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| Friday, May 30, 2008
Film > The Leap Years by MediaCorp Raintree Pictures *The Leap Years is based on a novella by well-acclaimed writer, Dr Catherine Lim, the story talks about a young Singaporean girl having chance upon her special someone on 29th February. She decides to base her intuition on an Irish leap year tradition that no man will refuse any request of a lady and invites him out for a date. Together, they embark on a romantic journey that spans over 12 years, meeting only thrice in 12 years, on the leap year. The delightful draw being the leap yearly meet-ups is sure to entice the special someone out there in all of us.Here we introduce the perspective of Anne Law, the mother of Wong Li-Lin in the movie, and a review by Anne's daughter, Charis Ng (a regular at the Writers Group). A Look Back at The Leap Years - Perspective from an actress Writer: Anne Law Movie: The Leap Years (2008, Raintree Pictures) Director: Jean Yeo Running time: 90min  *Wong Li Lin and Ananda Everingham in The Leap YearsThe audition for The Leap Years was held at least six months before the actual shooting of the film. A part-time actress, I often wondered if I got the part of Li-An's mother because the casting director was totally worn out by my incessant calls. Opportunities like this do not come by frequently! Granted, the movie scene is a lot more active now than it was three to four years ago, but a predominately English-speaking show? We are still in our infancy! My role was confirmed less than a week before the shooting of Li-An's mother's scenes began. Imaging, hair and costumes were done in record time. The task was all the harder as I am not exactly an "off the rack" size. This experience in filming for the big screen was an eye-opener for me in more ways than one. There was a lot more opportunities to explore the emotions involved in the relationship between a mother and a daughter. Not that I managed to utilise all the opportunities well, but the depth of each character was really up to the individual actors to create. In The Leap Years, Li-An (played by Wong Li Lin), was close to her mother. You could tell from the way she teased her mother, and how she knew instinctively what her mother wanted when she came into her room. Further on that evening, Li-An came home pained and hurt and started crying at the doorstep. Her mother came out, sat by her and hugged her, willing to bear that pain with, if not for her. We had no dialogue - there was no need. I can relate to that, as I am close to my daughters, and I feel their pain when they are hurt or disappointed. To a greater degree, I believe God is like that. He feels our hurt because He experienced it. Jesus experienced everything from betrayal, rejection, ridicule, unbelief and abandonment during His life. By His going through all that "human-ness", we stand assured that He understands our pains and hurts. By the same reasoning, because Jesus has experienced our hurts and pains, He is closer to us than we realise. Yet, when we are hurt, we move away from the Lord, thinking He would not understand, or that our sins are too great for the Lord to look at. We were encouraged in Romans 8:28 that "... in all things God works for the good of those who love Him". I truly believe that all the experiences and obstacles we face in life are but stepping stones for us to learn to rely on God more, or to witness His faithfulness, and to learn and grow in our spiritual lives as well as in character. And God is right here, unconditional with His love, allowing us to grieve, to cry, and then to grow. Praise the Lord. Read more about Anne Law at annelaw.tv The Leap Years - a review Writer: Charis Vera Ng Movie: The Leap Years (2008, Raintree Pictures) Director: Jean Yeo Running time: 90min I went for the premiere with relatively low expectations, to be honest. After the countless local productions I've caught, thanks to TVMobile, I assumed that The Leap Years would be just another one of those cliche, badly produced movies. For someone who is every inch the sentimental, romantic shmuck, it's not very hard to notice that love stories always end up more or less the same. However, I had quite a lovely surprise that surpassed my expectations by a complete mile. I can't say for certain if there aren't any other shows based on the whole idea of a leap year, but this was definitely the first one I'd heard of and watched. Because of that, I personally found the storyline very fresh. Even though the film had its fair share of cliched moments (like the man in the heroine's dreams becoming real), it was done in a way that didn't make the entire film cheesy. Acting-wise, one of the reasons I really liked the film was because the characters spoke proper English instead of Singlish. Another reason of course, is that the actors and actresses fit into their respective characters very well. This is something I liked in particular because instead of seeing Wong Li Lin on screen, for example, you saw a very naive Li-An who loved and got hurt easily. All in all, I loved every bit of the movie. I thought it was refreshing, very sweet and something I could definitely watch more than once (which I did, actually). I personally feel that this movie has set new standards for the film scene in Singapore. Should Raintree Pictures do more films in a similar style, I'll be sure to catch them. Charis sings as part of the duo 'Charis and Enqing', writes with CreateLeVoyage.com sometimes and currently studies for her long distance degree. You can email her at withlove.me@gmail.com *http://www.mediacorpraintree.com/js/fs.asp?ref=/theleapyears.htm
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