Genre: Drama
Director: Jack Neo
Cast: Aileen Tan, Mark Lee, Wang Lei, Suhaimi Yusof, Ryan Lian, Benjamin Tan, Yan Li Xuan, Ng Suan Loi, Charmaine Sei
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Nudity)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment, Golden Village Pictures, Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 4 February 2016

Synopsis: LONG LONG TIME AGO follows the trials and tribulations of a family from 1965 to the early 1970s. Their journey through the years from their humble kampong to a modern HDB flat, runs in parallel with Singapore’s early growth. On 9 August 1965, Zhao Di (Aileen Tan) is driven from her husband's home. The same night, she gives birth to twins, Shun Fatt and Su-mei. Unfortunately, Su-mei is born with two moles on her face – a sign of misfortune for the family. Under her family’s pressure, Zhao Di is forced to give Su-mei away. This is only the first of many challenges, but with Zhao Di’s indomitable spirit, the family perseveres to make a better life for themselves. Over the years, the family witnesses every step of the nation’s growth.

Movie Review:

‘Long Long Time Ago’ is our very own Jack Neo’s ode to a bygone era from half a century ago, so it is no coincidence that this tale of a family who lives through Singapore’s formative years of independence begins on the very day that we were kicked out of Malaysia.

It is on that day that a very pregnant Zhao Di (Aileen Tan) is driven out of her husband’s home by his first wife, and moves back with her three daughters to stay with her father (Wang Lei), her second brother Ah Kun (Mark Lee) and his family, and third brother Ah Xi (Benjamin Tan).

The analogy is straightforward – like Singapore, Zhao Di finds the burden of her own survival thrust onto her on 9 August 1965, and it is hardly any surprise that her subsequent display of tenacity and indomitable spirit as she perseveres to provide for her immediate and extended family are pretty much the same qualities that have been celebrated as the fundamental elements of our nation’s success.

Out of sheer narrative contrivance too, it is on that very day that Zhao Di gives birth to a pair of twins – a boy named Shun Fatt with one mole on his face as well as a girl named Su-mei with two – and while the former is regarded as a sign of prosperity, the latter is seen as bad luck to the family and promptly given away to a wealthy but childless plantation owner (played by none other than Neo himself) and his wife.

As narrated by Zhao Di’s oldest daughter Su-ting, theirs is a story of the trials and tribulations of the family through the early years of Singapore’s independence, with this first part of a duology (yes, this is like ‘Ah Boys to Men’ and ‘The Lion Men’ a story split in halves) spanning a four-year period.

That is enough to see Zhao Di go from selling soya bean milk and beancurd from a makeshift push-cart, where she has to contend with frequent spot-checks by the health inspectors and gangsters demanding protection money, to setting up a stall in the canteen of a factory at the start of Singapore’s industrialisation programme.

Along the way, Neo highlights several iconic moments in our history, including the first Identity Card (IC) registration in 1966, the first National Service (NS) call-up in 1967, the first elections since independence in 1968, the race riots of 1969, and last but not least the big floods in the same year over Hari Raya Puasa.

Each of these junctures is intended as a turning point for the population at large as well as for our characters, but as well-intentioned as these signposts of our history are meant to be, Neo (who shares screenwriting credit with Link Sng and Ivan Ho) struggles to weave them into the individual and collective fates of the latter.

Indeed, Ah Kun’s cynicism about Singapore’s ability to survive without a hinterland as he stands in line during the 1966 nationwide IC registration exercise seems to vanish as soon as he reaches the head of the queue; ditto for the concomitant apprehension expressed by his Malay neighbour Osman’s (Suhaimi Yusof) wife about staying in a Chinese-majority country vis-à-vis migrating to live with a majority up north. On the other hand, there is hardly any attention paid to how Ah Xi feels as the first batch of male citizens called to perform their national duty, even as he dutifully reports for enlistment.

In particular, Neo’s attempt to make the 1969 race riots personally relevant for his characters feels especially awkward and unwieldy – not only is it puzzling why Ah Kun, who had never before expressed any racially discriminatory sentiments, would suddenly spread mistruths and disinformation about the Malays attacking the Chinese, Neo’s ultimate point about how fragile our racial cohesion is and how important inter-racial friendships are to keeping the peace and harmony comes off sounding didactic.  

It is only right at the end does Neo finally manage to translate a historical milestone into something momentous for his characters, as Neo recreates – with some generous help from CGI – the torrential downpour on 10 December 1965 that led to the worst floods in Singapore in over three decades. In that event, Neo captures the fear, anxiety and helplessness of those living in the ‘kampungs’ through Zhao Di and her family, who find their house gradually inundated by the rising waters and paralysed by the dilemma whether to wait for help or make their own way to higher ground.

That finale is as dramatic and emotionally gripping as it gets, but it also underscores just how indifferent the rest of the ‘checkpoints’ in history have been to his central narrative. Therein lies the crux, or should we say crutch, of Neo’s film – by trying to balance the significant events in Singapore’s history with the ups and downs of a family living through that era, it ends up being too episodic and scattershot to truly resonate.

In effect, it is when Neo allows his story to develop more organically that his film comes alive – and a good case in point is the relationship between Zhao Di and a local gangster Ah Long (Ryan Lian) which evolves convincingly from intimidation to mutual gratitude. Ditto for the sibling tension between Zhao Di and Ah Kun in the last act, especially as the latter grows increasingly resentful of his sister’s modest success and demands to have a share of her relative wealth.

That these character relationships come off surprisingly engaging is also credit to the largely excellent ensemble. Mark Lee and Aileen Tan are some of the most seasoned local performers, and Neo has designed their characters to play to their respective strengths as an actor – the former brash, hot-headed and egotistical, while the latter gentle, restrained yet quietly resilient. Lei continues to be a reliable supporting act as their archaically superstitious father, while Yusof adds a nice dose of lightness as the cheery Osman. Once again, Neo demonstrates his eye for new talent, and his revelation here is Lian, whose dangerously menacing turn as the head of the local gang 706 is mesmerising to watch.   

