Presented by Weekend Culture
Camphor, Menthol, Jungle, Claw: Performance, Screening and Rave Presented by FFIGS & Film Nerve | WEEKEND CULTURE: THE MAY EDITION
Event Description
Event description
Inspired by the historic Tiger Balm Factory previously located at 89 Neil Road opposite Goethe Institut, Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen will stage a live expanded cinema performance moving throughout the Goethe Institut space.
The performance will be staged as a ‘tiger dance’, a light-sound ritual thinking on labour, its conjurings, embodiments and traces. The performance centers around the image of tigers, imagining phantom spirits of wild tigers to think on their presences and absences alongside the workers at the Tiger Balm factory, where the balm for ailments is the product of industrial labor. Creating handmade sequences through a process of chemistry, material and performance intervention on film, it is a cinedreaming through time and space along Neil Road.
After the performance, we will be treated to a screening of a 16mm print of the shot-in-Singapore 1933 film Samarang, guest curated by collector Iman Yahya from Kuala Lumpur. Advertised as “Malaya’s first sensational thriller, filmed entirely in Singapore, with local artists”, Samarang (also known as Shark Woman) was one of a string of Hollywood movies to be shot on location throughout the region in the 1930s. Ostensibly an adventure-romance set in a tropical Malayan village, the familiar story revolves around the courageous young Ahmang who must brave hostile cannibals and lurking man-eating sharks for the hand of the beautiful Sai-Yu, the daughter of the local village chief. The on-location scenery more than makes up for the commonplace plot. Taking advantage of Singapore’s thriving hub in international wildlife trading, Samarang also features a plethora of local fauna, the likes of the Malayan tiger, Asian elephants, reticulated pythons, clouded monitor lizards and the recently sighted Malayan tapir.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Iman Yahya on his film collection, archives and histories
Synopsis
Samarang (1933)
A pseudo-documentary, “Samarang” tells the story of lowly Ahmang (Captain A.V. Cockle) and his socially superior love, Sai-Yu (Theresa Seth). Both live in the village of Samarang in the Indian Ocean. Because Sai-Yu is the daughter of a chief and Ahmang is but a poor fisherman, he needs to increase his wealth before asking for her hand. Thus he accepts the perilous offer of the wily Chang-Fu, who seeks pearl divers. Ahmang must brave the treacherous waters of the Forbidden Lagoon of Sakai, home to bloodthirsty cannibals, killer sharks, and a monstrous grasping octopus. Sai-Yu and Ahmang’s younger brother Ko-Hai come along for kicks, too. Ahmang finds his pearl, but he and Sai-Yu are stranded on the island, where they befriend a local orangutan. When they return to the boat, a shark kills Ko-Hai, and Ahmang must get revenge.
