Deliver Us
There's a land that
You promised us

Deliver Us
To the Promised Land....


Yes, dearies, the theme of today's blog is Deliverance. Why? Mainly becos of 15.

For those not in the know, 15 is the stunning new local production by Royston Tan. ( No relation to the one in bizad ) What he did was to basically take a camcorder and film these 5 teenage boys as they go about their daily lives. No, it's not just school, home and sleep for them. These kids smoke, play truant, get into fights, and sell drugs for a living.

[and what was i doing at 15? reading comics and doodling furiously during my physics classes]

But kudos to Royston Tan. He managed to befriend these kids and even persuade them into letting him film them freely while they went about the lives. THe boys are not professional actors, but are real-life street delinquents. Thus, a lot of the events in the film are given a very real dose of realism to them. Halfway through the script, Tan even had to change the actors. [although i'm not sure if he did it becos the 1st 3 boys refused to go on filming, or becos something happened to them] At the end of the show, the end credits tell you that one of the boys is awaiting trial for drug smuggling, another was involved in a stabbing incident, one attempted suicide, and one is missing, whereabouts unknown.

For me, the film brings home the stark reality that these boys face, an often hidden facade of Singapore, underneath the clean HDB blocks and the shopping malls full of giggling kids. These boys are the dark beneath, living on the fringe of society, and sniffed upon by the rest of us 'civilized folk'. In one of the scenes, 2 of the boys are sitting in a coffeeshop next to a group of students [dressed in all white, they could be SJI, RI, or even Maris]. One of the students blows a water pellet at a stray cat, much to the amusement of his peers, but not to the 2 boys. They confront the students, who scold them back in English, and a verbal battle of hokkien and english swear words ensues.

[I am amazed at the utter arrogance of those students. Didn't they ever realise the danger of pissing off 2 boys with tattoos all over their arms, and one with piercings over half his face?]

In a later scene, the group of students corner the 2 boys in an underpass and start beating them up. Unknown to them, they are seen by another boy, Armani, who notifies the rest of his 'brothers'. Suddenly, in the middle of the fight, a whole gang of bengs wielding cleavers, parangs and other sharp objects appears in the tunnels. [K*****, wo gai brother le gan pak? Ok, my hokkien looks even worse when I type it down...] Of course the students run. [ah bah then???]

But there are other literally gut-wrenching scenes in the movie. One of the scenes shows the boy, Armani, trying to commit suicide by slashing his wrist. [i had to close my eyes] Another shows another boy swallowing condoms filled with ecstasy pills. [closed my eyes too] Then there is the one where this boy just stands there, while an unseen paternal figure hurls vulgarities at him, calling him useless and telling to just leave home. [No, i didn't have to close my eyes here]

This show exposes the plight of this underbelly of Singapore. It shows a group of kids, [they're all 15] who no longer have the will to go on living, becos they have lost all hope in life. Throughout the movie, the 5 of them carry the same look of hopelessness and resignation. They are fiercely committed to their 'brothers', because all they have is each other. Lacking in academic ability, they are condemned both by family, and by society. [one of the boys is thrown out of his house for failing a maths test] Why do they have to live like that? Why can they not pick themselves up? Why is it everyone prefers to just give up and look down on them? Hard questions we walk away with after the movie.

Deliver us/To the Promised Land.......

Personal Thought: Though very much more blessed than these boys in terms of finance and family, there is a certain aspect of them that my friend and I could identify with that night. My friend has been considering quitting her job for a long while, but yet still remains, unsure of her next step. I am able to graduate, and yet I have no idea what to do with my future. As we walked around in the lonely hours of Orchard, I guess we were another kid of 'delinquent', no aim, no goals in life, unsure of our direction, and no yellow brick road with the Emerald Castle at the end. Stuck in situations that we want to get out of, and yet not knowing how to. In the end, we are just aimless wanderers, like the boys in the film, with only each other for support.

In the end, we're just like the Hebrews. We call and pray for deliverance from our prisons. Yet when we get it, we end wandering in the deserts, following the crowds, hoping the guy in front knows what he's doing and trusting to God to show us the way. Will we wander forever, or will we finally reach our Promised Land?