Eric Khoo
Encyclopedia
Eric Khoo is a film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 from Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. He was introduced to the world of cinema at a very early age. He was educated at United World College of South East Asia
United World College of South East Asia
The United World College of South East Asia is an independent, international school in Singapore. The school's main campus is in Dover Road. A second campus was opened in 2008 in Ang Mo Kio...

 before attending City Art Institute in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 where he pursued cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...

. Khoo began his career with short films where he directed films like When the Magic Dies (1985), Barbie Digs Joe (1990), August (1991), Carcass (1992), Symphony 92.4 (1993), Pain (1994), and Home VDO (2000). A large number of his prize-winning shows have been screened at various film festivals around the world. He has also produced and/or directed made-for-television films, music videos and television advertisements. In February 1999, Khoo was named in Asiaweek
Asiaweek
Asiaweek, the English edition, was a news magazine focusing on Asia, published weekly by Asiaweek Limited, a subsidiary of Time Inc. Based in Hong Kong, it was established in 1975, and ceased publication with its December 7, 2001 issue due to a "downturn in the advertising market," according to...

 magazine as one of 25 exceptional Asians for his influence on film and television. In June of the same year, he received the Singapore Youth Award in recognition of his contribution to the country's film industry.

Khoo's films

Extract from Dr Kenneth Paul Tan, "About Eric Khoo" in Inaugural Forum on Asian Cinema, available on Asian Film Archive website:

"his best friend was alexander the great a set of hard-hitting themes, including a sense of alienation in contemporary Singapore, nostalgia for a humane past, and the centrality and complexity of human sexuality. Influenced by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...

's Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...

, Khoo often features a complex anti-hero as the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

 of his films: the lonely old man who commits suicide on his birthday in Symphony 92.4, the pork-seller in Carcass who takes comfort in television dramas and regular sex with a prostitute, the outcast necrophilic hawker in Mee Pok Man
Mee Pok Man
Mee Pok Man is a 1995 film by Eric Khoo. The film is Eric Khoo's debut feature, after making award-winning short films for years.The film is a black comedy starring Joe Ng as the male protagonist Johnny, a Chinese seller of noodles , and Michelle Goh as the prostitute Bunny...

, the model citizen who breaks down in 12 Storeys
12 Storeys
12 Storeys is a 1997 Singaporean comedy film directed by Eric Khoo. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.-Synopsis:...

 - all dysfunctional individuals struggling to cope in a rigid and yet fast-paced society administered by harsh norms. Khoo usually captures grittier, less sanitized images of Singapore's underbelly that contrast starkly with the projected images of tourism-hungry Singapore. Yet, Khoo possesses the remarkable ability to invest tremendous aesthetic beauty into the dilapidated back alleys, crumbling old buildings, and seedy prostitute dens, without trivializing them.

In many ways, Khoo is a public intellectual who, through his films, raises a critical awareness among his audience of their own conditions of existence, or at least of other people's conditions of existence."

Mee Pok Man, 12 Storeys, Be with Me and My Magic

Khoo is famous for his four critically acclaimed feature films that have been screened at film festivals all over the world: Mee Pok Man
Mee Pok Man
Mee Pok Man is a 1995 film by Eric Khoo. The film is Eric Khoo's debut feature, after making award-winning short films for years.The film is a black comedy starring Joe Ng as the male protagonist Johnny, a Chinese seller of noodles , and Michelle Goh as the prostitute Bunny...

 (1995), 12 Storeys
12 Storeys
12 Storeys is a 1997 Singaporean comedy film directed by Eric Khoo. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.-Synopsis:...

 (1997), Be with Me
Be with Me
Be with Me is a 2005 Singaporean drama film directed by Eric Khoo. The film is inspired by the life of deaf-and-blind teacher Theresa Poh Lin Chan. It premiered as the Director's Fortnight selection in the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. It was also the official entry from Singapore for the 78th Academy...

 (2005) and My Magic
My Magic
My Magic is a 2008 Singaporean Tamil language drama film directed by Eric Khoo and produced by Zhao Wei Films in association with Infinite Frameworks. My Magic was the 1st Singapore film to be nominated for the Palme D'Or, the top award for film at the Cannes Film Festival. Its has been also...

 (2008). Mee Pok Man won prizes in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Fukuoka
Fukuoka, Fukuoka
is the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture and is situated on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu in Japan.Voted number 14 in a 2010 poll of the World's Most Livable Cities, Fukuoka is praised for its green spaces in a metropolitan setting. It is the most populous city in Kyushu, followed by...

 and Pusan. 12 Storeys won him the Federation of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award, the UOB Young Cinema Award at the 10th Singapore International Film Festival, and the Golden Maile Award for Best Picture at the 17th Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 International Films Festival. 12 Storeys was also the first Singapore film to be invited to take part in the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

. Be With Me
Be with Me
Be with Me is a 2005 Singaporean drama film directed by Eric Khoo. The film is inspired by the life of deaf-and-blind teacher Theresa Poh Lin Chan. It premiered as the Director's Fortnight selection in the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. It was also the official entry from Singapore for the 78th Academy...

 (2005), opened the Director's Fortnight at Cannes. My Magic
My Magic
My Magic is a 2008 Singaporean Tamil language drama film directed by Eric Khoo and produced by Zhao Wei Films in association with Infinite Frameworks. My Magic was the 1st Singapore film to be nominated for the Palme D'Or, the top award for film at the Cannes Film Festival. Its has been also...

