Eric Khoo Helping Aspiring Film-Makers With Theirs

The award-winning film-maker and Cultural Medallion recipient started with short films. Now, he’s helping aspiring film-makers with theirs.

- Allyson Tutay

Wearing thick-framed spectacles and a loose black overshirt, Eric Khoo rushes into The Fine Line. He spots me from the entrance and waves enthusiastically as he walks towards me. Firm handshake, big smile, contagious laugh – we’re offto a great start. We bond over how hot the weather is and our mutual appreciation for The Macallan.

A pioneer of Singapore cinema, his unadulterated passion for film comes across clearly. Throughout our conversation, he mentions films from all over: Japan, Indonesia, Italy and the US. The minute he sits down, he asks me if I’ve seen WandaVision. His eyes light up and he can’t stop gushing because it’s the latest series he’s binged on. When I admit that I had cried at the end (no spoilers here), he proceeds to give me a brief history of the Marvel Universe which had him hooked since he was a child.

He raises his glass and clinks it against mine as he says: “To creativity!”

Khoo has always been creative. He tells me that he has dabbled in illustration and film his whole life, having been exposed to it from a young age. In fact, it all started with a Canon camera, a cartridge of film and a GI Joe with 21 moveable parts.

You might know him from his first feature film, Mee Pok Man, which revived Singapore cinema in 1995. But his real breakthrough moment happened four years earlier, when he was 26 and his short film, August, placed first in the Singapore Film Festival, gaining the attention of the local and international communities.