Royston Tan, director of 15 and 4:30

“I’m in the midst of shooting my third film called 881,” says Tan, “so it’s been really crazy.” A getai musical, 881 is a story about The Papaya Sisters, two childhood friends who grow up to become the most enchanting getai stars on the circuit.

Eric Khoo, director of Be with Me and Mee Pok Man

Khoo is currently working as a producer on Royston Tan’s 881, as well as the feature film debut of Brian Gothong Tan, Invisible Children. Expect the prolific director to jump back into the director’s seat soon though, with two new projects that are currently in the development stages.

Kelvin Tong, director of The Maid and Eating Air

The filmmaker who scared filmgoers with The Maid is set to give us a good laugh with his latest film—Men in White, a horror comedy about four strangers who die from a freak accident involving a gas tank and a frog.

Daniel Yun, COO of Mediacorp Raintree Pictures

If you’ve noticed a shift in the kinds of films that Raintree Pictures has been putting out for sometime now, you’re not alone. “It now seems obvious that we have moved away from movies that are too local,” says Raintree’s Daniel Yun, who’s worked as an executive producer on such films as One Last Dance and Homerun. “Our move is deliberate, but strategic, and this move is an approach we have adopted for several years. Hence, if you look at our slate, the titles coming out this year are decidedly different.” Some films to look out for include an adaptation of Catherine Lim’s novel The Leap Years and the epic family drama The Home Song Stories, both starring the internationally renowned actress Joan Chen; the horror film The Tattooist, set in New Zealand; the animated feature Sing to the Dawn; and, of course, I Not Stupid 3, the latest installment in the popular Jack Neo-helmed series.

Whether you’re a hardened realist or a misty-eyed romantic, the concept of the “ever after” must have crossed your mind. It certainly crossed visual artist Sandra Lee’s mind—for she returns for the second and last time as Marina Mandarin’s artist-in-residence, in her second solo outing cryptically named The Plight of the Ever After. We spoke to Lee about her intriguing pen and ink drawings, and whether she believes in the “ever after.”

You use black, red and white in your drawings. We’re guessing—black represents death, red represents violence and white represents innocence?
Ha ha. Good one. That’s one way of looking at it. As much as I express my thoughts and feelings through my work, I like the viewer to interpret it using their own experiences. The red in some my paintings to me represents hope.

What are the main themes in your work?
The overall theme is the search for answers as we journey through life, symbolized by the girl in the chair. My work reflects my interest in things that might or might not be, things that are not solved for us. The solutions to these mysteries lie in a place that is close to us yet far away from our imagination. Some other themes include seeing and believing, displacement, identity and death. But most of all it’s about hope.

Does the girl in your drawings represent yourself? Or is she a character you created and if so, why?
All the characters that I create are part of my personality. Then again it could also be part of you! The little girl in the drawings represents that little person that still resides somewhere in every adult, I think. At least she still resides in me.

Are your drawings metaphorical depictions of your own experiences?
Yes. It’s partially autobiographical, based on memories past and present, and a mix of dreams.

OK. So what in your opinion lasts forever?
Nothing lasts forever. Even memories fade. But it’s nice when the good ones linger a while.

Madame Arcati (played by Selena Tan) is a glitzy medium who accidentally summons the ghost of her client’s first wife while performing a séance in the play Blithe Spirit.

Honestly, how much of what you do is real?
Everything dear! I don’t bluff.

What are the dangers of your job?
Heart attacks, because after every trance I have a craving for all kinds of food like tau yu bak (soy pork). The deeper the trance, the fattier the craving.

Ever made friends or fallen in love with a spirit?
They are all my friends of course, we meet and talk so regularly. Love, ahhh, all the time! It’s like co-stars working together—a lot of chemistry lor.

Has your job scared off any potential boyfriends?
I feel if you love me, you must love my spirits. Many men are scared of spirits that are not the drinking kind. So yes, sometimes I have to suffer loneliness for my duties.

What’s the scariest spirit you have ever encountered?
Poltergeists are the worse as they always throw things around. Once, they followed me home and all my Fake Ming vases collection kana shattered.

After being dead for years, how hideous do the ghosts look?
They look just like you or me—like normal Singaporeans. Sometimes normal people look worse!

What do you do if you summon for one spirit, but several turn up?
Then tea party, lor. The more the merrier I always say.

So do you think love is everlasting and persists—even after death?
Of course. So you better be careful who you choose to love…it can really mean forever.

Have you ever asked the spirits for winning lottery numbers?
That’s a trade secret.

Have you ever conjured up dead celebrities like Marilyn Monroe or Bruce Lee?
Once I talked to Teresa Teng. She wanted me to ask you all don’t sing her song in karaokes anymore.

What are you obsessed with lately?
The next 10 years of my life.

What makes Jean Danker tick?
Professional wrestling.

One thing you don’t understand about women?
The ability to always get their way.

One thing people can never comprehend about you?
The fact that I am very serious about what I do but I never take myself seriously confuses the hell out of people.

What makes you happy?
Waking up with a great melody in my head. On harder days, cuddling and spooning.