 (2008) was nominated for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...

 at Cannes Film Festival and was voted as one of the top five films of that year by Le Monde.

Director Filmography

  • Barbie Digs Joe (1990)
  • Hope and Requiem (1991)
  • August (1991/I)
  • Symphony 92.4 FM (1993)
  • The Watchman
    The Watchman
    The Watchman was a short-lived periodical established and edited by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1796.The first number was promised for 5 February 1796 but actually appeared on 1 March. It ceased publication with its tenth number...

     (1993)
  • Pain (film) (1994)
  • Mee Pok Man
    Mee Pok Man
    Mee Pok Man is a 1995 film by Eric Khoo. The film is Eric Khoo's debut feature, after making award-winning short films for years.The film is a black comedy starring Joe Ng as the male protagonist Johnny, a Chinese seller of noodles , and Michelle Goh as the prostitute Bunny...

     (1995)
  • 12 Storeys
    12 Storeys
    12 Storeys is a 1997 Singaporean comedy film directed by Eric Khoo. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.-Synopsis:...

     (1997)
  • Moments of Magic
    Moments of Magic
    Moments of Magic is Singapore's official millennium song.Performed by a pop trio comprising Singapore's Fann Wong, Tanya Chua and Elsa Lin, the catchy song was released on an AVCD format in Singapore....

     VDO (2000)
  • Home VDO (2000)
  • Be with Me
    Be with Me
    Be with Me is a 2005 Singaporean drama film directed by Eric Khoo. The film is inspired by the life of deaf-and-blind teacher Theresa Poh Lin Chan. It premiered as the Director's Fortnight selection in the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. It was also the official entry from Singapore for the 78th Academy...

     (2005)
  • No Day Off (2006
  • My Magic
    My Magic
    My Magic is a 2008 Singaporean Tamil language drama film directed by Eric Khoo and produced by Zhao Wei Films in association with Infinite Frameworks. My Magic was the 1st Singapore film to be nominated for the Palme D'Or, the top award for film at the Cannes Film Festival. Its has been also...

     (2008)
  • Tatsumi
    Tatsumi (film)
    Tatsumi is a 2011 Singaporean animated drama film directed by Eric Khoo. It is based on the manga memoir A Drifting Life and five earlier short stories by the Japanese manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi...

     (2011)

Writer Filmography

  • August (1991)
  • Hope and Requiem (1991)
  • Pain (film) (1994)
  • 12 Storeys
    12 Storeys
    12 Storeys is a 1997 Singaporean comedy film directed by Eric Khoo. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.-Synopsis:...

     (1997)
  • One Leg Kicking
    One Leg Kicking
    One Leg Kicking is a 2001 Singaporean comedy-film movie that is about several soccer amateurs that compete in a soccer event for the 2002 World Cup Finals. The main actors of this movie are Gurmit Singh as Tai Po and Mark Lee as Handsome.-Plot:...

     (2001)
  • Be with Me
    Be with Me
    Be with Me is a 2005 Singaporean drama film directed by Eric Khoo. The film is inspired by the life of deaf-and-blind teacher Theresa Poh Lin Chan. It premiered as the Director's Fortnight selection in the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. It was also the official entry from Singapore for the 78th Academy...

     (2005) (Screenplay
    Screenplay
    A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

    )
  • My Magic
    My Magic
    My Magic is a 2008 Singaporean Tamil language drama film directed by Eric Khoo and produced by Zhao Wei Films in association with Infinite Frameworks. My Magic was the 1st Singapore film to be nominated for the Palme D'Or, the top award for film at the Cannes Film Festival. Its has been also...

     (2008)

Producer Filmography

  • Sandcastle
    SandCastle
    Sandcastle is a documentation generator from Microsoft that automatically produces MSDN style reference documentation out of reflection information of .NET assemblies and XML documentation comments found in the source code of these assemblies...

     (2010) (Producer)
  • Darah (2009) (Producer)
  • Invisible Children
    Invisible Children
    Invisible Children: Rough Cut is a 2003 American documentary film. Its subject is the abduction and forced enlistment of children by the sectarian Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda.-Synopsis:...

     (2008) (Producer)
  • 881 (2007) (Producer)
  • 0430 (2006) (Producer)
  • Zombie Dogs (2005) (Producer)
  • 15: The Movie
    15 (film)
    15: The Movie, also known simply as 15, is a 2003 Singaporean film about teenage gangsters in the Singapore suburbs. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Royston Tan, the film is an expanded version of Tan's 2002 award-winning short film, also titled 15...

     (2003) (Producer)
  • One Leg Kicking
    One Leg Kicking
    One Leg Kicking is a 2001 Singaporean comedy-film movie that is about several soccer amateurs that compete in a soccer event for the 2002 World Cup Finals. The main actors of this movie are Gurmit Singh as Tai Po and Mark Lee as Handsome.-Plot:...

     (2001) (Executive producer)
  • Stories About Love (2000) (Executive Producer)
  • Liang Po Po: The Movie
    Liang Po Po: The Movie
    The movie Liang Po Po was directed by Jack Neo in 1999. It starred the comedian director Jack Neo himself, who cross-dresses as the titular old lady, which in English is translated as "Granny Neo".-Cast:...

     (1999) (Executive producer) (Singapore
    Singapore
    Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

    : English title)
  • Pain (film) (1994) (Producer)

External links

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