Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Chan Pang Chun
Cast: Yuen Cheung Yan, Tsao Yu Ning, Kara Wai, Esther Huang, Carlos Chan, Angie Shum, Anika Sheng, Keeva Mak
Runtime: 1 hr 29 mins
Rating: NC16 (Horror and Sexual Violence)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 8 August 2019

Synopsis:  To reminisce about the old-school life, Ho Tsz Fung (starring Tsao Yu-Ning) and his old friends revisited their school before it shut down. Over the years, there were many rumors spreading among the students, as the school was used as a military laboratory during the Japanese occupation in World War II. When walking around the school, they find a former student’s diary among the archive journals, which recorded supernatural events in the past, including the mysterious disappearance of a girl.

Movie Review:

I used to study in a pre-war school, and so as you might guess, the grounds were filled with stories. The fact that actual riots and war heroes were part of its history made it all the more compelling. So haunted school plots have a particular relevance to me, especially when they involve unspoken topics, mysterious rooms and Japanese soldiers.

In Binding Souls, Feng (Tsao Yu Ning) returns to his alma mater college before its impending demolition with his girlfriend and three other students for some research, but finds more than they bargain for in its blood-filled Japanese-occupied history. If this sounds all too familiar, it is. And will stay that way for the next 89 minutes.

Predictable plot aside, don’t be expecting too much from other aspects in this lacklustre production. With a done-to-death casting (jock, homeboy, scaredy-cat, ringleader, filler) and twists one can spot a mile away, even something as basic as production sense goes out the window with wardrobe discontinuity.

Given how basic everything feels, especially the limp scraps that the script seems to be pieced from, it’s surprising to know that director Chan Pang Chun is not a first-timer. With a few horror projects in his belt, his experience in multiple roles seems to have not benefited him in any way at all, as he drives this project to the ground with a direction a goldfish could muster.

In terms of characters, they end up as just flat caricatures of stereotypes, and their repetitive lines are torturous in their own right. Feng’s girlfriend constantly gets spooked and reminds the others not to scare her, while ringleader Mei Qi literally begs with exaggeration for spirits to appear. If done right, this might be construed as camp, but the overall finesse clearly shows that this is pure cheese and time-fillers to prolong the story acts. It’s extremely tiresome to watch the five stay one-note throughout the movie, no matter what is thrown at them.

Wearing down one’s patience is also the incoherent reactions and proceedings, as scare scenes are patched together without flow. You’ll find no logic when the characters choose to explore or when they sleep, other than for the sole reason to introduce a scare. With no framework for their exploration to unfold, the scenes just quickly aggravate.

The sloppy handling extends to many loose ends that occur in the show. One of the students start to hiccup soon after she visits the school, but nothing ever comes of it. There’s also a ranting homeless guy that terrorises people at the gate, and prolonged meaningful shots seem to indicate his deeper knowledge, but the credits come on and again, not a trace of what he was all about.

Binding Souls is like elevator music, but the worst kind where they get a mediocre singer to do an Adele cover. The struggle can be seen in every facet of this Hong Kong production, and whether it’s due to lack of talent, time or money, the full reasons cannot possibly merit this disaster. The only thing I can give credit to would be how gruesome a few of the scenes are… but just barely.

Movie Rating:

(This proves even classic plots can go wrong. Chan’s confused product is almost unwatchable, and the characters some of the most annoying around)

Review by Morgan Awyong

Genre: Horror
Director: André Øvredal
Cast: Zoe Margaret Colleti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, Lorraine Toussaint, Austin Zajur, Natalie Ganzhorn
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Rating: NC16 (Horror)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: https://www.scarystoriestotellinthedark.com

Opening Day: 15 August 2019

Synopsis:  It's 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind...but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time-stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah's terrifying home.

Movie Review:

“Why she so curious?”

“I thought she returned the book?”

“Why they return to the house?”

To a movie reviewer, nothing is scarier than a viewer who needs to verbalise her mind. And to the teenage girl in question, the answer to all of your question is: Because this is a movie, so just watch and you’ll know why.

Gripe aside, it’s a sign that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark piques the interest of its audience, and it manages to somewhat string singular short tales into a larger missive - one targeted at its fans from the 80s and 90s.

