by Catherine Lim

Canopy by Arron Wilson is  a World War Two  film  shot mainly in Sungei Buloh and Bukit Brown, with flashback scenes that takes viewers to the Australian outback farm from where  Jim, the Australian fighter pilot – one of only  2 lead characters – is from.  It has a script which consists of  a few phrases of incoherent Hokkien spoken by Seng, the Chinese resistance fighter   – incoherent perhaps because my rudimentary Hokkien could not grasp it –  a smattering of Japanese dialogue among patrolling Japanese solders for which they were no subtitles, and Jim himself as I recall spoke nothing more than his own name through out.

But it did not matter, because the cinematography draws us into the depths of the landscape of war set in lush, verdant green as if we were there, and  the sound scape of gunfire, bombs, distorted  bird and insects calls, , the menacing rustling of undergrowth   and the silence of the jungle tells the story of a bond that is formed  over just one night.

Canopy unravels the story of  of 2 lone young fighters,  from  two vastly different cultures –  where even the  sound of their names Jim and Seng are so alien to each other’s tongues – running into each other,  caught in the bewildering jungle of war and what happens reaches spirituality.

There is an eye averting sequence when Jim tends to the wounds of Seng, and is forced to gag  his  screams as the Japanese soldiers patrol pass. The mirror scene is when Jim relives his nightmare of falling into the canopy of trees  and he wakes up with Seng’s hand over his mouth.  Seng is watching Jim even as he sleeps, the same way Jim had watched over Seng.

They are drawn together by a common enemy but more than that,  faced with fear, pain and ever present danger, they find in each other more than just comfort and respite.

Something quite extraordinary is experienced between Jim and Seng which passes in the moments of  silence and solitude in the jungle.   They bond in a way that plunges into their stream of consciousness even as the camera plunges the depths of the jungle. It is  as if they had a shared past in the flashback of the farm Jim lives in and in the black the white photograph of Seng’s parents. It is intimate, it is visceral.

War destroys lives but  war is also the great leveler ,  breaks down  the divide of colour,  culture, race and religion,  and forges a connection that unites humanity and uplifts the spirit in endurance and compassion.

The story of Jim and Seng is not an unlikely story, it is a story that could have happened in the 3 years of Japanese Occupation in Singapore between 1942 and 45,  it is a story that surely must have happened with the same intensity,  in some corner of war- torn Singapore. It is a story among many others, waiting to be uncovered.

The time has come to reclaim our past.

“Lest we forget”

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Ambassador Philip Green. Aaron Wilson and Pek Lian in animated discussion with audience. (photo courtesy of Australia High Commission)

Catherine was invited  under All Things Bukit Brown to a private screening of  the film as a guest of the Australian High Commission  A short discussion followed with producer Aaron Wilson and local film maker Pek Lian  who produced Synonara Changi which covered the theme of war remembrance.

Next year, All Things Bukit Brown will  commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Singapore from Japanese Occupation.