Official submission of Singapore to the Oscars 2014 best foreign language film category.
The first Singaporeon feature to win an award at the Cannes Film Festival. It won the Caméra d'Or in 2013.
The title of the film refers to the hometown of the boy's nanny (particularly the town of San Miguel) in the Philippines and is one of the earliest words spoken by the boy while he was growing up.
Jia Ler Koh, the first-time child actor in the award-winning local film Ilo Ilo (2013), was caned for real several times in two takes while shooting a scene. It is a literal example of how director Anthony Chen cracks the whip to achieve his vision.
Says Jia Ler, 12, whose mother was fine with the caning since she used to cane him when he was younger: "Anthony talked to me about it and I was fine with it. It was painful, but it's okay, because I know he wants everything as real as possible. The caning is just a small thing to me.
"I was much more scared of the chicken," he says, referring to another scene where he had to carry a live chicken in his arms.
"I am really very, very scared of chickens, but Anthony told me to overcome my fear and just try my best to do the scene. Whenever I could not do a scene, he would come over and teach me."
Director Anthony Chen said Jia Ler Koh was comfortable doing nudity in the shower scenes. "That's the thing about him - he isn't self-conscious. Singaporean kids are generally very self-conscious and that was why out of 8,000 kids I saw over 10 months, I only found one. He was the only one who sparkled. When you gave him directions, he did it effortlessly. I actually changed his character's name [to his real name] after I cast him. His name, Jia Ler, in Chinese means 'Happy Family', and I was making a film about an unhappy family struggling through a financial crisis. What a great irony, I thought," Chen said.