REVIEW: 12 Storeys (Singapore 1997)
01-13-03, 11:12 PM
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REVIEW: 12 Storeys (Singapore 1997)
12 Storeys (Singapore 1997)
Director: Eric Khoo
Synopsis:
Tagline: Lust, Desire, Hatred
The movie tells the stories of some residents of a 12 Story apartment building in Singapore. There are 3 sets of residents that the script focuses on; An overweight woman's burden, The brother in charge of his siblings, the insecure husband and his trophy wife, all watched over by the spirit of a young man, and commentary by the residents of and about the area...
Thoughts:
WOW! This movie is amazing... it has such a personal feel to it. One can really relate to at least one of the stories presented and their characters.
The overweight woman and her naggin mother, whose bitingly harsh words really strike a cord, although the effectiveness may be lost in the Cantonese-to-English subtitle translations...
The overzealous brother that is trying to control his younger brother and sister with an iron grip while their parents are off on vacation, may really have other issues. And the siblings rebelious attitude towards the father figure of a brother... Their scenes uses mostly Singlish (Singaporean-English).
The insecure man who snags a wife from Beijing under false pretensions, and her personal motive provide tension in their relationship. Their dialogue is in Mandarin, with the husband speaking in Hokkien to his friends.
Then we have the mysterious young man's spirit watching over these tenants, and the gossiping by the other residents add some punch to the stories.
The cinematography is striking; using mostly close-ups, it provides a claustrophobic and personal relationship to the characters. The grainyness of the image add to the atmosphere of the movie. Using interesting and at times, painfull harsh dialogue, the movie has a very unique feel to it. Mostly shot on location in the cramp apartments, we are presented with a slice of life of Singaporeans...
I have to wonder if this movie is a commentary about the frustrations of the people in Singapore and Asians in general. They bare the burden of family responsibilities, and the
need to impress their peers, regardless of what needs to be done to achieve it. The dialogue in the movie is quite interesting, and the use of multiple languages, Cantonese,
English, Mandarin Hokkien and even some Malay and Filipino, really add some local flavour and shows the multi-culturism of Singapore (one of the main reasons I like Singaporean
movies so much).
But to sum it up, this is a social drama, with a touch of independent art feel to it. A dark and gritty movie, with some very good acting by the over-bearing brother (Koh Boon
Pin) and the not-so-reluctant wife (Chuan Yi Fong).
This feature has taken over "I Not Stupid" as my favourite Singaporean movie.
DVD info:
Publisher: Intelligent Video and Film, and Alliance Entertainment
Region code: All regions (The DVD cover states R3)
Video format: PAL (according to PowerDVD)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Letterbox
DVD format: DVD-5
Runtime: approx 100 mins
Soundtrack: Dolby Digital 2.0 track
Subtitles: Burnt-in English subs only when non-English dialogue is spoken, optinal English and Chinese subtitles(!) More on this later...
Chapter stops: 9
Extras: An insightful "Making Of" running 16 minutes. It consists of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the actors and the people involved in the movie's production.
Image quality:
Decent image quality, but quite grainy (maybe intended by the director/cinetographer). Sub-dued colour saturation, but good shadow detail. Compression bit-rate average about
4mbits. I did not notice any print damage like scratches or tears.
The burnt-in English subtitles are properly sized, with black border aroung the text, for easy reading. There is also optional English and Chinese subtitles. If Chinese subtitles
are selected, they appear above the burnt-in English subs. If English subs are selected, they appear during the English dialogue, when there is no burnt-in English subtitles
on-screen. The English subs are direct translations of the Singlish dialogue. These optional subs feature a black border around the white text for easy reading, and stay onscreen timely for adequate reading.
Audio quality:
Very serviceable DD 2.0. Perfectly suitable as this is a dialogue driven movie.
Notes of interest regariding the movie:
Un Certain Regard - Official Selection - Cannes 1997
Golden Maile Award - 17th Hawaii Int Film Festival
UOB Young Cinema Award - Netpac-FIPRESCI Critic's Prize - 10th Singapore Int. Film festival
While the script took 9 months to develop, the movie only took 15 days to shoot.
Watch out for product placements, as some corporations sponsored the movie!
