Cages
Encyclopedia
- For the graphic novel by Dave McKeanDave McKeanDavid McKean is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician....
, see Cages (comic series)Cages (comic series)Cages is a ten-issue comic book limited series by Dave McKean between 1990 and 1996, later collected as a single volume.Cages is a story about artists, belief, creativity and cats, illustrated in a stripped-down pen and ink style influenced by José Muñoz and Lorenzo Mattotti.-Publication...
.
Cages is a 2005 film, directed by American film director Graham Streeter
Graham Streeter
Graham Streeter is an American film director and screenwriter.Streeter was raised in northern California until high school. He lived in Osaka, Japan for 10 years while working in television and production, then returned to the United States and attended California State University, Sacramento...
which tells the story of a single mother named Ali Tan (Tan Kheng Hua
Tan Kheng Hua
Tan Kheng Hua is a popular Singaporean actress best known for her role as Margaret Phua in Singapore-based MediaCorp TV Channel 5's longest-running hit television sitcom Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd...
) who attempts to escape repeated bad releationships which puts her before the man she resents the most—her father, Tan (Mako Iwamatsu). The truth is not always easy to face when her father reveals a dark secret 20 years past; a past that may cost a lifetime of relationship.
Primary cast
- Mako Iwamatsu as Tan
- Tan Kheng HuaTan Kheng HuaTan Kheng Hua is a popular Singaporean actress best known for her role as Margaret Phua in Singapore-based MediaCorp TV Channel 5's longest-running hit television sitcom Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd...
as Ali - Zelda Rubenstein as Liz
- Bobby TonelliBobby TonelliRobert Tonelli Jr., known as Bobby Tonelli is an American actor who has appeared in several Hollywood films including Cages, Running Red, No Tomorrow, and Darwin Conspiracy.-Early life:...
as Ethan - Dickson Tan as Jonah
- AsraniAsraniGovardhan Asrani , popularly known simply as Asrani, is an actor in Indian films whose Bollywood career has spanned over 35 years. His wife Manju Bansal is an actress.-Early life:...
as Leo
Plot
After a fall-out with her recent boyfriend Ethan (Bobby TonelliBobby Tonelli
Robert Tonelli Jr., known as Bobby Tonelli is an American actor who has appeared in several Hollywood films including Cages, Running Red, No Tomorrow, and Darwin Conspiracy.-Early life:...
), Ali (Tan Kheng Hua
Tan Kheng Hua
Tan Kheng Hua is a popular Singaporean actress best known for her role as Margaret Phua in Singapore-based MediaCorp TV Channel 5's longest-running hit television sitcom Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd...
) a single mother finds herself broke, desperate and homeless. In an effort to care for her blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
son Jonah (Dickson Tan), she reluctantly seeks out the only living relative she knows, her father Tan (Mako Iwamatsu). To earn enough money to be on her own she accepts a job in her father's bird shop, but not without the resistance of the shop's manager Liz (Zelda Rubinstein
Zelda Rubinstein
Zelda Rubinstein was an American actress and human rights activist, best known as eccentric medium Tangina Barrons in the movie Poltergeist and its sequels, Poltergeist II: The Other Side , and Poltergeist III . Playing 'Ginny', she was a regular on David E...
), a manipulative and protective middle-aged British woman.
While Liz and Ali clash at every glance, Tan begins to bond with his new grandson, teaching him about the beauty of Singapore's traditional songbird culture.
For the first time, Jonah crawls out of his shell and finds a connection with the outside world, drawing him further from his mother's hold, and deeper into Tan's world. Ali's soon finds herself caught in a double-edged scenario, as she realizes her father has a powerful and profound effect on her son.
After great deliberation, Ali decides to let Tan and Jonah bond, but just as she feared, Tan mysteriously becomes cold and distant. As a result, Ali's feelings of childhood rejection resurface, sending her into a quest for the truth of their past.
But the truth is not always easy to face, as her father's explanation of why he left the family is revealed; a dark secret of 20 years past is exposed, changing Ali's view on life forever.
Trivia
- Cages was shot entirely in SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. - For one of scenes in the film, the production organized a charity songbird competition with over 400 participants. Proceeds went to the Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped. (SSVH)
- Bobby TonelliBobby TonelliRobert Tonelli Jr., known as Bobby Tonelli is an American actor who has appeared in several Hollywood films including Cages, Running Red, No Tomorrow, and Darwin Conspiracy.-Early life:...
who is an artist himself, chose to paint all of the artwork seen in Ethan's apartment. - Cages was shot in High DefinitionHigh-definition videoHigh-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
using the PanasonicPanasonicPanasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
Varicam AJ-HDC27F in 45 days and later transferred to 35mm. - Dickson Tan who is legally blind, typed out the entire script in BrailleBrailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
.
Festival Honors
- Official Selection: Pusan International Film Festival 2005
- Closing Film: Prague Film-Asia Film Festival 2005
- Competition: Bangladesh International Film Festival 2006