♪ ♪ ♪ singapore is a gathering place of people from china, malaysia india, the philippines and many other countries. today, asian voices speaks with a film director who has captured the world attention by raising questions on some of the social issues in this city state. [ speaking foreign language ] >> a singaporean film "ilo ilo" depicts a relationship between a boy and his parents who work

full-time and a family made. it highlights family bonds and problems brought about by economic growth. the film is the work of anthony chen. a 30-year-old up and coming director. chen entered the spotlight by winning the award at the 2013 cannes film festival. the award is given to outstanding director for first feature films. his native country has achieved remarkable economic growth since its foundation 50 year ago to become an economic hub in asia. but he wanted his film to show people's struggles amid the booming economy. >> it's not about just quick, you know economic benefits.

for me it's about -- it's about an honest portrait of how people live and work and grow up through that time. >> what is the reality of life in syrup? what is the message from a young director who grew up in the midst of the country's economic growth? ♪ ♪ happy birthday to you. >> "ilo ilo" is set in singapore in 1997 a time when the country enjoyed remarkable growth. one of the main characters is a spoiled 10-year-old boy who proves a headache for his teachers at school.

>> you can call me teri ma'am. >> both of his parents are working to earn more money. they decide to hire a filipno made to look after their son. i i. >> ready to go? >> you stay here. >> he gives her a hard time such as trying to frame her for shoplifting. >> excuse me ma'am. can you stop please? >> mom! >> why you do that to me?

huh? why you do that to me? i don't care if you like me or not. but your mom, she employ me. huh? i'm here to do my work properly. i am your maid. i didn't come here to be bullied. >> teri -- >> yes, ma'am. >> while teri gives the boy a serious scolding she devotes her soef to taking care of him. the boy gradually opens his heart to her. >>. [ inaudible ] >> meanwhile, a financial crisis sweeps through asia. many people are laid off.

[ speaking foreign language ] >> in the building where the boy lives, there's a suicide. his father loses his job. [ speaking foreign language ] >> a strain develops within the family. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> after being tossed about by the economic whirlwind, the family gradually rekindles its bonds. ♪ this film has not only earned high acclaim at cannes but won awards at more than ten festivals, including one in taipei mumbai and tokyo. last month, chen attended the singapore international film festival. he is now in the media spotlight. ♪ >> yes, i watched it twice actually. it was a story that was very

real. a sorry that belongs to him and actually belongs to a lot of us. >> it was very realistic in its portrayal of the family. >> the story of "ilo ilo" take place at a public condominium provided by the housing and development board. ♪ about 80% of singaporeans lives in these high-rise apartments built by the government. ♪ the condo premises feature markets selling daily goods and food banks and post offices. people lives revolve around the complexes. ♪ chen himself grew up in one such place. his experiences during his sensitive years until he was 12 provided some inspiration for the film. ♪ chen who now lives in london has come back to his old condo.

>> it doesn't look like -- it looks exactly the same as it has been in 25 years. i mean selling fishes -- >> oh, really? >> i bought fishes before from stores like that. i think this fish store has been here for at least 24 years, look at that. >> really. >> i love the textures i love the colors i love the chaos and -- >> and the sound and noise and -- >> yeah. all that. i like that. i think this is the part of singapore that for me is home. >> so living here and having lived here what inspired you to film "ilo ilo"? >> it's interesting because i'm not sure if it was me who wanted to make that film. i felt it wasn't me that was

looking for that film. i felt the film was looking for me. i knew i wanted to make a film. i wanted to make a film. i wanted to make my first feature film and movie and i have no idea what story that is. i was just thinking and thinking and there was nothing that came into my head but all of a sudden, all these memories of childhood came flooding back into my head memories of growing up in singapore in the 90s. growing up in a state, you know in a neighborhood like that. memories of my parents, our family, and i remember it as well that i had a filipino maid working in the household for a long time. >> this part is so different from all the high-rise and the brand shops and the touristy part of singapore. >> i think this is what you call the hot lens. for foreigners they go what is the hot lens. we came up with that name. i don't know who came up with

that name but basically it's the residential areas, outside from the city. a lot of singaporeans lives in the heartlands. i enjoy going to the markets, to places that you feel that quality of my childhood. the quality of simplicity. for me "ilo ilo" is about capturing a period and i wanted to present a very accurate and authentic portrait of it. it's not about, you know how life should be how beautiful clothes should be. for me it's about an honest portrait of how people live and work and grow up through that times. when i made "ilo ilo," the film

