The Parang of Camelot

The Parang of Camelot Final 1  The Parang of Camelot Final 2

The Parang of Camelot (Action, Romance)

Set in Singapore, 1970s, The Parang of Camelot is inspired by the British legend of King Arthur, Singapore’s dark past: the time when the gangsters reigned the streets of the Little Red Dot, and the 2010 Downtown Street Murder.

Kai and Arthur Lim are stepbrothers who come from a rich family. Sadly, the family is absent of a mother figure, and their father is cold and career-oriented. For 17 years, Kai and Arthur only have each other.

One day, Arthur meets a teenager named Melvyn, sitting on the ground bleeding. He helps Melvyn, and eventually befriend him. Unknowingly, Arthur befriends a member of the biggest gangster in Singapore, Camelot. Being always at home with only Kai, Arthur finds gangster’s way of living thrilling and he wants to try. At first, Arthur is hesitant to join Camelot because gangster lives a dangerous life. However, with the promise of ‘finding a home’ in Camelot – something that Arthur has been longing all this time – Melvyn successfully recruits Arthur as the new member of Camelot.

Hearing the news, Kai becomes worried. For the sake of taking care his stepbrother, Kai decides to join Camelot. Their father does not have any idea about their sons becoming gangsters as he is too focused on his work.

However, their new lives are like boats which are sailing during the storm.

 

At first, everything seems fine, everything seems fun. The two brothers are accepted by the members of Camelot. They are taught how to fight with parangs, secretly do drugs and heroin transaction, and lures girls/prostitutes. However, both of them are already satisfied with fighting. Morally strong, Kai and Arthur do not sell and consume drugs, and they are not involved in the prostitution business.

Unexpectedly, the more introvert Arthur becomes more popular among the gangsters compared to Kai, despite of his extroversion and physically-stronger look. Kai felt a little bit jealous at first, but he becomes proud of his stepbrother instead as Arthur is now one of the strongest and most formidable fighter in Camelot.

One day, one of the veteran member of Camelot introduce a new member, which is his own daughter named Jen (Jennifer). Kai and Arthur fall in love with her at the first sight, and Kai told Arthur immediately that he likes Jen. Arthur decides to stop liking Jen for the sake of Kai.

Jen is attracted to Kai at first due to his physical appearance, but all of her feelings for Kai change the moment Arthur is chosen as the new leader of Camelot – and the youngest leader of the gang in history. Kai is devastated. Kai cannot accept the fact that his most trusted brother somehow ‘steal’ his lover. Kai and Arthur start to grow apart.

At the same time, Arthur’s throne does not just attract love and admiration, but also hatred and jealousy. Morgan, another youngster in Camelot, is so jealous of Arthur as Morgan has been longing to be a gang leader.

One day, Arthur sees a girl, who is actually a prostitute, being harassed publicly by a man. Arthur saves her, and eventually bring her out of the brothel to Camelot’s headquarter. Unknowingly, Arthur actually saved a prostitute from Camelot’s ultimate enemy: Sah Lak, and the man who harassed the girl is Sah Lak member. Arthur’s kindness causes an impending doom to himself and Camelot.

Sah Lak wants to kill the leader of Camelot and the man who ‘stole’ their prostitute. Morgan sees the opportunity to topple Arthur from his throne. Morgan decides to arrange the right time for Sah Lak to murder Arthur and those who support him. Morgan becomes the Judas for Jesus.

Sah Lak arrives at a playground of an ulu HDB, the place where Arthur, Kai, Jen, and some other members are spending their leisure time that day. One of Sah Lak members approach them, holding a parang, and asks, “who is the leader here? Who is the head of Camelot?”

Kai senses something dangerous, since he knows that Arthur will be chased by Sah Lak for beating up their member and ‘stealing’ their prostitute. At first, Kai wanted to care nothing about Arthur and did not mind if Arthur is killed. However, Kai still loves Arthur as his brother and best friend deep inside his heart. Kai stands up and tell Sah Lak that Kai is the leader of Camelot and the one who stole Sah Lak prostitute. Arthur is flabbergasted, and too late to save Kai from being slashed by parang right in front of him.

Arthur and the rest then fight Sah Lak for a while but they eventually run for their lives as they are not prepared with any parang.

After the incident, Arthur can only mourn for his stepbrother’s death. Not wanting to lose anymore brother or sister from Camelot, Arthur decides to educate the members of Camelot and then disband the gang after all of the members are prepared well to lead an ordinary life.

 

 

Published by

Feliciana Natali

Product Design student graduating in 2019

4 thoughts on “The Parang of Camelot”

  1. The poster is really well-done, I can immediately see connect the mood of the story with your poster! I like the character development of Kai and Arthur, I can see how the different incidents have changed them and affect their relationship drastically. I also like the part whereby you mention that Arthur’s kindness is not repaid, its a nice twist to the expected repayment for a good deed in stories.

    The only part I find a little weird is how the story mentioned how the boys joined a gang and are fine with fighting but are decided that they are “morally superior” to drugs and prostitution. I feel that it is a little contradictory, as it is difficult to say which takes precedence over the other in moral grounds.

    Otherwise, I like your take on King Arthur to the society we live in and making it much more relatable 🙂

  2. Hi Feli!

    I really really enjoyed your story and was actually quite immerse in it to the point of gasping when Kai got slashed, and also not wanting the story to end. I love how relatable it is to us as it is set in a scene/ story that we may or may not have heard from our elders or parents as singaporeans and thus having a deeper connection to the plot line.

    The only part I’m concerned with is the ending when Kai stood up for Arthur in saying that he was the leader of Camelot, if Sah Lak was really their ultimate enemy, wouldn’t they have known who was the leader? It might be better if this point is made clear.

    Last but not least, I love your poster which really invites the viewer to look into the story and the styles like the blood looking like a MALAY parang really gels well. Great job! 😀

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