Tag: king arthur

The Parang of Camelot (Research and thought process)

The story of The Parang of Camelot is parallel to the story of King Arthur The Sword in The Stone. Arthur was nurtured by Merlyn to be the king of Camelot and he eventually became the only who was able to pull the sword from the stone.

For more detailed story of King Arthur: Hero of Camelot 

Below is the story structure/stages of The Parang of Camelot:

Camelot Story Stages

Hence, the first main difference between my story and the legend of King Arthur is that my story would focus slightly more on the character who is parallel to King Arthur’s stepbrother, Sir Kay. The Parang of Camelot would also focus more on the relationship between the ‘King Arthur’ and ‘Sir Kay’,  and not to focus on the love betrayal of ‘Guinevere’ with ‘Lancelot’, a famous part of King Arthur story.

The parallel between The Parang of Camelot and the legend of King Arthur:

Parallel 1 Parallel 2

The idea of infusing King Arthur legend elements into a Singapore secret society setting is come from the Singapore’s 1960-1980 setting, where the streets were still unsafe for people to have a walk at night and the crime rate was still high.

The name of the rival gang Sah Lak is not just chosen because of its similarity with ‘Saxon’, but is also because of the existence of the real Singapore secret society called “Salakau“. This gang is still exist until now and it is one of the most formidable and violent gang in Singapore. Some incidents of murders or fights in this 21st century are suspected to be done by this gang. One of the murder that also inspired The Parang of Camelot is Downtown Street Murder in 2010. I was imagining what if a brother lost his brother in such a gangster fight. And this murder left me wondering what was the reason of the murderer gang to do such killing?

Then, the parang is a direct substitute for swords, and eventually the magical parang will be a substitute for Excalibur.

 

This assignment becomes much more interesting as it helps me to know more about the country i live in, Singapore. I only came to Singapore in 2011. Digging the news from 2010 made me feel that now, I am a little more Singaporean now, as I hardly bother to dig Indonesian past news.

It is very interesting to know that gang and gangsters do exist in Singapore as well, since Singapore is now a first-world country.

 

For the movie poster, both are inspired by some of real movie posters below:

41I9XGrG88L 170px-CamelotPoster Creative-Movie-Posters-9 p3532071_p_v7_af

I didn’t follow 100% any of the poster, but the rough idea of it comes from these posters.

The black background and dark atmosphere is not because the story is a horror or/and thriller, but more of because the story is, hopefully, heartfelt and of tragedy. The red color of the title and the parang is to foretell the bloodshed that will happen because of all the gang fights and the use of parang itself. The power given by the parang leads to the lost of loved ones and instability in the society.

 

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.