was set in 1997 during the asian financial crisis. i chose that period because it was a period that i remembered very well. i remember that a lot of companies closed down. a lot of people were laid off, and as a child you watch and you hear all this bad news and there's a sense of depression. it's not about just quick, you know, economic benefits. it's not just about oh, we're going to get the gdp growth up and all that. we could pursue gdp forever, we could pursue economic progression forever. >> some people tend to look at singapore as a country of economic power but whether or not it can be a great breeding ground for culture is another question. have you felt it that way? >> definitely. i think as an artist as a practitioner, as a film maker, you really do feel -- because we're such a small country, you know it's been tough in the early days.

we really started with not having enough food not having enough water, so -- so it was years and years of trying to you know stand on our two feet and make sure that we're strong economically. so we've been driven i think, by economic progress. because of that for a long long time and due to the fact culture, i think, wasn't a focus until these two years. you know for a long long time a lot of people have been asking me oh, when are you going to find a proper job? you know like making a film being a film maker isn't a proper job because it's frowned upon. yeah. people sort of see it more as a hobby than a proper career. >> oh. the film was very personal in a

way, but very popular outside of singapore, outside of asia even in europe the states. >> yeah. >> what was so appealing, do you think? >> it's interesting because when i made the film i was so worried that it's so set in a singapore setting, so local and culturally specific, you know will audiences outside of singapore and outside of asia understand what's going on. until we had the premiere in cannes and all of a sudden we had this 15-minute standing ovation and there was so many people. you know the french audience the european audience they were in tears and they were moving. wow, they understood the film. it was later on that i realized that the film was so universal because the teams that it was dealing with the teams of

growing up the themes of family the themes of struggling with money, the themes of economic recession, the themes of class, the themes of migration, the themes of foreign workers, all those themes are basically issues and problems that is the same everywhere in the world. i think that's the reason why, in fact it's -- i remember i had this screening in mumbai and it was full house, about 500 people and i did a q & a and audience members say oh, my god, this is an indian film this is an indian film. i said no this is not an indian film. no it's obviously a chinese film a singaporean film. no, it's indian. it's how we grew up. in india, even though they

didn't have maid. a lot of middle class would have a made. >> a similar situation. >> from a different caste, maybe from the village of a lower caste, they were the one showering for them cooking for them and it was so moved. >> teri give me your passport. i keep it for you. >> okay. >> the film repeatedly portrays discripple in a tory behavior against filipino maids. one such scene is when the boy's family gets together for dinner.

>> how old is he? >> almost 12 months. >> they can leave the baby and go away to work? >> why did your mother get a stranger to look after her son, huh? your mother. >> shut up. >> the family let's teri look after the boy while also discriminating against her. the boy gradually realizes what's going on. >> sorry. >> lucky plaza is a shopping center in downtown singapore. many shops sell goods for workers from the philippines. on sundays, the area is bustling with filipino women. women wait in line to transfer money overseas. it's said about half of the family households in singapore have maids. as many as 80,000 filipino maids

are working in the country. >> are you from philippines? >> yes, ma'am. >> what are you doing in singapore? >> as a maid. i am a maid. it's a very hard to find a job in my country. >> yeah. i miss my country. ♪ ♪ >> chen himself also was brought up by a filipino maid. the film "ilo ilo" is named after her hometown. ♪ one place that still remains in his memory is located within the housing complex. ♪ the hakker centers serve as a kitchen for ordinary people. chen says his maid often took him there. >> what i'm saying is you've got mothers here who have to get

help to mother their kids because they have to work in an office, and then in the philippines and indonesia, you have a lot of people who have to abandon their children and their children might not have a mother for years and years because they are traveling to singapore, you know because they are paid better and they want a better life for their family and their kids, but there's a lot of ironies here and it's all about economics. it's always about money. i realize the asian society is completely driven by money. every division is driven by money. i wish it was less about it. >> someone interrupts the interview. >> what is she shaking? >> she's asking if -- she's collecting cans. so basically you have old people that go around collecting metal cans and they would sell them

for money. >> she doesn't realize we are talking. >> she has no idea. i mean that's wonderful. i mean you meet real characters in a place like that. >> another theme chen highlights in his film is singapore's multiethnic nature. the children are reciting singapore's national pledge which exhorts the citizens to be united. since its foundation 50 years ago, singapore has continued to pursue economic growth. ♪ serving as the engine for the country's advancement were the overseas workers.

they came here temporarily or permanently from india and other countries in asia. >> what do you like about living in singapore? >> the people. >> in what way? >> in every way. people are very like easy to talk to. >> what about the singaporean identity? >> if you look around there's maelingses, indians and chinese, they have a little bit of all of it. >> everybody? >> in everybody. so i think they merge very well. >> in the film there's the national pledge where every children have to recite something like -- >> and we do it -- i can't remember do we every day? i think we do it every day, we say the pledge every day. >> regardless of race, religion ethnicity or language?

