Two eager detectives investigated his death, chasing every single lead and suspect, including the dead man's three children.

So, who did it? The secrets and the answers will unfold at the end of The Blue Mansion movie, and be told from the perspective of Glen Goei, renowned for his theater productions as well as his feature movie Forever Fever (aka That's The Way I Like It).

After nearly a decade, famous Singaporean theater director finally made a comeback with his second feature movie, The Blue Mansion, a film noir about a dysfunctional peranakan (Chinese Malay) family in Singapore.

The Blue Mansion. www.thebluemansion.com

The title Blue Mansion actually comes from the location where 95 percent of the movie was shot, the famous and historical Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang, Malaysia, that was built in the 1880s. It was called The Blue Mansion later on as the mansion incorporates many indigo blue colors on its fa*ade.

The Blue Mansion offers a new perspective on the Singaporean world of cinema. Not only does Glen pay a lot of attention to detail, he also brings up a basic problem that actually occurs in almost all Chinese peranakan families in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia in a brutally honest kind of way. It is a very simple and classic issue actually.

The family builds a successful business that none of the children want to take over. However, due to the patriarchal nature of the family, the father becomes a tyrant who forces his own will on his children "for the family's sake". This is pretty much what Glen Goei's The Blue Mansion is all about.

This is one of Singapore's most stylish movies I have ever seen. Everything, from the fashion items displayed in the movie to the way the angles are shot, is done in a very elegant manner.

" I am fortunate enough to have as collaborators the cinematographer Larry Smith, BSC, who was the D.O.P. on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut; the production designer Ian Bailie who was the art director on Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, and the composer David Hirschfelder, who scored the music for Shine and Elizabeth", said Glen, when talking about his team for the movie.

The Blue Mansion also has splendid cast, not to mention senior actors and actresses from both Singapore and Malaysia. Bigwigs such Adrian Pang, Emma Yong and Lim Kay Siu were involved in the movie. Due to be released in Singapore on Oct. 22, 2009 The Blue Mansion has already spread it wings and joined several prestigious film festivals in Pusan and Tokyo.

On my recent visit to Singapore, I spoke to Glen about his new movie and here is what he has to say about The Blue Mansion.

Question: How do you feel about finally releasing your second feature movie after the great first movie Forever Fever?

Answer: I feel wonderful! I never thought I would make another film. But that never bothered me because I am constantly telling my stories in other ways. But making films means I can tell my stories to a larger audience base outside of Singapore and that's important. It also gets me out of Singapore and allows me to meet like-minded people at festivals.

It took about a decade for you to come up with The Blue Mansion, what do you think was the main the challenge after your first feature movie?

The challenge is always coming up with a new story - a story that is personal and connects with me on many levels, a story that moves me as an artist.

The next obstacle is finding a writer who can understand and translate what you want to say as a filmmaker into a script. Also, having lived in the UK for 20 years, I came back to a very different Singapore.

I needed time to listen to the stories of people around me - my family, friends and community - to try to understand what all those stories were saying, distil and reframe them.

You choose to make a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family in a film noir style. What's inspired you to do this?

I love the style of dark comedies because that's my view of the world! Haha. There's such a fine line between comedy and tragedy. In fact, they are sides of the same coin. As for dysfunctional families - I see them all around me!

But it has never been recorded on a celluloid screen. We get a lot of kung fu, martial art, period epic flicks and horror films coming out of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, but no many filmmakers are really making films telling the stories of contemporary Asia.

Also Asian people like to "save face" and very rarely do they like to self-retrospect and reveal the truth inside their own families.

You started as an actor and moved up the ladder to producer and feature director now. How did you make your feature more fluid and movie like, instead of theatrical?

The Blue Mansion is unapologetically theatrical. I wanted to make it this way to remind audiences about the artifice theatre uses - to invite audiences to suspend their disbelief and remind them this dark, perhaps even tragic comedy, is merely fictional.

What do you most like to be? Actor? Producer or director?

Being stubborn by nature and enjoying being involved in all aspects of the creative production, I prefer being a director. The first time I directed a play was at the ripe-old age of eleven, which means I have been doing it for 35 years!

What do you expect the audience to think when they watch the Blue Mansion?

I hope the film is thought provoking, even if the audience does not initially enjoy the movie, I hope the film will pop up in their thoughts for the next few days and make them ask what the film was about and what it meant to them.

What comes next in the life of Glen Goei? Do we have to wait for another decade to see one of your creations or shall we play it by ear?

I would love to continue making films but it means coming up with a new story and looking for the financing. Also looking for a producer, as I would prefer to concentrate on directing my next film and leave the producing to someone else.

Unfortunately, it is a very young and often inexperienced industry in Singapore so I had to wear both hats (but not necessarily out of choice). I'm also working on an original stage musical - it's a period romantic epic based on a historical Chinese character.

- The Blue Mansion is out at theatres all over Singapore from Oct. 22, 2009.

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