The Old Man And His Car, the debut feature from Singaporean filmmaker Michael Kam, swiftly covers some of the well-traversed griefs of one’s senior years in Singapore: Losing elderly friends to illness, the sorrow and solitude of widowhood, the quiet of an empty nest as children and grandchildren move away.
The film then proposes another less-explored passage of life: Witnessing the decline in one’s driving faculties and deciding to give up one’s car.
Marking its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival on Sunday (Nov 2), The Old Man And His Car follows Hock, a widower who decides to sell his beloved car and prepares to emigrate to Canada to live with his son.
Veteran actor Lim Kay Tong at the Tokyo International Film Festival. (Photo: Tokyo International Film Festival)
The character of Hock is played by veteran actor Lim Kay Tong, who tells CNA Lifestyle that it was an easy decision to join the cast after reading the script.
“There are very few projects at this stage in my life and career that really get me going,” he said.
“I'm more selective now, but it was a definite yes here. Sometimes you just have that feeling when you read the script and say, ‘I'll do it’.”
The co-founder of TheatreWorks, he shared that he finds acting in theatre too “instantaneous” now, but film and television are “just the right medium” for him.
Sharing his reflections on acting in theatre: “It's scary, because you're live every night, and you’re winging it, in a way, to try and keep it fresh. It's too instantaneous for me at this age.
“You live by your mistakes, and your highs and lows in live theatre, which I'm not so into now. It's exciting when you're young – the energy that it requires, and the energy that you feed off.”
He added: “With film and TV, you can retake and get it better. It's a little more stretched out. You have time to work on the emotions and thoughts.”
For Kam, it was critical to assemble a cast that had the “same sensibility” and passion to be part of what he calls a “microbudget film”.
Michael Kam (left) and Lim Kay Tong at the Tokyo International Film Festival. (Photo: Tokyo International Film Festival)
The film was shot in 2023, before having a longer post-production phase. Kam’s work also stars Kristin Tiara, Richard Low and Vincent Tee.
Feature films in Singapore usually have a budget of US$500,000 (S$651,000) to US$1 million at least, but Kam said that he made his debut feature with around US$50,000, with most of the sum coming out of his own pocket.
Inspired by micro-budget filmmaking programmes which have sprung up around South Korea, Kam said that he wanted his feature film to be a proof of concept that a similar programme can blossom in Singapore and galvanise a greater diversity of films.
Tiara said: “You have limited funds, but your creativity is on steroids.
“Some people might say that it is tough to make a film on a shoestring budget, but others might argue it’s exactly the challenge that sparks innovation with locations, casting and special effects.”
Low echoed a similar sentiment: “Cinema in Singapore is a small market, so if the investment required is too much, it’s hard to break even.”
Lim Kay Tong (left) and Kristin Tiara (right) in The Old Man And His Car: (Photo: Waking Life Pictures)
After making short films Masala Mama, Detour, Melodi and One Day In Lim Chu Kang over the last decade, Kam’s debut feature was inspired by his father’s experiences.
“The main catalyst was my dad stopping to drive too because of old age,” Kam said. “The car that he drove was also similar to the car that we featured in the film.”
The film’s dialogue spans English, Mandarin, Malay and Hokkien and Kam shared that he dug deeper into the subtleties of each language transition in the film, to represent the values and perspectives that have shaped each character.
“One of the ideas was also to have a wife who aspires towards Chinese, whereas the husband is somebody who is more English,” Kam said.
“That's quite like me. My wife is more interested in speaking in Chinese, while I come from a background where my parents had a very strong English influence.”
Lim Kay Tong in The Old Man And His Car. (Photo: Waking Life Pictures)
And then, there is also the language of silence in the film, with the camera lingering patiently on Hock.
“I like scenes without words,” Lim said. “It's just your body language and interior that's working.
“There are things going on inside you that are sometimes more important than what you're talking about. For Hock, he just tries to absorb or reject, and you're not sure how he's thinking or feeling about it. I like that ambiguity.”
Musing on his long career in the craft, which traversed Los Angeles, London, China and Australia from the mid-80s to the mid-90s before he returned to Singapore, Lim said that while Los Angeles was “a bit soul-destroying” from all the rejections, he has kept close to his heart the lessons he learned from working there.
“It was a very good experience, knowing what the benchmark and standard are internationally, and wherever you're working, you try to maintain those standards,” he said. “You know what is required to beat all the others to a role.”
He also relished the chance to get more three-dimensional roles in Singapore, after working as an ethnic minority in the US and UK.
Recalling his time working on NBC series Noble House in the US, Lim said: “It was only in Noble House that there was a huge Chinese community of actors, though I never saw them all till probably the last day of my shoot, when we had a get-together.
