From directors Goh Ming Siu and Scott C.Hillyard, the provocative horror-thriller fixes on 50-year-old Jim who has constructed a perfect life in the world’s most expensive city. When he is unexpectedly laid off, he desperately clings onto the symbols of his success, while wrestling with resurfacing demons from his past.
Freaky film, reminiscent, somewhat of Parasite, in that it’s as much a meaty drama as it is a genre film. Was it important to you to make something grounded like that?
Scott: We wanted to make a relatable film, so we began by asking ourselves, “What scares you the most?” And we realised that our answers weren’t necessarily the supernatural, ghosts, spirits, and so on. It was real life, where the stakes can be tremendously high. Then it became clear to us that Repossession had to be grounded in reality, even the horror needed to be. For our exorcism scene, we actually consulted someone who’d done that work before, for authenticity.
Ming Siu: When you tether these otherworldly encounters to characters who are three-dimensional and real, the stakes become that much higher, and juxtaposition of the two worlds creates a very interesting tension. And we’ve found out from audiences that the groundedness makes our film very relatable – painfully so at times.
Is it hard to maintain a balance of credibility and the fantastical when doing a horror movie though?
Ming Siu: It’s tricky, because that balance is different for everyone. Some viewers felt the horror was unnecessary, while others wanted more of it. At the end of the day, we know we can’t please everyone, and we can only use ourselves as barometers and do what feels right to us.
Scott: Like with some of my favourite horror movies, there always needs to be a balance. I think that for Repossession, it’s a very unique situation where on the one hand, we’re adamant on grounding everything, including the horror, in reality. But at the same time, we’re also trying to say that not everything that happens needs to have a reason.
Ming Siu: It was very important to us to have that ambiguity. Because life isn’t so neat and tidy. It’s innately human to desire answers, but there’s often no clear answer to be found in life. Sometimes it seems that people go overboard in demanding answers, with articles and videos explaining What Really Happened in Pan’s Labyrinth or Does the Spinning Top Fall in Inception. Perhaps it’s a symptom of consuming only a certain kind of media diet?
Scott: We prefer to lay out evidence for the audience, nudge them towards making the connections, and leave the rest of the interpretation up to them, instead of spoonfeeding them. And some people love that sort of thing, while others get angry…
Do you find it easier or harder directing with someone else? I imagine a lot of compromising goes on?
Scott: One big advantage is that if one of you is having a bad day or not in the right headspace, the other can pick up the slack. Of course what may seem like a hassle is that we have to communicate a lot beforehand to make sure that we’re on the same page, to present a united front and a clear vision to everyone. You don’t want two directors fighting on set.
Ming Siu: It’s not really a compromise, because we tell each other what we’re seeing in our head, and we mold it together so that both of our concerns are addressed. That process actually refines our vision, because the bad ideas can’t really stand up to scrutiny when discussed like that. Working solo you don’t have to explain yourself, but working together makes for a stronger result.
Was it shot pre-pandemic?
Scott: Yes. We were in the middle of our festival run when the pandemic hit. And it’s kind of funny because we were in a lot more festivals once everything went virtual.
Ming Siu: That meant we could actually “attend” most of the festivals and do online Q&As, which we wouldn’t have been able to do if they were physical events, given the high costs of international travel.
It was all shot overseas, I believe?
Scott: We both live in Singapore, and everything was made here.
How is it with an audience? do you remember the first time you screened it with an audience?
Ming Siu: Seeing our film on the big screen just feels surreal, no matter how many times it happens. We had physical screenings at Cinequest and in Warsaw before the pandemic, and a limited release in an arthouse cinema in Singapore when the situation was more under control here.
Scott: I remember the first time I saw it with an audience. There were certain points at which I sensed the audience were surprised, and trying to piece together what just happened. Sitting among them, I could feel their changing emotions as they followed the protagonist’s journey through the film, which told me that they were with him all the way. That was very gratifying to me as a filmmaker.
Ming Siu: We learned that we’d made a polarizing, divisive film from the audience reactions. We had walkouts, but we also had Q&As with intelligent, incisive questions that showed that those who had connected with the film had thought deeply about it. Which, again, was very gratifying.
How do you expect the film to translate overseas in North America?
Scott: On the surface, I believe that North American audiences will be able to digest the film even though it’s set and grounded in an Asian country. Singapore is very much a crossroads of the East and West, and English is the primary spoken and written language here. And hey, we don’t have as many subtitles as Shang-Chi does. On a deeper level, like we mentioned, audiences have found our film very relatable, with some saying that it resonates even more powerfully during the pandemic, when so many are struggling.
Ming Siu: But on the other hand, we also know that we’ve made a divisive film, even if we didn’t set out to do so. We don’t handhold, and audiences have to infer and read between the lines. Some of the context isn’t explained, and is conveyed more through mood and character behavior. In an Asian society, people react and behave differently; there’s a lot less free expression of emotions and a lot more self-repression. Our main character, being of an older generation, only knows how to operate in that particular mode.
One of the comments we’ve gotten from audiences is that he isn’t an active protagonist, but that definition of “active” is from a conventional Hollywood perspective. From an Asian perspective, he’s tremendously active, trying and trying his best, but his problem is that he can’t escape the invisible restraints in his mind.
Scott: And some people love the restrained, subtle acting, while others call it “wooden”. We’ve won awards at prominent festivals for our writing and direction, but conversely, others have slammed the exact same things. So the response really depends on the individual viewer and how open they are to different filmic experiences. Many of our strongest supporters are in the US, so we hope that there are many like-minded individuals out there who will give our film a chance.
Ming Siu: The one thing nobody seems to have a problem with is music. So props to our composer Teo Wei Yong! He’s won the Chinese cinema equivalent of an Oscar, a Golden Horse Award, for the 2018 film A Land Imagined.
Scott: Maybe some sharp-eyed viewers will catch some faces they recognize too. Amy J Cheng, our female lead, was in Crazy Rich Asians. And Lim Kay Siu who appears in a few scenes in our film is playing Gyatso in the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender series from Netflix.