Medium Rare

Medium Rare (1991)

Singapore's first full-length English language film, released in local cinemas in November 1991. Loosely based on the Adrian Lim ritual murders in the early 1980s, the film was shot and produced in Singapore. It was the debut filmmaking effort for its executive producer, Errol Pang, and it has been credited with reawakening Singapore's local film scene. In the movie's ending, the main character based on Adrian Lim escapes from prison and runs into an incoming truck, where Satan catches him and subjects him to eternal torture – this was said to be added to suggest to the audience that crime does not pay.

Date of release
1991-11-28
TMDB
8.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
2h 21m
Genres
Crime, Thriller
Director
Arthur Smith

Casting

Interesting facts

The Medium is Singapore's first full-length English language film. It was released in 1991 and produced by Singaporean Errol Pang. It was initially supposed to be directed by a Singaporean, Tony Yeow, then by an American, Stan Barret, and finally by Arthur Smith, who was British. The Medium was initially seen as a revival of the local film industry. Starring Brenda Bakke, Margaret Chan and Dore Kraus. Zhu Houren also cameos as a coffeeshop owner whose wife ends up getting cheated by the main antagonist.

Production

Medium Rare was announced in November 1990 as Singapore's first locally-produced English film, with Tony Yeow serving as the film's director. Prior to Medium Rare, the Singapore film industry was in decline after Cathay-Keris Films stopped making films in 1973; investing in locally-produced films was risky as Taiwanese and Hong Kong-made films were popular.

Medium Rare was to star Lim Kay Siu and Margaret Chan when it was first announced. Lim was to play Daniel Wong, a killer inspired by Adrian Lim. By January 1991, Lim backed out of his role as he was committed to TheatreWorks's Fried Rice Paradise, which was to open when filming for Medium Rare started; he stated that he only expressed interested in the role and was not committed to it.

When the movie was first announced, shooting was to begin after the Lunar New Year holidays, though this was moved to April 1991 as Pang wanted his staff to have a good holiday before returning to work. As announced 10 days earlier, filming for Medium Rare began on 13 April 1991. The announcement also revealed that the Economic Development Board (EDB) would back the movie. However, production of the film ran into several issues.

In spite of these issues, filming took 45 days as expected and was conducted at various locations in Singapore, including Chinese temples like the Giok Hong Tian Temple at Havelock Road, a house at Mount Pleasant Drive, East Coast Park, a Peranakan house in Tong Watt Road, a hallway at the Singapore General Hospital's mortuary, and the Pan Pacific Hotel. According to Pang, the shooting was "plain sailing".

Medium Rare was expected to be released in Singapore either during September or December in conjunction with school holidays. According to Julia Goh of The Straits Times, Pang and the film's crew were optimistic that Medium Rare would be successful. Pang also planned to release Medium Rare to Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, South America, and Thailand.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended