15



urged by our Educational Psychology lecturer (who herself is a counsellor for wayward teenagers), a small group of us trainee teachers (sometimes called teacher trainees - whatever..) trooped down to the cinema this afternoon to watch 15, hoping to catch a glimpse of the secret life of the juvenile delinquents we may possibly (gulp!) encounter when we eventually go out into the classrooms..

Roystan Tan has certainly got a brilliant piece of work here.

More than just a glimpse, I felt that we were given a chance to have a pretty good look into the dark (yet colourful), confused, purposeless and directionless existence of these troubled teenagers. I particularly liked the cleverly juxtaposed random scenes of what could have caused their waywardness (a father swearing in hokkien in the background whose face we are never shown, a mention of a mother with many "boyfriends" etc), the touch of realistic (albeit risque) humour, grainy lomo-nesque flashbacks, exaggerated actions and the occassional scene shot in a manner seemingly adapted from genres which would be familiar to these teenagers (e.g. wuxia - chinese martial arts - comics, taxi driver lingo, J-Pop etc)

it was a sad and realistic look at a "sub-culture" left behind by mainstream society, which few of us would ever come close to understanding and empathising with.. in fact, our own prejudices were shown through the typical irritated and disgusted reactions of the "aunties" in the show...

from my (no doubt privileged) personal encounter with some of these heavily-tattooed teens several years ago (no, i wasn't an "Ah Lian"* myself... trust me.. :p), I learnt that most of them were really very much like the rest of us, looking for the same things in life - Love, Acceptance, Friendship, Meaning & Purpose, & A Better Life.. but unlike for us, these dreams were far far away for them, always remaining elusive.. Eventually, many of these teens stop believing in their dreams.. sometimes, they stop believing in Life altogether too..

I don't know what I will be able to do if ever i'm presented with the opportunity/challenge of dealing with one or more of these troubled kids..

By the grace of God, hope I'll have the wisdom then to know the right thing to do...

here's a spoiler-less review

*You'll have to find the characteristics of an Ah Lian here .. i just found that i couldn't quite define one.. :p