War movies by a post-modern generation were the highlights of Singapore Film Festival instalment on 24 April 2007. The Changi Murals” by Boo Junfeng is a brief but intensely personal retelling of the biblical murals painted by Bombardier Stanley Warren (15 Field Regiment, Royal Regiment of Artillery) during his internment at the dysentery wing of Changi Prison in 1942-43. Here I share my impressions of this film which premiered at the Singapore Film Festival on 24 April 2007 and also the contrasting “Aki Ra’s Boys” by James Leong and Lynn Lee.

“The Changi Murals” by Boo Junfeng

“The Changi Murals” by Boo Junfeng is a brief but intensely personal (and probably overly indulgent for some) retelling of the biblical murals (now viewable as replicas at Changi Airbase) painted by Bombardier Stanley Warren (15 Field Regiment, Royal Regiment of Artillery) during his internment at the dysentery wing of Changi Prison in 1942-43. The short film charts Warren’s agonising task of creating icons of devotional hope in a time of despair and regular scenes of brutality and deprivation. Brushes are forged from clipped scalps and set in place by crude tools.

Boo has a penchant for in-your-face close-ups with an intrusive quality that can discomfit. The acting is uneven (the Japanese guards are much too casual) but the two leads (though much less gaunt than their roles would have called for) are by and large compelling in intensity and earnestness. (Apparently, Boo was once given the suggestion that he cast a local in the titular role).

The past, as lived and relived in reluctance by a post-war Warren on his way to a restoration session (a replica of the POW Chapel is now housed in the Changi Museum, as the original prison has since been demolished; the original chapel is now in Australia) becomes a memory of contention for the souls of mates lost and minds forsaken on the path to glory.

“Aki Ra’s Boys” by James Leong and Lynn Lee

A stark contrast in tone and tempo, “Aki Ra’s Boys” by James Leong and Lynn Lee explores the aftermath of war through eyes untempered by the baggage of conquest but no less shattered by its undying implements. A former child soldier for the Khmer Rouge and sower of mines, Aki Ra now runs a land mine museum in Siem Riep (see the filmmaker’s blog for an update on Aki Ra and his museum) and works to uncover and deactivate the millions of fatal footsteps that lie across the country. Between bouts of mine-seeking with a handheld metal detector and a disarmingly nonchalant approach in deactivating active mines, Aki Ra serves as foster father to a bevy of young land mine victims displaced from their homes and families.

Among them are Boreak and Vannak, two 12-year old boys with blown-away right arms and irrepressibly explosive attitudes to life. Visitors to the museum help to fund their education, which in turns fuels a furious pursuit of fun in all its forms: football with just one leg a-kicking, girly card games with lasses who laugh off lost limbs, victorious wrestling matches over fully-limbed companions and barely affordable video games. In one of those strange twists in life, children such as Boreak end up ‘better’ for all their early tragedy, with more than half a chance of an educated pathway and exposure to urban possibilities (he gives a solidly deadpan tour of mine diversity and mortality rates from mortar bombs and anti-tank devices to directional claymores and waist-cutting bouncing betties) than their unmaimed siblings in distant villages where a television is the ultimate luxury.

There is unbelievable swagger in both Boreak’s boastful brawls in a half cape as well as Aki Ra’s demining team, who prefer to dice with death in the confidence of their own hands than suffer surprises from second-hand loads. Fate may be cruel but its fatality is blunted by the will to live and lust for life in these children caught up in an arms race between powers and ideologies beyond the reach of a human touch.

Related links, Changi Murals:

• “Changi Murals” at Singapore Film Festival 2007: http://www.filmfest.org.sg/displayfilm.php?filmid=113
• Changi Musuem: http://www.changimuseum.com/
• Singapore Military History (with extensive Changi Murals section) at Petro Williamus: http://www.petrowilliamus.co.uk
• Pilgrimage versus tourism at the Changi Murals: http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/j34/blackburn.htm

Related links, Aki Ra’s Boys:

• Website of the makers of Aki Ra’s Boys: http://lianain.blogspot.com/
• “Aki Ra’s Boys” at Singapore Film Festival 2007: http://www.filmfest.org.sg/displayfilm.php?filmid=010
• Boreak and Vannak: http://lianain.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_lianain_archive.html
• The Cambodia Land Mine Museum: http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/