Movie
It’s been a while since I reviewed anything on this site, and
I’ve put up a lengthy post last year saying that I decided to discontinue producing content for this site.
However, recently, there was a certain local movie that caught my attention
that somehow flew under my radar back when it was released in 2013.
Interestingly, the movie didn’t get a Blu-ray release until 2015! Its unique
local premise caught my attention, so I actually ordered the Blu-ray from the film's website just to
check it out and see what I missed. After watching it, I do think this movie
deserves to be talked about and revisited.
That Girl in Pinafore (我的朋友,我的同学,我爱过的一切) is a film directed by Chai Yee-Wei, and its
story is set around a group of students in the early 90s, all of whom have a
love for the unique Singaporean genre of music called Xinyao, which was already
on the decline during the time period the movie is mainly set in. I’m sure may
youngsters today aren’t even aware that such a music genre exists. I’ll admit,
I was one of those people, even though I’ve heard the song 细水长流 (Xi Shui
Chang Liu, Everlasting Friendship) before. It’s no surprise then that 细水长流 is an aptly chosen theme song for this film, since this is
clearly a nostalgia piece that reminds older audiences of their teenage
friendships and sweethearts.
The main story of Pinafore is a fairly straightforward
teenage romance story set within the backdrop of the ensemble cast preparing
for a Xinyao performance competition. It does have its clichés and predictable
moments, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad movie. Primarily because
the performance of the main leads, Jiaming (Darren Tan) and May (Julie Tan) are
very good, and the pair have great chemistry. There were some reviews at the
time of this film’s release which felt that their love story detracted from the
main storyline of the Xinyao competition, but because of the couple’s chemistry
on screen, that didn’t really bother me. In fact, I wished the romance was
fleshed out a little bit more than what was depicted in the final film.
May (Julie Tan) hangs out and performs music with Jiaming
(Darren Tan) and his band, despite her weak heart medical condition, and
against the wishes of her mother. May was dancing very actively during the
music sequences, but I found myself asking, if she had a weak heart, why hasn’t
she had an attack during her dancing? However, the second half of this movie is
where its emotional elements really starts to kick in. There is a scene where
her mother confronts her about her defiance. It’s a scene/plot point you’ve
seen before in many Channel 8 dramas, the mother slaps her, she gets
conflicted, etc. It’s sounds cliché on the surface, but I didn’t think it brought
the story down, because, one, it was done with minimal cheesy dialogue, two, Julie
Tan and Sue Tan’s performances were excellent, and three, the visual montage
following this scene was great filmmaking, using only visuals and sound to
convey the conflict of May’s character.
The lingering issue in the film for me that held me back
from giving this film a wholehearted recommendation, is that the nostalgia this
film was aiming for somehow didn’t quite get across well. There were some
anachronisms that were obvious, for example in the opening scene, I could tell
that the airport scene was filmed in Terminal 3, even though we all know that
there was no Terminal 3 in Changi Airport in the 90s. The editing of this film,
while full of energy, has this modern MTV feel that doesn’t gel with the oldie’s
songs, but to be fair, those songs are depicted in the movie as modern, pop
cover versions of those old songs, which, again, is also anachronistic. Perhaps
these modern cover versions were done to appeal to younger audiences, but this
seems to be the crux of why the nostalgia factor didn’t quite come together as
well as it was intended.
This film is not shy to show teenagers swearing, showing off
rude hand gestures, and pleasuring themselves in the washroom. Or is it?
Because these were either bleeped out or covered with mosaic. Was this done to
keep the PG13 rating for a wider audience? Maybe, but it felt like watching a
TV-censored version of an NC16 movie. But I must mention a small subtlety that
they did with the bleeping that I liked. In a couple of scenes, the cast was
shouting their woes out with vulgarities on an overhead bridge over a noisy
road, and despite the bleeping, there was still ambient sound of the busy
traffic below. You don’t often see that level of care with a movie censored by TV stations.
There will be inevitable comparisons with another Taiwanese
movie with a similar theme, You’re the Apple of My Eye (那些年,我们一起追的女孩, 2011), and while I
personally think that Apple is the better movie, it’s a little unfair to
compare the two directly. Even though both movies are 90s nostalgia pieces with
similar teenage romance storylines, Pinafore is inspired and focused on the
local Xinyao scene, while Apple has little to do with the music scene, and has
a more general Taiwan school lifestyle focus.