Like its closest cousin Goosebumps, the three volumes written by Alvin Schwartz were horror stories targeted at young children. But its claim to notoriety was when certain parents tried to remove the books at school libraries, citing its disturbing and gruesome content as being inappropriate for children. The freakish illustrations by Stephen Gammell probably didn’t help.

But this is 2019 and the crowds can handle severed toes and decapitation with better gloves, so Andre Ovredal takes on the film adaptation, and displaces his predecessor, Guillermo del Toro, into the producer seat instead.

Boarding that nostalgic train made popular by Stranger Things, we see the same formula here - that of young kids fighting supernatural forces, with adults playing second-fiddle. But you can’t help if it is running out of steam.

It’s not that Stella (Zoe Colleti) as the sensitive ringleader in her awkward group is not charming. Or that Chuck (Austin Zajur) as the cheeky prankster and Auggie (Gabriel Rush) as the brainy manboy isn’t endearing. But it’s just that formula-fatigue is setting in, with character development and circumstances easily predictable within the first 20 minutes. 

I did appreciate the social messaging weaved into the plot, what with the Nixon elections playing out on TV and references to racism targeted at the other lead, Ramon (Michael Garza), but the plot struggles a little to stay coherent and the character dabbling makes the stories a little detached. 

Some of the stories fare better than others, and it’s not necessarily those that have longer screen time. And even though the pacing gratefully keeps things entertaining, the confrontations feel very one-note and thus not as satisfying as it can be. Some tightening of the shoelaces is needed here.

Maybe that is the disadvantage of telling that many tales in one chapter - that of appropriation and satisfying build-up. Luckily the creature design (no doubt del Toro’s influence here) and some great moments lift Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark out of banality. It’ll be interesting to see if the subsequent ones muster better meat. In the meantime, try not to terrorise the theatre with your chatter.

Movie Rating:

(Entertaining enough and sits better with a younger audience. But the older crowd might appreciate the social undertones and visual monsters in this adaptation. Luckily remains more boo-than hoo)

Review by Morgan Awyong

Genre: Horror
Director: Jason Kim
Cast: Park Seo-jun, Ahn Sung-ki, Woo Do-hwan
Runtime: 2 hrs 9 mins
Rating: NC16 (Horror)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:

Opening Day: 15 August 2019

Synopsis:  After losing his father at a young age, Yong-hu repudiates the existence of God and resolves only to believe in himself. Years later he has become a martial arts champion, but one day he discovers stigmata on his palms (marks that correspond to the wounds suffered by Jesus on the crucifix). Hoping to rid himself of the painful stigmata, Yong-hu searches out Father AHN, and finds him while the priest is performing an exorcism. When Father AHN suddenly falls into danger, Yong-hu ends up saving him thanks to his stigmata and martial arts skills. Even while denying it, Yong-hu comes to realize the power of his stigmata, and as his fellowship with Father AHN deepens, he starts to perform exorcisms with him. However an evil figure named Jisin kills a girl named Min-joo who was recently exorcised by Father AHN and Yong-hu. Jisin hatches a plan to ensnare and kill more people. Father AHN and Yong-hu try to defeat him, but Father AHN is mortally wounded in the fight. Yong-hu takes strength from the God he once rejected, and faces off against Jisin...

Movie Review:

To writer-director Jason Kim’s credit, we’ve not seen an exorcism thriller with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), so kudos to him for coming up with an intriguing concept to invigorate the occult-themed genre. Whether it in fact makes for a compelling watch is quite a different matter altogether, and it is in this regard that Kim’s attempt at creating a cinematic universe for the Korean film industry falls short.

The first in what is meant to be a ‘Holy Universe’, the movie pairs Park Seo-joon’s acclaimed MMA champion Yong-hu with Ahn Sung-ki’s veteran priest Father Ahn to take down Woo Do-hwan’s Satan-worshipper Ji-sin. Otherwise known as a Dark Bishop, Ji-sin has been luring innocent souls to pledge their loyalty to the devils he reveres, which he presents as an offering in return for eternal life. As part of God’s plan, Father Ahn is sent from the Vatican to investigate the recent spate of possessions, while Yong-hu mysteriously develops stigmata during this same period.

