LANDMARK SG50 FILM '1965' UNVEILS QI YUWU AND DEANNA YUSOFF AS LEADS

It's been a film five years in development, so says executive producer and co-director Daniel Yun. 1965, a film which was long rumoured to be a biopic about Singapore's founding father Mr Lee Kuan Yew, has been unveiled as a dramatic thriller of how fragile racial harmony can be. 

"A year ago, we finally found a strong enough premise, and an engaging story and theme. And then the Little India riot happened. And we felt that, wow, it's really is not just then but now. And it's not something that involves only Singaporeans, but actually everyone around the world," says Yun. A passion project of the former MediaCorp Raintree Pictures head honcho, the movie has a production nudget of S$2.8 million, which is not a small sum by local standards. 

At the press conference to announce the movie today, its lead stars were also unveiled. Locally-based actor Qi Yuwu will play a police officer, Inspector Cheng, while Malaysian actress Deanna Yusoff will play Khatijah, a mother and owner of a small business who encounters a shocking turn of events that knocks her off balance.

Said Yusoff: "It was a very important time, not just for Singapore, but also for Malaysia. I think what is important is that whatever happened then, is what has made us today. What we have here today, is what happened in the past. Those are very important times to find out more about and relive."

Penning the script is veteran TV screenwriter Andrew Ngin, who said that the script was revised more than 60 times. "The challenge was to make the story not come across as a history lesson, while trying to balance various elements.. There's action, there's drama, there's a little bit of comedy, humour, and then to integrate it all into one coherent Singapore story, I think that was a huge challenge," he said. "But luckily because I came from television, I'm used to writing all the drafts."

Most of the filming will be done on in Batam — at various locations around the island and at Infinite Studios’ soundstages there. The production will commence in November, and it will be released next year in time for the SG50 celebrations, which commemorates 50 years of the independence of Singapore.

As to whether he had been advised by the Authorities, Yun said he felt no restrictions making this film. “I’m not saying this for political correctness, but there was no self-censorship,” he said. “I wouldn’t allow it, for myself and for the rest of the team.”

But Yun stresses that Mr Lee will still be a character in the film. “It starts and ends with him,” says Yun, who will only reveal the actor playing Singapore’s first Prime Minister at a later date. “We will be revealing the rest of the 1965 cast progressively,” he added.