>> yes, that's our pledge. we the citizens of singapore pledge ourselves as one united people regardless of race and religion. yeah, that's our pledge. it goes on of course. >> that's a reflection of the fact that singapore actually is a very ethnically diverse, culturally diverse society. >> we are. we are a whole hybrid -- a clash of different cultures. we're a hybrid of everything. which is what sciets me about singapore as well. if you say singapore is a chinese society, everybody everyone thinks that. it's its own thing. it's a mixture coming together. we have a colonial culture because we were a british colony for a long long time. we speak english. we borrow many many things. which is why i'm excited about the possibilities of singapore, whether it's as a country, as a

people or even in cinema because we speak so many languages. we are so diverse. we are so different. we are so multiculture ral, that i'm excited by the fact that you know we would have a very diverse cinema we have a very diverse voice and our cinema in the future is a send he ma of possibilities. it isn't about one phase or side to it. there are many sides to it. that to me is quinn at the essentially what singapore is about. >> singapore marks its 50th anniversary since independence. many things must have changed even since your childhood. how would you like to see singapore transferred in the -- transformed in the years to come? >> for me i think my hopes for

the future you know for singapore, maybe for the next 50 years, probably it's not about the physical things. i think it's more about -- it's more a spiritual thing. i'm really hoping that what i'm seeing is, you know i'm seeing a society that's getting -- that's pursuing more and more self-interests. it's about me, me me me and my familiar and my kids. i don't care about you, my neighbors, i don't care about everyone else it's about me. it's about my own achievements it's about me getting things owning things. but i'm hoping that the future the next 50 years, the people would have bigger hearts. that it's not about me. it's about us. yeah. it's about we. if we could kul go down there, i think we would have a very beautiful, bright future. ♪ >> few singaporean film

directors have received world recognition. but chen's success has galvanized the country's film making community. he's now trying to make a new film with young directors from asian countries. directors from thailand singapore, and china have joined hands to make an omnibus film featuring popular taiwanese actor bolin chen. >> everybody snows me as a singaporean director. i will honor that but i also want to try new things and break new ground. >> i'm hoping all these wonderful asian voices all this wonderful asian talent can be showcased to the world. ♪ ♪

>> i see a positivity in terms of the arts because there's not just been in film in different areas as well. there's been other small and big success, and young people you know now looking at young people in singapore, they feel like they could actually choose the arts as a possible career. they feel like oh, i no longer need to be a lawyer a doctor an engineer. most kids i think growing up in the 90s, you know your parents want you to be an engineer doctor, or lawyer. >> right. but is that the part of the reasons why you decided to produce sort of an omnibus, put together by youngish younger generation directors? i mean considering it as part of perhaps your responsibility or mission to think about the next generation? >> i'm not sure if it's my responsibility and mission, but my sense is this my sense is

that because of the success of the film because of the kind of opportunities that it's given me whether in terms of funding, in terms of resources, i feel like i'm in a very good position now to share all that and i see a lot of very talented young people around me letting them live their dreams and i -- i want to be a part of that because -- because i feel not just in singapore but across the region especially in southeast asia, there's a lot of talent brimming in this country in this part of the world. >> film sometimes records and witnesses a saddened time in history. so in a sense you must be looking forward to recording singapore as you did in "ilo ilo" in the years to come as well. >> sure. and look forward, you are right, i look forward to telling more

stories here because once a singaporean, you are always a singaporean, whether you are living in new york or london you are a singaporean at heart. some things don't change deep inside. i hope to slowly -- like i said i'm trying to find my bearings and i still have to slowly find my way. >> i look forward to that. >> thank you so much. >> thank you very much anthony. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> hmm. >> good. >> yeah. hey, have some. not like. >> i like. ♪ ♪ ♪

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