Screen Singapore

The Nation's turning 40, and the number of events happening to celebrate the occasion are probably too numerous to count. Film buffs have it good though, as part of the celebrations includes Screen Singapore, a month-long festival dedicated to Singapore films. I had the fortune of previewing one of these films, the quietly-infamous Ring of Fury, which was banned in Singapore for depicting mob activity. The whole film has taken on a breast-pink glow over the years, and part of the attraction is looking at some of the long-lost localities they used. The martial arts and stunts won't be winning any awards, but there are a couple of nicely-done scenes, such as an underwater battle, and another scene of the Big Boss with a St Bernard vaguely reminiscent of Marlon Brando and the cat in The Godfather. And how can one miss out on Cleopatra Wong? "She purrs like a kitten...Makes love like a siren...Fights like a panther. This side of the Pacific, she’s the deadliest, meanest and sexiest secret agent!" And she dresses as a nun while wielding a machine gun. Anyway, what would one call the Singapore or asian equivalent of the blaxploitation genre? Singploitation? Asploitation? Will someone call Tarantino and ask him to do a remake?