It is no secret that Neo is a big fan of nostalgia, and ‘Long Long Time Ago’ is probably his boldest attempt yet to translate his own personal experience into a compelling portrait of history. His enthusiasm and attention to detail is right up there on the screen – not just in the visually accurate representations of the ‘kampungs’ and streets of pre-HDB Singapore supplemented with painstakingly sourced archival footage, but also in how he captures the heartbeat of ‘kampung life’ through the norms and values of its people (such as gender preference or 重男轻女).

That his depiction of Singapore in its early years will resonate with those who have lived through the era is an understatement, but beyond that familiarity, there is little else that does – not the boorish Ah Kun and his manipulative ways, and maybe ever just so slightly Zhao Di and her quiet resolve. What should be poignant ends up leaving you feeling detached and apathetic, and there are also not enough laughs to compensate for the lack of compelling familial drama. Perhaps the best praise for this middling blend of history and fiction is that it is much, much better than last year’s ‘1965’, but ‘Long Long Time Ago’ still has a long, long way to go to become that definitive tribute to our past.

Movie Rating:

(Jack Neo's attention to setting and detail in depicting Singapore's early years is impressive, but an uneven and scattershot narrative that tries too hard to weave significant events in Singapore’s history with the ups and downs of a family in that era ultimately leaves his viewers emotionally indifferent)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama
Director: Sarah Gavron
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff, Grace Stolor, Geoff Bell
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 31 December 2015

Synopsis: SUFFRAGETTE is an intense drama that tracks the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State. Fighting for the right to vote, these women were not only from the genteel educated classes, there were working women among them who had seen peaceful protest achieve nothing. Radicalised and turning to violence as the only route to change, they were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality - their jobs, their homes, their children and their lives. MAUD was one such foot soldier. The story of her fight for dignity is both heart-breaking and inspirational.

Movie Review:

Movies about historical movements to overcome injustices often suffer from becoming an exercise in complacency, reflecting on injustices of the past from a position of moral high ground as audiences are taken through a morality play that shakes its head at how terrible things were and how much better they are now.

Once in a while though, there comes a movie that escapes that fate and manages to humanise the movement while making the audience realise that injustices exist regardless of the era we are in and we are not necessarily better than our forefathers.

Unfortunately, Suffragette is not one of those movies.

That doesn’t mean it is a bad movie. It is a polished and well-intentioned movie which is hard to dislike. However, its neatness is precisely what makes it hard for audiences to connect completely with the movie. A well-packaged film that moves along well enough, Suffragette is serious about its material but it doesn’t get your blood pumping or your heart racing even as you watch the women fight for their rights even if you are a woman (like I am) and should be able to relate more easily to the suffering of the characters.

Mind you, it’s not because of poor acting either. Carey Mulligan does an admirable portrayal of a downtrodden East End laundry lady who finds herself the reluctant heroine in the movement. As 24-year old Maud Watts, Mulligan’s role is that the amalgam of the different women involved in the movement and serves as the guide to the audience to the women’s movement. Mulligan puts in a fine performance as she convinces you that Maud’s awakened sense of righteousness can be easily snuffed out when she is placed in prison for a week for acting on that sense of righteousness.  Helena Bonham Carter also puts in a fine performance as Edith Ellyn, the one ‘soldier’ who is the most frighteningly committed to the cause.

While the movie humanises the women and the female characters are carefully thought-out rich personalities with clear motives driving, the male characters are pretty much the opposite. They are one-dimensional characters whose presence serves mainly as a counterfoil to the female characters. The men who do not support the cause are either ignorant fools or are narrow-minded chauvinist pigs. This broad brush treatment is a great pity as the humanisation of these faceless foes would have enhanced the narrative and introduced new nuances to two sides of the struggles rather than cast them moralistically and somewhat blandly into either the ‘good’ camp or the ‘bad’ camp.

The set design and costume is well-done and brings one back in time to the relevant era. That, unfortunately, is also the issue with this movie. Against the current backdrop of issues on the treatment of women in the movie industry, such as the disparity in pay between female and male movie stars, and women gaining the rights to vote for the first time in some places, this film could have been extremely relevant and strike a chord with audiences. However, this movie, while well-done, fails to maximise its potential and comes across as a polished but bland historical drama watch through a self-righteous and moralistic retrospective filter. 

Movie Rating:

(Suffragette hits the notes but fails to soar. Worth a watch for the good acting but don’t expect to go away feeling pumped for the women fighting the cause)

Review by Katrina Tee

Genre: Sci-Fi/Thriller
Director: J Blakeson
Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Ron Livingston, Liev Schreiber, Maria Bello, Maika Monroe, Maggie Siff
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Rating: PG13 (Violence and Brief Coarse Language)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International
Official Website: http://www.5thwavemovie.net/ 

Opening Day: 14 January 2016

Synopsis: In the new film The 5th Wave, four waves of increasingly deadly attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Against a backdrop of fear and distrust, Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother. As she prepares for the inevitable and lethal 5th wave, Cassie teams up with a young man who may become her final hope - if she can only trust him.

Movie Review:

With the conclusion of lucrative franchises such as Twilight, The Hunger Games and the impending end to Divergent, Sony has finally jumped onto the YA adaptations bandwagon by releasing The 5^th Wave into theaters this week without an advance critics screening.     

You might think this is a bad omen. After all, bad or good marketing vibes are still considered as marketing. Surprise.. Surprise.. even though The 5^th Wave is not at the same level of the much-acclaimed Hunger Games, it remains for much of the running time a captivating and thrilling watch.

Based on a trilogy of books by American author Rick Yancey, the protagonist of the movie is Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Grace Moretz), a teenager living in Ohio whose ordinary life is altered after a mysterious alien invasion starts killing every humans on earth. The first wave involved a deadly EMP wave, the second involved massive tsunamis and the third, a deadly plague. Those that survived await the fourth and fifth wave. Aliens dubbed ‘the others’ took on human forms and start massacring every living human except children. When the army takes Cassie’s younger brother Sam away to a refugee camp, Cassie must try all means to get back to Sam even if it means risking being shot by ‘the others’ and flying drones. 

