Getting A FAERYVILLE Education: A Interview with Underground Filmmaker; Tzang Merwyn Tong

I've a head-full of questions I'd not had a chance (or rather did not have the courage to voice out in public, fhanks) to ask at the recent screening at The Substation for director of Faeryville, so instead I harassed Tzang Merwyn Tong for an online interview!

Scroll thru to find out further application procedures to the Faeryville Institute of Higher Learning, with questions from myself being "TOYSREVILX", because that's how it will be, fhanks :)

Disclaimer: Certain adult language has been reformatted for this www-post.

But first, the trailer:


TOYSREVILX: What was the synopsis for Faeryville when you first started out? How has (if at all) the synopsis changed or morphed through the years?

TZANG MERWYN TONG: Faeryville (2015) is a follow up to the first film I ever made in my life. My first film, called [e'Tzaintes] (made in 1999, finished in 2003) was also set in a dystopian alternate reality, called Faeryville College. [e'Tzaintes] tells the story of W. Ashe Faeke, a leader of a band of misfits, who teaches his loser friends to embrace their misfithood and 'live the lie'. He was eventually killed in a shooting.

Fast forward years later, in the opening moments of Faeryville (2015), we learned that W. Ashe Faeke acquired a saint-like cult status, upon death. Faeryville (2015) is about college life after this school shooting, and how a group of new misfits adopt him as their symbol. 'Be the Lie', 'We are the Nobodies.' 'We, the Willing Outcasts' became a mantra for the new kids.


TZANG MERWYN TONG: I wrote Faeryville with the intention to destroy this beautiful lie and the cult of W. Ashe Faeke. Enter Laer - a transfer student who joined the misfits in the school. Laer is real. Laer is everything Faeke is not. He became an Anti-Faeke figure, inspires the misfits to stop being the f**king victim, to stop embracing their f**king misfithood and to fight back. That doesn't go well with the powers-that-be of course and we see how the system adjusts itself to hammer them in their place.

I wanted Faeryville to built around the destruction of ideals - how it feels to have your ideals, everything you believe in, everything you fought for - crashing down in the face of reality. Do you still fight on? Or do you give in, and be the obedient folk the oppressor wants you to be?


TZANG MERWYN TONG: Faeryville is a question, not an answer.

I wanted to question anarchy and the purpose and the will of rebellion.


TOYSREVILX: You mentioned the film took years of start/stop to complete - Why and how did you eventually complete it? Any words of wisdom and experience to share with first time filmmakers to watch out for?

TZANG MERWYN TONG: It is difficult to make a film about struggle. And in a meta-sense, the story of struggle became our meta-story. We failed many times to get this project off the ground. It's a film about bombs in schools and school shootings.

It's a taboo subject even in United States, and even more so in Singapore.

People warned that it's not possible to produce a film like Faeryville without the right support and funding. "Do not make a film without government support." "You need government support, before anybody else will give you money." "No sponsors will come in unless you have government support." That's what they told us. What are we? A Fascist country? I don't think so. But it's true. They were right. It was difficult, and production did stopped multiple times, because we ran out of funds or we shot without the correct fund to begin with.


TZANG MERWYN TONG: "Every Singapore film that 'makes it' makes it because there is Government Funding and support to allow it to exist." We are reminded. But we are rebels. We are juveniles. We are delusional. We stubbornly went ahead. We wanted to prove that it can be done.

We completed the film. Took it to Los Angeles, traveled a little, and brought it back home.


TOYSREVILX: The film screened (at The Substation) looked very graded - How different (if at all) was it to the initial cinematic version? What did you film on? It was not as digital as it led on, with a softness I miss from film, which I appreciated lol

TZANG MERWYN TONG: The original cinematic vision was to adopt the colour palette of teen movies from the 80s and 90s, but with a more timeless feel, to capture the zeitgeist of post-9-11 teen life.

TOYSREVILX: How different was it to film, than your earlier works/projects?

TZANG MERWYN TONG: I've been told that Faeryville is too heavy a concept for a young director to explore in his first feature film. The theme of "ideology as a dangerous thing" is one that is difficult to express, and one that i do not have enough reference material to draw from. Yet it is a concept i feel strongly about, and I do not want to compromise and tell an easier story.

I make every film thinking that it may be my last, so I didn't want to make a lesser film.


TOYSREVILX: With my earlier feature about the "Rebel Saint statue that figures prominently in your film - in fact I daresay it felt like the default "mascot" of your tale, IMHO. What can you share with us about the imagery? And what you were attempting to portray with the symbolism?

TZANG MERWYN TONG: The Rebel Saint Sculpture was originally called The Mother Saint. It is a Bronze Statue of an 8 Foot Tall woman on an 8 Foot Tall Podium, that stands at the front of the campus. A woman with a book in one hand to symbolise knowledge and the gun in the other to symbolise power. I created this as a concept art when I was 19 years old, making [e'Tzaintes] and building the world for Faeryville.

