Glen Goei On Revenge Of The Pontianak: "I Sympathise With Ghosts Because They Are Lonely And Have Unfinished Business On Earth"

GLEN GOEI: I’m a big fan. I grew up on those films because in the ’70s they would show repeats of all these old films on TV, and I’d watch them. I was brought up on a diet of those made-in-Singapore, Malay-language films.

When was the last time you saw those films? Are there particular ones that helped you prepare for Revenge of the Pontianak?

No, I did not watch them. I haven’t seen them since the 70s, actually. This is based on my own recollection of those movies. I watched them when I was eight or nine; I can’t remember the titles of some of them, but I remember a lot of the famous ones like Sumpah Pontianak and Dendam Pontianak.

You are never associated with horror, but here you are with a horror flick under your belt.

Yes (laughs). I mean, nowadays at my age, I don’t really watch horror films anymore, but I do like the unusual, intelligent ones which do come out once in a while, like Ghost Stories, The Others, A Quiet Place, and Get Out. I still enjoy watching those kinds of horror films. But yes, it’s not a genre that people normally associate me with, although now if you look at all my three films, they seem to have a ghost character in them. So maybe that’s a running thread even though I’m not a horror filmmaker, that I seem to have an affinity to ghosts.

For Revenge of the Pontianak, I just felt that the pontianak folklore is slowly becoming less and less important in our culture. Unlike when I was growing up in the ’70s, where the pontianak was talked about all the time. Even when I went into the army in the ’80s, people were talking about the pontianak. I think till today, people still talk about it in the army. They’re always sharing pontianak ghost stories, right? Especially when they go on a field camp or visit Pulau Tekong.

So I think amongst the Singaporean men, the pontianak folklore is still very much well and alive. But I also feel that as we become more urban and sophisticated, all this folklore is slowly disappearing, or losing its importance in our cultural narrative, unlike the time when I was growing up in the ’70s. I just felt that that’s a shame because, in the West, you have Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Werewolf. There are so many vampire films and TV shows over the past 10, 15, and 20 years. That folklore is continued and made modern for younger audiences, like Twilight. It’s still very much part of the stories that are told in the West.

In Asia, pontianak is very much part of not just Southeast Asian but Asian folklore. The Japanese have it, the Koreans have it, and throughout Southeast Asia, there is a form of pontianak. I just feel that because of our diet of Western fare, our own Southeast Asian stories are not being told, and slowly disappearing. So for me, as a historian, I feel it’s very important that we continue to tell our folklore.

I wanted to pay homage to the films of the ’60s as I recollected them. They were in black and white, but I wanted to make mine in Technicolor. But I do remember the characters. I do remember that the movies didn’t contain so much gore and violence, which I feel a lot of horror films are about these days, especially the ones from America. And I wanted to make one that didn’t have that much violence or gore or didn’t rely on violence and gore for the horror and schlock.

But gore and violence sell, right?

Yes, it’s what sells, but I guess my film won’t sell, I don’t know.

Your movie humanises the pontianak…

I think my starting point was, as I was recollecting all the Pontianak films I’ve seen, “What is it which makes her evil?” Or what is it that she did wrong that we demonise her as an evil person?” I couldn’t come up with an answer. Those early Pontianak films were made to entertain and scare, but none of them can explain to me why she is evil. Has she done anything wrong in her previous life as a human being?

No one could really answer that question. So I set out to try to answer the question myself. Yes, she comes back with revenge on her mind, but obviously, there must be a reason why she’s doing it. But that doesn’t necessarily make her evil. It makes her human. The whole idea of revenge is a very human thing. When something wrong has been done to you, you want to take revenge. That’s very a human response, I feel. In Revenge of the Pontianak, I was trying to tell the story from the pontianak’s point of view.

I think we set ourselves a lot of high bars in the sense that, (a) it was a film set in the ’60s, so it’s a period film and we have art direction and costume requirements to deal with; and (b), we wanted to set it in an old kampong, so we had to find an old kampong which we couldn’t find in Singapore. We had to look for it in Malaysia and when we found an old kampong, we still couldn’t find an old-enough house to set the main action in, so we had to build the house. And, of course, we wanted it to be surrounded by tropical rainforests. We were setting ourselves up for a lot of difficulties, and, of course, we encountered all those difficulties. Ultimately, we found our location in Hulu Langat, which is half an hour outside Kuala Lumpur. It’s in Selangor, up on the hills next to a dam.

Was one of the difficulties paranormal in nature? Nur Fazura, who plays the pontianak, said she has a spooky encounter during filming. How about yourself?

I didn’t actually experience anything supernatural whilst making it. I, personally, am not afraid of ghosts and spirits. I am, in fact, very interested in them. I do believe they exist, and I’m fascinated with them because I feel that ghosts and spirits exist because they have not crossed to the other realm because they have unfinished business here on Earth. So I always find that ghosts and spirits are very lonely souls roaming the earth, not being able to find closure. So I sort of sympathise with them, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m not really afraid of them. I’m actually curious about their stories.

What lessons have you learnt from making your first horror film? This is only your third film in 20 years!

I still have lots to learn! I still have a long, long way to go. It’s not easy making films in Singapore. Partly because financing is not easy and the cost of living is so high, you can’t just be making films all the time. Our market is very, very small. We need to think about how to make films that reach a bigger market. It’s difficult for me to find financing because my films are in English. Making a Mandarin and Hokkien film will be much easier; there’s no market for English-language Singaporean films. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I made the film in Malay because at least my film can potentially be seen either in Malaysia or even Indonesia if I’m lucky.

Yeah. And also, those countries have a rural population. Somehow, the black magic scene there is more real and happening. Here in Singapore, it’s so urban. Aiyo, where got any black magic here? But in Malaysia and Indonesia, it’s still very much part of their culture. Also, of course, in terms of the language, the market’s much bigger.

And are we going to wait for another 10 years for the next Glen Goei film?

It could be. By then, I think I’m too old to want to make anymore. I don’t know! Maybe it will take a shorter time this time. With Revenge of the Pontianak, I had a grant from IMDA and the Singapore Film Commission, which helped a lot. I think these grants really do help, whereas, for my first two films, I didn’t have any grants. My first film, Forever Fever, was, of course, made before SFC was even formed. For The Blue Mansion, I didn’t get a grant. With this film, it was my first time getting a grant from the SFC and that helped a lot. So hopefully, if I can get another grant to make my next film, it would not take me 10 years.

Are you going to make another horror film?

I’m not sure whether I’ll make another one though (laughs). And if I do make another one, it’s going to probably be a horror comedy. I don’t intend to make a horror-horror film. There are many types of horror films, but I might venture into horror comedy. We have two scripts in development; they’re horror films with a pontianak as the antagonist as well.

It sounds like you’re fixated on pontianaks…

The pontianak is great! I love the idea of the female vampire. I think it’s sexier than Dracula lah. And in the film, I put my women all in sarong kebayas. I just love seeing women in sarong kebayas because they just look more feminine with the hourglass figures. And the men are very well-groomed, well-dressed. It’s just harking back to the old days. I suppose there’s a nostalgic thing in me that I always like to go back and think back of a time when I was growing up in Singapore when it seemed more romantic than it is today.

By the way, I hope I don’t offend you but I didn’t think your pontianak is scary, but I find her incredibly hot.

I am so glad you think she’s really hot. Because there is a fine line between beauty and horror, or evil. I think there’s poetry in that — that somebody so beautiful can also be so vengeful.

Revenge of the Pontianak is now in cinemas. Emily of Emerald Hill runs Sept 4-28 at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice@Funan; tix from Sistic.

Photos: Tiger Tiger