Though it may sound like a three-hander, ‘The Divine Fury’ is really focused on Yong-hu, who undergoes a faith transformation as he joins hands with Father Ahn. An extended prologue describes how Yong-hu had turned his back from God and church when he was a young boy, after neither his earnest prayers or that of a young priest managed to save his father, who was on duty at a traffic stop when he was run over by a drunk driver. Yong-hu is still seething 20 years later, but is fortunately protected from the dark side by his father’s spirit, embodied in the gold wedding ring he wears around his neck which used to belong to his dad.

At first, Yong-hu struggles to make sense of the wound which had appeared out of the blue on his right palm, but he discovers after stumbling upon a ritual that Father Ahn was in the midst of performing that it gifts him with the power to cast out demons. Even so, it will take a while before Yong-hu fully embraces his role as God’s crusader against evil next to Father Ahn, during which he will have to come to terms with his own pent-up resentment against God and come to discover the extent of his powers – in particular, the latter will see him (literally) apply his right hand onto the foreheads of the possessed, which causes the evil within them to erupt into bright white flames that will eventually extinguish without physically causing any signs of burns.

What triggers the change-of-heart though is the bond which develops between Yong-hu and Father Ahn, that is also intended to be the heart of the film. That their surrogate father-son relationship turns out surprisingly poignant is credit to both Park and Ahn, who share an engaging low-key chemistry that never pushes the credibility of what it is trying to portray; in fact, their conversations about faith and the way God works will probably strike a chord even with non-believers, and is a testament to the earnestness and sincerity with which both actors carry their roles next to each other. As you may suspect too, their bond will be tested and re-affirmed over the course of the film, especially in the run-up to the climax where Yong-hu goes head to head with Ji-sin.

Like we said, the emphasis of the storytelling has been placed quite squarely on Yong-hu, and that is a pity, because we would have loved as much to explore Ji-sin’s motivations for worshipping the Devil, as well as Father Ahn’s own conviction to fight on behalf of God despite the tolls and scars it has exerted on him. Not quite enough attention has been spent detailing how and why one of them chooses God, the other chooses Satan, and the last struggles on the fine line between good and evil before prevailing (predictably) on the side of the former. Without that character depth, the movie relies instead on a steady stream of exorcism sequences throughout its two-hour plus runtime to keep up the pace and momentum.

And in that regard, horror fans will probably not be disappointed, as these scenes are both frightening and exciting. Of note is one where Yong-hu and Father Ahn find themselves in the bedroom of a teenage girl whose demon within turns out to be a cunning and wily opponent; another in the basement of a Catholic orphanage where a young boy tests the mettle of a group of nuns and Father Ahn; and last but not least, the showdown in Ji-sin’s lair where he transforms into a part-man and part-amphibian creature after giving himself body and soul to the demons. Each of these encounters are intense and compelling, and hold their own against countless other such depictions in Hollywood films of the same genre.

Equally, the film serves up helpings of MMA action alongside the exorcisms, though the showpieces – one, where Yong-hu has to fight off Ji-sin’s fellow devil-worshippers in a nightclub; and two, where Yong-hu goes mano-a-mano with whatever Ji-sin has morphed into – are saved for the last third. While the idea of combining MMA with exorcism sounds intriguing in concept, writer-director Kim struggles to integrate both fully, so much so that the MMA elements seem superfluous and only so that Park can show off some martial arts moves.

Much hype has preceded the release of ‘The Divine Fury’, and the movie itself fails to live up to its own lofty expectations. Chiefly, it needs more character work on Ji-sin, Father Ahn and even Yong-hu, though the latter two are somewhat compensated by strong performances. That said, it is still engaging in how it depicts the eternal fight between good and evil, the tension between God’s ways and Man’s expectation, and the choices of faith that confront each and every one of us. It is also yet another in a recent string of South Korean films that have ventured into exorcism horror, and while it doesn’t stand out as much as say ‘The Wailing’ or even ‘Svaha: The Sixth Finger’, it’s a decent attempt at world-building that will require more to sustain into a franchise.

Movie Rating:

(Even as it struggles to mix MMA with the occult, this exorcism action-thriller remains a compelling watch for its portrayal of good versus evil, God's plan versus Man's expectation, and the choice of faith)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Timothy Olyphant, Luke Perry, Margaret Qualley, Al Pacino, Mike Moh
Runtime: 2 hrs 42 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing Singapore
Official Website: https://www.onceuponatimemag.com/

Opening Day: 15 August 2019

Synopsis:  Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood visits 1969 Los Angeles, where everything is changing, as TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) make their way around an industry they hardly recognize anymore. The ninth film from the writer-director features a large ensemble cast and multiple storylines in a tribute to the final moments of Hollywood’s golden age.

