Dirty Bitch



Dirty Bitch is a 2009 short film by Sun Koh. Its duration is 13 min 42 sec and is in Mandarin, French and English, with English subtitles.

What kind of film would “Nénette et Boni” be if it was made by a funny woman from Singapore? A love letter to the Singapore censors, "Dirty Bitch" was inspired by a violently censored VHS copy of Claire Denis’ "Nénette et Boni" found at the Singapore's National Library by the filmmaker.

It was also inspired by this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "People that seem so glorious are all show; underneath they are like everyone else."

The short film features rap music with lyrics written and vocals performed by French Pop Idol winner Anne-Laure Sibon. The track and all music are original compositions produced by Felix Huang of EQ-Ward.

It was commissioned by the 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) for "Meet The Maestro" 2009 which focused on the oeuvre of Claire Denis.



=Storyline=

Chen Ming Zhen is Jen who is on the verge of entry into university law school. But there's one problem - she's very pregnant, a major secret to hide. Determined to be a success in life, Jen goes on a violent spree to silence anyone who threatens to reveal her dirty secrets, only to realize that everyone else in power is a dirty bitch. The short comedy was inspired by a heavily and badly censored VHS of Claire Denis' Nenette et Boni found by Sun Koh at Singapore's National Library.

=Dirty Bitch trailer=

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElACn66ZMTQ



=Credits=


 * Writer & Director: Sun Koh
 * Producer: Fran Borgia of Akanga Film Asia, in association with Shooting Gallery Asia
 * Director of Photography & Cinematography: Roszali Samad
 * Production Design & Art Direction: He Shu Ming
 * Editor: Sun Koh
 * Music: Felix Huang, Anne-Laure Sibon
 * Cast: Serene Chen, Kevin Tan Song Liang, Loretta Chen
 * Presented by: Lucky 7 Film Company
 * Sound design: Mathew Koh of Yellowbox Studios

=Graphics=

 

=Awards=


 * Best Fiction and Best Director – Singapore Short Film Awards 2010

=Selected film festivals=


 * 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009 (The Netherlands)
 * 22nd Singapore International Film Festival 2009
 * 10th Jeonju International Film Festival 2009 (Korea)
 * 28th Vancouver International Film Festival (Canada)
 * 50th Krakow Film Festival (Poland)
 * 40th Tampere International Short Film Festival (Finland)

=Reviews=

"A funny, swift, and surprising work that succeeds, unusually, at being both sleekly elegant and completely outrageous. At 14 minutes, the film has more ideas than most features. Beautifully shot by Roszali Samad, and featuring some fine performances. A real tour de force by director Sun Koh." - Chris Fujiwara, Film Critic.

"Unpredictable, cruel and utterly entertaining! An amazing, mind boggling tour de force... and indeed, the bitchiest film of 2009!" - Paolo Bertolin, Venice Film Festival Programmer.

The tribute film as a genre consists exclusively out of boring high brow showing off films that in fact humiliate their holy references. But there is an exception to this rule. - Gertjan Zuilhof, International Film Festival Programmer.

“As far as sexual fantasies go, you can call this Uniquely Singapore! Intense and perverse, “Dirty Bitch” is where the country’s repression leaks out from.” - Philip Cheah, Film Festival Curator.

“Haha… Bloody fun!” - Eric Khoo, Filmmaker.

=See also=


 * Singapore gay films
 * Short Circuit: Singapore's first LGBT film festival

=References=


 * Dirty Bitch on Vimeo:.
 * International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2009:.

=Acknowledgements=

This article was written by Roy Tan.