Let’s face it whether it’s on the small screen or the silver screen; it is always aliens or zombies roaming around in a deserted post-apocalypse world. The 5^th Wave very much toys and revolves with the same idea and element. In short, mankind is basically doomed. Fortunately, director J. Blakeson knows how to package and tell a familiar story in an entertaining way and as an added bonus, he has a competent actress in the form of Chloe “Hit Girl” Grace Moretz onboard.

With the tragic loss of her parents, Chloe Grace Moretz is equally vulnerable and tough as Cassie. The opening sequence is so intense that it effortlessly sets the tone of the movie. No doubt, Chloe is such a consummate performer, her acting so flawless that you will almost forgive her stint in the crappy romantic weepie If I Stay. Just like Katniss can’t do without Peeta and Gale, Cassie has the help of Evan Walker (Alex Roe), a boy who lived on a farm and her high school crush, Ben Parish (Nick Robinson from Jurassic World) to assist her in fighting her way to Sam. The 5^th Wave has a lot in common with The Hunger Games. The main hero is female, caught between two guys and is always ready to step up to protect her younger sibling. Different universe, same character.

Of course, The 5^th Wave won’t win any awards for originality and I’m definitely not saying Yancey is plagiarizing somebody else's work. It is simply a tough act to balance formula and creativity nowadays. In between all the survivalism and action, there are some contrived romantic scenes between Cassie and Evan; but you have to bear in mind this is ultimately based on a teen-centric material. Veterans Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Maria Bello (A History of Violence) appear as shady military personnel. As to what these two are up to, the less you know, the better.

Despite familiar characterizations, The 5^th Wave is a glossy, polished product that won’t actually stand out in the overcrowded dystopian fantasy genre but warrant for a satisfying weekday viewing. Satisfying meaning the performance and pacing is great with one obvious gripe, you have to pray for two more sequels to know the outcome of Cassie’s fate (and who she chooses in the end if you are the nosy sort). 

Movie Rating:

(Familiar yet adequate for casual viewing)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Comedy
Director: Chapman To
Cast: Chapman To, Aimee Chan, C-Kwan, Lo Hoi Pang, Tommy Kuan, Daphne Low, Patricia Mok, Fiona Sit, Luk Wing Kuen, Steve Yap, Henley Hii, Mark Lee, Jeremy Chan, Henry Thia
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Rating: TBA
Released By: Clover Films and Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/LetsEatMovie

Opening Day: 5 February 2016

Synopsis: Ah Yong Café, a reputable cafe famous for its Hainanese Chicken Rice, has been a popular eatery since the 80’s. While business now is nowhere near its heyday, it still attracts a steady flow of regular customers. Showing signs of dementia, restaurant owner Ah Yong (Lo Hoi Pang) decides to retire, he entrusts the café to his apprentice cum head Chef Dai Hung (Chapman To) and his daughter Rosemary (Aimee Chan), who has just returned from Europe.

Rosemary is adamant about revolutionizing Ah Yong Café to cater to a younger crowd and has no qualms about using lower-grade ingredients to bring costs down. This infuriates Dai Hung, a principled chef who only serves food made from the freshest ingredients and focuses on keeping the tradition of the café. The two soon becomes loggerheads as they disapprove of each other’s style of working.

Initially, the revamped Ah Yong Café bustles with business with the newly introduced menu and gimmicks, however, the lack-lustre food soon causes the business to suffer and draw flakes from customers and critics. One particular harsh review from the infamous but anonymous food blogger Michelin caused the dwindling business to suffer even further. The regular customers stop patronizing the café and the new customers are turned off.

Indignant and determined to save the reputation of Ah Yong Café and revive its business, Rosemary decides to enter a cooking competition organized by a regional television channel. In the face of predicament, Dai Hung and Rosemary make up and join forces to create a dish for the competition. Rosemary finally understands the true meaning of good food and love, yet, Dai Hung goes missing on the day of the competition…

Movie Review:

Till this date, Stephen Chow’s ‘God of Cookery’ remains the gold standard in culinary-themed comedies, and to be sure, Chapman To’s ‘Let’s Eat!’ won’t be changing that yardstick anytime soon; notwithstanding, To’s dish of familiar yet agreeable ingredients makes for an amusing and heartwarming lesson on putting your heart into everything that you do (or in this case, cook), so you don’t have to worry about sending this back to the kitchen at all.

Assuming multi-hyphenate duties here, To not only directs but also writes and stars as the head chef Dai Hung of the once-Michelin starred Ah Yong Café. Its titular owner (Lo Hoi Pang) old and showing signs of dementia, Dai Hung now runs the café with a loyal bunch of servers, including the nerdy bespectacled Brushie (FAMA’s C-Kwan), the pudgy gentle-mannered Gayon (Tommy Kuan) and the coy ingénue Beancurd Flower (Daphne Low). A better cook than businessperson, Dai Hung’s insistence on using only the freshest ingredients for his customers while keeping prices constant means that the restaurant hasn’t turned in a decent profit in years and struggles in fact just to break even.

Before his memory totally fails him, Ah Yong decides to entrust his café to his eldest daughter Rosemary (Aimee Chan), who so happens to return to Malaysia after completing her Masters in hospitality management in Switzerland. Rosemary is a businesswoman at heart, and decides to change how the restaurant is run in order that it stays in the black. Besides making superficial improvements with technology (such as getting customers to make their own orders on iPads), Rosemary overhauls the menu to introduce new-fangled products like Korean fried chicken, fish and chips, and ‘Bangkok Wolverine’ (or ‘tom yum goong’ really) while settling for cheaper ingredients in order to lower costs.

Thus sets the basis for their loggerheads with each other, one the principled head chef who adamantly refuses to part with tradition and perfection and the other the savvy management head who is eager to innovate and do what it takes to improve the bottom line. When the deteriorating food quality is slammed by a famous food blogger by the name of Michelin, is it any wonder that Dai Hung and Rosemary will eventually put aside their differences in order to save the restaurant from oblivion? In fact, is it also any wonder that they will, in the process, fall in love with each other despite recovering from the bruises of their respective previous relationships?

