24

Film description

The story of a sound specialist appearing on the screen in 24 scenes. We see him at work, recording sounds, listening to the human voices, capturing the noises of everyday lives – conflicts, intimate encounters, fierce talks about politics, the natural soundscape. The locations are also carefully selected. He is interested in both the city and the jungle. He goes to the movies, walks around a graveyard, records musicians performing. An unobtrusive listener, an unwavering ghost behind an imaginary glass wall – present, and yet unable to interact with the surrounding world, voiceless. He rarely reacts to the overheard scenes, sometimes smiling at a joke or the absurdity of a situation. The voice of each person he listens to becomes yet another piece in a larger puzzle.

Royston Tan returns after a few year’s break with another numerical project. This time, he encloses his observations in a meditative mosaic, portraying the most invisible of film professions – a solitary sound specialist, left alone in a patient state of listening. He is played by the director’s long-time collaborator, James Choong, the author of sound design for most of Tan’s films. Through his perspective, the Singaporean artist talks about Singapore, seen and described by its inhabitants when they think no one is listening. In Tan’s lens, the world may be static, but it doesn’t mean that the reality is still and homogeneous – this is the Singapore seen and heard in 24 frames per second, filled with ghosts, street humor, and micro-contexts just waiting to be discovered.

text:
Łukasz Mańkowski