AMID all the excitement over the glitzy getai theme of film-maker Royston Tan's latest offering, 881, there's another focus that is due a turn in the spotlight.

And that's the way he departs from the male-centric maelstrom of his previous two feature-length films - the also numerically named 15 and 4:30 - to have fabulous fun with the female of the species.

His 881, which opens in theatres today, features at least nine women. For the four major characters, it's all about girl power: They are getai princesses, the popular Papaya Sisters played by Yeo Yann Yann, 30, and Mindee Ong, 27; and their spiky rivals, the Durian Sisters played by 26-year-old celebrity twins Teh May Wan and Teh Choy Wan.

Others providing the woman's touch are real-life getai entertainers Liu Ling Ling, 43, who plays a seamstress and the Goddess of Getai; and Karen Lim, 36, and Lin Ruping, 56.

Veteran getai performers the Mingzhu Sisters lend their singing voices to Yeo and Ong.

In fact, the movie was inspired by a woman - Tan's Mum.

That's because after 31-year-old Tan's 4:30 hit the theatres last year, his mentor, film-maker Eric Khoo, told him: "It is time for you to make a movie your mother would understand."

Tan's Mum, Madam Ng Peng Hwy, 54, along with his Dad, Mr Tan Chin Cheng, 59, are both hawkers and Mandarin- and Hokkien-speaking heartlanders to the core.

They live with their two sons - Royston is the elder one - in an HDB flat in Serangoon.

There's the much-mentioned change of style, of course.

Tan breaks free from his arthouse inclinations to make - gulp - a musical, of all things. While song and dance elements were in his 2004 12-minute short Cut, 881 is much more ambitious.

The $1-million Hokkien-Mandarin film takes in Singapore's tradition of getai concerts to entertain spirits during the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival, which, incidentally, kicks off next Monday.

Then there's the gender shift. Whereas Tan's debut film, 15 (2003), revolves around a group of teenage delinquent boys, and the stars of 4:30 are a latchkey kid and his male Korean neighbour, 881's plot centres on the fairer sex.

In an interview with Life! at 881's gala premiere on Tuesday night, Tan says he had deliberately avoided weaving tales about the opposite sex into his previous works. "I think they are a lot stronger than men. However, in films, they are always portrayed as sex objects. Out of respect to my Mum and all women, I don't dare to demean them."

Co-stars Yeo and Ong also helped spur the movie along.

Tan and the two actresses were chatting over coffee after working together in the Singapore Arts Festival in the middle of last year.

Yeo says: "Mindee and I were joking that after Arts Fest, we had nothing to do, and asked Royston to make a film with us. Somehow the topic of getai came up, and everything else fell in place."

Tan's reverence for women worked to the advantage of the female cast members. Choy Wan recounts how Tan would demonstrate how he wanted the actresses to pout their lips or sashay. "He is not afraid to get in touch with his feminine side," she says.

But 881 is not all oestrogen. The tale unfolds through the eyes of Guan Yin, a deaf-mute driver to the Papaya Sisters. MediaCorp actor Qi Yuwu plays the male lead.

Tan explains that the character of Guan Yin is his own voice.

"Through him, I put myself in the movie. It is my perspective - what I see and interpret of the local getai scene."

Qi feels no pressure in making his presence felt in a female-centric roster. As he puts it: "The audience is not going to care whether you are male or female. They only judge who acts better or worse."

Tan's mother Madam Ng has given the film the thumbs-up. She watched it at the gala premiere and tells Life! in Mandarin: "I didn't understand the last two movies (15 and 4:30), but this one, there are songs and dances, and getai is something I like, so it is more enjoyable.

"But, of course, I don't have to understand all his films. So long as someone does, I'm happy for my son."

GETAI'S PART OF HER CHILDHOOD

ACTRESS Yeo Yann Yann reckons that Royston Tan is more of a woman than she is.

The svelte 30-year-old describes the director of 881 as someone who understands the female species very well - much better than she does.

In 881, Yeo plays one half of the getai-performing Papaya Sisters, who are the movie's lead roles. Her character Big Papaya is torn between love and career.

"Royston is able to articulate the thoughts and feelings we women go through when we are in a relationship conundrum - thoughts that we can't say out loud ourselves," she says.

Yeo is attached but declines to reveal more.

She has some distinctly tomboyish memories from her childhood. The Malaysian-born actress recalls that she would play around the getai near her grandmother's home in the village of Kukup. The youngster and her neighbours would use straws as blowpipes to shoot uncooked green beans at each other in front of the stage, while the adults enjoyed the show.

The name "Papaya Sisters" has special resonance, too: It was the name of a fruit stall near her high school in Johor. "Plus, I love to eat papayas," she declares with a chuckle.

Yeo moved to Singapore with her family when she was 19, and became involved in the Chinese theatre scene here.

Her first TV role was in 1998, in the Channel 8 sitcom The Right Frequency, as MediaCorp star Sharon Au's precocious teenage sister. However, she took a break from the small screen to do a three-year Theatre Training Research Programme under the late theatre director Kuo Pao Kun, and is now a full-time artiste with Fly Entertainment.

She crossed to the big screen last year, playing a misunderstood daughter in the local film Singapore Dreaming.

Her role in the musical 881 was one of her toughest to date, she says, as she had to sing, dance and act all at once.

She also found playing a getai performer a little too close to reality for comfort. "The Papaya Sisters had to endure a lot of suffering for their art, and even then, their efforts may not reap returns. I worry that that may be my future."

