Fifteen

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

The plot? Well, there isn’t one really. This is basically just a handful of vignettes about a group of fifteen year olds rebelling and playing truant.
The main characters get involved in self-piercing and tattooing, gang fights, drug smuggling and helping a suicidal friend to find a building to jump off.
Almost no adults or girls appear in this study of brotherhood and loyalty, set against the repressive Singaporean society.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

Royston Tan uses every directing trick in the book – including jump cuts, slow motion, animation, playing the film backwards and a fractured structure.
The result leaves you so disorientated, you have no idea what’s going on. They talk so quickly, all the subtitles mean you miss most of the visuals anyway.
Incongruous musical interludes add to the sense that it’s just a student director showing off to his friends.
It’s suitable for little more than background entertainment at a nightclub.

FIFTEEN opens February 04 2005