“Our history books are filled with men”; creator & EP Jean Yeo sets about meeting Singapore’s forgotten women
15 May 2023
When Ochre Pictures’ "Last Madame: Sisters of the Night" premieres in Singapore on 13 July this year, creator and executive producer Jean Yeo strikes another victory for period drama.
Set in the 1920s, "Sisters of the Night" is the prequel to "Last Madame" (2019), a multi-generational story about modern-day banker Chi Ling, who returns from Hong Kong to Singapore to claim her inheritance – a run-down shophouse.The new season centres around themes of sisterhood, survival, espionage and Singapore’s culture during the era.
Sara Merican talks to Yeo about fighting to make period dramas in Singapore, unearthing important historical stories and her hopes for "Sisters of the Night".
What are some of your hopes for season two? “Before Last Madame, everybody said period [dramas] don’t work, or that people don’t watch them. In Singapore, we don’t have many period dramas because we simply don’t have the budgets to do it. This is just one small part of a fascinating array of stories and if you want to go further back, we have stories from the 14th century. I’m hoping that with more streamers coming, we can bring out stories that people do not know about this part of the world. I wanted to unearth these interesting, but forgotten characters, like these female characters in Last Madame. They’re hardly ever spoken or written about. Our history books are filled with men. I want to unearth stories that deserve to be told and I think that Singapore will be so much richer for it. It is easier and better for me to do contemporary shows, but I really do love telling these [period] stories.”
Why did you expand the story of "Last Madame" with a prequel rather than a sequel? “I love researching and I love history. There was so much material that I wanted to sink my teeth into and one of the stories that came up by chance was the character of the ma-jie in season one. After Last Madame, there were a lot of requests for a second season. We had a focus group and what came up from the group’s discussion was how this ma-jie character came about. We hinted at the backstory through flashbacks but we didn’t dig into it in season one. Also, I honestly had more material for a prequel than a sequel, but I fully intend to do a sequel after this.”
How has the potential for regional and global distribution influenced the production of season two? “Even with "Last Madame", we had an eye for it to travel. With a couple of our recent shows, we put quite a bit of our own money into the projects, because we want to reach a bigger audience and platform. It is a very hard goal to achieve but I’m trying to show that good stories do travel. It doesn’t matter where it’s from.”
What are some challenges that you faced in making season two? “We had to do a lot of research into what Japanese brothels look like and there are hardly any photographs. Based on our research and a little bit of imagination, we had to create a brothel that is both Japanese and Nanyang Asian. The other challenge is costuming. Season one was tough enough with costuming using the right cheongsam that fits the era, the right collar and the right sleeve-length. We got our materials from all over Asia, like China and even Dubai. But in season two, we had to go to vintage stores in Japan, and we bought some of our kimonos from there so that it is authentic.”
"Last Madame: Sisters of the Night" premieres on Mediacorp's online platform mewatch on 13 July and on Mediacorp’s YouTube drama channel on 20 July.
Published in ContentAsia's 15-28 May 2023 eNewsletter
看完《最后的夫人》后来补的，熬了2个夜看完的，Hidemi和她女儿一起自杀蛮震撼我的，像是无法逃离的轮回，女性最终只能被男性欺辱；Daisuke的扮演者还挺帅，身材也不错（女导演果然不一样hhh），也是个苦命人，其实他和Philip都只是希望结束战争吧，都是身不由己； Nozomi最后是带着她死去的爱人的使命去执行间谍任务的，战争年代，让地位低的女性更加苦不堪言，Sakura No. 3说烧就烧，Hidemi的女儿那么小就被欺辱，Qing Ling即使受过高等教育但还是被他父亲作为还债的牺牲品要求嫁给一个老大爷，好不容易以为找到真爱，结果占有欲爆炸的 Ah Tou禁不住权利金钱诱惑，还是变成了他父亲的那个样子，逃出来了之后也只能靠经营妓院来给女孩们一个庇护所，纵使她受了那么多的教育、给她父亲提自家种植园的意见、给Ah Tou商业建议，都被他们以你是女人只需要嫁个好人，做给贤良淑德的妻子的观念抑制住了。
当时的女性真的好难啊，Nozomi从一个精灵古怪（可能是吸引Daisuke的地方吧）的丫头变成套话一流的top级的艺伎，如果说之前的执行间谍任务是对Daisuke的喜爱希望博取他的信任拉近他们的距离，之后发生的Hidemi和她女儿一起自杀事件让她开始重新思考，我们冒着生命危险为天皇效力，到头来只是可有可无的棋子，战争是政治家的游戏，为什么要年轻人的性命作为代价？其实这时候她就已经想放弃间谍身份；但Daisuke的死又把她拉回来了，带着死去的爱人的意志继续执行任务。