The best music to make love to?
My partner’s voice in my ear will do. Anything else is unnecessary.

Woes of a producer or a singer-songwriter?
There’re no woes, only excuses that I’d rather not be a part of.

Your last lie?
My answer to your second question.

If you had another go at life, who would you want to be?
My father.

What’s the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you as a DJ?
Maybe the massage we got backstage before one of our sets a few years ago.

You spin trance—but what do you personally listen to?
Out of the studio and the clubs we like to listen to lounge stuff mainly, but we are open to nearly any kind of music actually.

Who’s your nightlife hero?
Anyone is a hero who helps to build a night. Started with the security, promoter, people behind the bar, technicians, LJ, DJ, etc. But most important, our biggest nightlife hero is a good crowd—because with a good crowd, nothing is impossible!

Have you ever played to an empty room?
Any DJ would have. Those who deny it must have a bad memory.

What’s your favorite drink?
To stay fit, it is a mix of 50 percent apple juice and 50 percent water. To party, it is vodka, red bull or just a nice old fashioned cold beer.

What extent have your fans gone to to show you their love?
We had some guys in Canada traveling 700 kilometers one way by car just to see us. Unbelievable!

Do you read reviews about yourself?
We do read them, but do not take them too seriously—no matter if they are good or bad. In the end, it is only the opinion of one person.

Recently playing one of the leads in director Christopher Guest’s comedy For Your Consideration, she spoke with us about her career, Guest and who’d win if she and co-star Parker Posey really do throw down.

How does it feel like working with Christopher Guest over the years?
I love working with Chris and I’m honored to be in his company. There is no other job like it. We get to develop our characters based on Chris and [co-writer and actor] Eugene [Levy]’s inspiring script outline and then express those characters organically through improvisation, all under the sure-handed guidance of our fearless leader, Christopher Guest.

Would you consider him the funniest man on earth?
Chris is more than just funny. He is wise and confident. He is caring and generous. To top it off, he never repeats an improvised line from take to take and every one of them is funnier than the last.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from working on so many films over the years?
I like to think I’ve learned a lot from my work, but one thing that stands out is the importance of choosing your jobs and co-workers wisely. The work should be worthy of your efforts and you can do a better job yourself if you can trust others to do theirs.

How do you pick your scripts?
I try to choose scripts that have good stories to tell, but sometimes I just fall for a big laugh. I’ve made mistakes but I also try to work with talented, confident people. I’m not attracted to good roles in bad scripts. I’d rather be a part of something wonderful.

Do you ever see a point in your life where you’ll just stop acting?
I hope acting will be the death of me. But not until many years from now, please, God.

Who’d win in a fight: you or Parker Posey?
Parker would beat my ass.

He brings about six birds to Marina Mandarin Hotel everyday, hanging them up in the hotel’s corridor so that guests can hear them sing, before bringing them home in the evening. We sound him out on his passion for birds.

When did you start loving birds?
My interest in birds started from young, when I was just an adolescent. I would use a catapult to shoot the birds which are flying. I would take birds home when they fell and then rear them. We had to make up our own games to entertain ourselves in the past.

Do you hang out at the Jurong Bird Park?
I used to. The older staff in Jurong Bird Park know me. I organized bird singing competitions for them. Sometimes I didn’t need to pay the entrance fee when I went. But the place now has new staff who does not know me. I used to go there once or twice a month.

Do you think you’re depriving the birds of their freedom? Ever thought of giving them bigger cages?
The bigger its cage, the more the bird won’t sing. It sings to tell others that the cage is its space. When the cage is too big, it won’t feel the need to sing. Some male birds sing better when female birds are near too. It’s to get their attention.

Are you a cat-hater?
I don’t want to rear cats. My friend wants to give me a Persian cat. Its fur is white, with a tinge of blue. It’s very beautiful, but I don’t want it. Cats’ eyes glow at night, and I’m afraid that it might scare or eat my birds. I do have a dog though. It’s used to the birds. When one of my birds doesn’t want to bathe, I’ll get my dog to growl a little and chase it to the bathroom.

Is Sesame Street one of your favorite cartoons?
No lah. I rather watch Tom and Jerry. The big bird in Sesame Street is just a human wearing a costume.

Made up of bassist Pete Wentz, guitarist and vocalist Patrick Vaughn Stump, guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley, emo band Fall Out Boy has won the hearts of many (most are teenage girls wearing thick black eyeliner) with hits like “Dance, Dance,” “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” and “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race.”

“I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. I think if you like something, you like it. And you should be proud of it.

My grandpa is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. By that, I don’t mean physically. I mean his personality. He is very honest and strong for whom he is. Like he had one of those bypass surgeries on his heart and the doctor told him he should take bed rest for a month or so. But later that week, he was already fixing the roof. That’s just kind of how he is.

Home, when I was a little kid, was my favorite place in the world. You get older and it changes. People move away. But when I was a little kid, home was amazing.

I think if I had to live without my ears, I would be miserable.