Ratings:
Movie: 8.5/10 (Gritty and personal story telling)
DVD: 7/10 (grainy image, sub-dued colours, low bit-rate)
Movie is Highly Recommended
Director: Eric Khoo
Synopsis:
Tagline: Lust, Desire, Hatred
The movie tells the stories of some residents of a 12 Story apartment building in Singapore. There are 3 sets of residents that the script focuses on; An overweight woman's burden, The brother in charge of his siblings, the insecure husband and his trophy wife, all watched over by the spirit of a young man, and commentary by the residents of and about the area...
Thoughts:
WOW! This movie is amazing... it has such a personal feel to it. One can really relate to at least one of the stories presented and their characters.
The overweight woman and her naggin mother, whose bitingly harsh words really strike a cord, although the effectiveness may be lost in the Cantonese-to-English subtitle translations...
The overzealous brother that is trying to control his younger brother and sister with an iron grip while their parents are off on vacation, may really have other issues. And the siblings rebelious attitude towards the father figure of a brother... Their scenes uses mostly Singlish (Singaporean-English).
The insecure man who snags a wife from Beijing under false pretensions, and her personal motive provide tension in their relationship. Their dialogue is in Mandarin, with the husband speaking in Hokkien to his friends.
Then we have the mysterious young man's spirit watching over these tenants, and the gossiping by the other residents add some punch to the stories.
The cinematography is striking; using mostly close-ups, it provides a claustrophobic and personal relationship to the characters. The grainyness of the image add to the atmosphere of the movie. Using interesting and at times, painfull harsh dialogue, the movie has a very unique feel to it. Mostly shot on location in the cramp apartments, we are presented with a slice of life of Singaporeans...
I have to wonder if this movie is a commentary about the frustrations of the people in Singapore and Asians in general. They bare the burden of family responsibilities, and the
need to impress their peers, regardless of what needs to be done to achieve it. The dialogue in the movie is quite interesting, and the use of multiple languages, Cantonese,
English, Mandarin Hokkien and even some Malay and Filipino, really add some local flavour and shows the multi-culturism of Singapore (one of the main reasons I like Singaporean
movies so much).
But to sum it up, this is a social drama, with a touch of independent art feel to it. A dark and gritty movie, with some very good acting by the over-bearing brother (Koh Boon
Pin) and the not-so-reluctant wife (Chuan Yi Fong).
This feature has taken over "I Not Stupid" as my favourite Singaporean movie.
DVD info:
Publisher: Intelligent Video and Film, and Alliance Entertainment
Region code: All regions (The DVD cover states R3)
Video format: PAL (according to PowerDVD)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Letterbox
DVD format: DVD-5
Runtime: approx 100 mins
Soundtrack: Dolby Digital 2.0 track
Subtitles: Burnt-in English subs only when non-English dialogue is spoken, optinal English and Chinese subtitles(!) More on this later...
Chapter stops: 9
Extras: An insightful "Making Of" running 16 minutes. It consists of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the actors and the people involved in the movie's production.
Image quality:
Decent image quality, but quite grainy (maybe intended by the director/cinetographer). Sub-dued colour saturation, but good shadow detail. Compression bit-rate average about
4mbits. I did not notice any print damage like scratches or tears.
The burnt-in English subtitles are properly sized, with black border aroung the text, for easy reading. There is also optional English and Chinese subtitles. If Chinese subtitles
are selected, they appear above the burnt-in English subs. If English subs are selected, they appear during the English dialogue, when there is no burnt-in English subtitles
on-screen. The English subs are direct translations of the Singlish dialogue. These optional subs feature a black border around the white text for easy reading, and stay onscreen timely for adequate reading.
Audio quality:
Very serviceable DD 2.0. Perfectly suitable as this is a dialogue driven movie.
Notes of interest regariding the movie:
Un Certain Regard - Official Selection - Cannes 1997
Golden Maile Award - 17th Hawaii Int Film Festival
UOB Young Cinema Award - Netpac-FIPRESCI Critic's Prize - 10th Singapore Int. Film festival
While the script took 9 months to develop, the movie only took 15 days to shoot.
Watch out for product placements, as some corporations sponsored the movie!
Ratings:
Movie: 8.5/10 (Gritty and personal story telling)
DVD: 7/10 (grainy image, sub-dued colours, low bit-rate)
Movie is Highly Recommended
