TV Reviews : 6 Hours of Love, War, Singapore in ‘Tanamera’

Colonial Britain, the fall of Singapore, World War II and forbidden love are sandwiched into the six-hour maxiseries, “Tanamera--Lion of Singapore,” debuting tonight at 8 on Channel 13 (with the second and third two-hour installments continuing at 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday).

An Australian-British co-production, shot in Singapore and Sydney, the show is the stuff of romance fiction, anchored by an undying love affair between a dashing English scion and his luminous Chinese lover (British actor Christopher Bowen and Singapore-born Khym Lam).

On one hand, the production is a potboiler that could be subtitled “The Winds of Singapore.” But as you kick back for a florid, period epic about rich Chinese and British families and their reckless, adventurous offspring, the curiosity of history happily opens up the teleplay by Peter Gibbs (adapted from the novel “Tanamera” by Noel Barber).

Many of us are ignorant or terribly vague about Singapore in the turbulent years covered here (1935-48). But as that island commonwealth as we know it is about to change forever, and as occupation forces in another part of the world remind us daily, the invasion of Singapore dramatized in this show assumes an unexpected relevancy.

The viewpoint is Anglo, of course, and the Japanese invaders, as in a old ‘40s war movie, are barbarous. In the most appalling scene, in the installment airing Tuesday night, Japanese soldiers enter a Singapore hospital and methodically shoot and bayonet doctors, nurses and patients in their beds.

The third installment gets flabby with jungle fighting, meandering, finally, into post-war Chinese communism in Malaysia and a showdown between Bowen’s British hero and the resident Communist villain. The latter character is the production’s most arresting actor, the furtive Kay Tong Lim, who’s also the hero’s smoldering rival-in-love.

In sum, tonight’s episode, with ripe period detail, is the strongest, particularly in establishing the mood of the drowsy, complacent British and the festering Chinese hatred of foreigners in pre-war Singapore. Minutes into the show, three arrogant English playboys in white tux are nearly killed by an angry mob in a viscerally staged street scene.

Four hours, however, would have been plenty. By the end, in the last installment, it’s evident that co-directors John Power and Kevin Dobson are burdened by a padded plot. What lingers are real-life still photos and judicious vintage newsreels that authenticate the splendor and agony of Singapore. (An ornate, old British Army barracks on the island was used for the entitled Tanamera British family estate).