Like we said, originality isn’t the strong suit of his script (who shares screenwriting credit with Lai Chaing Ming and Ang Siew Hoong), but To makes it work with a nice yin-yang chemistry between himself and Chan. As always, To nails the role of the comically self-effacing individual with his amiable easy-going charm, and he shares a pleasingly complementary rapport next to Chan playing the stern and largely humourless rival. It is a pity that To’s writing is a little too thin on the characters, such that Dai Hung and Rosemary’s relationship doesn’t quite evolve during the course of the movie as much as we would have liked it to.

For that same reason, the climax that takes place at a cooking competition organised by a regional TV channel right here in Singapore feels somewhat anti-climactic, especially because Rosemary’s redemption lies at the hands of a French chef and a local food critic who discloses during the judging process that she doesn’t even like chicken to begin with. Even a little twist at the end that reveals the identity of Michelin is hardly any surprise, and the happily-ever-after ending for Dai Hung and Rosemary (were you expecting any different from a CNY movie?) feels more obligatory than deserved despite the former having just recently rejected the advances of a former flame (Fiona Sit).

Yet to begrudge To for these flaws seems parsimonious, for To remains delightfully good-natured company to be in the presence of for a good hour and a half. To’s comedic sensibilities have not dulled even though he assumes multiple duties – an early sequence where he and C Kwan are at a Korean fried chicken outlet dissing the ‘chicken from the stars’ is classically To, and another where and he and Rosemary are at dinner with her father and younger sister sees the former deliver a hilarious monologue which is spot-on in its analogy of how politicians speak. Not all the jokes hit the mark though – in particular, a sequence where Singapore’s own Henry Thia is accused of being Michelin is too belaboured to inspire any laughs; and the same can be said of the token few lines given to Mark Lee who guest stars as the creator of the gastronomic competition.  

It needs to be said too that a significant portion of the humour is lost in the Mandarin-dubbed version that is screened in Singapore cinemas, such that To, Chan and C Kwan are heard completely in Mandarin throughout the entire film. That is of course no fault of To’s, who has put his heart into creating an uneven but nonetheless well-intentioned film that emphasises the importance of finding true meaning in the pursuit of innovation or the upkeep of tradition. This is no classic surely, but there are good laughs and great company to be had with ‘Let’s Eat!’, which is more than enough for a pleasing Lunar New Year offering.

Movie Rating:

(Chapman To's direction is a little rough around the edges, but his chemistry with Aimee Chan and his infectious screen presence is good enough to make a pleasing Lunar New Year offering)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Sports/Comedy
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Cast: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Rune Temte, Lasco Atkins, Tim McInnerny, Jo Hartley, Edvin Endre, Anastasia Harrold, Ania Sowinski, Christopher Walken
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 31 March 2016

Synopsis:  The film details the inspiring exploits of Michael Edwards, better known as “Eddie the Eagle,” the most famous ski jumper in British history The film’s portrayal of Edwards’ never-say-die approach to the sport, celebrates the human spirit and resilience in the face of extraordinary odds and challenges. Taron Egerton, who made his feature film starring debut in Kingsman: The Secret Service, portrays Eddie the Eagle, and Hugh Jackman plays a ski jumping expert who helps Eddie train for the Calgary Olympics.

Movie Review:

It’s been a while we felt so good about a movie, and we’re glad to see it in this British American biographical sports dramedy.

Blame it on an unhealthy lifestyle, but this reviewer isn’t exactly the sportiest person you’ll know. When it comes to sports movies, there is only so much interest he can sustain before he begins predicts the plot development and the inspiring ending. So it is rather surprising that he managed to feel pleasantly engaged throughout the film’s 106 minute runtime. And then he realised how likeable the filmmakers have made the characters in the movie to be.

The protagonist of the story is Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, a British skier who became the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping in 1988. The average looking dude (you have to love the geeky glasses) was the British ski jumping record holder, the world number nine in amateur speed skiing and the stunt jumping world record holder. Sounds fancy on paper? Edwards also happened to finish last in the 70m and 90m events, making him somewhat a failure. But the dude was so likeable to the media that he became as an example of an underdog or “heroic failure”, something that the world loves – especially when he managed to get to such a status with mere perseverance and without funding.

The filmmakers must have spotted this trait to cast Welsh actor Taron Egerton, who is best known for radiating his likeability in 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service. The 26 year old good looker tries his best to play the part by constantly jutting out his chin and pushing his oversized glasses up his nose. You know this is an attempt to look nerdy, but thanks to Egerton’s likeability, you warm up to his character in no time. In fact, when you see him repeatedly falling (literally and figuratively), there’s a part of you who want to shout “Don’t give up! Go, Eddie, go!”

Such is the successful characterisation of this real life character by director Dexter Fletcher. Adding star power to the film is Hugh Jackman (Chappie, Pan) as his fictional coach and Christopher Walken (Stand Up Guys, Jersey Boys) as Jackman’s mentor. Other fine Englishmen in supporting roles include Tim McInnerny (Johnny English Reborn) and Jim Broadbent (Brooklyn).

For a film about ski jumping, it delivers in the thrill department as well. With principal photography taking place in Oberstdorf and Garmisch Partenkirchen in Germany’s Bavaria and also in Seefeld in Austria’s Tirol, expect to see lots of breathtaking ski jumping sequences set in breathtaking snowscape backdrops. With some point of view shots, you can feel the adrenaline rush (and also the possibilities of very, very dangerous consequences) of what ski jumpers go through.

Above all, this is a crowd pleaser which has heartwarming themes, exciting sports sequences and commendable performances from its well rounded ensemble cast – not bad in this day and age where almost every film is dripping with cynicism and skepticism. You’ll walk out of the cinema smiling. 

