Keynote
Friday 3 March, 16.30
Prof. Adam Knee
LASALLE College of Arts, Singapore
Criminality and the Gothic in the Singapore Horror Film
The modern city-state of Singapore is globally known both for its adherence to law and for its gleaming, futuristic architecture and attractions—and the nation thus might appear to stand at first glance in stark opposition to the Captivating Criminality 9 conference’s themes of crime and the gothic. And yet, as one might expect, both crime and gothic-tinged environments do of course exist both at the peripheries of Singapore’s present-day reality and even more so in the country’s popular fictions, which give full voice to that which is repressed in the dominant national narrative of progress and prosperity.
This presentation will examine one popular arena for the articulation of themes of crime and the gothic (and, significantly, their intersection)—the Singapore horror film. Indeed, in a sense the modern Singapore horror film was born of the criminal, two of the very first (1991’s Medium Rare and 1997’s God or Dog) both being inspired by a notorious real-life case of ritual murders replete with gothic dimensions (both in reality and on screen). And criminal narrative lines and criminal characters have subsequently remained a distinctive and important part of the Singapore horror film’s DNA (often providing a pretext for the genre’s gothic turns). This talk will work to demonstrate this tendency of modern Singapore horror by tracing the tandem operation of crime and the gothic through several key examples, including the work of directors Sam Loh and Chai Yee Wei.
Professor Adam Knee is the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Media and Creative Industries at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. He holds a PhD in Cinema Studies from New York University and is an authority in Southeast Asian cinema. Prior to joining LASALLE, Professor Knee held the post of Head of School of International Communications at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China from 2013–2017. He has also held teaching posts at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – where he served as the Head of Division of Broadcast and Cinema Studies – and Ohio University, USA.A recipient of the prestigious Fulbright and International Institute for Asian Studies fellowships, Professor Knee has published extensively on Southeast Asian and popular American cinema. He is co-editor of the Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies and serves on the editorial boards of the Celebrity Studies (Taylor & Francis) and Plaridel journals, as well as the Amsterdam University Press Critical Asian Cinemas series.
Film Discussion
Thursday 2 March, 17.00
The Last Executioner
Dir. Tom Waller (2014)
Inspired by true events, THE LAST EXECUTIONER is the story of Chavoret Jaruboon, the last person in Thailand whose job it was to execute by gun – a wild rock and roller who took a “respectable” job to support the family he loved devotedly, then constantly tried to reconcile the good and bad karma that came from his decision. It is a story of life at its most beautiful and death at its most surreal.
Starring Vithaya Pansringarm, David Asavanond and Penpak Sirikul. Written by Don Linder. Directed by Tom Waller.
Guest speakers
Don Linder is an international, award-winning scriptwriter. He previously served as manager of the Creative Writing Program at State University of New York-Binghamton, Programs Director for Poets & Writers, Inc., and Literature Program Director for the North Carolina Arts Council. His 2015 film The Last Executioner won the Tukata Tong Awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay, making Don the first non-Thai to win the award since it was established in 1958. The film had its world premiere by invitation at the Shanghai International Film Festival where it won Best Actor.
His more recent film The Cave about the international efforts to rescue twelve boys stuck in a cave in Northern Thailand, has also won several awards, including the award for the Best Humanitarian Film at Sedona International Film Festival in 2021. In addition, Linder has written Dark Karma for a British producer, Hmongs: Ghost People for a French producer, which was a semi-finalist at the International New York Film Festival and won the Bronze Award in the Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest, and Ancient Angkor 4K, a documentary about Angkor Wat, which was bought by National Geographic, for an American producer. He has recently completed a 6-part TV series, Lured, with Lee Miller.
Vithaya Pansringarm is a Thai actor best known for appearing in films like Only God Forgives (Refn, 2013), The Last Executioner (Waller, 2015), A Prayer Before Dawn (Sauvaire, 2017), or Operation Mekong (Lam, 2016). In June 2014, he won Best Actor at the Shanghai International Film Festival for his role as Chavoret in The Last Executioner. The film also won Best Picture and Best Screen Play at the 30th Surasawadi Awards in 2015. Pansringarm graduated in Graphic Design from New York Institute of Technology. He holds a 5th Degree Black Belt (5 DAN) in Kendo (a Japanese martial art) and is President of the Thailand Kendo Club.