Movie Review:

These days, any movie that runs past two hours may not go down well with viewers with little patience. Quentin Tarantino probably doesn’t care, because his films often run past the 120-minute mark. His latest work is no different. Are you prepared to spend almost three hours of your life watching his love letter to Hollywood’s Golden Age?

The American filmmaker is known for his indulgent movies which star showbiz’s prettiest people, feature extended dialogue sequences which does little to extend the storyline, and are unnecessarily violent.

This time round, Leonardo DiCaprio is the male lead of the film, a has-been TV star who is beginning to realise that he is not destined for movie stardom. His best friend and drinking pal is his long-time stunt double played by Brad Pitt, who is ageing very well for a 55-year-old.

The two men make their way through the ups and downs of Hollywood, crossing paths with real-life character like director Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), his movie star wife Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), as well as actors like Bruce Lee (Mike Moh), Steve McQueen (Damian Lewis), James Stacy (Timothy Olyphant) and Wayne Maunder (Luke Perry).

There will always be a group of people who loves Tarantino’s stylistic works, and this reviewer is one of them, despite having to sit in the theatre for 161 minutes.

If you grew up watching Hollywood movies in the 1960s, you would be familiar with the world Tarantino has created in this film. For the rest of us, the comedy drama film is another indulgent Tarantino project where our eyes feast on attractive people, lingering shots of walking feet, cigarette smoke and cars travelling on the highway. We aren’t complaining though, because the Palme d'Or-winning director has got what it takes to deliver an engaging tale that crosses multiple storylines.

It is evident that Tarantino loves movies. He weaves in plots about TV cowboys, rising starlets and how realistic showbiz can get even before the advent of computer effects. There is a lot of effort put into creating that era’s look and feel, and like his previous films, the soundtrack featuring music from the past is a blast.

The casting is perfect. DiCaprio deserves another Oscar for his powerhouse acting, Pitt may have delivered his most underrated performance yet, while Robbie’s wide-eyed wonder shows how celebrities took their jobs seriously back then. Other familiar faces in the film include Dakota Fanning as a hippie, Al Pacino as a Hollywood agent and Kurt Russell as a stunt coordinator.

The most interesting about this film is how it includes the infamous story of the invasion of the Manson Family. For the uninitiated, this is a real-life tragedy in August 1969 where a group of hippies, led by Charles Manson, murdered seven people (including Tate, who was eight months pregnant at the time). Tarantino takes the liberty to change the story for dramatic effect, and this is also the perfect opportunity to showcase his signature stylised violence. Watching the last moments of the film is like seeing a rich and spoilt brat tearing up dollar notes because he can.

Because the man behind this passion project is Quentin Tarantino, he gets away with being indulgent and giving the world a film that is a mood piece more than anything else.

Movie Rating:

(Ageing TV stars, a moving bromance and above all, a cruelly practical industry that has evolved over the decades - this is Quentin Tarantino's indulgent tribute to Hollywood's Golden Age)

Review by John Li

SYNOPSIS: Inspired by remarkable true life rescue missions, THE RED SEA DIVING RESORT is the incredible story of a group of international agents and brave Ethiopians who in the early 80s used a deserted holiday retreat in Sudan as a front to smuggle thousands of refugees to Israel. The undercover team carrying out this mission is led by the charismatic Ari Levinson (Chris Evans) and courageous local Kabede Bimro (Michael Kenneth Williams).

MOVIE REVIEW:

After the end of his stint as Captain America, Chris Evans once again assembled a team of heroes but this time round, for an entirely different kind of mission in Netflix’s The Red Sea Diving Resort. 

Inspired by true events as per any Hollywood title that is based on real-life incident or event will tell you, The Red Sea Diving Resort depicts the tale of how a group of Mossad agents made good use of a dilapidated seaside resort to smuggle Jewish-Ethiopians caught in the middle of a civil war out of Sudan to Israel with the help of the Israeli government. 

Evans plays Ari Levinson, the predictable reckless white and brave hero who has no qualms saving every refugee out there while putting the lives of his fellow teammates liked field doctor, Sammy (Alessandro Nivola from Jurassic Park III) and tough girl, Rachel (Haley Bennett from The Magnificent Seven remake) at risk. Boardwalk Empire’s Michael K. Williams on the other hand plays Kebede, the local hero who acts as the middleman for the refugees and fans of Games of Thrones will spot Michiel Huisman as one of the teammates, Jacob (including a bonus scene of him baring his butt). 

Despite the fact that writer and director Gideon Raff (Homeland) has assembled an eye-catching cast and did we mention Sir Ben Kingsley and Greg Kinnear in smaller roles? The story on the whole remains almost pedestrian-like and frustratingly underwhelming for the two hours running time. For the most part, the espionage flick never reaches the height and tension of similar-themed movies liked Argo and Munich as it plods along aimlessly.   

There’s nothing wrong with the cast delivery for sure. It’s just that the momentum and execution is poorly handle even with the introduction of a menacing Colonel (played wonderfully by Chris Chalk) mid-way. By then, it’s a little too late especially when the movie has delivered its obligatory feel-good montage of Ari and gang smuggling thousands of refugees out of their so-called fake resort filled with real tourists. Still, the last 30 minutes or so is mildly engaging as expected. The typical Hollywood title should end with a rousing showdown between good and evil and The Red Sea Diving Resort provides a half-baked ending to the whole saga.     

The Red Sea Diving Resort is unquestionably a letdown consider the pedigree of the cast. It’s never taut, thrilling let alone convincing the audiences of the compelling real-life event that actually took place in the 70s. For now, it seems Evans and his fellow Avengers (also check out Frank Grillo and Anthony Mackie in Point Blank) need to look for more substantial projects post-Endgame. 

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Chen Guo Hui
Cast: Huang Xiao Ming, Du Jiang, Tan Zhuo, Ou Hao, Yang Zi
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Intense Sequences)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 29 August 2019

Synopsis:  When an oil pipeline in Bingang’s harbor explodes, oil flowing through a gigantic tank catches fire, igniting the tank and triggering unrelenting explosions, threatening the lives of millions in the city, the province, even neighboring countries. Yet as the people flee, fire engines rush into the flames…

Movie Review:

Perhaps one of the most overlooked examples of everyday heroism is that displayed by firefighters, who risk life and limb day in and day out to battle blazes and save lives. While Ron Howard’s ‘Backdraft’ is regarded till this date as the gold standard in Hollywood’s canon of firefighting movies, Johnnie To’s ‘Lifeline’ is that similar benchmark for Asian cinema, even as more recent entries such as Derek Kwok’s ‘As the Light Goes Out’ have tried to challenge it for the mantle. And despite a much larger scale and some genuinely thrilling firefighting sequences, ‘The Bravest’ doesn’t reset that standard, let down as much by its own melodramatic tendencies as its inability to fashion compelling real-life equivalent firefighting heroes.

As per the screenwriting template for such movies, the film sees its lead characters confronting their own personal struggles while facing their most challenging professional mission yet. The mission here is an inferno at a gigantic oil tank near the harbour of the fictional city of Bingang, triggered by a powerful explosion along a pipeline connected to it; and to make matters worse, the tank itself is located near tanks containing hazardous chemicals such as benzene, xylene and cyanide, which if set aflame, could very well wipe out the entire city’s population of eight million people. Not only must the fire at the tank be subdued, it must be prevented from spreading to the chemical tanks nearby.

Assigned with the enormous undertaking are the men from the special response squadron of Bingang’s fire department, who over the course of one long arduous night, will be given ample opportunity to demonstrate their bravery, commitment and perseverance in the face of sheer danger. Among these men, the focus is on the squadron’s former captain Jiang Liwei (Huang Xiaoming) and its current captain Ma Weiguo (Du Jiang) – given how the handover was due to a misjudgement by Jiang while attending to a fire at a hotpot restaurant, which ended up costing the life of their teammate, you can imagine there’ll be some degree of awkwardness between them no matter their sense of professionalism.

It isn’t just their dynamics that could get in the way; whereas Jiang has to overcome his guilt arising from the consequences of his oversight, Ma feels that he has to prove that he is worthy of his new role, especially since his own father is dismissive of his ability to have made captain if not for what had befallen Jiang. Though the first act elaborates on their personal circumstances, these are almost immediately forgotten once Jiang and Ma arrive at the scene of the fire, such that there is hardly any meaningful depth to either of these characters to allow us to empathise with them, and the same can be said of all the other characters in the film.

Instead, all the attention is placed on the fire itself, which to Chan’s credit, is quite a sight to behold – imagine the roof of an entire industrial-capacity petroleum storage tank engulfed in flames, surrounded by fire on all sides caused by leaking fuel along pipelines feeding into and from it, and of course occasional explosions which spew tongues of fire. It’s impressive all right, and among the specific challenges which that scenario poses to our heroes include needing to close four valves in order to prevent burning fuel from flowing out into the sea, clearing a pump of rubbish so that seawater can be piped to subdue the fire, and preserving a wall between the flames on the ground and the chemical tanks.

Each of these setpieces is milked to its fullest to showcase the heroic acts of the firemen, but by the time we get to the n-th slo-mo shot, you’ll probably be less moved than bemused by how shamelessly over-the-top and manipulative the movie can get. That we end up less stirred than Chan intended is also as a result of the haphazard plotting, which as we’ve said earlier, doesn’t let you get invested in any of the characters, and by extension their acts of self-sacrifice. All that propaganda is of course opportunistically timed to coincide with the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic this year, so let’s just say there is reason to all that unabashed display of courage.

In terms of translating the real-life incident which broke out in Dalian in July 2010, ‘The Bravest’ is undoubtedly an achievement, employing top-notch CGI and practical stunts to celebrate the heroic altruism of the firefighters involved. And yet it is equally true that we expected more of the film, whose lack of narrative and character development impedes it from being truly poignant as classics like ‘Backdraft’ and ‘Lifeline’ were. As long as you’re going in just for the wall-to-wall firefighting spectacle, you will quite surely not be disappointed; otherwise, you might find yourself sniggering at the unabashed melodrama that is as widespread as the fire itself.

Movie Rating:

(There is no doubt the firefighting spectacle is impressive, but less so the shamelessly manipulative emotional drama, which is poorly developed and often unnecessarily over-the-top) 

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama
Director: Simon Curtis
Cast: Milo Ventimiglia, Amanda Seyfried, Gary Cole, Kathy Baker, Ryan Keira Armstrong, Martin Donovan, Kevin Costner
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Walt Disney
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 8 August 2019

Synopsis:  Based on the best-selling novel by Garth Stein, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN is a heartfelt tale narrated by a witty and philosophical dog named Enzo (voiced by Kevin Costner). Through his bond with his owner, Denny Swift (Milo Ventimiglia), an aspiring Formula One race car driver, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition and understands that the techniques needed on the racetrack can also be used to successfully navigate the journey of life. The film follows Denny and the loves of his life - his wife, Eve (Amanda Seyfried), their young daughter Zoe (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), and ultimately, his true best friend, Enzo.

Movie Review:

Whereas last year The Travelling Cat Chronicles tells its story from a feline’s point of view, The Art of Racing in the Rain tells it from the point of a dog named Enzo. Ultimately, it’s not going to spring any surprises for audiences other than taking every one of us on a sentimental, sappy journey of life’s ups and downs.

Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes plays Denny, an aspiring racer who dreams of getting into the big league (like racing in the Daytona for example). On impulse, he decides to adopt a golden retriever, which he aptly names Enzo after the founder of Ferrari. Voiced by veteran Kevin Costner, Enzo is a born racer at heart who regularly companies Denny on his run and also a fan of racing programs on television. Enzo is Denny’s best friend until one day he meets Eve (Amanda Seyfried), and Enzo realises he has to share his best friend with this beautiful lady.

Of course, Enzo is not CGI and he doesn’t really talk throughout the movie, though he plays a huge role that is maybe even bigger than his human counterparts. But still, audiences are often treated to Enzo’s generous philosophical thoughts, whimsy views on human beings and his confrontation with his greatest enemy - a stuffed zebra. It’s definitely a lot for a canine who has no human thumbs or speech, but Enzo greatly makes up for it by being the loyal friend and companion to Denny, Eve and their young daughter, Zoe.