Movie Rating:

(The very likeable film may be too much of a crowd pleaser for some, but it’s something we’ve been missing in these cynical times)

Review by John Li

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Jang Jae-hyun
Cast: Kim Yoon-seok, Gang Dong-won, Park So-dam
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Horror)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 7 January 2016

Synopsis: 2015, Seoul. After getting involved in a hit-and-run accident, a girl named Young-shin suffers from various inexplicable phenomenons… Father Kim (KIM Yoon-seok) is a renegade priest who is shunned by the church for breaking rules and codes of conduct over the years. Despite everyone’s pleas, he decides to conduct one last exorcism on Young-shin and begins to make preparations. For the exorcism to be carried out successfully, Father Kim requires an assistant, someone who is witty, and bold. Deacon Choi (GANG Dong-won) is chosen for the role, who is given a secret mission by the church to monitor Father Kim and report any wrongdoings. Once the preparation is complete, they walk into Young-shin’s bedroom. Fully knowing that they may not walk out of there alive, they begin the dangerous ritual…

Movie Review:

You wouldn’t normally expect to see a full-blown exorcism in a South Korean movie, so consider us intrigued when we first heard of writer/ director Jang Jae-hyun’s ‘The Priests’. True enough, Jang’s film is the first of its kind to dabble in the ‘occult’, a genre typically associated with Western cinema for both cultural and historical reasons. Digging deep into Roman Catholic theology to deliver a largely accurate depiction of the oft-misunderstood ritual, Jang delivers a tense and frequently edge-of-your-seat gripping portrait of the eternal fight between light and darkness, a theme which he also similarly explored in his award-winning 2014 short ‘12^th Assistant Deacon’.

As in that short, the key protagonists are a renegade priest Father Kim (Kim Yun-seok) and a priest-in-training Deacon Choi (Gang Dong-won), who team up to save a young girl Young-shin (Park So-dam) that begins to exhibit one of the twelve manifestations of evil tracked by the Rosicrucrianism after a hit-and-run accident. Young-shin was a member of Father Kim’s congregation when he was a priest of a church in the countryside, and it is partly their history that compels him to take matters into his own hands when the other members of his flock disapprove of his intentions to conduct an exorcism for Young-shin for fear of spooking the public.

It is hardly the first time that Kim is playing the role of the rebellious, tough-talking veteran, and he does it here with aplomb. He expresses with keenness not only the toll that Father Kim’s fight with the demon inside Young-shin has taken on him, but also the conviction of his character’s faith in the power of God over evil that gives him the strength to press on. Yet the film belongs as much to Father Kim as it does to Deacon Choi, a fresh-eyed ingénue who is plucked out of theology school to assist Father Kim while acting as spy for the larger Catholic fraternity to keep an eye on their wayward brethren - and unlike Father Kim, his motivation is less to save a life than to save himself from a life of studying in the seminary.

Needless to say, Deacon Choi soon finds himself way out of his depth as he is confronted with the very definition of evil, but there is more to Choi than just his naivety; indeed, Choi remains haunted to this day by the guilt of a traumatic childhood accident where he failed to save his sister from being bitten to death by a ferocious dog. It is this frailty that the demon will exploit to taunt and scare him in the midst of the rite of exorcism, and Gang embodies his character’s transformation from fear to temerity with wide-eyed wonder and tenacity. His character is intended as Father Kim’s complement as well as a passing-of-the-baton from veteran to rookie, and Gang shares an engaging dynamic with Kim in their scenes together.

Rather than contrive to take his audiences through a protracted story of Father Kim’s battle with the demon within Young-shin, Jang opts for a much simpler narrative that places its emphasis on authenticity. Pretty much most of the first half is set-up for an elaborate display of the ritual in the second half, which takes place over the course of one full-moon night in a dingy top-floor apartment located at the heart of the bustling Myeong-dong district. Nonetheless, the first hour remains a riveting watch, constructed with scenes to underscore the peril that Father Kim and Deacon Choi will soon find themselves in. The procedure itself in its full extended glory is also more than worth the wait, packed with moments of sheer terror as the duo attempt to draw the evil spirit to reveal its name while overcoming their own personal demons.

For being the first of its kind, Jang deserves even more credit for successfully demonstrating how to ‘localise’ a genre that has never been associated with K-cinema or K-horror for that matter. Despite being his feature filmmaking debut, Jang exhibits a strong grasp of mise-en-scene, especially with the contrast of light and dark in the film’s visuals. Jang’s choice to film his movie on location in busy neighbourhoods and districts in Seoul, Anyang and Daegu also gives it a strong sense of place, and a particularly nice touch in that regard is the depiction of a traditional Korean shamanistic ritual right before the rite of exorcism. Oh yes, ‘The Priests’ is terrifying all right, bolstered in part by its heightened sense of realism, and besides being a bold new entry into a subject matter yet unexplored in that context, it is a perfectly worthy addition to the genre in its own right. 

Movie Rating:

(Gripping with moments of sheer terror, 'The Priests' is notable not just for being the first South Korean 'exorcism' film, but a perfectly worthy addition to the genre in its own right)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama
Director: Lenny Abrahamson　
Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Langauge)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://www.room-filmintl.com/index.php

Opening Day: 14 January 2016

Synopsis: Both highly suspenseful and deeply emotional, ROOM is a unique and touching exploration of the boundless love between a mother and her child. After 5-year-old Jack and his Ma escape from the enclosed surroundings that Jack has known his entire life, the boy makes a thrilling discovery: the outside world. As he experiences all the joy, excitement, and fear that this new adventure brings, he holds tight to the one thing that matters most of all—his special bond with his loving and devoted Ma.

Movie Review:

Imagine if the only world you grew up knowing was the inside of a 10-by-10 foot garden shed, equipped with a tub, a sink, a skylight, a bed, a closet and a toaster oven. Then imagine if you were the mother of a five-year-old boy imprisoned in such a place, abducted at the tender age of 19 by a stranger and raped systematically by the same man over the years, your child an unfortunate product of his beastly ways but simultaneously the only reason for which there is to live. As far-fetched as the premise of Emma Donoghue’s 2010 Man Booker-prize shortlisted novel may sound to you, it really isn’t – indeed, Donoghue was inspired by the infamous Josef Fritzl case in modern-day Austria, where a man confined his daughter in his basement for 24 years, where she gave birth to seven children fathered by him.

