Should you listen to your heart or follow your head?
A coming of age teenage romance from Singapore set in 1993, about dreams, friendships, first love, and the difficult choice between following your head, or listening to your heart.
The story follows the teenagers' efforts to bring business back to a struggling folk music pub, and the blossoming love between Jiaming and May, both fans of Singaporean folk music.
1992, Singapore is on the cusp of having the first elected President, and it has just banned chewing gum. There is an air of hope and rejuvenation in the air, where everyone believes that a Singaporean dream is possible. There’s a bunch of young people who are trying to create a Singapore music industry and creating plenty of local works at a crazy pace. This is also the time where music cafes/lounges featuring local talents are sprouting everywhere alongside a new trend called karaoke.
Jiaming (Daren Tan) is a free spirited lad who has never really taken school seriously. His parents own a music lounge called “Meng Chuan”, and he felt he could always help run the business if he drops out of school. True enough, his ‘O’ level results in high school bombed and he dropped out of school.
Jiaming has a bunch of buddies named Caogen (Seah Jiaqing), Haoban (Kenny Khoo) and Xiaopang (Kelvin Mun) who were able to score well enough to move on to Junior College. But they were caught renting porn magazines by the Principal and had to be suspended for a month.
During this month, the 4 boys took part in a local music competition, had their taste of puppy love, and worked hard to bring business back to “Meng Chuan’s” struggling business. This coming of age tale, see Jiaming and gang learning the harsh realities of pursuing dreams in the real world; and finding out that choosing between what your heart wants and what the society expects from you, is akin to losing your innocence in an adult world.
Through the closure of 'Meng Chuan' in the story, the film reflects the eventual demise of the 'Xinyao' (Singapore Chinese folk music) movement around the mid-90s. And signifies a losing of innocence in the youth's struggle to battle the realities of growing up.
THAT GIRL IN PINAFORE 《我的朋友，我的同学，我爱过的一切》is the first Singapore film in 15 years to celebrate the success of 'Xinyao'( 新谣)， the popular 90s Singaporean folk music movement. The film re-introduces this music with contemporary arrangements to a new generation in this charming teenage love story.
Source: FB/girlinpinafore
What I Think
Music? Check. Intention? Check. Plot? Hmm... check. Young idols? Check.
To be honest, I am a little disappointed with the movie. Why? Let me run through the elements one by one.
Music. Since most of the new actors are singers in real life, they have a certain standard in belting out the songs. A pity that there is only a very selected number of songs in the movie, owing to the copyright issue. The new arrangements of some of the numbers destroyed the original feel of the song, and to be honest, the arrangement does not belongs to the era.
Intention/Plot. Using 'Xinyao' as a selling point, the movie did a notable effort in giving the classic songs a new life. Unfortunately, that is the only selling point of the movie. The plot is predictable, nothing new. I particularly think that the movie is not very well produced, the crew behind the movie should take some blames. When the actors/singers are singing in the movie, the lips and the song are not matched. It is very obvious that they are lip-syncing. The movie also lack of a flow. I felt that as if the movie is being shot by different directors, experiencing different angles. Lack of a direction/style, maybe. Just when I thought I am the only one being critical, my friend commented the same thing before I saying my thoughts. (He has more questions!)
Young idols. This movie stars Mediacorp artistes Daren Tan, Julie Tan and Jayley Woo... Apart from the disappointing flow of the movie, I must applaud that some of the first-time actors/actresses put up a good show. They actually outshine or on par with the Mediacorp artistes whose acting looks unimpressive in comparison. I am particularly impressed with Sherly Ng (as Liyana), Kelvin Mun (as Xiao Pang) and Kenny Khoo (as Hao Ban). Their acting is natural, funny and sincere. Daren Tan is a little too old for his part too!
This movie is popular among the youngsters/teens, thanks to the local support and the fans of the idols. Unfortunately, this is definitely not, and will never be, an award-winning material. I might watch it another time though, since my friend is saying that the movie is not that bad. I am hoping that I can take back my words too. =)
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