Shaun Tan Melvin Chen Erick Chun Vynn Soh Melvin Lee
Cinematography
Lim Ching Leong
Edited by
Jeff Stevens Nigel Fernandez
Music by
Yellowbox
Distributed by
Zhao Wei Films
Release date
27 April 2003 (2003-04-27)
Running time
96 minutes
Country
Singapore
Languages
Hokkien Mandarin
15 is a 2003 Singaporean coming-of-ageblackcomedy-drama film about teenage gangsters in the Singapore suburbs. Directed by Royston Tan, the film is an expanded version of Tan's 2002 award-winning short film, also titled 15. It is one of the few Singaporean films to feature brief full-frontal male nudity, together with the Singaporean-Thai film Pleasure Factory and the Singaporean-Hong Kong film Bugis Street.
Plot
The film stars three real-life juvenile gangsters, all aged 15, giving an accurate depiction of Chinese teenage gang-life in the Singapore suburbs. The 2003 film features two more gangsters as characters as well as a fight sequence with more affluent English-educated Singapore youths. Rather than scripting the movie or employing professional actors, Tan attempted to capture the troubled lives of his characters in realistic fashion, apparently without much prior scripting.
In Singapore, the film is distributed by Zhao Wei Films. In North America, it is distributed by Picture This! Entertainment.[3]
Reception
Censorship
While the Media Development Authority (MDA) ruled that the film should be passed uncut under the then R(A) rating, the Singapore Police Force was concerned that fights could break out given the use of real gang names, locations and secret society chants in the movie, requesting cuts/edits to be made through the MDA for law and order reasons.[4] Under pressure, Royston Tan ended up making reportedly 27 cuts to the film.[5] Opposition was also raised against the heavy use of Hokkien in the film,[citation needed] which is discouraged by the Singapore government in favour of Mandarin and English. These restrictions infuriated Tan, and later led him to create his satirical short film Cut.[5]
Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews from film critics.[6] On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 50% based on 10 reviews.[7] On Metacritic the film has a score of 47% based on 6 reviews.[8]
The film has been advertised outside of Singapore in gay publications, due to the heavy homoerotic tension between the characters. However, in an interview segment of the DVD Royston's Shorts, a collection of Tan's short films, Tan affirms that the boys whose lives he portrayed do not identify as gay.
