Singapore's Film/Cinematic Industry

So yesterday I went onto STOMP to leech information about my upcoming interview. Besides the usual "TELL ME YOUR WEAKNESSES NAO" stuff, they might also quiz me on my knowledge and views on the local arts/cinema scene. So I'm doing some research and sharing my findings:

In movie theatres, the top films almost always originate from the USA or some other western country. The few movies that break this rule (I Not Stupid 2, Home Run, The Best Bet) are invariably from Raintree Pictures. They're ALL written and directed by Jack Neo. The film that sparked off the modern drive towards filmmaking is Money No Enough. Guess who wrote and directed it? Jack Neo.

Some people may like to say we're coming up in the arts, but with the academic-favouring education system, plus our ignorantly small worldview that is so ubiquitous in our society, I'd declare that we have a long, long way to go. Jack Neo should not solo the whole cinematic scene for Singapore forever.

As said before, the shit on our televisions is still shit. Sitcoms, mild shockers(Incredible Tales, etc) and Crimewatch are fine and all, but when those things are the only popular programs on television you KNOW we need an upgrade to something more serious and myopic. We've exported actresses, a few talents, and even won the Cannes Film Festival, but those are only the tip of the mountain. We need more than just a few outstanding people/work in Singapore's portfolio, if we truly want to look cultured and artistic.

Luckily we have other pros like Royston Tan, Kelvin Tong, and Eric Khoo. But I don't see them contributing enough to television. Bring back fare like Growing Up and Kids United please. Those are programs that should be promoted on TV, not American Idol, or those endless Chinese gameshows and trope-spammed Chinese dramas. We're missing something; that element of real quality and originality that those materialistic emo Westerners seem to have in greater measure.

If we start from the bottom(television), we'll be encouraging more young talent to step out from there, before they are corrupted by those elitist 'Idol' shows or some shit-lame cartoon or sitcom that's less substantial than Spongebob Squarepants. We hook them on art at a young age, we'll pull them away from porn and MapleStory. That's why I say we need to improve our standard of television programs to something more like Arts Centre (Hellsing and Battlestar Galactica? Bring it on).

Anyway I hope I won't have to talk at length on this subject, my views and info aren't so solid. The interview is ten minutes, and I hope they spend most of that on my ambitions, because that's something I'm much more sure of.