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CHAPTER CITATION

Chee, Lilian. “Chasing Inuka: Rambling around Singapore through Tan Pin Pin’s Films.” In Asian Cinema and the Use of Space: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Lilian Chee and Edna Lim, 59–76. Routledge, 2015. 

 

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2016:

Chasing Inuka:

Rambling around Singapore through Tan Pin Pin's Films

LimEdnaCheeLili_2015_5ChasingInukaRambling_AsianCinemaAndTheUseO.jpg

In one of Singapore filmmaker Tan Pin Pin’s documentaries Snow City (2011), the camera patiently follows the first polar bear born in the tropics—Inuka—as he swims languorously in his icy tank. The scene, which cuts to an unrelated cityscape, seems arbitrary or flippant at first, especially for Tan, who is regarded as a serious documentarian. Yet, there is purpose to this perceived frivolity. Chasing Inuka similarly traipses through Singapore, using Tan’s postmodern and posthuman spatial perspectives, as its guide. Moving through six films, the chapter makes an argument for the significance of Tan’s accentuated montage process in highlighting the latent network of spaces across the city. It discusses the affective and “out-of-field” character of these spaces, which appear peripheral yet strategically augment her documentary subjects, and ultimately, undermine generalizations about Singapore’s spaces.

 

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