If ‘Room’ therefore sounds like a horror story, it is – and it isn’t. Adapted by Donoghue herself, it stays remarkably true to its source material by preserving the story from the boy, Jack’s (Jacob Tremblay), point of view and putting us squarely within his head space. And so rather than a physical and mental prison, everything for Jack in Room (not a “room” or “the room”, but simply “Room”) is significant and interesting. Each morning, Jack says, “Good morning, Room”, and proceeds to greet the objects and furnishings, “Good morning, Lamp/ Sink/ Bed/ Plant”. He reads aloud to his mother Ma (Brie Larson) before they sprint around Room for track practice. On the occasion of his fifth birthday, they even bake a cake in their tiny toaster oven – though Jack does make a fuss when the cake doesn’t come with any birthday candles.

That Jack has grown up to regard Room as his wonderland is no coincidence – in order to guard Jack’s innocence and well-being, Ma has created a safe world in Room for him, so much so that he thinks the outdoors is outer space and everything else in the world is trapped inside the television. In actual fact, the horror of their situation remains just as real. While Old Nick visits every night through a code-locked door to provide them with food, clothes and supplies, his nocturnal visits are also demands for sex, for which Ma makes sure Jack remains hidden in a cupboard and which we likewise observe either offscreen or hazily through cracks in the wardrobe. Old Nick’s tyranny however is all around – from the bruises on Ma to the scarcity of food to his punishment of turning off the power and heat for two days after an altercation.

The last act in particular triggers Ma to devise an escape plan for the both of them, which hinges on a dramatic change of perspective on Jack’s part, especially to appreciate that there is a much, much larger world outside of Room. When the time finally comes for Jack to make a break for it, it is as heart-stopping as it gets, even though it is hardly a guess whether he and Ma do get out. That development however divides ‘Room’ neatly into two acts, the second of which hits Ma and Jack with life outside of Room, which becomes a hugely disorienting experience that both mother and son spend some time getting used to and coming to terms with – and from the initial two-hander, the list of characters expands to include Ma’s parents Nancy (Joan Allen) and Robert (William H. Macy) as well as Nancy’s co-habitating partner Leo (Tom McCamus).

Because the two acts are quite distinct from each other, comparisons between them are somewhat inevitable, with the former likely emerging as the stronger half. Relying solely on Room as its setting and on the intimate relationship between mother and son, it conveys with crystal clarity not just the dread that their day-to-day existence is fraught with but more importantly how Ma has kept Jack’s mind and whimsy alive through her fantastical explanations of their surroundings. There is credit due all around – together with cinematographer Danny Cohen and production designer Ethan Tobman, director Lenny Abrahamson has created a world that is both painfully claustrophobic and yet expansive and never-suffocating, so that you will feel every inch of the cramped space as well as a profound sense of resilience in how Ma and Jack have managed to adapt to their current living conditions.

That the bond between Ma and Jack feels a little less defined in the latter act is to be expected, given how it deals also with their immediate relatives recover and heal from the ordeal. Can you blame Joy’s father for not being able to bring himself to look at his grandson, who was, after all fathered by a rapist? Or her mother struggling to come to terms with how she has lost seven years with her teenage daughter, who cannot yet quite bring herself to describe her harrowing experience? Or even Joy, who is at a loss for words when she is asked by a TV news host why she had taken Jack to live with her in Room all those years rather than let him live outside with Old Nick? There is a considerable shift of gears to portray life outside Room, but it also makes for a much more textured narrative.

It speaks volumes of the tremendous casting of Larson and Tremblay when we say that we cannot quite imagine ‘Room’ without the two of them. Larson’s breakout performance was in a similarly tough and vulnerable role in the 2013 drama ‘Short Term 12’, but the actress is simply astonishing here covering a whole gamut of emotions from fear, anger, defeat, perseverance, tenacity, possessiveness and utter despair as she struggles to keep Jack healthy, safe and happy while fighting off the temptation to sink into depression. Especially poignant is her portrayal of maternal love towards Jack, anchored by a terrific rapport between herself and newcomer Tremblay.  The latter expresses both youthful innocence and profound depth in his debut role, and there is never a false note in his genuine and genuinely affecting performance.

As exploitative as its premise may sound, ‘Room’ transcends any doubts or scepticism one may have by simply being a beautifully observed portrait of hope and promise amidst horror and depravity. At its core is a deeply poignant parent/child relationship, rich and fascinating in its portrayal of the depths, possibilities and transformative power of parental love and beautifully realised by two of the very best acting you’ll see this year. Even more amazing is how it is told in the childlike wonder of its younger protagonist without coming off cloying or treacly in any way, but as a celebration of the immense ability of the human spirit and pure ingenuity to survive and thrive amidst some of the direst circumstances. It is both survival tale and family drama all at once, and remarkable either way.

Movie Rating:

(Tenderly and terrificly realised, this portrait of the depths, possibilities and transformative power of parental love amidst horror and depravity is one of the most intimately poignant films of the year)

Review by Gabriel Chong 

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Jason Zada
Cast: Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney, Eoin Macken, Yukiyoshi Ozawa
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Rating: PG13 (Horror)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International 
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/TheForestIsReal/

Opening Day: 7 January 2016

Synopsis: A supernatural thriller set in the legendary Aokigahara Forest at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan. A young American woman, Sara (Natalie Dormer of “Game of Thrones” and “The Hunger Games”), goes in search of her twin sister, who has mysteriously disappeared. Despite everyone’s warnings to “stay on the path,” Sara enters the forest determined to discover the truth about her sister’s fate – only to be confronted by the angry and tormented souls of the dead that prey on anyone who wanders into the forest.

Movie Review:

So slightly more than a decade after ‘The Grudge’, Hollywood has decided to take its own original idea to Japan – rather than the other way round – for a horror movie, though we hardly blame you for feeling sceptical about the excursion. For one, instead of casting a Japanese in the leading role, it resorts to convention to bring an American woman all the way to Tokyo and sets her up with yet another American who just happens to be in the area. For two, it calculatedly weaves a tale of fiction around the real-life Aokigahara Forest, a dense jungle at the northwest base of Mount Fuji in Japan notorious for being the most popular site for committing suicide in Japan. And yet, despite these obvious reservations, ‘The Forest’ is in fact a pretty decent low-budget horror, one that incorporates J-horror tropes into a surprisingly suspenseful story of psychological malaise.

