RICE RHAPSODY
Production notes
by Kenneth Bi
Filming of Rice Rhapsody was completed on the 19th December, 2003. The entire preproduction and principal photography took place in Singapore. I arrived in Singapore from Hong Kong on the 14th of September and the camera rolled on the auspicious date of 11th November (an important date in the story).
I began writing the film in 1997, won the Outstanding Screenplay Award in 1999 from the Taiwan GIO Film division. I have lived with the characters in the story in my head for so long that when I finally saw the actors in costume, portraying them, saying their words was a thrilling experience. Fortune has bestowed me with a terrific cast as well as creative and technical collaborators on the film. From Sylvia Chang who plays the mother in the film to Martin Yan who flew in from the US to the three boys, Tan Lepham (Pham; pronounced Pahm), Craig Toh, Alvin Chian who play Sylvia's sons, to Andy Mok who plays Batman and Melanie Laurent who flew in from Paris, France, they were a director's dream.
REHEARSALS
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Sylvia Chang,Tan LePham and Melanie rehearsing CLICK TO ENLARGE |
From the first read through I felt that the chemistry between them was there.The lines that were meant to be funny really turned out to be funny and some lines that seemed mundane on the page turned out to be electrifyingly touching. Sylvia came to Singapore around two weeks before principal photography to rehearse with the other actors and learn how to make Hainan Chicken Rice from the master chef at the Meritus Mandarin Hotel, famous of its chicken rice. Before that she had been learning the Singaporean way of speaking English and Mandarin for at least three months.
Martin came to Singapore and rehearsed his scenes in the early stages of preproduction because he had a few days free and came to Singapore just to do prepare for his role. Martin travels around the US and the world about three hundred days a year and to find the time to make the film and rehearse was a great juggling feat. He was a man totally committed to the project.
Sylvia bonded with all the actors right from the get-go. We did many things in rehearsal other than the scenes in the film. I will not reveal what those things were but they contributed greatly in building the relationships between these actors. They had to create a relationship in a very short time with a sense of authenticity and specificity. Those things had been built into the actorsÕ subconscious mind and when they finally filmed the scenes, they were able to convey another dimension of the characters that is unspoken and created a subtext that made the characters feel real.
At the press conference announcing the film, Sylvia mentioned to the press that she had not done rehearsals for many years. She was surprised by my request. However, Sylvia told the press, that she thoroughly enjoyed the rehearsals with the three sons and Melanie. I felt like I was on the right track building something special between these actors. 2004
