Singapore actor Lim Kay Tong likes and is impressed
with how the female director, leading actress and
producers of his latest feature film works.
Over
an email interview, the 53-year-old tells movieXclusive.com
how he got the role in the Indonesia film The Photograph:
“Philip Cheah, who runs our Singapore International
film festival, called me one day and said an Indonesian
film director named Nan Achnas was looking for a
Chinese actor in his 50s, so he told her ‘Kay
Tong, lah!’ and he said to expect a call.”
Before
he knew it, one of the producers got in touch with
him while she was in Singapore. And based on that
meeting, she told the director that he could do
the leading role of an ageing photographer with
a terrible secret in her fourth feature film.
“The
producers were all women and very efficient!”
Featured
under the Asian Cinema section of the 21st Singapore
International Film Festival, The Photograph sees
Lim playing an old Chinese-Indonesian who is traveling
as a photographer who has lost his family and eventually
getting into a relationship with a karaoke bar hostess,
another disparate character. Lim feels that the
uniqueness about this story of urban alienation
is that the tale is inter-racial in its striving
to find connections, something he was told is very
rarely portrayed in Indonesia.
 “This
is done quietly and in a humanistic way. How else
can people connect in the city, but through some
mysterious sharing of likeness? We all have a
heart somewhere in us, regardless of colour or
creed. I hope this film will touch a chord in
us,” says the veteran actor.
Lim
is also awed by director Achnas’ quiet and
sure way of working: “She knows what she
wants and her style is pure – no multiple
angles for a scene. She will choose just a few
setups and get them right.”
Lim’s
co-star, Shanty is big in the Indonesian music
industry. Lim feels that she is one those actors
who can beautifully convey raw sexiness and childlike
innocence. He has nothing but praises for the
29-year-old: “She has great instincts and
the combination of her looks and talent is going
to get her far. I don’t know which line
she wants to pursue. But this lady can act.”
The
diverse actor who also hosts and appears in stage
plays has starred in many local films like Forever
Fever (1998) and Perth (2004). He feels that Singapore
films are still going through an explorative pace:
“It needs to be anchored by adventurous
funding, public and private. We, as a
society, do not have a true patronage sensibility
where there is an intrinsic appreciation that
art forms are core ingredients for a country,
a society and a people.”
He
believes that monopolies need to be broken, and
there will be a hard time confronting that: “Until
that happens, this will leave many promising youngsters
with creativity and talent in the cold.”
Having
also appeared in several Hollywood movies like
It Could Happen to You (1994) and Brokedown Palace
(1999), Lim thinks that there are some non-Asian
filmmakers out there who take the effort to create
three-dimensional Asian characters instead of
stereotyping them.
“I
was in a recent Hallmark film called Marco Polo
where I played Lord Chenchu, who is tasked with
mentoring Marco Polo at Kublai Khan's court, nothing
stereotyped about this character.
“But
on the whole, there are many caricatures that
bother me, but they are not worth getting angry
about,” Lim adds. -
By John Li
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