Interview with Jack Neo

SINGAPORE (CNN) -- AR: Jack, welcome to Talk Asia. You do seem to be able to say basically whatever you want around here, yet you know, you always hear accusations that censorship is so rife here that democracy is really, sort of, downtrodden. How do you think that you're able to get around that when other directors and other movies get in trouble?

JN: Whatever I do, I always remember first thing: facts. This thing must be true, and second thing, very important, you are not purposely trying to dig out something that try to mess up the whole nation. This is my basic principle. Basically I just want to deliver a message and I hope that this message help the country, help the people, help anybody to improve. This is what I do. I'm trying to improve. Many people ask me: How did you get around censorship? Frankly speaking, I didn't do anything really, really bad. What I actually promote is basically in the paper. You can see the forums column, it's there. All the complaints are there. Some people choose how to concern the society by writing a letter to the paper. But for me, as a film-maker, I choose to make a movie to tell you this is my concern.

As you know that in Singapore, over so many years we know we are worried, we're scared. So now I think our people are slowly waking up. They try to do different things. So without any control, without much restriction, then your creativity can flow. Without that, it's hard, because whatever you are going to do, you are worried about whether you offend this, this department, this authority. As Singaporeans, when we're going to do something, we always got this first thing come to our mind. Better don't do it, you know it's dangerous. You know it was very funny when I showed the script to my friend. My friend in the middle of the night 3 a.m. come to my house, because he was very busy and he know that I'm going to start shooting this movie, and he come to my house, he's a very good friend, he said, Jack you better think twice, you better don't do this movie. I said, Why? You are talking about government. You are going to get yourself into trouble. And probably they'll lock you up. Really? Yeah. He was very serious.

AR: Don't you worry about the state of the country, if that's something that can happen?

JN: Frankly speaking, we have seen some of the incidents, some of the people that have offended them and say something bad about them and get into trouble. Singaporeans worry. But for me, when I wrote the script, I keep asking myself, I say yeah, of course, I mentioned the government but I don't think this is going to make them very unhappy. In fact I think that it's all right. For me, I keep telling myself, I say it's all right. But my friend now has a different -- in Singapore when you say government... Can you imagine that last time when we were outside... When you say government... You know this is the kind of atmosphere. That was about ten, fifteen years ago. Now it's all right.

AR: You chose Singapore's education system, which is ruthless, for your 2002 hit "I Not Stupid." Did you imagine that that movie would take off the way that it did?

JN: Frankly speaking, no. For me, I am a comedian. I'm an actor, I'm a host, I'm an entertainer. For me, when I become the scriptwriter, I become the director, my purpose is just to do an entertainment show. But of course I know that Singaporean audience is very funny. They like to see something with some message. They don't like slapstick. And for me, when I went to do this show, firstly I think entertainment is one of the considerations. But besides this, I found that if I don't have any message and this movie is kind of no meaning. I talked to many parents. And in fact, I'm the parent of four. I have four children. So I found that the education system in Singapore is kind of very controversy. Especially when we talk about the EM1 EM2 EM3, that kind of system.

AR: And that's the streaming, isn't it?

JN: Streaming, yes. The good ones in one class. The bad ones in one class. And from the government's point of view is that we are actually trying to group this together so that we give a more effective way of teaching. I mean what they did is not wrong. But for the age of like ten years old, I mean this is very sad to say that when they are in the class, the whole school is actually watching them. You are from the lousy, the worst class, so you cannot study and you are stupid. And in fact what parents feel is that, Oh my God, my children is in a stupid class. So this kind of side effect is very, very sad. So what I do is I think if I can make a movie besides entertaining the audience and I also want the authority, I want people who are in this business to think, because this has been already discussed many times in the Parliament. You know people complain in the paper here and there, but nothing carried out. No change, no big change. So yeah, now the system's changed. People say that it's because of this movie. I would not say that it's all my credit. I cannot say that because I think there are many, many parties actually working very hard to help the whole system, and now I think the system really changed. There's no streaming like this.

AR: Well, the movie did so well though that you thought that a follow up was probably the next thing to do, so you did "I Not Stupid 2."

JN: This sequel is talking about the appreciation. You know in Asian countries, most of the parents don't know how to appreciate their children. We always like to see one incident happen. We like to scold our children. But we never see the good side of them. We only see the bad side of them. So this movie is actually telling you, Wake up. Wake up. You know you must know how to appreciate your children. You must know how to appreciate even your wife, your husband, your employee, your employer, you know, even anybody. With appreciation, the door is open. You are able to communicate. And a lot of parents, after watching the movie, they cry and cry and cry. You know why? Suddenly they realize that, Oh my God, I got problems with my children. I don't have any language with my children is because I don't know how to communicate with them. And how to communicate with them? How to make the door open? Appreciation is the only way.

BLOCK B

AR: Welcome back to Talk Asia. My guest today is the leading Singaporean film-maker Jack Neo. So Jack, you started out your career in TV in 1980 playing such characters as a feisty grandmother and also a housewife - roles that require that you wear a dress. How much of your success today do you put down to what you really had to wear, because it seems quite attention-grabbing.

JN: Basically I think it's the content that attracted them. Content meaning the problem they are facing as an old lady. People always look down at the old lady, but this old lady can do a lot of amazing things. So people thought that it was very funny and enjoy it so much. For me, some people say that you're not just a film-maker, you're actually a social commentator. In a way, yes, because I actually observe. I read, I hear. Basically I like to know the problems, what people face. Because I think that what people face, sometimes they don't even get a chance to let authorities, to let people know that there are actual problems. So for me, if I can make it into a movie, besides entertaining our own people, and also can let the authorities know that this is the problem, maybe we can look into it and see how we can improve it.

