more rants on censorship
written: 5:54 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 06, 2003

I have bitched about Singapore's stringent and, honestly, bleeding primitive censorship rules on a few occasions in this humble online adobe of mine, but, honestly, I wasn't able to put it quite as candidly and humourously, yet so very aptly, like Mr. Humphreys did. He makes you laugh and yet he drives home his point simultaneously, because he makes you see how ludicrous some of the things that we do in this country really are.

When Time magazine included a little blurb in one of its issues about silly movie moments, or something along those lines, highlighting how Singapore almost changed one Austin Powers movie to "The Spy Who Shioked Me" because "shagged" is deemed as crude, or whatever, well, suffice to say that I was, to put it simply, freaking embarrassed.

It's little and unwanted quirks like that that make me feel shameful to hail from this country. I don't care how secure, safe and stable we are; the fact is, we're as intellectual as the Neanderthals when it comes to things concerning the arts. Censorship destroys art and does little to raise awareness of the difference between artistic merit and pure pornography when it comes to R(A) films among the general public.

I remember this painful workshop I sat through in Secondary Two, after the exams, about sexuality or some other shit. I don't remember much of the workshop, except a few details. One of the things that the speakers attempted to pass down to us was the detrimental and insidious influence of the media in our society.

Let me say first that their view, in my view, is fucking backwards and primitive. What they attempted to indoctrinate into us was that all R(A) movies are pornographic in nature. They highlighted their point by circling out various R(A) movies in newspaper advertisements, saying, "Look at the number of R(A) movies we have today. It shows how harmful the media is and thus we should all shun it."

Nonsense. Utter crap. R(A), for the uninitiated, stands for Restricted (Artistic). The problem with Singapore's censorship board is that it lumps films with artistic merit with movies that are just pure smut, by slapping them with a generic R(A) rating and expecting the public to know the difference. I'm sorry, but it simply doesn't work that way. Quills was R(A), and so was American History X, and so are god-knows how many crappy sex films distributed by "Overseas Movies" or whatever with dubious titles and suggestive film posters. Are they trying to tell me that a film as powerful as Quills and American History X automatically rank among crap just because they were slapped with the same rating?

I don't know what the speakers were thinking, but I remember that scenario more clearly than anything else from the workshop. It stirred something in me. More importantly, it offended me. You see, I take serious issues with ignorant fuckholes calling my films 'porn' or 'crude' when they probably don't even know their asses from their elbows, or their Kurosawa Akira (better example, Phil Kaufman, sp) from their C-grade porn "director". If you don't know your material, don't talk about it. Ultimately, it only makes you look like a big fool.

But, on hindsight, if I take a step back, I can see, clearly, that this problem takes root in Singapore's censorship board. I read an article in the papers today about an Egyptian poet who wrote a controversial book about sex that incorporates some verses from the Koran into the chapters, and how the government is putting a ban on it, etc, and how the government tries to cater to the largely-conservative Egyptian society by outlawing "raunchy" literature, etc.

I think my government is trying to do the same thing. Yet, simultaneously, my government is trying to promote the country as a cultural hub or whatever with some moronic "Remaking Singapore" campaign.

We're apparently trying to loosen up, and yet we're censoring a three-second scene of the male penis (like who the hell hasn't seen a penis before, especially those above 21 years of age) when the movie is already rated R(A). A lot of what the board is doing is ridiculous and they don't hold any water, at least not in my opinion. And the general public is happily living in their blissful world of ignorance and thinking that all R(A) films are pornographic, when the reality is so far away from that unfair conjecture.

I don't know. I just wish that the people who conducted the workshop have wisened up over the past three years and realised that the difference between "art" and "porn" is vast and should never be overlooked. If they ever talk to me again about how bad R(A) movies are, well, things are definitely not going to be pretty.

And at this point I remember that American History X was banned in Singapore.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010