Eric Khoo

Eric Khoo is a film director from Singapore. He was introduced to the world of cinema at a very early age. He attended City Art Institute in Sydney, Australia where he pursued cinematography. Khoo began his career with short films where he directed films like When the Magic Dies (1985), Barbie Digs Joe (1990), August (1991), Carcass (1992), Symphony 92.4 (1993), Pain (1994), and Home VDO (2000). A large number of his prize-winning shows have been screened at various film festivals around the world. He has also produced and/or directed made-for-television films, music videos and television advertisements. In February 1999, Khoo was named in Asiaweek magazine as one of 25 exceptional Asians for his influence on film and television. In June of the same year, he received the Singapore Youth Award in recognition of his contribution to the country's film industry.

Khoo's films

Extract from Dr Kenneth Paul Tan, [http://www.asianfilmarchive.org/fac/about_eric.asp "About Eric Khoo"] in Inaugural Forum on Asian Cinema, available on [http://www.asianfilmarchive.org Asian Film Archive website] :

"Khoo's films explore a set of hard-hitting themes, including a sense of alienation in contemporary Singapore, nostalgia for a humane past, and the centrality and complexity of human sexuality. Influenced by Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver", Khoo often features a complex anti-hero as the protagonist of his films: the lonely old man who commits suicide on his birthday in "Symphony 92.4", the pork-seller in "Carcass" who takes comfort in television dramas and regular sex with a prostitute, the outcast necrophilic hawker in "Mee Pok Man", the model citizen who breaks down in "12 Storeys" - all dysfunctional individuals struggling to cope in a rigid and yet fast-paced society administered by harsh norms. Khoo usually captures grittier, less sanitized images of Singapore's underbelly that contrast starkly with the projected images of tourism-hungry Singapore. Yet, Khoo possesses the remarkable ability to invest tremendous aesthetic beauty into the dilapidated back alleys, crumbling old buildings, and seedy prostitute dens, without trivializing them.

In many ways, Khoo is a public intellectual who, through his films, raises a critical awareness among his audience of their own conditions of existence, or at least of other people's conditions of existence."

A full chapter on Eric Khoo's films, "The Tragedy of the Heartlands in the Films of Eric Khoo", is included in Kenneth Paul Tan, "Cinema and Television in Singapore: Resistance in One Dimension" (Leiden: Brill, March 2008) [see [http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=10&pid=30041 website]

"Mee Pok Man", "12 Storeys" and "Be with Me"

Khoo is famous for his three critically acclaimed feature films that have been screened at film festivals all over the world: "Mee Pok Man" (1995), "12 Storeys" (1997), and "Be with Me" (2005). "Mee Pok Man" won prizes in Singapore, Fukuoka and Pusan. "12 Storeys" won him the Federation of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award, the UOB Young Cinema Award at the 10th Singapore International Film Festival, and the Golden Maile Award for Best Picture at the 17th Hawaii International Films Festival. "12 Storeys" was also the first Singapore film to be invited to take part in the Cannes Film Festival." Be with Me" played as the opening film of the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2007, Eric received the highest arts honour, the Cultural Medallion from the National Arts Council and directed his 4th feature, My Magic with the Cultural Medallion grant. The film became the first Singaporean feature selected for main competition at Cannes 2008.

Selected filmography

Director Filmography

*"Barbie Digs Joe" (1990)
*"Hope and Requiem" (1991)
*"August" (1991/I)
*"Symphony 92.4 FM" (1993)
*"The Watchman" (1993)
*"Pain (film)" (1994)
*"Mee Pok Man" (1995)
*"12 Storeys" (1997)
*"Moments of Magic VDO" (2000)
*"Home VDO" (2000)
*"Be with Me" (2005)
*"No Day Off" (2006
*"My Magic" (2008)

Writer Filmography

*"August" (1991)
*"Hope and Requiem" (1991)
*"Pain (film)" (1994)
*"12 Storeys" (1997)
*"One Leg Kicking" (2001)
*"Be with Me" (2005) (Screenplay)
*"My Magic" (2008)

Producer Filmography

*"Invisible Children" (2008) (Producer)
*"881" (2007) (Producer)
*"0430" (2006) (Producer)
*"Zombie Dogs" (2005) (Producer)
*"" (2003) (Producer)
*"One Leg Kicking" (2001) (Executive producer)
*"Stories About Love" (2000) (Executive Producer)
*"" (1999) (Executive producer) (Singapore: English title)
*"Pain (film)" (1994) (Producer)

Miscellanea

* According to Khoo, his mother started taking him to the movies at the age of two, developing in him a love for the cinema.
* When he was about eight years old, he chanced upon his mother's Super 8 camera, started making "little animated films" on it and has since been unable to put his camera down.
* Khoo likes the films of Aki Kaurismäki, the Finnish director. He describes him as a 'gem'.
* Khoo states that he hates coming up with dialogue for his scripts and has to collaborate with somebody else in order to see his idea through.

External links

* [http://www.erickhoo.com/Eric Khoo website]
* [http://www.zhaowei.com/index2.htm/ Zhao Wei Films]
*
* [http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/khoo992.htm/ Interview with Eric Khoo]
* [http://www.singart.com.sg/artists/bio24.asp/ Biography]

See also

* Cinema of Singapore