Saving Singapore's Film Heritage

[Music playing]

Jimmy
The Teenage Textbook Movie came out in 1998, and at the time it was just considered a funny movie. Today, however, people think it’s a classic, an example of the renaissance of Singapore cinema. And worthy, of course, of restoration and conservation. But unfortunately the film wasn’t stored in a particularly ideal state. And as a result, restoring it wasn’t so easy. I’m Jimmy Yap, and with me in the studio is Chew Tee Pao. He’s been a film archivist of the Asian Film Archive since 2009, and he’s here to tell us all about the challenges he faced in restoring The Teenage Textbook Movie and indeed other movies. Hello, Tee Pao. Welcome to BiblioAsia+. Before we start all this, let me play a small snippet and see whether you recognise it.

[Audio]

That, of course, was the famous introduction to The Teenage Textbook Movie. Tell me about the challenges of restoring The Teenage Textbook Movie.

Tee Pao
So an interesting fact for The Teenage Textbook Movie is that the original film elements, which is the picture and the sound negative, weren’t in Asia Film Archive collection in the first place.

Jimmy
Ah okay. Where were they?

Tee Pao
So we originally acquired the 35 mm exhibition print, which is the release print that they circulate, you know, throughout the cineplexes for the cinemas. We acquired it several years ago before we actually embarked on the restoration of the film. So when we decided that, you know, in 2018 that we wanted to restore this film, we spent some time actually trying to track down and trying to contact the producer of the film at the time.

Jimmy
Wait, let me stop you there. Why can’t you restore it from the exhibition print?

Tee Pao
Yeah. So the thing is, with every film restoration, before we embark on every film restoration, we always want to make sure that we have the best available elements. We wouldn’t settle on using the exhibition print usually, because it’s been heavily utilised, you know. When it goes to the projector, it experiences wear and tear. It’s not always the best element, but sometimes it is the only element that we could use. But before we embark on every restoration, we always want to make sure that, we do some investigation and try and find out whether there are better elements out there. What we all wish to work with would be the original negatives because they will contain the greatest details.

You know, they’re the most pristine and the most original. There will still be some wear and tear you know, depending on how it’s been handled or how it’s been stored. But of course we wanted to investigate and check before we started the restoration. So we managed to contact the producer of the film who at that time informed us, it’s in the warehouse in Malaysia. I think it was Penang at that time. It actually took us quite a bit of coordination to actually transport the prints back to Singapore, you know, trying to figure out what he has available.

Jimmy
Why was that hard? And it sounds like it’s quite straightforward.

Tee Pao
Well, sometimes, you know, like trying to coordinate the shipment, you had to make sure the person’s there. At the time, he was in Singapore, so no one could attend to packing the materials, for example.  It took a couple of weeks, just to coordinate that and when we received the items and then we started to unwind some of them to take a look. So we realised that [there was] the vinegar syndrome, which is a very common condition. Because of the chemical properties of how the film was produced, you know, it starts to deteriorate.

Jimmy
And this vinegar-like smell.

Tee Pao
Exactly. And this is largely I mean, I guess mainly due to, you know, the prolonged storage in a highly warm, humid environment, which is also evident because when we start unwinding reels, it turns out that the first several metres of the films were sticky and the images were like stuck to each other. And we knew that, this is because, you know, exactly like what he said. It’s been stored in the warehouse.

Jimmy
Practically melting.

Tee Pao
In a way, it’s just left unattended, and for a film that, you know just a little over 20 years away at that time, it was quite surprising, but also not too surprising given, you know, after we know how, you know, where was stored as well. But thankfully, I mean, that the condition of the film wasn’t too critical and we were able to still proceed with the restoration. But imagine if we had not initiated, you know, the deterioration would have just set in even more.

Jimmy
I mean, give it another five years. What could have happened?

Tee Pao
We don’t know how long the film was stored in that storage facility. I mean, mould could come out within two weeks if it’s stored in a very humid condition. So yeah, it’s, it’s really common, especially in the region. So vinegar syndrome, of course, is really quite a very common condition that will cause the film to shrink, to become warped. And sometimes it will make the film brittle. And of course, sometimes the worst-case scenario is it results in a completely lost of image and sound.

Jimmy
But what’s the hardest thing about the restoration process?

Tee Pao
I think the hardest process is probably identifying the right elements, right? So, you know, I guess in the case of Teenage Textbook, if we had proceeded to do the restoration from the 35 mm release print, you know, the results would be very different, than using the negatives, because of the way the film was produced onto an exhibition print and you would have experienced a lot of wear and tear, and obviously it also would result in a lot more intensive labour work, like even additional hours of digital restoration. That wouldn’t make sense. So you always want to like make sure you have the right elements.

