Singapore Dreaming
Colin Goh, Wu Yen Yen
It better be a problem with the projection. It had to be. The film was out of focus for long stretches and took on a fish-eye lens effect that just strained the eyes. So this didn’t help.
Neither did the fact that most of the roles never developed into full-fledged characters. I expected more than caricatures rehashing old themes on the most superficial level. Instead, scattered pot-shots were aimed at the Loh family’s preoccupation with the 5C’s, academic pressure, paper qualifications, with nary a resounding hit. Forget about the Singapore dream, why was this their dream? Why did they want the things they want? Just kept thinking that the Talking Cock website had funnier and more insightful things to say on this, or any other, topic.
The movie’s laugh-out-loud scene was between CK (husband of Mei, the daughter) and a beer promoter from China. Language barriers are always a hoot. The scene even took an unexpected turn when the promoter reveals that she’s working in order to save up for her dream. (That’s the second time, after Homesick, that a character from China embraces Singapore as the land of opportunity. Hmm, how soon before this turns into a clichéd shorthand?)
Given the general disinterest in the characters, the movie ended up seeming overlong. Even the revelations of the long-suffering mother was too little too late.
Yeo Yann Yann stood out for her convincing portrayal of Mei, a woman who tries to do the right thing but has to battle with an inferiority complex and pressures from work and family. She wasn’t likeable but at least one could see where she was coming from.