Through a series of flashbacks occurring as the twenty-something year-old Sara Price (Natalie Dormer) journeys to the Land of the Rising Sun, we are told of how she has a twin sister named Jess working as a school teacher in Tokyo who has mysteriously disappeared into the titular Suicide Forest about five days ago. Convinced by her unspoken connection since young that Jess is still alive, Sara leaves her boyfriend in the States and goes alone in search of Jess – that is, even though she is warned by one of Jess’ former students that her sister may very well have become one of the ‘yokai’ (or ‘angry spirits’) roaming that part of the woods. Somewhat too fortuitously, Sara runs into a reporter named Aiden (Taylor Kinney) working for an Australian travel magazine who takes an interest in her predicament and offers to let her use his guide Michi (Yukiyoshi Ozawa) to explore the forest in return for giving him permission to write about her.

As they always do, things take a turn for the worse after she steps off the beaten track – not only does she start hearing voices all around, Sara becomes disillusioned after seeing a schoolgirl who claims to carry a message from Jess not to trust Aiden. Is Aiden whom he says he is? Is he hiding some secret from Sara? Did he know Jess and if so, was he in some way responsible for her disappearance or worse death? Sara plays with these doubts in her mind even as we are teased with these same uncertainties. According to Western horror, Aiden would probably have met Jess a few days before and be at the very least linked to her fate; but as any self-respecting J-horror fan will tell you, you’ll do wiser than to trust an innocent-looking schoolgirl who claims to be helpful.

Not to spoil any surprises for those intending to find out the truth on their own, but let’s just say that the script credited to Ben Ketai, Sarah Cornwell and Nick Antosca does a fairly competent job of keeping you guessing right up to the very end. Oh yes, there is also a nice backstory along the way about their tragic childhood that is the reason why Sara and Jess were raised by their grandmother instead of their parents, and the connection between the age-old adage that ‘it is all in your head’ and exorcising one’s own personal demons is a nice touch. It is equally commendable that the writers do not try to imitate M. Night Shyamalan, opting instead for an ending that carries a nice twist but doesn’t pull the rug from beneath their audiences’ feet.

Against a finely balanced screenplay, commercials’ director Jason Zada makes a fairly successful feature filmmaking debut that juggles a sustained atmosphere of dread and foreboding with jump-in-your-seat moments, the latter in particular noteworthy for being effective even as you anticipate that something is going to go ‘boo’ in your face. Despite initial fears to the contrary, Zada remains culturally sensitive to the origins of his setting, treating the subject of suicide, its victims and would-be victims with utmost dignity and empathy. Deserving of mention too is ‘Game of Thrones’’ Dormer, who pulls off a compelling double-act as Sara and Jess, identical twins whose differing personalities have been unknowingly shaped by their experience of that tragic event from their childhood.

To be sure, ‘The Forest’ won’t be a classic anytime soon, but you could do and could go much worse with a film like this. What starts off as a collection of clichés – whether the twin that goes in search of her missing sibling or the dreams that she has which are somehow meant to be omens or warnings of what had happened – and trite jump scares turns out to be much more by the time the credits run in this effectively brief 94-minute movie, melding the fundamental elements of J-horror with a psychological thriller that will be more familiar to audiences on a diet of Western horror. Such an East-meets-West premise could go wrong in so many ways, so it is indeed more than faint praise that ‘The Forest’ doesn’t get lost in itself. 

Movie Rating:

(A chillingly effective blend of Western psychological horror with J-horror tropes, 'The Forest' juggles choice jump-in-your-seat moments with a sustained atmosphere of dread and foreboding)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Phontharis Chotkijsadarsopon
Cast: Bhuvadol Vejvongsa, Timethai Plangslip, Pongsatorn Sripinta, Nutcha Jeka, Day Thaitanium
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: PG13 (Horror)
Released By: Clover Films and Cathay-Keris Films 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 7 January 2016

Synopsis: “Ghost Ship” is a horror starring teenage cast as three Mon sailors on a large fishing vessel, adrift in the dark, mysterious sea. They’re Kala, Yola and Solui, and their high-sea adventure begins when they discover the corpse of a woman, who turns out to be the wife of a mafia leader who controls the harbour. The sailors are in a tight situation, because they know that the woman they found was also the lover of Nick, the son of their captain. Who killed her? How did her corpse end up on the ship? How will the mafia react? If news of the corpse found on board leaks, will the trio be accused of murder? The three young men decide to hide the corpse, but things get horrifying when the corpse disappears. Soon, strange incidents keep happening to the sailors, and they’re convinced that there are more than just one ghost haunting the ship. Worse, they can’t run, as they’re in high sea and being haunted by vengeful spirits.

Movie Review:

A useful rule of thumb to differentiate the wheat from the chaff of Thai horror movies is to look out for the GTH label – indeed, if history is any guide, any horror that doesn’t come from the GTH studio is more often than not of questionable merit. It is with such bias that we approached ‘Ghost Ship’, a film that as its title suggests is about a vessel – a cargo ship, to be more exact – whose occupants find themselves in some otherworldly company after some of them stumble upon a female corpse on board. To be sure, ‘Ghost Ship’ isn’t a GTH title, but it does hail from one of the very first and oldest film companies in Thailand known as Five Star Production, so there is perhaps reason to be a little more hopeful of its quality.

Alas, it is with hindsight that we would advise against approaching Phontharis Chotkijsadarsopon’s film with any more than the lowest of expectations. This is Chotkijsadarsopon’s feature filmmaking debut, and it pretty much shows from start to finish in terms of continuity, framing and plain old-fashioned storytelling. Even on a very fundamental level, scenes flow awkwardly into each other, characters don’t quite know their sense of place relative to each other from angle to angle, and there are more than a few logically baffling moments that will leave you feeling incredulous. Oh yes, these are pretty much very basic flaws of an inexperienced filmmaker, and in ‘Ghost Ship’, they are unfortunately more scarily omnipresent than the ghosts on board.