Is Pinafore worth checking out? I guess it comes down to whether
you have an appreciation for Xinyao music. I know a friend who has seen it and
found it boring, but I figured it’s because that person probably didn’t
appreciate the local Xinyao scene. It’s a little disappointing that the film
didn’t get much attention during its initial release, so much so that I didn’t
even know that it existed at the time. But if there’s one thing this film does
deserve credit for, is that it did get me to read and look up about the Xinyao
genre. I also do admire the film’s energy and spirit. I just wish that in the
film itself, the Xinyao feel would have been conveyed in a more authentic
manner without the fancy MTV treatment. I actually wished the original version
of 细水长流 was played at some point during the end credits, but sadly
that didn’t happen.
Video Quality
According to director Yee-Wei, the film was apparently shot
and mastered with a 4K digital intermediate, and this Blu-ray should be sourced
from this master. I have to say that this Blu-ray has a much better-looking
master than Ilo Ilo’s Blu-ray, which I reviewed before earlier on this site. There were very little distracting
compression artifacts, apart from some minor colour-banding in dark scenes. The
visual themselves are nicely graded, with a warm look that gives that slightly-faded
film like look. It’s also a very well-shot movie in general with great camerawork.
It’s not a super-sharp transfer, there’s some softness to it, but perhaps it’s
not supposed to look overly sharp. If you’re looking to get the best quality
version of this film, you can’t go wrong with this Blu-ray. Very pleased with
the results.
Audio Quality
The audio is where things get a little more complicated. There’s no lossless
audio mix on this disc, unlike Ilo Ilo. The only upgrade over the standard DVD
version is an additional DTS track, not a lossless one though. On a technical mastering
level, the audio quality is fine. When it comes to the music sequences, they sound
nice and crisp, in spite of not using a lossless track, and they have good use
of the LFE. The Di Tanjong Katong song segment in Chapter 8 in particular has
such an impressive sounding LFE bass instruments that I actually got up my seat
and got closer to my subwoofer just to feel the deep bass. Another good sound/LFE
moment is in Chapter 9, the aforementioned visual montage moment after the confrontation
scene between May and her mother.
However, I cannot give similar praise to some of the ADR.
The opening scene has pretty bad ADR, where the lip movements clearly do not
match the audio. That did leave me with a sour taste in my mouth since it’s the
opening scene. There were even some scenes where the ADR lines do not have
consistent audio levels, where one person says a line, and the next line is
suddenly noticeably louder. That’s pretty bad, given that this is a musical
where sound is critical. I’m torn, I mean it’s generally a very pleasing sound mix,
but it is tarnished by those bad ADR moments that really stick out like a sore
thumb.
ExtrasThis Blu-ray does have more additional features than the standard DVD. The behind-the-scenes documentary, teaser and trailers from the original DVD version now has a HD upgrade, as well as 6 music videos from the film, which are the new additions to this Blu-ray. Yee-Wei has taken great effort to get the rights to include the MVs on the disc this time round, and if you want to see the MVs in the best quality, here you go, but it should be noted that a lot of these features can already be viewed online on YouTube.
Overall
Given its unique Singaporean subject matter that sadly has
waning interest over the years, I really wanted Pinafore to succeed as a good
movie and raise awareness that we do have a unique genre of music born on our
own turf that at least deserves some form of recognition and pride. Unfortunately,
it’s really a pity that this movie fell by the wayside in favour of more popular
mainstream films that came out at the time, both from local and abroad. As for
the movie itself, perhaps I have set my expectations a tad too high, that’s probably
why my review sounds like I’m a little disappointed. I can’t give this movie a
wholehearted recommendation, but I do still recommend that you do take a look
at it at some point. Perhaps you can rent it on iTunes first, and then decide if
you want to collect this Blu-ray, but I should tell you that this Blu-ray is
going out of print very soon. I personally feel it would be great if there is a
4K Blu-ray re-release at some point made from its original 4K master, but given
the already-poor sales of Blu-ray in Singapore in favour of streaming
platforms, I predict that that is very unlikely to happen.
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