An intricate short film peppered with explicit sex scenes, emotional
complexities and dark secrets, Hush, is a 20-minute local production
which centers on themes such as kinship and sexuality. It tells the
story in a day of the life of a typical Singaporean family made up of a
widowed father (Vincent Tee), his three daughters (Evelyn Marie Ng,
Janice Yeo, Cassevonrie Chia), and their personal struggles in life.
Director Jeremiah R. Oh decided to release Hush after a three years hiatus because of the personal attachment he felt for the project back in 2007. He also thought that Singapore "was not ready" for it yet.
True enough, Hush almost did not make the cut due to a provocative scene shown in the movie, which makes heavy references to a group sex activity undertaken by its three main leads. Apart from that, the film is also interspersed with cuts of brazen bedroom activities with a brief full-frontal nudity shot of one of its female lead, Natalie.
Passed with a rating of Restricted 21 (R21) without a single cut, Jeremiah revealed that he was initially "all prepared for a ban" due to the Hush's provocative sexual scenes that are "never-seen-before" in local films.
In his 30s, the director spent "quite a bit of time" convincing lead actress Evelyn Marie Ng to go nude for the scenes in Hush. The duo first got to know each other when he was still schooling and doing his first production, Eden, which also featured the actress.
"I worked with her and I realized 'Hey, she's quite cool, I thinks she can fit this role' and because the roles that she play are always 'Moulmein High', 'Light Years' -- very quirky, kawaii (Japanese for 'cute') kind of girl. So I thought 'Why not I play her opposite of that and see what happens?'" he chuckled.
Believing that mutual trust between director and actor is the essence behind making things work; the Singaporean filmmaker spent a total of six days filming the bed scenes featured in Hush.
While rehearsals took up to a month-and-a-half, "the nude scenes alone took up two full days [of filming]," he said. The toughest challenge to him was filming the most provocative scene, which strongly hints at the trio performing group sex.
Filmed in "one take without any cuts," he revealed that the crew ended up reshooting that particular scene for a total of 12 to 15 times.
For lead male actor, Darren E.Scott - who was taking part in a film of this genre for the first time - his only condition to the director was "no frontal nudity".
Despite that, the Canadian-Chinese actor's working professionalism from his stuntman days kicked in and "you can't just say 'No, I can't do it'. You have to go, you have to jump."
"I'm used to that kind of pressure. Yes it was uncomfortable but once you get into it, it is okay," said Darren, who has chalked up acting credentials in various Hollywood flicks and drama series such as Smallville and Dark Angel.
Trying to convey the message that "everyone has a secret", Jeremiah hopes to relate that underlying notion in his film through a "human-like" manner.
"Everyone has a secret. Everyone is keeping hush about it, but how much can you contain in a few years -- especially with your family and friends?
"This is like 'our lives', we don't talk about 'our lives much to people." There are a lot of secrets that people will choose to keep to themselves," he added.
And as if to validate his point, when asked if family and friends were supportive of his decision to film such a controversial flick, Jeremiah confessed that "I haven't let my family watch the film yet."
There happens to be a clash in views on this matter with his "very staunch Christian" parents, as they would question his objectives behind "making such a film."
"Horror and sex just don't go very well," he quipped.
Virally marketed as "Singapore's most erotic film," Jeremiah admits that it is hard to keep his work under wraps away from his family and "sweep things under the carpet."
"They have seen my picture in the papers, but that's just it.
"I'm keeping it 'Hush'," he cryptically added.
Hush will be screened at Sinema Old School from Sept 3 onwards.
