kwa giu

National Stadium from hosaywood on Vimeo.

Here’s the online premiere of National Stadium, a 90 sec version of the highly anticipated Kwa Giu! We are proud to finally release new footage, three years after this documentary was shot.

A tribute to Singapore’s National Stadium, filmed during its last ever full-house match on 31 Jan 2007.

Released specially for the civiclife.sg competition.

Watch the Kwa Giu (Watch Football) trailer here.

MERLION CITY –

More than 2 years after the much publicized and expensive closing down ceremony of the National Stadium, it is still standing.

Plans for the destruction of the Lao Zhar Bor (Grand Old Lady, in Hokkien) to make way for a new ‘sports hub’ have been delayed for the umpteenth time, yet again. And again.

The latest reason? English football giants Liverpool will be coming to earn our money in July 2009 via a friendly match.

Back in 2007, filmsmaker Jacen Tan decided to document the atmosphere of the Kallang Roar, before it was “lost forever”. He shot a 30 minute film, ‘Kwa Giu’ (Watch Football), during the ‘last’ competitive football game at that time.

With 3 camcorders, Jacen and his team captured the emotions of the crowd during the AFC Cup final, where Singapore played Thailand. The game was an exceptional roller-coaster of excitement and the fans expressed overwhelming passion and swearing.

5 months later in June 2007, the closing down ceremony was held. Now, demolition plans are still nowhere to be seen, due to reasons like ‘recession’ and the forever-upcoming matches being planned.

Jacen has now decided to postpone the release of his film. “Kwa Giu was meant to serve as a tribute, and for people to remember Kallang. I feel that it will be best experienced after the stadium is gone,” he explains.

Local football fans remained divided over the issue. Tan Gu Gu, a random fan, is pleased that the stadium is still standing. “This means that I can still KWA GIU over and over again!”

Tan Si Mi, agedoesn’tmatter, was one of the 55,000 who attended the ‘closing’ ceremonEy in 2007. “I felt cheated big time!” said Tan, when reminded that he paid $15 for the match. “They always saying it’s the last match, bluff my feelings and emotion!”

Tan Ga Du Lan, another random fan, said: “I was even tempted to take a part of the stadium home with me! I saw people ripping benches off!”

“If the stadium is demolished next year, i tok!” swears Tan.

The release of the short Kwa Giu will be delayed until we finally see bulldozers at Kallang . Stay tuned to Hosaywood.com!

Kwa Giu is set to premiere in 2009. Stay tuned!

A brand new interview about Kwa Giu can be found at SINdie, a Singapore indie film blog.

SINdie: You always have a very natural sense of humour in all your films. Is it the same here?
Hosaywood: Try la haha. In fact, there’s already a natural humour at a game.

Read all about it here.

The 2nd trailer of Kwa Giu (Watch Football) is online on facebook. Remember to join the Hosaywood facebook group!

ROJAK is an art & design sharing session featuring 10 local creatives held every quarterly. This time the theme is ‘Places’ and Hosaywood will be there to talk about Kwa Giu (Since it’s tribute to our National Stadium).

Sunday, 31 Aug at The Substation! More details about Rojak here.

Note: This is not a screening of Kwa Giu, but a presentation and preview of things to come.

Singapore vs Brazil Olympics Team, National Stadium 29 July 2008

We went to another ‘last’ match. This time, some people payed $120 and Ronaldinho played.

KVLT is a new online arts magazine. Read an article on Kwa Giu in the first issue, on page 74.