Jimmy
I’d like to talk to you about, the movie They Call Her... Cleopatra Wong right now. This is a movie that, you know, even Quentin Tarantino has cited as being hugely influential. And AFA [Asian Film Archive] also was involved in the restoration of this movie. And actually this is a much older movie. I can’t remember when it was.

Tee Pao
1978.

Jimmy
And so I’m sure it was probably harder to restore They Call Her... Cleopatra Wong compared to, say, the Teenage Textbook.

Tee Pao
Yes, definitely. But what’s interesting about this film is that for the longest time we thought we wouldn’t be able to locate any film elements. So in the first place, all we had of the film, what we knew existed, were just digibeta tapes, which are just videotapes.

Jimmy
Okay.

Tee Pao
From what we knew from the owners, the original negatives and whatever film elements they had before were discarded because they were far too decayed and unsalvageable. And so for a long time we thought that we had very little chance of seeing this film, say, on the big screen made for intended audiences. And then after some years have passed, it dawned upon us that, you know, the fact that the film actually travelled to different parts of the world, you know, like the Middle East to North America and Europe, there could be foreign copies, you know, made for the foreign market.

Jimmy
Right.

Tee Pao
Like, you know, it maybe or may not be like the original kind of English version of the film that we know of. So we decided to do a call, because the Asia Film Archive is also part of this network of association of archives, which has members all around the world and a number of them from Europe. They actually preserved a film from Southeast Asia that was maybe dubbed in their native language. They told us, “Oh, I have the Italian print. I have a German print.I have a print, but with like Danish subtitles.”

Jimmy
So cool.

Tee Pao
So we reached out to them [to] understand the condition of these elements. We did some investigation and in the end, we decided, okay, they’re not all in the right version, which is like the original English version. So in the end we decided to use the 35 mm print, which is dubbed in German. So you have German titles and all. And Cleopatra Wong is speaking in German.

Jimmy
Right.

Tee Pao
And then you have the, 16mm print in English, but with Danish subtitles throughout the film. So all the dialogue is with Danish subs. So we had to like, I think this is kind of a nice combination, like we could try and see if this would work. I think it was a little bit of a gamble as well.

We knew what we were getting ourselves into, and we know that it’s going to be it’s going to take some, you know, like putting together a jigsaw, right? Putting different pieces from different sources and trying to fit it into to make a complete image. There were of course some challenges because the image quality, the clarity, the definition of the image actually, you know, between the 16 mm and 35 mm actually differs quite a bit.

And of course they’ve experienced different kinds of deterioration already. So obviously that 35 mm, you know, it’s generally magenta looking. So it’s like leaving a lot of the reds, whereas the 16 mm had the colours intact, but it does not have the same definition, meaning to say that the lines are not as sharp. It contains a lot more scratches and light artefacts on the 16 mm. That’s more apparent on the print itself. So we worked very closely with those film archives, with the combined sort of elements, we discussed with the restorer on how to best go about it.

And so they did this comparison with the scanned images and they sort of came up with a proposal. I think we can use the image source from the 35 mm and then using the soundtrack from the 16 mm. The 35 mm has some missing frames, the next best thing is to use the 16 mm to kind of complement it. Ultimately we were so fortunate to be able to see the film on the big screen than on video, because back then when we showed the film on video, for example, or even on DVD, the image was cropped, you know, that’s how the video format is. It crops the image. So the film was supposed to be widescreen. And so there’re a lot of details that we discovered after having looked at the film on the big screen. For example, the character on video, she’s like, completely cut off.

Jimmy
Wow.

Tee Pao
Yeah. But on the big screen, there’s this action going on at the corners. I must say it was really quite touching to be able to see that. And I think also for, you know, the actress Marie Lee as well, to be able to witness that.

Jimmy
I see. Makes me want to go watch it again. So you were personally involved in restoring a classic P. Ramlee movie, the Seniman Bujang Lapok. And it was a very interesting but a very, very sad case as well. So tell us a little bit more about what happened.

Tee Pao
Yeah, I mean, Seniman Bujang Lapok was such an iconic film that I wish we had a chance to restore, but unfortunately it couldn’t be restored. The print has deteriorated to a point where most of the images were gone. I recall that there were a total of seven reels from the film. So each reel is like maybe about 10 to 15 minutes. The first six reels were completely unsalvageable. Okay, out of the seven reels, only the last reel can be digitised. Restoration is completely out of question at the time. The only thing that they were able to salvage is the last reel, which is the last seven or eight minutes of the film, which is really quite sad. I mean, the film is widely available on DVD and of course on video.

Jimmy
But what’s the difference then? What are we losing?

Tee Pao
Yeah, I mean, we were losing the greatest details, the information on the film. You know how the film was intended to be seen on the big screen, for example. I mean, obviously the video format is, you know, the definition and clarity is much lower than film. So film contains much more image information. So the other the film that starred P. Ramlee, that we restored was Patah Hati, which we actually did in 2015, I think as part of the SG50 celebrations, which we showed the film at Capitol. That was a really interesting case as well for us, because what’s left of the film is a 16 mm print that we acquired. The first few minutes of the film were missing. You didn’t have the opening titles and all that.

So we only managed to find that out, you know, when we started the restorations. So the bad thing about restoration, is that you wouldn’t be able to tell what you’re going to get – until the thing is digitised and you get to see it. So we learned that fact and then, at least it wasn’t too bad we were able to complement it with some restoration notes and we did some investigation and we found out, okay, this is how the story went. And we sort of included those notes at the beginning of the film just to fill the audience in to, I guess, the plot itself. But it was also very nice, I guess, to see a young P. Ramlee.

Jimmy
I know right. He was so young, so good-looking, so thin.

Tee Pao
That was, I think one of his early, you know, leading roles when he first started out.

Jimmy
Very good looking. What is the most challenging film restoration that you’ve ever been involved in?

Tee Pao
I think the most challenging restoration that I’ve been involved in had to be Bambaru Avith, which is the Sri Lankan film that we restored in 2019.

Jimmy
Why was that the most challenging?

Tee Pao
So, I mean, that was an interesting event because we came across the 35 mm reels in Singapore, at a stairwell with an institution which wasn’t able to render any care for the films. And that’s when we find all the films actually have deteriorated greatly.

Tee Pao
And so there were a total of three films, and we found they were all made by this Sri Lankan director called Dharmasena Pathiraja, who’s considered, you know, quite a visionary director of Sri Lankan cinema. And then all of the three titles – Ponmani [Younger Sister, 1977], Bambaru Avith [The Wasps Are Here, 1978] and Soldadu Unnahe [Old Soldier, 1981] – Bambaru Avith, we found to be suitable, you know, for any kind of work to be done. We were contemplating. Maybe we could like, digitise and take a look and see what it is. So in the meantime, also try and find out and try to read up a little bit about Pattirajah’s works as well.

And that’s I think that’s how we come to understand the material that we’re working with. You know, what kind of director he is. Yeah, so managed to find a bootleg copy online and watched a film and discovered, you know, this is really an interesting film and I watched it without subtitles at that time actually, but was still visually arresting, you know, for me and it raises so many questions. And this was intriguing for me. And true enough, I think when we decided to embark on it, we knew that, you know, it was such a worthy film for us to work with. The situation with the film reels is that it’s quite deteriorated.

So we couldn’t handle it on our own at that time; we couldn’t unwind them totally. But it was something that we knew the restoration laboratories would be able to work with this. They gave us the support and gave us the blessing for us to do the work. and we went into it without knowing what we were going to get, you know, how is it going to look and so on. In a way it was challenging, but it’s also, I guess the most fulfilling. It was, I think was successfully restored, even though, there are still issues that current digital restoration technologies will not be able to alleviate, but it was still something that was really touching, I think, to be able to witness again on the big screen. So it was actually selected for Cannes film festival that year. I mean, but it was 2020, the festival also got canceled. But it was still like part of this official selection of Cannes classics, which is pretty monumental, I think, for the Asian Film Archive and also I think for Sri Lankan cinema. I remember people were leaving comments on social media like how proud they were of the film.

And a lot of Sri Lankans actually remember the film and they were very proud of the fact that, you know, it was selected for Cannes Classics. People were really taken with the film. They’ve commented that they’ve never seen the film in, you know, in such light. You know, I think people remember the film, but they didn’t remember it being so clear or like so with such clarity with such definition. And those were some of the words I heard back from the son of Pathiraja himself.

Jimmy
Fantastic.

Tee Pao
I guess to say it really affirms that these films stood the test of time and you know, they remain relevant. You know they remain such an important part of the people’s lives.

Jimmy
One of the perks of your job is, you know, is that you get to go to international film festivals, I mean, unfortunately you didn’t go to Cannes. But you did go to the Venice Film Festival in 2017. Tell me about that. I mean, there’s an interesting story behind that, isn’t it?

Tee Pao
You know, that’s not the truth. I don’t think the perks come with the job at all. And it was actually my first time attending a major festival like Venice.

