by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

With its hallucinatory atmosphere drenched in lust and dread, Tzang Merwyn Tong 's A Wicked Tale might seem a pretty twisted take on the classic fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood. But the Singaporean filmmaker argues that he's only amplifying what's already coded into the fable. "It's really about a little girl who becomes aware of her own sexuality after she comes face to face with this ravenous creature, the big bad wolf," Tong argues. "She is already seduced inside her mind, not so much by him, but by the strange power she has over him."

The fluid, intuitive quality of Tong's 45-minute independent effort is reflective of his primary inspiration, a series of rather lurid dreams he had. Dreams, Tong says, are "the most primal form of ingenuity - they have the beautiful quality of ambiguity, and ambiguity is what allows room for imagination."

Transposing dreams to film is no small challenge, but one the self-taught director accepted. "The story in this film is presented in a somewhat unnatural way. I wanted to create a psychological flight of light and sound, where the emotional reality is more important than the physical reality."

What's particularly interesting about A Wicked Tale is that its bold use of violence and sexuality runs defiantly against the culture of polite repression that defines Singapore.

"People are just too obedient," Tong says of Singapore. "It makes it a nice and safe place to live in, but an unexciting climate for creativity. While there is a culture of revering rebels in the West, rebels, outcasts and deviant behaviour are really frowned upon here. There's no Robin Hood in Singapore. No stand-alone renegades. No rogue warriors. Nobody tries to be different. Everybody's just like everyone else."

That's changing, thanks to the Internet, and to rogues and rebels like Tong and his collaborators at his INRI Studios. "Let's just hope for the fire to keep burning in the hearts of those who believe."

WITH DIRECTOR TZANG MERWYN TONG PRESENTING AT SALLE J.A. DE SÈVE MONDAY, JULY 25, 5 P.M.

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