“(Actress) Nancy Kwan was the instigator, who said ‘let’s get together. I'll cook you guys something,’ and that's how I met everyone else. Otherwise, I was just holed up in my room in North Carolina.”
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The film then proposes another less-explored passage of life: Witnessing the decline in one’s driving faculties and deciding to give up one’s car.
Marking its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival on Sunday (Nov 2), The Old Man And His Car follows Hock, a widower who decides to sell his beloved car and prepares to emigrate to Canada to live with his son.
Veteran actor Lim Kay Tong at the Tokyo International Film Festival. (Photo: Tokyo International Film Festival)
The character of Hock is played by veteran actor Lim Kay Tong, who tells CNA Lifestyle that it was an easy decision to join the cast after reading the script.
“There are very few projects at this stage in my life and career that really get me going,” he said.
“I'm more selective now, but it was a definite yes here. Sometimes you just have that feeling when you read the script and say, ‘I'll do it’.”
The co-founder of TheatreWorks, he shared that he finds acting in theatre too “instantaneous” now, but film and television are “just the right medium” for him.
Sharing his reflections on acting in theatre: “It's scary, because you're live every night, and you’re winging it, in a way, to try and keep it fresh. It's too instantaneous for me at this age.
“You live by your mistakes, and your highs and lows in live theatre, which I'm not so into now. It's exciting when you're young – the energy that it requires, and the energy that you feed off.”
He added: “With film and TV, you can retake and get it better. It's a little more stretched out. You have time to work on the emotions and thoughts.”
For Kam, it was critical to assemble a cast that had the “same sensibility” and passion to be part of what he calls a “microbudget film”.
Michael Kam (left) and Lim Kay Tong at the Tokyo International Film Festival. (Photo: Tokyo International Film Festival)
The film was shot in 2023, before having a longer post-production phase. Kam’s work also stars Kristin Tiara, Richard Low and Vincent Tee.
Feature films in Singapore usually have a budget of US$500,000 (S$651,000) to US$1 million at least, but Kam said that he made his debut feature with around US$50,000, with most of the sum coming out of his own pocket.
Inspired by micro-budget filmmaking programmes which have sprung up around South Korea, Kam said that he wanted his feature film to be a proof of concept that a similar programme can blossom in Singapore and galvanise a greater diversity of films.
Tiara said: “You have limited funds, but your creativity is on steroids.
“Some people might say that it is tough to make a film on a shoestring budget, but others might argue it’s exactly the challenge that sparks innovation with locations, casting and special effects.”
Low echoed a similar sentiment: “Cinema in Singapore is a small market, so if the investment required is too much, it’s hard to break even.”
Lim Kay Tong (left) and Kristin Tiara (right) in The Old Man And His Car: (Photo: Waking Life Pictures)
After making short films Masala Mama, Detour, Melodi and One Day In Lim Chu Kang over the last decade, Kam’s debut feature was inspired by his father’s experiences.
“The main catalyst was my dad stopping to drive too because of old age,” Kam said. “The car that he drove was also similar to the car that we featured in the film.”
The film’s dialogue spans English, Mandarin, Malay and Hokkien and Kam shared that he dug deeper into the subtleties of each language transition in the film, to represent the values and perspectives that have shaped each character.
“One of the ideas was also to have a wife who aspires towards Chinese, whereas the husband is somebody who is more English,” Kam said.
“That's quite like me. My wife is more interested in speaking in Chinese, while I come from a background where my parents had a very strong English influence.”
Lim Kay Tong in The Old Man And His Car. (Photo: Waking Life Pictures)
And then, there is also the language of silence in the film, with the camera lingering patiently on Hock.
“I like scenes without words,” Lim said. “It's just your body language and interior that's working.
“There are things going on inside you that are sometimes more important than what you're talking about. For Hock, he just tries to absorb or reject, and you're not sure how he's thinking or feeling about it. I like that ambiguity.”
Musing on his long career in the craft, which traversed Los Angeles, London, China and Australia from the mid-80s to the mid-90s before he returned to Singapore, Lim said that while Los Angeles was “a bit soul-destroying” from all the rejections, he has kept close to his heart the lessons he learned from working there.
“It was a very good experience, knowing what the benchmark and standard are internationally, and wherever you're working, you try to maintain those standards,” he said. “You know what is required to beat all the others to a role.”
He also relished the chance to get more three-dimensional roles in Singapore, after working as an ethnic minority in the US and UK.
Recalling his time working on NBC series Noble House in the US, Lim said: “It was only in Noble House that there was a huge Chinese community of actors, though I never saw them all till probably the last day of my shoot, when we had a get-together.
“(Actress) Nancy Kwan was the instigator, who said ‘let’s get together. I'll cook you guys something,’ and that's how I met everyone else. Otherwise, I was just holed up in my room in North Carolina.”
Continue reading...