SINGAPORE – Hoping to encourage more audiences to give local cinema a shot, Singaporean content creator Annette Lee held a feedback and refund session on June 5 for anyone who felt that watching her debut film Dream Stall was a waste of time. On May 26, she had announced on Instagram that unhappy viewers could approach her directly at the event with their ticket stubs. The 33-year-old serves as director, lead scriptwriter and lead actress for the comedy-drama, which opened on May 27. It follows
a young university graduate (played by Lee) who re-opens her family’s bak kut teh business and co-stars Mark Lee, Ya Hui, Xixi Lim and Xander Pang. Of the 12 people who showed up for the session at a Level 5 seminar room at *Scape, only one moviegoer took Lee up on her offer. The 29-year-old software engineer, who declined to be named, paid $15 to see Dream Stall at GV Tampines on May 29. He got the money back in cash. Sitting before Lee, the
Singaporean’s biggest gripe was that the restaurant scenes were shot in Malaysia, even though the story is set in Singapore. This choice of filming location broke Dream Stall’s “immersive quality”, he said. “When I imagine Singapore, I expect HDB (flats) and high-rise buildings in the background. In shots filmed from inside the restaurant, there is too much parking space outside. It feels very Malaysia.” Lee explained to him that her team really wanted to shoot in Singapore, but were not able to. She said: “Either
we could not meet the rent, or (the shop owners) just did not want to rent it out. We needed two spaces side by side (to film in), and it was just impossible to find.” She added that her team used visual effects in post-production to add more buildings behind the restaurant in the film. The man also felt the humour in certain parts of Dream Stall did not come across as “natural” – specifically whenever a particular Taiwanese movie was being referenced. He shared
that some of the dialogue felt “a bit jarring”, possibly because it was delivered in a Singaporean accent. Lee clarified that Singaporeans come from very diverse backgrounds and thus speak a mix of English, Singlish and their mother tongue. She acknowledged that the outcome might have been presented in a “different” way as what the man expected, but added: “That is why I wish to see more local movies being made, so we can get used to how Singlish feels like when spoken onscreen.” The
man later told The Straits Times that the fact that Lee was willing to offer full refunds required a lot of confidence and courage, adding: “Being open to feedback is something I cherish a lot.” But he still insisted Dream Stall has flaws and he left the screening with “very mixed feelings”. “(Since she) gave me the opportunity (to get a refund), why not just grasp it?” After the session, Lee told ST it was fun to engage with the group. “They genuinely wanted to
give me feedback, and I thought that was very nice. Even the guy who asked for a refund said he felt bad about it.”
Annette Lee, Dream Stall, refund session, GV Tampines, *Scape, Singapore local cinema, Singlish, Malaysia filming location