“15”–young Singapore

“15”

Young Singapore

Amos Lassen

“15” (Breaking Glass Pictures) is a dark movie as it relates the adventures of five 15 year old boys in a part of Singapore that the world knows little if anything about. The actors are not actors at all but kids from the street and this disturbing movie looks at world where the kids are video adducts. Told with an alarming visual style all of its own, we see the brutality of youth which has been tempered by video clips and games.

We see the seedy underside of Singapore and the issues f the youth of the country as they come of age. They are rebellious, use drugs, fight, and curse and exhibit all of the signs of “bad boys”. This is quite a different picture of Asian youth. We are usually of the belief that Asians are respectful and are what we generally call “good kids”. Our characters are very subtlety gay as can see by the loyalty they share for each other. The bond they share may come from a subconscious gay tendency within them.

Be that as it may, the reality of Singapore is what we see and t is not pretty. There is no real story here; it is more of a documentary about three young Singaporeans who play hooky from school and spend their times running with gangs and doing all the things that kids are not supposed to do. They think they are hard characters ad let us know it.

Filmed in choppy photography, the dialog is somewhat hard to understand but you really do not need it. There is enough to deal with visually and it is somewhat upsetting to watch.