Johnny Depp and Royston Tan - what's the same?

If you are from Zhonghua Secondary School and you are planning to catch the latest Pirates of the Carribean instalment with Johnny Depp back on the big screen, you have to budget for another movie - 4.30 by Royston Tan, your alumnus. Raffles Institution where I used to to teach can claim to have nurtured the good men in the Singapore Government, but Zhonghua is on the other side of the "cool" new Singapore. Zhonghua is to Royston Tan what Caltech is to Einstein.

Similarities between Royston Tan and Johhny Depp?
Both are noted for their devotion to their craft and their unwillingness to trade their artistic development for big scale commercial projects. Johnny Depp has always been known for his unwillingness to sign for Die Hard and Die Harder type blockbusters and Royston Tan has even risked breaking the censorship laws in Singapore to stay through his cinematic creations. Johnny Depp started in Jump Street, about street gangs, etc, and one acknowledged Royston Tan creative product is 15, about youthful rebellion and secret societies in Singapore. There is indisputably some bad-boy image that both of them carry. The difference is this, Johnny Depp is now an international and widely-known star. Very soon, Royston Tan will be our Johnny Depp, but as a director. So if you want to be able to say later that you noticed him early on, you should add 4.30 to your must-watch schedule. And you don't have to hail from Zhonghua to do that.

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