15: The Movie (2003)

best movie i've ever seen.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

The last time a local film actually garnered critical acclaim, Cleopatra Wong was still karate chopping up policemen in shorts. Hailing from 21th century Singapore, I was all eager to watch 15. Too eager, on hindsight, as I passed up Broken Flowers and Julie Delpy for it.Opening sequence with 3 leads playing bow-and arrows in a metaphorical wasteland (Nope! There's no desert in monsoon-ravaged Singapore), a sense of foreboding crept up inside me. A film which purports to capture street life grittiness but opens with some high arty farty concept, is suffering from a clash of ideologies, something akin to getting Jesus and God of Mercy tattooed on your back.So the movie meanders down this slippery path of pseudo high concept art. We find Ah-bengs, or 'street thugs' in colloquial Hokkien, not in the streets spilling blood, but hanging around in their not-so-spartan HDB flats musing about the vagaries of life and occasionally breaking into colourful song-and-dance. Sounds a lot like my life, thank you.Granted, there were a few great takes of self-mutilation and drug-smuggling, which was stomach churning even to the hardboiled. But the terrible pacing blunted the scenes and ruined the senses. It was with much gratitude that I survived the extreme tedium, thanks to my fingers on the FAST FORWARD button. Mind you, it was not just a casual fast forward, but a SUPER TURBO FAST FORWARD of 8x.15 would indeed be a smashing hit as a 15 min long feature. Royston Tan shouldn't have dragged 15 out from the relative comforts of short films to the hazards of full-lengths. A full-length film needs to be sustained by a story, a heartbeat. Witness how blood courses through the veins of Amores Perros, or Cidade de Deus. A concept alone, even if wrapped up in garish lighting and high contrast colours, is simply not enough.IMDb Rating: 4.7 (-1 for lack of Ah Lians in a movie about Ah Bengs. Oh! Ludicrious!)

An excellent film, 15 does a great job showing a side of Singapore most people never see. While some viewers might object to the violence and graphic scenes of self-mutilation, the reality behind every scene had a lasting impression on me. Director Royston Tan should be commended for this haunting look into the lives of these five teenagers. The film shows us that even people on the fringes of society still desire the same love and companionship we all do, these boys only have each other and their friendship is enough to get them through. I had the opportunity to see this film when it was playing in New York and hope the rest of the country gets a chance to see it. Bravo!

This is one of my favourite movies. Can't wait 'til I can buy it. It is a chockingly beautiful movie, the colours and the camera angles and everything is perfect. It is so close, everytime the actors cut their wrists or try to press down a condom full of pills in their throat, it feels like they're doing it to me.Even the violence is beautiful. I don't mean kill bill-violence, but in some way the director makes everything seem so realistic but at the same time extraordinary. I don't know how else to describe it.This is true beauty. See it!

I've seen the short and it was truly great, so I went to see the feature-length version with great expectations. I was totally disappointed.The first section is actually the short version, where the story of the 3 friends unfolds, but then the director focuses on 1 protagonist. I guess he might not be able to get the other 2 actors to 'complete' the story.Shaun as the only one remaining acted quite well, but the story would've been much better if it explored deeper into his love-hate relationship with Vynn. The movie fell flat on several scenes because the director just couldn't build the story based on Shaun alone. He introduced 2 new characters but they really couldn't help much.I guess Royston should've just left the short alone until he managed to build a stronger plot. All in all, 15 is a heart-warming short film, but a disappointing feature-length.