In 2011 when production began, I insisted for the Statue to built in spite of our limited budget. No CGI. I wanted the statue to be real. I wanted my actors to see her. I wanted people to feel her. And make the Mother Saint / The Rebel Saint a part of the film's conscious. The Rebel Saint Statue (life size version) was constructed by Singapore artist/sculptor Chua Boon Kee.


TZANG MERWYN TONG: Originally imagined as a symbol of oppression (a much need trope for every dystopian film), the meaning of this statue has changed, much like how the meaning of the Statue of Liberty has changed. The Rebel Saint has since become the symbol of freedom and rebellion, an icon of sorts, a protector of dreamers, rebels and thinkers. We have an instagram account for it (@rebelsandthinkers), and it is attracting followers outside the movie.


TZANG MERWYN TONG: We have since collaborated with local toymaker FLABSLAB to produce an 8 inch replica to be sold as a toy-sculpture.

The 8 foot tall version of The Faeryville Statue by Chua Boon Kee, is currently an exhibit at the Tiffin Gallery.


TOYSREVILX: Much kudos to your audio! Pretty clean, exceedingly clean, actually. I had initially wanted to comment about the "weirdness" about the lack of atmosphere, but the audio sustained throughout the film, giving it a certain style specifically designed for the film, so it works in the regard.

TZANG MERWYN TONG: I have to give credit to the Sound Designer Justin Seah who created the vision of the audio with me, and gave Faeryville such a magnificent final mix. It is Justin's bed of sound that made it possible for the sublime music of Alex Oh to take over.

TOYSREVILX: What did you record on? Or was everything dubbed?

TZANG MERWYN TONG: Some of our audio is ADRed, due to limitations on location sound. I remember casting the actors according to their speaking voice and how they sound. It was important to me to have the right voice speak the words in Faeryville.


TOYSREVILX: How do you you feel about Faeryville now, than you did when the film premiered in 2014? Where did it premiere? Could you share with us the feeling then, and the feeling of having your film screened again at The Substation 5 years later?

TZANG MERWYN TONG: Faeryville made its World Premiere in the United States in Jan, 2015. Date on IMDB is wrong. We did our premiere screening in LA because given the themes about school bombings and questioning ideology - we knew Faeryville - the film - on its own - would have problems getting a Singapore Premiere, without first making a buzz in LA.

Back then, Ken Kwek was having issues releasing his film. Amos Yee was arrested for saying the wrong thing. 'Anonymous' was getting a lot of media attention, hacking into government websites. We wanted to be careful with our publicity - not to be associated with these events, for the sake of the film.

This screening and re-visitation of the Faeryville now in 2019, with the launch of the Collector's Edition DVD and the Sculpture, and the renewed interest in the film, feels very different. I feel less fearful about Faeryville's message.

The theme of us-vs-them is more relevant today than it was in 2015.


TZANG MERWYN TONG: I feel I have not recovered from Faeryville. The themes of Faeryville still haunts me everytime I see something in the news, an ideology based shooting, an us-vs-them divide, the arrest of radicalized youth and the suppression of truth.

I hope for Faeryville to reach young people in schools and colleges... the outsiders, the dreamers, the rebels and the thinkers. It is them (the outsiders) that I made the film for.


TOYSREVILX: How does making Faeryville, or the result of Faeryville influence or color your making of other films/projects?

TZANG MERWYN TONG: After Faeryville - I realise that this is the only way I want to make films - to put myself, every fibre of my body into the work, so that the work becomes an extension of my consciousness. It may come across as self important, but I feel that a film should only be made if it's that important.

I will not propose to make a film simply because it's easy to pitch, easy to get approved, easy to get corporate funding.

Making a film simply to entertain, occupy attention, does not attract me. Film, like music, is a medium with a voice. It's up to the director to protect that voice.


TOYSREVILX: What do you hope the audience would be able to experience / see from Faeryville?

TZANG MERWYN TONG: I hope for audiences to remember Faeryville as a film about the rebels and the misfits, and how they see the world - a film that gives us all something to think, without telling us how to think.


FAERYVILLE [Collector's Edition] DVD is now available at Books Kinokuniya, Books Actually, Objectifs, Rida Video and Asian Film Archive.

You can also contact Tzang Merwyn Tong [@tzang_m on instagram] directly - for a signed copy. Use promocode [Toysrevil] for a limited edition sticker!

The Faeryville Rebel Saint, a Collaboration with Local Toymaker Flabslab is available online here (Crimson & Templar colorways still available).

Follow @tzang_m@tzang_m and @rebelsandthinkers on instagram.



(Fully edited version viewable HERE on Facebook)