FAERYVILLE Private Screening at The Substation (May 25/2019)
My Personal Impression of "FAERYVILLE": A morality tale of underdogs fighting the system which coddles the entitled elite of society, in an environment that feels somewhat familiar, and yet an exposition away from the unspoken "truth".
The environment is of a fictional institute of higher learning, and the hijinks that happens within. And while filmed in Singapore, it does not ever say where they are, besides spouting the virtues of education and societal reverence, as a faux statue overlooks the decay of the protagonists' lives in school (oh what a decadent "alternative" mini series on television these'll make), silently, while holding a gun, which immediately fills the screen with a disclaimer that all these is a "fictional tale", not a "documentary" nor necessarily a "autobiography" (which one can argue it can be, but I am not intelligent enough to decipher otherwise).
As someone who has not enjoyed that particular aspect of education growing up, and as foreign to the notion/action of wearing your own personal clothes to school (I am a uniformed "Vocational Institute"-boy after all), I could only but recognise what I had previously seen on the google-box or big-screen ... but the situations and person-to-person interactions, are all too familiar, unfortunately, regardless of geography and circumstance.
I had personally swam in a sea of neutrality during my formative school years, neither alighted with, and between the elites and the rebels, and yet agin feel like an "outsider looking in", unable to fully grasp the drama of the moment (Imagine me as one of the folks watching the hurried press conference on campus, but instead I'd rather stay away somewhere else and read my comic books, thank you very much LOL), for which this feature project anchors it's fictional world on.
(Director @tzang_m with Q&A moderator Low Zu Boon @worthless_dispatch)
Make no mistake, this feature project focuses on the flawed rebels and underdogs, putting them on a rickety-makeshift-pedestal with spotlights on them for the world to see, while the elites are demonised and judged without reprieve (from the point-of-view of the rebels), and quite frankly their actions are deserving of our collective scorn.
The school is a front/device; a neutral platform where the chess pieces hover around in, while the machiavellian (not immediately "familiar", but...) "Principal" of the school looks on, and maneuvers his pieces to suit his narrative and intent. "Elites" or "Underdogs", they are but pawns to the "bigger picture", a society that worships the "Rebel Saint" (the statue which holds a gun and a book - whom in itself is already a "statement"), and of a sense of "balance" that needs to be maintained, and for society to function in dystopia...
The film tries its best to veil its political and social commentary in a storied situation, but the actions and scripted words break through the cracks, and leaves one questioning the status quo, and questions aplenty did indeed fill my head, after the credits have rolled, and the director helmed a Q&A at the end of the afternoon screening at The Substation, on May 25th, 2019, but I remain silent, feeling an outsider peering in yet again, but not holding a "gun" in my hand, beyond my phone-camera snapping these photos LOL
Beyond my impressions, the film boasts an attractive cast, a measured production quality, inspired costuming, vibrant aesthetics, and an audio-experience which left me first dumbfounded but eventually embraced.
Written and directed with verve by Tzang Merwyn Tong of INRI studio, filming begun in 2012, and had experienced a sporadic production, culminating in a January 14, 2015 premiere in Los Angeles, and subsequently enjoyed a limited theatrical run in Singapore starting May 26, 2015. (Info via Wikipedia).
Four years since its premiere, and 7 years since it begun filming, the themes are still frighteningly relevant today, and more likely thriving in schools and society - all of which is a (unfortunate) testament to the script and story, IMHO.
AVAILABILITY UPDATED: DM facebook.com/faeryville or Tzang (Insta @tzang_m) directly to buy the Faeryville DVD. Cite [PopcornX] for a limited edition sticker! (Available while stocks last.)
Faeryville [Collector’s Edition] DVD is also available at BooksActually, Books Kinokuniya, Rida Video and Objectifs - Centre for Photography and Film.
The "Rebel Saint" has since been made into a collectible resin statue by FLABSLAB, and can be purchased online here. Launched at the screening were the Crimson and Templar editions, adding to the previously released "Liberty" edition color way.
"Set in an alternate universe, in a college called FAERYVILLE, a group of teenage misfits struggle to find themselves and make sense of their ‘purpose’. They decide that there is no reason in trying to fit-in, trying like ‘everybody’ to be ‘somebody’, choosing instead to mock the establishment, as pranksters – calling themselves The Nobodies. Now, what’s their plan? Frankly, they have no idea, until Laer, a transfer student, joins them and takes them on a warpath of self-discovery and no return.
Faeryville is a dystopian teen movie, a stylish coming of age film about youth making sense of their idealistic dreams in our increasingly surreal world - a fictional manifestation of very real issues prevalent in the Post 9-11 world."
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