AR: In your most recent movie "Just Follow Law," the two main characters die in a car crash, switch souls. So the guy becomes the girl and vice versa. Do you have a fascination for gender bending?

JN: Yeah, a lot of people ask me, Why you want to do this exchange soul? Ok, the reason is that every time we talk to our friend, you say, Hey, my boss doesn't understand me because he's not in my shoe. You don't understand me because you are not in my shoe, and other people also say the same thing. So for these two characters, I think it's better for them to exchange the soul, so that you are in each other's shoes and you can see the problem.

AR: You were telling me before that you're going to make a movie about triads between Malaysia and Singapore. That's a subject that's pretty thorny for officials in this part of the world. They're often reluctant to portray the underworld, to give it credence and also over fear of glamorizing it. How do you think that your movie is going to be allowed to happen?

JN: Ok, this triad movie is going to be very funny. I'm not -

AR: A funny triad movie.

JN: A funny triad movie. You see for me, Jack Neo movies mostly are comedy. Without the comedy elements in, I think my audience isn't going to like it. When they pay the money, they go in. They just want to have a good laugh. At the same time, if they can catch some message there, then it's a bonus. So this triad movie, my plan is actually to deliver some message to the triad society.

AR: What are you trying to tell them?

JN: You know, I already sent message to the government. So I think now is time to send message to the triad. Hey look, something for you. You better listen.

AR: So you're a director, actor, scriptwriter, singer, lyricist, everything in between it seems. Is showbiz the end-all for you?

JN: I love this entertainment work. In Singapore, it's a very small market. If you just choose to be one actor, maybe a while later people don't like you, and you are just out of this circle, and I wanted to be in. This is what I do. And I don't know why I thought that it's very easy for me. I don't know how. You want me to do acting, I can do. Hosting, I can do. Write the lyrics, I can do it. Writing the script, I can do it. So if I can do all this, it's bad for me to just waste it.

AR: When did you know that this was the industry that you wanted to get into?

JN: I was like sixteen years old. So I'm kind of lost. I really don't know what to do. You know my result was very funny, that I cannot go to pre-university school and I cannot stay back, because they say you passed all your subjects, but you cannot go for further study, so that's it for you. It's a very funny system. So I ask myself then, How am I going to do? And then I got no choice, I cannot go for any other study and just go and work outside. And then about a few months later I joined the army as an infantry officer for about two years, and then in the army we have this organization called music and drama company. Music and drama company is a troupe -- only performs for the soldiers. So, so lucky that they accepted me as a drama director. So I contribute scripts, I direct skits. This is the very good opportunity for me to start my career. You know, in the army. And I never thought I'd learn things in the army.

BLOCK C

AR: We're back on Talk Asia with Jack Neo, arguably Singapore's best-known film-maker. Jack, away from the movie set, you're also credited with setting the trend for Singlish, which is English-meets-Singaporean dialect. Teach me how to say something.

JN: Ok. "Well lao."

AR: "Well lao?" What have I just said?

JN: Oh my God, something like that. But people thought it's a bit crude. But this language very funny, you know. All races use, you know. This is unlike Malay, majority only Malay use or Chinese only Chinese use. "Well lao" is a language across all races. And there are also many like that. "Wa bian."

AR: What does that mean, "Wa bian?"

JN: It's actually almost the same meaning, but it's different way of pronunciation. Some people say that this sounds like vulgar language, but I think it sounds, no, in fact... this is the identity for Singaporean. Maybe some people, the authority, didn't really recognize it. But you can't take away this. This is us.

People say we should ban Singlish. And I say that there is no way you can do it. Now if you cannot stop our children learn those so-called very cool languages from the Americans, from the Taiwan, from the China. If you cannot stop them from learning that, then we should let our children learn our own Singlish. At least this is our culture, it represents us.

AR: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's no doubt that you are a prominent advocate of Singaporean culture and as such. Just want to ask your opinion on this country's film industry as a whole, because it seems that it was once a lot more powerful than it is now .Where do you think that it all started to wane a little bit?

JN: I think basically media industry in Singapore is very, very new. In all the world, I think our development, our concentration, is not focused on this media industry. We focus on other things. Computer, medical, you know many many things, but not the media. Only recently we found the media can actually create that kind of economic effects and actually can help people make money, can help country make money, so suddenly we say yeah, this is a big business. You look at the American movie, huge amount of money they make. So can we do something like this? We have to start now. We start very slow, but I think we are getting better and better. First of all, the censorship now is quite relaxed compared to ten years ago, or compared to twenty years ago. You don't even think, you better don't do anything, don't say anything. But now, you can almost say anything you want. Even for my movie, ten movies I make, only one movie got one cut. That's it.

AR: So you've tackled a whole range of social subjects in your movies. Is there anything that you wouldn't touch?

JN: Singapore is a multiracial country, and we are very sensitive at certain issues. So certain things that we must not do. In fact I keep telling the new upcoming directors. I say you can do anything you want, even now the politics is now so a bit relaxed, you can actually try, but don't touch races, don't touch the religions. This is dangerous. But if you know how to handle it in a very tactful way and maybe you are going to - ok, the principle is very simple. Normal people hate you. That's it.

AR: Jack, thank you very much for your time today. It's been a great pleasure.

JN: Thanks. E-mail to a friend

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