The Art of Racing in the Rain never shuns from presenting itself as a tearjerker even if you have never read the source material by Garth Stein. You expect something melodramatic is going to happen later when Eve starts to develop severe headaches. How about the subsequent need to balance a career and the role of a struggling dad? Or an overprotective obnoxious grandpa (Martin Donovan) who stands in the way of Denny and Zoe? Maybe it’s all too predictable, or maybe it’s just part and parcel of life and Enzo just happened to be the perfect living thing to witness every single one of the event.

Depending on your religion or your take on life, Enzo is a dog who believes he will be reincarnated as a human in his next life from a documentary set in Mongolia. It is one of those fun facts that makes Enzo so adorable for pet and non-pets lovers alike. And what’s a dog movie if there’s no pee or poo in sight? And of course, the gravelly-voiced Kevin Costner who “danced with wolves” and dabbled in “field of dreams” does a wonderful job bringing the character of Enzo to life.

There are also metaphors about life and car racing scenes, but this is generally not a sports movie nor a movie about formula one racing. Director Simon Curtis who did My Week With Marilyn and writer Mark Bomback who wrote War for the Planet of the Apes keep things simple yet believable, tragic yet heartfelt and enough thoughts have gone into the story to keep the narrative going.

The Art of Racing in the Rain happens to be among the last completed titles by the now shuttered Fox 2000 label. Pity the fact that Disney is never likely going to release another mid-range family drama that involves a thinking dog. If you love dogs, a heartwarming story and the likeable performances of Ventimiglia and Seyfried, hop on with Enzo for a final nice ride. You can tell we simply adore this self-proclaimed dumb dog.

MOVIE RATING:

(The art of making you weep on the outside and warm you on the inside)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Thriller/Drama
Director: Leste Chen
Cast: Aaron Kwok, Duan Yihong, Zhang Zifeng, Hsu Weining, Sean Rong
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Mature Content)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures and Clover Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 6 May 2021

Synopsis: A story that follows a family of four leading harmonious and contented lives. When a mysterious visitor starts residing in their basement, their lives are turned upside down as strange events begin to occur.

Movie Review:

If too many cooks spoil the broth, then too much emphasis dulled this film.

The trailer for Home Sweet Home has allusions to an epic noir - a suspense thriller centred around a wealthy family, unravelling at the introduction of a stranger in their basement (which sounds eerily similar to another Korean title that won an Oscar in 2019).

But this production is clearly overworked, eventually becoming even tiresome to watch, feeling very much like a person wringing out a dry towel. At one point, thinking that the movie was nearing its end given how slow it felt, I glanced down at my watch notification and was horrified to learn I was only past the halfway one-hour mark.

Leste Chan has had some success in suspense with previous efforts The Great Hypnotist (2014) and Battle of Memories (2017); and in fact Home Sweet Home echoes these titles with its theme on amnesia, but this clearly is the weakest of the lot, tripping over itself in an effort to impress with its grandiose veneer.

If this movie buried itself, it was with spades of its own unnecessary drama. You know that self-important friend who always creates a mountain out of a molehill? This is the film version of it.

It’s the overuse of exaggerated sound effects. The melodramatic score that refuses to let up. The repeated lingering frames on the photos in the house, or facial closeups. A script that felt so manipulative, it’s - once again - the friend that says “I’ve got a secret but I’d better not say anything”. Like… we get it. Everyone in this family has a secret. But after a lot of emotional guilt-tripping and motivational obfuscation, one starts to resign oneself to the final reveal after the first 30 minutes. But Home Sweet Home doesn’t let up, continuing to campaign you with the same spiel for the next hour.

It’s partially Chan’s fault in making the characters stoic to the point of being dead. The haunted faces become really annoying, really fast. Yes, we get that wealthy people sometimes go to extremes to keep up a facade, but when you make that fact obvious within the first 10 minutes, you have to offer more beyond that.

We see the return of actors from previous films - Duan Yihong as the cellar “stranger” and Hsu Weining as the mother - but it seems even the director’s working experience with them doesn’t translate in this film. As Kunqiao, Duan’s guilt comes and goes much too easily. Hsu as Mrs Wong, is as cardboard as they come, which makes her fits of insanity abrupt and illogical.

