MovieChat Forums > 15: The Movie (2003) Discussion > Suicide

Suicide

posted 18 years ago by guykamen
2 replies | jump to latest

Hi... Ah, just want to throw this question out to any Singaporeans out there. I'm just a generic Chinese, you know. ABC, even, only I'm not born in America, and not FOB enough to wear Asian Pridez t-shirt. Yeah riddle me that. Anyway that means I don't speaka-the-Singaporean. So educate me.

Just a bit of clarification. I didn't actually sit through the whole thing, only bits and pieces as this thing runs (silently I might add) in the background. It's a, ah, painful thing to sit through, know what I mean? (Yeah you do. 2 of you in here. Maybe. And you don't even know if I meant that in a complimentary way, so don't hate.)

Anyway, what I'm really curious to find out is, how many Singaporean gangster kids in your life--predisposed to violence or not--that you heard or know of, who'd actually give any serious thoughts to suicide. I mean, is it from the drugs, or is it brain chemistry, like they're bi-polar or something. Also, how many of these real life hooligans would hold up giant placards that read "kill me somebody, please!" anywhere outdoors. Is that a daily occurance?

So that's my question. Answers, anybody? Yeah you swedes, too. I know you love the Singaporean sub-culture and can almost relate to everything in the movie.

[–] h8nsomet88n 18 years ago

Belonging to the particular peer group that 15 portrays, I am nonetheless very close to this subculture (but not in it, thankfully). I hope I can shed light on the issue.

I don't know of anyone who are like the teenagers in the movie - who comtemplate suicide. These gangster kids are mainly in it mostly for the fun and the 'brotherhood', unlike the (more serious) Tokyo yakuzas. I have an acquaintance who joined a Singaporean street gang before, and he tells me that these kids are merely ill-focused (he was reflecting on his stint in the gang) and to them its more of a 'respect' thing. The kids get bribed into staying in the gang - they receive packets of cigarettes (and in Singapore you know the cigarettes are expensive) and even money to a substantial amount every day so that they stay 'loyal' to the 'brotherhood', and in return, they must 'uphold the honour of the brotherhood' by fighting for them and so on and so forth. But this view is from a mild acquaintance of mine, who was in it for the fun. I believe that there ARE teenage gangsters who really give a thought to suicide, and its because of all the other factors (cliched-ly: family problems; education failures etc. etc.) which, in Singapore at least, are immensely suffocating.

The suicide rates in Singapore, ironically, stem from the educated ones. You see an example in 15, where early in the movie the two gangster friends walk along a void deck and a junior college student leaps to her death just behind them. Now THAT is an accurate interpretation (but ITS NOT representative) of the pool of people most susceptible to suicidal tendencies. In our newspapers at least, it seems that the suicide rates reflected belong to those who are full-time students, whom encounter a different kind of (and more common) stress than to the teenagers in 15.

The placards in the movie are an existentialism of the frustration that the gangsters felt. Of course we won't have people actually doing it along the streets of Singapore - thats just plain mad - but that does not mean these sentiments do not exist. My belief is that the director purposely wanted to portray these gangsters in a comic light, making their eventual purpose (finding a building for their friend to jump off on) an eclectic mix of wit and black humour, but when you see the bus scene later you are reminded of the tragic state the boy is in.

I hope this answers your query.

-vincent-

[–] guykamen 18 years ago

Vincent, do you realize what you've just written could've made a far more compelling "15" than the actual product itself? Cinema should lend voice to those who don't have one, I agree. But I'm afraid this movie is just a Wong Kar Wai acid trip seen through the kaleidoscope of Asian MTV. That being said, I would take Kids over this any day.