IFFK 2024: Nelicia Lo’s worlds of films and fencing come together in her debut film Pierce

while watching enterThe debut film of former Singapore national fencer Nelicia Low, one can assume that sport inspired the film, as fencing is central to the narrative that deals with brotherly affection and psychopathic tendencies. The trademark move in the game, which a character defines as chess played with swords, is similar to the behavior of the characters in the film, which was showcased in the World Cinema section at the 29th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) on Saturday (December 14). Was displayed. , 2024).

but when The Hindu When asked about his journey from being a fencing champion to becoming a filmmaker, he said that films have always been his choice, long before fencing.

“Actually I didn’t start with fencing and move to films. Film was my first love and I wanted to be a director since I was 7 years old. I started fencing only because in Singapore, it is mandatory for high school students to choose a society/club to join, I chose fencing because two of my favorite movies growing up had fencing – lord of the rings And star warsSo really it was my love of film that led me to fencing,” Ms. Lo said in an email interview.

He retired after the 2010 Asian Games to focus solely on filmmaking and was accepted into Columbia University’s MFA in Film Directing. She made her first short film in Taiwan while she was a student there.

“A month before I arrived there was a mass murder in the subway in Taipei. A 21-year-old university student stabs people on a subway train, killing 4. However, beyond the brutality of his actions, I was even more shocked by the differing reactions within his own family, as his parents pleaded with the government to hang him. , while his younger brother blindly supported him and stood by his side. His younger brother’s reaction made me wonder about my own relationship with my older brother, who is autistic, and that became the basis of the inspiration. enterConstruction enter It’s my way of accepting the fact that I’ll never know if my brother will ever return my love for him, but I can’t help but love him regardless,” she says.

In enterFencer Ziji (Liu Hsiu-fu) attempts to get closer to his older brother Zihan (Tsao Yu-ning), who is returning from juvenile prison after serving a sentence for killing an opponent during a fencing match. But his mother is against the idea, unwilling to believe that her elder son is capable of reforming. Sword fighting becomes a tool for Jihan to get closer to his younger brother, but his vague and closed behavior leaves the audience as well as Zilji guessing about his true nature and intentions.

Their tense exchange and Zihan’s presence alone fills one with a sense of foreboding. The changing family dynamics also run parallel with the arrival of the mother’s boyfriend. The dinner sequence where the brothers are introduced to his family, where all the elders are impressed by Zihaan’s arrogant lies while only a young boy is able to understand him, is immaculately filmed. enter It becomes a psychological drama that keeps one engaged till the last bloody moments, which takes an interesting twist.

“Fencing was not originally part of the script, however in the process of writing this autobiographical film, I had to move away from my reality to get closer to the emotional truth, which is why the older brother in the film does not have autism. So I started fencing as a metaphor for the relationship between brothers, where each brother is always trying to guess what the other is thinking. This also informed the visual and auditory strategy of the film,” she says.