4-ii. San San and Spirit

• Wordless drama on the 12th storey
• Silent, yet with turbulent feelings underneath
• Audience can only guess at unarticulated thoughts and feelings

Without the need for words, Spirit intuitively feels sympathy for San San and senses that she, too, is troubled, thus he follows her out of the lift

Silence as alienation, but also connection through silence between Spirit and San San

A redemptive silence

A possible interpretation

• Spirit silently identifies with San San
• Kills himself to return to comfort San San
• An unlikely relationship between a young man and an older women
• The only redemptive relationship in the film, conducted entirely in silence

Final scene

• They finally share the same shot, with Spirit entering the frame from behind
  • Previously, San San is always shown alone first, before cutting to a shot with both of them
  • Shows that they have become closer
• Extreme close-up of San San’s eye opening as she is embraced by Spirit
  • She senses the embrace of the spirit, a sense of comfort
  • OR: “come with me”

D. Film-making in 12 Storeys

D1. Mise-en-scene

Helps convey character parallels

The Mirror

E.g. Meng, San San and Lili all look into the mirror at one point

• Represents seeing a different truth about oneself

The Television

E.g. Meng, San San and Ah Gu are all seen watching TV in isolation

D2. Editing

Khoo frequently departs from continuity editing.

D2-i. San San’s mother

• San San’s routine frequently intercut with close-ups of her mother berating her
• Mother’s face dominates frame, a domineering, suffocating, omnipresent figure in San San’s life