I’m proud of songs like “Sugar, We’re Going Down” and “Dance, Dance.” I love the songs. I think anytime you’re an artist, you definitely have some stuff that is more famous than others, and that’s alright with me.

The decision to work with Babyface and Jay Z for Infinitely on High was because we listen to a lot of their stuff. A lot of people respect them. And we just thought it would be cool. It was awesome—both the guys were geniuses. More than anything, we were just trying out different things. A lot of that came from me. Babyface pushes me as a singer to make my vocals better and Jay Z is just awesome.

I don’t really know what growth means. Sometimes, when you say you’ve grown or something, there’s the implication that you sound better, you’re more of a guy or you’ve become more mature. I don’t think it’s like that. I think to me, it’s just change. Infinity on High is different, but I am just as proud of this record as I am of Under The Cock Tree and Take This to Your Grave.

As a writer, I was kind of scared of what people would say about a lot of things that I wanted to do. And so, I wouldn’t have done them before. But in Infinity on High, I just did them. A lot of ideas in here were ideas I had at one time but I was too scared to show them.

I was a drummer. I played drums for over a year and that was what I played the most and knew the most. I have always been making music.

When I come out of the airport, there might be people waiting for me. And that feels weird. But you’re still yourself, you’re who you are and nothing is going to change that.

I like the attention on my music. I love that and I want people to care about the music. But I don’t really understand the attention on me. I really never fancy myself as someone interesting.

We all used to be vegetarians at one point. That was when we first started off as a band. Andy is the only one who still is all the time, but sometimes we will still eat vegetarian.

You just kind of grow up and change your mind about certain things. Andy got to a point where he decided to be a vegan. He doesn’t eat dairy. I got to the point where I wasn’t sure of what I thought anymore so we split off. But I have a lot of respect for him for doing that.”

We need political reform in Thailand. The military junta’s constitutional drafting committee will not come up with anything of any use. It won’t increase freedom, nor will it decrease the gross inequalities in Thai society.

Everybody should pay tax, and the rich should pay a super tax. We want this money to be used to build a comprehensive welfare state in Thailand.

We want to get rid of the very narrow nationalism which is strangling Thai society and is the root cause of the violence in the South.

We must under no circumstances rely on undemocratic forces to make political changes, whether it be the army, the palace or business people.

There are only two kinds of people who are neutral politically: liars and idiots. If you’ve got a brain, you have a political opinion. But you can have an opinion and lie and say that you’re neutral.

It’s a good thing for students to be exposed to differences of opinion so that they can really make up their own minds.

Have I ever been afraid? Yes. I was afraid on the second day after the coup, when we staged the demonstration. But that’s nothing compared to the man who stood in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square, or the people who actually confronted the military in May 1992.

The whole notion that education is the key is something I completely oppose. After all, it is the poor who understand that their rights have been taken away by the coup d’etat, whereas people with doctorates are saying that coups can build democracies.

There’s a real problem with the freedom of the press and the freedom of the media. Under the military, we have direct censorship. But we also have self-censorship, when people decide they’re not going to criticize the government.

The army should not own TV and radio stations. The state should set up a public service corporation like the BBC, rather than handing out the contracts to big business.

My mother and father used to talk politics all the time. They were very critical of military dictators and not afraid to stand up to them. My father did that and suffered the consequences.

I have set up a political party. We only have 200 members, we don’t have any members of Parliament and we don’t stand in any elections. But it counts a lot in the long term if you want to build and spread political ideas.

My friends and I believe in politics that doesn’t emphasize important people. If our party were to stand candidates, we would like to see ordinary people standing as members of Parliament.

Thailand? I love and I hate it. I love the beach, the food, the Thai attitude to children, my friends and my memories.

What I don’t like is all the groveling to puu yai, the wai-ing, the narrow-minded nationalism, the periodic military dictatorships, and not being able to walk down the pavement without being run over by a motorbike.

I think I will always be politically active. I would like to see a more just society, a socialist society. Not just in Thailand but everywhere.­

Where are you from?
I am from Chaing Rai, from an Akha village. I have been here for a month or two. I came here with the others from the village.

Why did you come here?
I don’t have a job at home, so it’s better to become a vendor in Bangkok to earn a living.

Is your business going well?
Friends who had been here before told me it was very easy to make a living here, so I decided to come down. But business is not as good as before. There must be a problem that we don’t know about.

Do you really make your products yourself?
Some things I buy, like the silver bracelets; but apart from that they are all handmade. I embroider these bags and headdresses. A bag like this takes me two days to finish.

Are there any problems working on this road?
We have to hide when the municipal police come. If we don’t run, we get arrested.

What are your working hours?
I come here at 5pm and I leave here at around midnight. Then I go back home to embroider the products till 4am. Even if I feel sleepy, I have to do it. I don’t have holidays or weekends off.

Do you earn a lot?
Not at all. I earn very little and I send most of my money back home. I don’t even have any savings.

Who are your customers?
Mostly farangs. I don’t even speak English, but I’ve managed to learn some words that are useful for bargaining.

If you could have anything, what would it be?
I wish I could sell my products here freely, without municipal officers chasing me. Apart from that, life here is better than at home.