Jimmy
So tell us a little – you mentioned about this in your BiblioAsia article, but what brought you to Venice?

Tee Pao
So in 2017, we completed the restoration of the first Filipino title the AFA restored, which was Batch ’81, directed by Mike de Leon in 1982. It was a very fulfilling restoration for me as well, because we don’t always get the chance to work with living directors. The older the film you work with, the more likely, you know, there’s no one available to kind of supervise or even to be able to tell you what you’re doing is fine. But we are very fortunate that Mike de Leon, the director, is available, and he’s so willing to work with us and to work with the restoration laboratory as well. He really dedicated himself in making sure that the restoration is successful and his vision is accurately represented in a sense. And we were very, very fortunate for that. In a way, he kind of takes like half of our work in a way, because he was able to say, “Okay, this is fine.” You know, it doesn’t require us to decide that this is the way.

Jimmy
Because he’s the director.

Tee Pao
He’s the director, you know. So he’s like, "Okay, this is fine." And like, you know, "I think this can be better." So there’s this direct sort of communication between him and the restoration lab.

Jimmy
We’ve come to the end of the hard questions, as I like to call it. And it comes about the easier questions that are less about film restoration and more about you. So what was the film that got away?

Tee Pao
When we restored what They Call Her... Cleopatra Wong, we were actually searching for the sequels, the loose sequels that came out of that character, right, with these two films, which is Dynamite Johnson and then The Devil’s Angels. We were very close to locating elements of the film that we could, you know, do all three of the films together. But unfortunately, we are still unable to locate the suitable elements for those two films. I’m so eager to look for those two films. Just missing that the exact kind of elements that we need.

Jimmy
Okay. I wish you good luck in finding that. What’s a common misconception that people have about film restoration?

Tee Pao
Yeah, I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that restoration is about enhancing the image, which is not true. Restoration is really to, you know, bring the film back to as close as it’s intended to look when it was first made for its intended audience.

It’s not supposed to enhance anything, alter anything, although it’s been used to sort of make some alterations and so on. But of course, our goal is not to do that. And also the thing about restoration is that it does not equate to preservation. It’s just a means to an end for us to be able to continue preserving those items.

As we know in times like this where, you know, we see a lot of born digital films being made, but a lot of people are not aware that digital content is more at risk of being lost.

Jimmy
How come?

Tee Pao
You know, because it requires a lot more resources and maintenance to preserve digital objects. You require a different set of infrastructure to be able to house digital content. So I could, say, put a film on the shelf in the climate controlled repository, and it could last me more than a century if it’s stored properly, if it’s maintained well enough. If I needed to say restore the film, you know, I could at its worst, I could perhaps still salvage a few seconds or even few frames from the film. But with any digital object, any loss is instantaneous, so you don’t just lose a few frames from like a digital file; you lose the whole thing. It’s obviously much difficult to recover those materials. In fact it costs archives like several times, you know, for the same film to preserve the same film in an analogue versus a digital format, because it requires that amount of resources for maintenance. A lot of people tend to think that, well, just because a film is restored, it’s preserved.

But we’ve also encountered cases where the films is restored but remain inaccessible because, nobody kept the digital restored assets properly. So it ends up that even if the film is restored, it’s lost again in a way. So, it’s really quite worrisome, people need to just know that just because it’s on Netflix or anything doesn’t mean it’s preserved.

Jimmy
Okay. Last question. Complete the sentence. Films are...

Tee Pao
Films are... I think films are our collective family albums, which is why we need to keep them alive.

Jimmy
I like that. I like that a lot. Tee Pao, thank you very much for joining us on BiblioAsia+. He’s written three articles in BiblioAsia, and you can find all these articles on BiblioAsia. Tee Pao, once again, thank you very much, and I hope you find the rest of those reels for Dynamite Johnson.

Tee Pao
Thank you, Jimmy.

Jimmy
Okay, bye. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the podcast and the BiblioAsia  newsletter. Thank you for joining me on BiblioAsia+.

Resources

Chew Tee Pao, "Money No Enough, Passion Needed Too: Restoring Classic Singaporean Films," BiblioAsia 19, no. 2 (2023).

Chew Tee Pao, "Repairing and Restoring Singapore’s Reel Heritage," BiblioAsia 18, no. 4 (2023).

Chew Tee Pao, "Restoring Classic Films from Asia," BiblioAsia 19, no. 4 (2024).

This episode of BiblioAsia Podcast was hosted by Jimmy Yap. Sound engineering was done by One Dash. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Tee Pao for coming on the show.

The BiblioAsia Podcast by the National Library Singapore tells stories about Singapore history.