First-time Actress Rebecca Chen Nearly Backed out of Local Erotic Thriller ‘Siew Lup’.
Photo Courtesy of: mm2 Entertainmen
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Professional dancer and part-time model Rebecca Chen rejected local director Sam Loh’s erotic thriller ‘Siew Lup’, just days before shooting was scheduled to begin.
Fortunately, Loh managed to convince Chen to continue with the production, and even praised the first-time actress for her performance in his second chapter of the R-21 trilogy, the sequel to 2015’s ‘Lang Tong’.
“This is Rebecca’s first foray into acting. Before we started, she was a bit reluctant to film it, not because of the sex or nude scenes, but it was more about speaking in Mandarin and the other scenes like the fight scenes and emotional scenes,” said Loh.
He added: “I think she had cold feet… but Rebecca is a fast learner; after filming for about a week or so, she did pretty well and was mentally in shape to continue for the rest of the shoot.”
“I never had any experience in acting, but I’ve always wanted to act. Considering that the role was challenging and the film had a good script, I wanted to try,” shared Chen. “It’s not about the sex or anything, but rather the emotional scenes instead. I thought that it was a good opportunity to challenge myself and so I took it up.”
Photo Courtesy of: mm2 Entertainment
Chen plays Mia, an ex-prostitute who is trapped in a loveless marriage with roast meat seller Quan (Sunny Pang), and finds herself in an affair with funeral director Wu (Louis Wu), who takes another lover, Xuan (Melody Low). A series of violent events ensues when the affair comes to light.
‘Siew Lup’ premiered at last year’s Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) to sold-out screenings. Just like ‘Lang Tong’, it became the first film of the festival’s lineup to sell out.
Does this mean that moviegoers in Singapore are finally ready to embrace the erotica in local sex-themed films?
As reported by Straits Times: “In the past couple of years, three home-grown erotic films - Lang Tong (2014), Rubbers (2014) and In The Room (2015) - performed poorly at the local box office. Collectively, they made less than $250,000, which is not even a quarter of the $1.4 million earned by a modest hit such as local comedy Taxi! Taxi! (2013).”
At the press conference, Loh reiterated that he hopes to provide a variety of local films to audiences, and not just to be known as churning out a certain genre of movies.
Photo Credit: mm2 Entertainment
“I don’t think Singaporeans are that conservative as we used to be. There is a market where our local audiences are willing and wanting to watch these sex-themed films, but perhaps they are just not brassy enough to watch it or wanting to hear about it.”
‘Siew Lup' is rated R-21 (Sexual Content and Violence) with no cuts. “I was a little surprised that they (IMDA) didn’t cut any of my scenes. I’m pretty happy about it,” said Loh, who had three minutes of sex scenes axed in ‘Lang Tong’.
“When I filmed the movie, I didn’t consider the restrictions and censorship. As I’ve mentioned before because this isn’t our job. Our job is to make a good movie. IMDA’s censorship has a guideline on what can and cannot be done, so as long as we follow and respect that guideline, it’s good enough.”
Siew Lup opens InCinemas 23 Feb 2017!