It is not likely, though, given her reputation in the local theatre scene now. Early this year, she won the Best Actress award at the Life! Theatre Awards, for tackling one of the most iconic roles in Chinese theatre - Fanyi from the 1934 Cao Yu classic, Thunderstorm.

Despite her misgivings, Yeo says she will persist because she now "lives and breathes acting".

Alluding to the 18 sets of outlandish dresses she had to wear for 881, she says with a laugh: "And I get to wear pretty costumes."

MOST UNLUCKY OF THE 881 CAST

WITH all the trauma that actress Mindee Ong has endured for 881, you would have thought she is in an action thriller rather than a feel-good musical.

Ong, 27, suffered four deep scratch-marks on her right arm while filming a cat-fight scene with the Teh twins. She has since recovered with no scars on her arm.

Even promoting the film has proved hazardous for Ong, who plays Little Papaya, the younger of 881's two getai-performing Papaya Sisters.

She was left with a bruised and inflamed left eye after the cast and crew were pelted by two assailants with rotten eggs while on their way to a roadshow at the start of this month. She had to wear an eye-patch for a day but, apart from having to use eye drops the rest of the week, is otherwise okay.

The actress tells Life!: "I'm the most suay (Hokkien for unlucky). No one else got injured. My skin is the thinnest among the cast members."

She adds: "Don't worry, I still love to eat eggs."

But the Fly Entertainment artiste's greatest ordeal was having to shave her shoulder-length locks to play her 881 character.

Most of the cast and crew members were crying as the shaver whirred up and down her scalp, says Ong, whose hair has now grown out into an edgy-looking crew-cut.

"They didn't even let me look at myself in the mirror, until I finished my scene," she says. "When I finally saw myself, I felt naked and cold, but it wasn't as bad as I thought."

But she won't be keeping the short crop for long. "Having long hair makes me feel more feminine."

The actress entered showbusiness at the age of 16 after winning a karaoke competition. In 2001, she made her TV debut as a tomboy student on Moulmein High, Channel 5's teen drama starring Cynthia Koh.

These days, she is more focused on stage productions and indie films. She is now preparing for the upcoming Mandarin musical, If There're Seasons, put on by Theatre Practice.

Despite her performing experience, she suffered the jitters when she and co-star Yeo Yann Yann went to a getai to perform in front of a live audience as research for the movie.

"In theatre plays or film, people pay to watch you. At a getai, you have to get the attention of your audience, one of whom could be just a construction worker cycling past the stage."

Now, she has the utmost respect for getai performers: "In the past, you think they are just some entertainers who sing a few songs or crack a few jokes. No one treats them as A-, or even B- and C-class performers."

She adds poignantly: "If you think about it, they are like you and I - they are doing this to put bread on the plate. But they bring so much joy to the heartlanders."

MEANIES? NOT US

AS THE Durian Sisters in 881, celebrity twins Teh May Wan and Choy Wan - popularly known as May and Choy - are double trouble for the Papaya Sisters.

The nefarious twosome block their rivals' route to performances, challenge them to a showdown of songs and even start a scratch fight.

But the 26-year-old twins are quick to say that in real life, they aren't anything like the Durians' prickly personas.

"It's nice to get in touch with our dark side," says Choy Wan, the younger by a minute. "But we are no bitches."

They are no Mandarin experts either. Formerly MTV Asia's VJs, the two artistes from Kosmic Film Entertainment struggled with their lines, which are mostly in Mandarin.

The Malaysian-born Australians, whose father is Norwegian and mother Chinese, grew up and studied in Australia and have spoken mostly English throughout their lives.

Although they are familiar with the Hungry Ghost Festival, during which getai is held, they have not seen any prior to the movie.

May Wan laments: "If our characters spoke in Cantonese, it would have been easier because we still spoke a bit of Cantonese when we were young."

They had fewer problems with the Hokkien numbers they had to sing, though - they had help from their aunts in Penang. "We just kept calling them, and sang to them to check our pronunciation," recalls May Wan.

The Teh sisters, who are now based in Singapore, do not mind playing the villains in their big-screen debut.

Choy Wan says confidently: "I don't think people will remember us as Ah Lians after just one movie."

SHE'S BEEN IN GETAI SINCE 12

QUICKFIRE wordplay is one of the hallmarks of a top getai host. And veteran TV actress Liu Ling Ling showed just why she is so well-regarded when she foiled with director Royston Tan at a press conference for 881 last week.

The rotund performer, 43, cracked up the audience of reporters and business associates of the film when she asked Tan the reason for casting her in two supporting roles, when there were other prettier actresses to choose from.

When Tan replied: "You have inner beauty", the plump Liu quickly retorted in Hokkien: "Oh, you like me? You like pui tee bak (fatty pork)?"

However, in one-to-one conversation, the performer leaves her outrageous onstage persona behind and assumes a quiet demeanour. She listens to your questions intently, and gives them much thought before replying.

She says: "The performer's life is a sad one. In front of the audience, you have to be happy, but who knows the tears and sweat behind the glitz and glamour?"

Liu, who has been in the getai industry for more than 30 years, plays two roles in 881 - a seamstress who supports the Papaya Sisters on the road to stardom, and her twin sister, the Goddess of Getai, who blesses performers with success.

She sees a lot of her own past in the Papaya Sisters' story.

Like Big Papaya, Liu also faced resistance from her mother, a former opera singer, when she wanted to go on the getai circuit at the tender age of 12.

"There are all sorts of people on the scene - some with not so good background," she says. "Which mother would let her daughter hang around with that kind of crowd?"

But Liu, who is married with no children, feels it is her calling to entertain people. "I feel alive every time I go onstage. If people laugh at my jokes, I'm happy, too."