从Nozomi 变成Ah Yoke，意味着她心态的改变吧—我命由我不由天，更加坚强、心狠手辣，对男人碎尸、拔掉生殖器官好像都可以理解了。
（Ah Tou的扮演者张哲通演戏有点木木的，没啥表情变化）Ah Tou从一个受过教育有新思想的青年变成像他爸那样的人，这种转变既出乎意料，细想又觉得合乎情理，一个没有社会经验在香港接受新思潮的学生，声称尊重女性、赶走殖民者，回到马来西亚在经历了社会的毒打了之后，明白了金钱、权利、地位的重要性，继承他父亲的事业、帮殖民者办事，开办妓院一点也不含糊。
你说他爱女主吗？也爱过，但是爱本身就是善变的，夹杂着嫉妒、猜疑、权利、面子，所以，女孩们，清醒点，不要依赖别人，绝不像攀援的凌霄花， 不要寄希望于别人带你脱离苦海，只有你自身变强，周围的人才会帮助你。
PS：Nozomi的扮演者曾晓晴是澳门人 ，原来 Hidemi的扮演者Min Ji-oh是个韩国人，Okasan的扮演者是新加坡人（可她看起来像菲律宾人）， Daisuke的扮演者是日本人；Lou Seh的扮演者和Last madame的黄炯耀好像啊，Qing Ling 的扮演者芳榕和白薇秀还蛮像的，导演选角眼光还挺好。
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“Our history books are filled with men”; creator & EP Jean Yeo sets about meeting Singapore’s forgotten women
15 May 2023
When Ochre Pictures’ "Last Madame: Sisters of the Night" premieres in Singapore on 13 July this year, creator and executive producer Jean Yeo strikes another victory for period drama.
Set in the 1920s, "Sisters of the Night" is the prequel to "Last Madame" (2019), a multi-generational story about modern-day banker Chi Ling, who returns from Hong Kong to Singapore to claim her inheritance – a run-down shophouse.The new season centres around themes of sisterhood, survival, espionage and Singapore’s culture during the era.
Sara Merican talks to Yeo about fighting to make period dramas in Singapore, unearthing important historical stories and her hopes for "Sisters of the Night".
What are some of your hopes for season two? “Before Last Madame, everybody said period [dramas] don’t work, or that people don’t watch them. In Singapore, we don’t have many period dramas because we simply don’t have the budgets to do it. This is just one small part of a fascinating array of stories and if you want to go further back, we have stories from the 14th century. I’m hoping that with more streamers coming, we can bring out stories that people do not know about this part of the world. I wanted to unearth these interesting, but forgotten characters, like these female characters in Last Madame. They’re hardly ever spoken or written about. Our history books are filled with men. I want to unearth stories that deserve to be told and I think that Singapore will be so much richer for it. It is easier and better for me to do contemporary shows, but I really do love telling these [period] stories.”
Why did you expand the story of "Last Madame" with a prequel rather than a sequel? “I love researching and I love history. There was so much material that I wanted to sink my teeth into and one of the stories that came up by chance was the character of the ma-jie in season one. After Last Madame, there were a lot of requests for a second season. We had a focus group and what came up from the group’s discussion was how this ma-jie character came about. We hinted at the backstory through flashbacks but we didn’t dig into it in season one. Also, I honestly had more material for a prequel than a sequel, but I fully intend to do a sequel after this.”
How has the potential for regional and global distribution influenced the production of season two? “Even with "Last Madame", we had an eye for it to travel. With a couple of our recent shows, we put quite a bit of our own money into the projects, because we want to reach a bigger audience and platform. It is a very hard goal to achieve but I’m trying to show that good stories do travel. It doesn’t matter where it’s from.”
What are some challenges that you faced in making season two? “We had to do a lot of research into what Japanese brothels look like and there are hardly any photographs. Based on our research and a little bit of imagination, we had to create a brothel that is both Japanese and Nanyang Asian. The other challenge is costuming. Season one was tough enough with costuming using the right cheongsam that fits the era, the right collar and the right sleeve-length. We got our materials from all over Asia, like China and even Dubai. But in season two, we had to go to vintage stores in Japan, and we bought some of our kimonos from there so that it is authentic.”
"Last Madame: Sisters of the Night" premieres on Mediacorp's online platform mewatch on 13 July and on Mediacorp’s YouTube drama channel on 20 July.
Published in ContentAsia's 15-28 May 2023 eNewsletter