This was the feature film, an expansion of an infamous local short by a similar name by Royston Tan. '15', or better known as that 'ah beng movie' among some circles here, is choke-full of fast cuts and oversaturated colors. It takes balls to produce something like this, especially when the government labels your film a 'threat to national security'. It was originally banned in Singapore, to my understanding, and was screened only once in its entirety during one of the Singapore International Film Festivals.
I didn't watch the short before this and I was really anxious to see this movie, but after watching it, I think the feature was a little lacking. There just wasn't enough of a storyline to keep it going. Being a film on troubled teens, it really delves into issues of abandonment, suicide, drugs, camaraderie or 'Brotherhood' as they call it, but since the actors were just street kids, sometimes you're not really sure what they were actually feeling or thinking since they didn't show it well enough. The soundtrack could have been better in some places too. It was visually entertaining though. There was a bit of violence with a few comedic touches and bits of gang-related chants being sung, but mostly it seems like just another movie editing exercise with some clever subtext. Royston Tan is obviously talented here, and I wouldn't mind him making more films, but that's probably hard when the government and local censorship boards don't like you.
6.5/10 stars
IMDB
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