Come next year, enjoy four sweet, romantic stories from four up-and-coming directors on the topic revolving around the four-letter word: LOVE.
Gary Goh, producer of the film, shared: “I think with the SG50, there are a lot of films about patriotism and Singapore’s nation building. What a lot of us forget is to celebrate love. Love appears in different forms; your partners, husband and wife and with your family. We want to use this film to celebrate it.”
Story 1:
Director: Raihan Halim
Cast: Maxi Lim, Cheryl Wee
An ‘unabashedly romantic’ story was what director Raihan Halim had in mind for his story. “I wanted it to be a romantic story, and I kept telling Maxi and Cheryl that I want to make it an unabashedly romantic story where there is no cynicism and scepticism. It’s really about the innocence of love.”
Finding his lead actors, however, wasn’t a bed of roses. Halim was initially hesitant when the name ‘Maxi Lim’ came up at the discussion table, but after a face-to-face meeting with the ‘Ah Boys To Men’ actor, Halim was confident Lim was his leading actor.
“I told Maxi, ‘I don’t want to see the same guy I saw in Ah Boys to Men’…. we made a pact that we are going to make someone new.”
He added: “We met with a lot, a lot of girls for this role. For Cheryl, it was also a factor of who do we match with Maxi. We met up with her and by the end of the meeting, we told her ‘we’ll see you at script read’. So we went in not knowing who we are meeting, and we ended the conversation with casting her.”
Lim shared that he is a ‘hopelessly-romantic’ person, and one who ‘enjoys making cards’ for his girlfriend. “I will spend a lot of time designing pop-up cards for her.” To add to this ‘aww factor’, his co-star, Wee is also a ‘very hands-on person’ who likes baking and crafting for her beau.
“I think Raihan managed to extract that part of me that people don’t see very often. Filming his flick, I feel very comfortable everyday. In terms of personality, it’s a little similar to myself,” said the ‘Mata-Mata’ actress.
Story 2:
Director: Gilbert Chan
Cast: Terence Then, Jonathan Cheok, Silver Ang
Probably one of the funnier story concepts compared to the rest, director Gilbert Chan hopes to ‘push its comedy to the edge of decency’.
“When the EPs (Executive Directors) came up with the concept, I thought it was an interesting thing to explore and one that has a lot of space for comedic elements - like what happens if you lose a diamond ring. It’s really about a story revolving the diamond ring.”
“We took this very extreme, pushed the comedy to a level that it might be bordering unbelievable, said Chan. “However, the important part in this comedy is its believability. The situations can be very absurd, but how the characters react and what will they do is very important… So once that happens, the comedy will come true.”
Singer-actress Silver Ang added: “The story is really where anything could go wrong, went wrong.”
The film also stars two well-known local ‘YouTubbers’ Terence Then (WahBanana) and Jonathan Cheok (CheokboardStudios). “It’s cool working with Gilbert, said Cheok. “Terence and I both do comedy on YouTube, so we will share our ideas to Gilbert to see what works. I think it’s very cool that he is open to our suggestions.”
Story 3:
Directed: Sam Loh
Cast: Louis Wu, Shane Pow, Oon Shu An
We got to give it to filmmaker Sam Loh for injecting femme fatale, female-inspired roles to his stories. Although his ‘Autumn’ storyline in ‘4Love’ will not involve bloody killings like his previous erotic thriller ‘Lang Tong’, Loh shared that he wanted his story to be from ‘a woman’s point of view’.
“I was the first to come onboard this project. When mm2 came to me with the idea of it, I jumped to it and came up with the idea straight away. I wanted to explore the older age group, and a woman’s point-of-view kind of story… The third party is a guy instead,” said Loh.
Playing the unfaithful wife is theatre and screen actress Oon Shu An, who falls in love with Shane Pow’s character, despite being married with Jin Hao, played by Louis Wu.
“I was actually quite excited playing a cheating woman,” laughed Oon. “I think we always see things from a man’s point of view and honestly I think guys get away with a lot more than a woman. We see a lot of the men’s side of the story, but we never really get to see a woman’s struggle with it. And also one of the things I found challenging is that then what is her emotional journey in that situation.”
Though he is one of MediaCorp’s dukes - one who often plays the charming, gentleman character on television, Pow is ready to take on different and more gutsy roles, especially when it comes to something that he will not be able to do on the small screen.
“As an actor, I would like to try different stuff and this (4Love) is the kind of role that is harder to play on TV due to its restrictions. When Sam told me about the role, I was very interested! I think as an actor, I got a very good and fun role to play, so image-wise, I don’t see it as a huge factor that should restrict my opportunities. I think of it as part of my job.”
Story 4:
Director: Daniel Yam
Cast: Joshua Tan, Hayley Woo
The two young leads, Joshua Tan and Hayley Woo may only be in their twenties, but in ‘4Love’, they play a married couple of five years who are on the brink of divorce. Despite their relatively young age, director Daniel Yam praised the both of them for their matured performance in the film.
“I think both of them did an incredible job. At the end of the day, it is all about relationships and we have been through those. All these are emotional memories that we can draw from our life experiences. When I speak to them, they fully understand what I was trying to say and the next moment, they are in character,” said Yam, whose previous short films include Gift (2013) and Promise (2014).
On his casting choices, Yam thought Tan and Woo had a ‘strange chemistry’. Both acted as a couple for ‘Ah Boys To Men’, but now they are playing an estranged married couple.
“When I first met them, I asked them to do an improvisation exercise of a couple quarrelling. I realised that both of them had this strange chemistry - though they hated each other, there was something that draws them back together. So I thought they have a lot of potential that can be explored,” shared Yam.
“I think Daniel really pushed me. He knows how to push an actor to his or her limits,” shared the Ah Boys To Men star Joshua Tan. “It was my first time breaking down for the camera! I see that as a breakthrough for myself because I never had that kind of emotion before.”
He added: “It’s very challenging as an actor when you say something and it means another thing, and it shows in your eyes.”
‘4Love’ is slated to open InCinemas first quarter of 2016.