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Before I start on my review on 'The Teenage
Textbook', I remember what my mother told me - "Remember the source
when you drink the water." Thus I first need to extend my
gratitude to Mas, who out of sheer joy (or impulse?) paid for the
tickets to the movie. Thank you, Mas!
Ok ok...back to my appraisal...let us establish the assumptions when you
watch a local movie - do not expect superb quality in the film, do not
expect very good songs in their soundtracks (if they deserve one) and do
not expect an out-of-the-world plot. We are not creating any
stereotypes around here.. we just need to acknowledge that our
moviemaking industry remains at its nascent stage.
First about the plot, since this movie was based on
Adrian Tan's local bestsellers - 'The Teenage Textbook' and 'The Teenage
Workbook', there exists a blueprint for the movie script. A simple
story of crushes, falling out of love and teenhood. True enough, as I
watched the movie, it conjured images of me reading that book in the
comforts of my room...witnessing the ins and outs in Paya Lebar Junior
College. A haven where little serious studying is done and the
main purpose is to engage in BGR (Boy-Girl Relationships). The movie
more or less tries to bring the story in the book up the silver screen,
with some modifications for the 90's that didn't exist during the
heydays of the book. Things like Starbucks and Borders...
The director Phillip Lim should be accredited for picking a convincing
cast for the movie - Melody Chen (Happy Belly) as Mui Ee - the troubled
heroine of the story, Caleb Goh (Masters of the Sea) as Chung Kai - who
has a real knack for looking angelic, Lim Hwee Sze as Sissy Song - the
friend to our heroine who has boys and everything else lined up almost
perfectly and Steven Lim (Growing Up) as Daniel Boon. In addition,
we have Vivian Wang (Artitude) as Ms Boon and Darryl David as her fiancé.
Without a shadow of doubt, the movie is cheery to the point of faux
rosiness. However that is not really something to find fault with
the movie - the charm of the book lay in that it was willing to take JC
life by its legs and examine the things that really matter to us - BGRs,
principals, Valentine's Day. Still I must state that its focus is
very much its weak link. Those who read the book in their
secondary school days and went on to experience JC life will find the
account laughable in its superficiality and myopia. JC life is
really more than that...and where got students drive in JC? I am
sure the schedule in JC is busy enough to keep students occupied enough
to not be able to learn to drive their Mercedes Benzs and Ferraris.
Another weakness of the movie is that some of the shots were recycled
and looked tired in a movie that needed to score on being refreshing.
Endless meaningless shots of the expressways, HDB buildings and Holland
Village may have been added to create an aura of familiarity.
However, coupled with the voiceovers of Glenn Ong's Ego Trip, sometimes
it may get on your nerves slightly. Some of the ditties were
amusing of course - especially one in which a male caller dialed in and
said he was a model and he was at his wits' ends choosing which girl to
go out with on Valentine's Day. I loved the retort by the DJ -
'It's people like you who make me sick!'
On top of that, some of the narrations were jarring and lacked flow in
the movie. The movie started off with Melody Chen's voiceovers
introducing herself and her friends...and it tapered off to some
self-indulgent chapter cards...and then she came back again from out of
thin air. In fact it was the sporadic erratic nature of the movie
that prevented it from scoring higher from me. The soundtrack was
a bit unlistenable by the way too.
Now on the the strengths of the film - it is without doubt a sincere
effort from Phillip Lim who has made people like Lim Hwee Sze a real
natural in the film portraying a girl who acts a bit 'dao' and can
afford to be 'dao'....haha...and very creditable appearances of Caleb
Goh and Steven Lim. Caleb Goh's sidekick ('Sean') was not very likable
though...that explains why I didn't bother to state his real name.
And it contains nice bits here that takes you by the hand down memory
lane of the head-spinning days of crushes and gossip.
In summary, I would say that this has been a fairly good local effort
for Phillip Lim though the fun in the book is marginally lost in the
translation to the silver screen. Still it doesn't fare too badly
in bringing us to the romanticized utopia in the original novel.
In all I would give it a B for its sincerity and a B- for its overall
performance.
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