Apple’s new film features sensual close-ups of chicken rice

To promote the film and photography features on its iPhone 13 Pro, Apple has released a new documentary about a passion point close to many Singaporeans’ hearts—chicken rice. True to Apple’s common practice, it enlisted the help of a famed director. This time, it’s David Gelb, director of Jiro Dreams of Sushi. So Ad Nut isn’t at all surprised that the film includes many tantalising close-up shots of silky, slippery poached chicken.

Centered around the fierce competition between Maxwell Food Centre’s Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice and Ah Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice, the film highlights the generational conflict of old versus new, and the craft and labour in making perfect chicken rice.

In a behind-the-scenes film, Gelb spoke of the challenges of shooting in a hot, confined space while presenting the daily activities of the two chicken rice stalls in an authentic way.

The campaign also involves local content creators who headed to hawker centres to capture moments in Singapore’s in hawker centres, aimed to spotlight the phone’s cinematic mode, macro-video, and slo-mo among other features. Think close-ups of flaky curry puffs being torn in half to reveal a spicy potato filling; a cool, green bowl of cendol topped with a heaping of corn and kidney beans; and the slap of roti prata dough being beaten against a metal counter. 

As Ad Nut has written this review dangerously close to lunchtime, Ad Nut is off to see about this case of the rumbles. 

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