GROWING UP
Television Corporation of Singapore
WenQing
Date : 15 June 1997
Time : 8.30 pm
Information : First episode of second season
Rating : ***
Cliched as it may sound, those good old days are back again... and they're even better than before. A few changes have come with this second season of GROWING UP, and all of them demonstrate great promise for the rest of the season, with more natural acting, better script-writing and all around a more enriching sense of the historical backdrop of a young Singaporean nation.
Both Andrew Seow and Irin Gan have both grown more comfortable with their roles. Andrew Seow is exploring a new maturity in his formerly rebellious and wayward Gary Tay. He is now responsible and has developed nuances of character that make his portrayal more convincing and likeable than before. Also, he has a stable job as a carpenter of sorts. His confrontation with
difficult customer Madam Chan (played by Koh Chieng Mun) builds to an intensity that was only an undercurrent in the first season. Gary becomes a believable and realistic character with motivations that we will find tangible. The same can be said for Irin Gan's Vicky Tay. She demonstrates a sense of herself, ambition and a will of her own, all conspicuously absent in the first season. In this first episode alone, we see her make a daring choice against her father's wishes- to try to rise in the ranks of a fashion store rather than accept the place she has in the Teacher's Training College. These are nice touches that the combination of better script-writing and acting have created.
The better script-writing has also attempted quite credibly to paint a picture of Singapore in 1968. Though some impressions of nostalgia are smuggled in : like a conversation between the cooks in Charlie Tay's (Lim Kay Tong) hotel kitchen about how there are less and less "ang mohs" and that the British troops are pulling out. This definitely draws attention to the historical context behind GROWING UP, an aspect that wasn't as prominent in the previous season, making these attempts to draw on Singaporean history special.
Even the inclusion of David Tay's National Service call-up and the associated fears and uncertainties about two years given to the government evoke a sense of how new NS was, and even run the precursors to our generation's quibbles with NS -- like Mrs Tay's comment : "two years so long, sure forget everything (about studying)" or her attempts to get David out of NS (loving, affectionate mothering) versus Charlie Tay's calm acceptance of what has (by now) become a fact of life. This way, a snapshot of Singaporean life has been captured quite vividly, showing how much things change, and yet how much stays the same.
Also, more has been done to dig out resources of archival footage. Despite the repetitive closing title of the 1968 National Day Parade in the Padang; a few seconds of footage replayed again and again, it at least evokes a sense of the period. While a small token of the past, I hope it is a promise of greater authenticity to come, where the Tays' lives are entwined with Singapore's more prominent historical events. I believe this is what will provide a much needed depth to our home-grown entertainment; something relevant to us in its perspective and bold in its portrayal.
Which brings us to the older Tammy (played by Quek Su-Shan, replacing the younger Fann Wen Qing) who has taken over the voice-over narration that used to be David Tay's (played by Steven Lim) job. Quek portrays the older Tammy quite convincingly, handling the youth of her character very well, without lapsing into colourless existence like the Tammy of the first season. Instead she shows tangible motivations, like her little quibble with her mother about which swimming costume to buy ("yeeee", "that one so colourful, like a piece of modern art"), some playful banter with Vicky, and some spunk at the swimming pool as she tears off the lace piece on her swimming costume that her mother has sewn on for modesty (it just didn't look right to a fashion-conscious young girl).
Most of all, however, the show itself takes on a new perspective through her eyes, those of someone truly "growing up" amidst the backdrop of newly independent Singapore (circa 1968). At the close of the first episode, Tammy's voice-over observes : " we were a young nation, and we couldn't wait for things to happen" and concludes with "sometimes, it's not a government that keeps you going, but support from the people around you". Both statements link Singaporean history with the "growing up" of the Tay family, but on a more profound note, postulates how both history and your family define you. It is a poignant look at a generation's youth, a generation still with us, which has so much to offer us about our past, present, and future.
I really liked this first episode. Except for some instances where dubbing could have been cleaned up (several characters' mouthings and gesticulations entirely mismatched with their voices- the anxious mother watching her son go to NS at the start of the show, the NS boy behind Steven Lim at the medical check-up and Wee Soon Hui asking Lim Kay Tong to get David out of NS), everything else looked promising and extremely watchable. It comes as a pleasant surprise that TCS can produce drama of this quality for the English channel, I hope the rest of the season delivers these promises.
The Flying Inkpot's Rating System
* Duke Pukem.
** Should share equal time with tenth reruns of Rambo and Friday the 13th sequels. *And* hindi musicals.
*** No Melrose Place (what is?), but worth an hour of couch time.
**** Whoa, not bad.
***** Perfection. Tape it and see it twice.
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