Speaking of which, we might as well tell you that the female corpse which a trio of three Mon sailors, Kala (Bhuvadol Vejvongsa), Solui (Timethai Plangslip) and Yola (Pongsatorn Sripinta), discover early on is really no more than a red herring. That “body” happens to be of Mia (Nutcha Jeka), the wife of a powerful and ruthless gangster named Tao (Day Thaitanium) who is having an affair with the captain’s son Nick. Soon after they go into a frantic fit debating whether Nick might have murdered Mia in a jealous rage, Mia turns up surprisingly alive, smuggled on board by none other than Nick who plans to elope with her when the ship makes a midpoint stop to refuel and replenish its supplies.

That doesn’t mean that there is nothing our hyperactive trio need be afraid of; rather, it simply means it becomes quite clear very early on that there is something else going on involving the veteran captain, his right-hand man Nhong and another fellow sailor named Bie. It is this little secret that Chotkijsadarsopon keeps us in suspense about until the last act, when a whole assortment of hideous looking spirits run amok aboard the ship for good reason. Admittedly, there is a more engaging story here than one would probably have expected at the start, though some of the twists do come at the expense of credulity – such as one late into the film which reveals that one of the three is not who he says he is – and are further compounded by bad execution.

Even an energetic cast cannot quite distract from the amateurish quality of the entire production, which is no better than the sort of grindhouse flick many studios were making countless unmemorable ones of during the 1970s. Worse still, Chotkijsadarsopon seems incapable of mounting even one good scary sequence, and besides having them ghosts pop up all over the place without any sort of purpose or pattern, he sacrifices any genuine frights in favour of a breakneck pace that lurches haphazardly from one group of characters to the next. This is also why the love story between Nick and Mia, which is supposed to be the emotional anchor on which the film rests, pretty much sinks like a stone despite being played by two very attractive actors.

Like we said at the start, if it doesn’t bear the GTH label, it is more likely than not to suck – and ‘Ghost Ship’ is yet another example that the Thai horror genre is stuck in the doldrums. The idea of a group of people trapped on a haunted ship may seem like a good premise, but that promise is largely wasted on a film that tries too hard to be smart and funny at the same time without being able to get the very basics of filmmaking right. It is, like its subject, adrift in its own failings, and pretty much an empty vessel devoid of laughs or scares. 

Movie Rating:

(Yet another disappointing Thai horror that tries to be smart, funny and scary at the same time, while accomplishing none of the above in the process)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Comedy
Director: Dan Mazer
Cast: Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Aubrey Plaza, Julianne Hough, Dermot Mulroney, Zoey Deutch
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Rating: M18 (Coarse Language and Sexual References)
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: http://www.dirtygrandpa.movie

Opening Day: 28 January 2016

Synopsis: Jason Kelly [Zac Efron] is one week away from marrying his boss’s uber-controlling daughter, putting him on the fast track for a partnership at the law firm. However, when the straight-laced Jason is tricked into driving his foul-mouthed grandfather, Dick [Robert De Niro], to Daytona for spring break, his pending nuptials are suddenly in jeopardy. Between riotous frat parties, bar fights, and an epic night of karaoke, Dick is on a quest to live his life to the fullest and bring Jason along for the ride. Ultimately, on the wildest journey of their lives, “dirty” Grandpa and his uptight grandson discover they can learn from one another and form the bond they never had.

Movie Review:

It is all too convenient to diss this comedy movie - the unanimous unfavourable reviews are almost everywhere. Let’s see, there are just too many reasons why it is easy to tell people this is a “terrible movie”. The plot about a soon to be married man bringing his vulgar and somewhat perverted grandpa from Georgiato Floridafor a spring break isn’t Oscar winning material. A shirtless Zac Efron on the movie poster can only mean one thing: the producers want teenage girls (and probably cougars) to flock to the cinema to check out more shots of the ridiculously good looking 28 year old. And the title “Bad Grandpa” can’t possibly promise film school snobs an intellectual after movie discourse either.

Then there is the awkward, and may we say, embarrassing inclusion of Robert De Niro. The veteran actor has won countless acting accolades in his career, including Academy Awards for Best Actor (1980’s Raging Bull) and a Best Supporting Oscar (1974’s The Godfather Part II), and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2003 and a Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010. Now, what’s this highly regarded actor doing shirtless on the poster of Dan Mazer’s (I Give It A Year) second directorial work?

We say, give the old man a break. Having starred in over 90 films, the man can do what he wants at his age of 72 years old. Besides, the producers of this M18 rated movie (for coarse language and sexual scenes) probably came up with an attractive remuneration package that made De Niro feel that the effort was worth his time. So there, let’s be less judgemental.

The 102 minute movie does not pretend to be high art. De Niro spouts profanities freely throughout, and Efron has no qualms flaunting his well built bod in numerous scenes. The jokes are crass and what some may consider as tasteless. But hey, were you really expecting clever and sharp humour when you paid for that ticket to watch this movie?

We’ve seen De Niro play mentors to younger characters (Meet The Parents, The Intern), and this seems to be his most outrageous yet. Although one wonders what was in the actor’s mind when his character tries repeatedly to get into the pants of younger girls, you have to applaud him for gamely taking up this role. It will probably not earn any rave reviews, but at the same time, he probably doesn’t need another acting award to prove his worth.

Efron, on the other hand, is often forgiven for his lack of acting chops because of how gorgeous he is (yup, the world we live in is superficial like that). And this will continue like it how showbiz has indulged him previously in That Awkward Moment (2014), Bad Neighbours (2014) and We Are Your Friends (2015). Here, you get to see him dancing naked (with only a hornet stuffed toy covering his private parts) to the infectious Macarena tune, and muscle his way through in a flex off competition.

To be fair, the chemistry between De Niro and Efron is enjoyable, and it is one you secretly wish you had with your own grandpa. If you really had to scrutinise every bit of this occasionally hysterical comedy, we advise you to sit out of this one. 

Movie Rating:

(Were you really expecting an intelligent comedy when you saw Zac Efron and Robert De Niro shirtless on the movie poster?)

Review by John Li