While Aaron Kwok as the father is pitched as the obvious protagonist, Home Sweet Home soon loses his captainship when all the members become as unlikeable as him. I’m really not entirely sure who to root for or what to feel when the truth is revealed - that itself an unbelievably wrapup that will have one questioning the point of this film.

It goes for philosophy - how wealth corrupts happiness, how guilt tears one apart, maybe even a probe as to what makes a family, a family. But you won’t find the material here provoking, cathartic or insightful. It’s just really, really annoying.

Movie Rating:

(Ambition and gloss fail to do this film any favour, as a manipulative production makes everything overworked and tiresome to watch)

Review by Morgan Awyong

Genre: Horror/Romance
Director: Glen Goei & Gavin Yap
Cast: Nur Fazura, Remy Ishak, Hisyam Hamid, Shenty Feliziana, Nam Ron, Tony Eusoff, Nadiah M.Din, Wan Hanifi Su, Nadia Aqilah, Nik Harraz Danish
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Rating: PG13 (Horror and Some Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 29 August 2019

Synopsis:  1965, Malaysia. A small village helps Khalid and Siti prepare for their wedding day. Soon after, a great darkness falls upon the village as a string of horrific deaths and supernatural happenings create widespread fear and paranoia amongst the villagers. The events force a confession from Khalid to a murder of a girl he made pregnant years before, now believed to have returned as a Pontianak. To kill this vengeful vampire, he rallies all the men of the village and sets out into the jungle to hunt her down. But can the village stop her?

Movie Review:

Probably one of the most enigmatic and popular supernatural entity in this region, the pontianak is to Southeast Asia what Sadako is to Japan. 

Based on popular mythology, she is the ghost of a woman who died pregnant or during childbirth, and boy is she angry! Appearing as a beautiful woman to lure victims to a quiet area before ravaging their innards and drinking their blood, her true form is a spectral white ghost with long hair, long nails, and long teeth. Like a stake to a western vampire, the blood-thirsty pontianak can only be stopped with a nail, but in the nape instead of the heart.

Glen Goei returns after a decade from his last film release (The Blue Mansion) and partners with Malaysian actor and director Gavin Yap to create a modern retelling of this horrific folklore in Revenge of the Pontianak. And it mostly works.

Says of the treatment, Glen Goei shares that he was “heavily inspired by the look and feel of film classics from the ‘50s and ‘60s”. So with cinematographer Jon Keng at the helm, the film is lush with saturated colours and gorgeously-detailed art direction. From the get-go, the film palette invokes a sensual tone. A glossy banana leaf, the misty golden hills, the scarlet kebaya of the spirit - it’s a visceral treat when coupled with the textured sets and costuming.

When not focused on colours, the camerawork and lighting is just as elegant and luscious, this time with filtered light and abundant bokeh lending their magical aura to the scenes. There’s one scene I especially loved, where Shenty Feliziana walks through the house after waking up. Every leaf and room is precisely coordinated, and the layered dimensions and storytelling in that one tracking shot is a joy to watch unfold.

The technical and visual qualities of Revenge of the Pontianak is stellar, and even the soundtrack (Kasihku Selamanya, sung by diva Dato’ Sri Siti Nurhaliza) and score is equally lux. That said, the storytelling can benefit from the same injection of bold - it is after all, supposed to be a “new and intelligent take”.

Remy Ishak is Khalid, who has just brought his new wife to his village. As soon as Siti (Shenty Feliziana) arrives, a murder and strange disease follows, making her the target of the locals. But Khalid hides a secret, and the curse is closely tied to his past, which has conjured the wrath of the pontianak upon his kampung. 

Although the refocus on making the monster a little bit more humanised is a great idea, it is honestly not the new in this day and age. If we look towards motivations and plot, the secret isn’t really hard to guess as well. So when it comes to reinvention, the film doesn’t really achieve what it set out to do.

The plot is helped somewhat by some great performances - mainly thanks to Nur Fazura as the vengeful spirit. Her natural screen presence fills the scenes she’s in, and her character has better room for expression than some of the others. Another is Hisyam Hamid, who as Khalid’s brother Reza, has the chops to create a compelling persona. His possessed delivery would have seemed comical, if not for the commitment you can see from his eyes.

That said, these successful performances get bogged down by others, and sometimes, the disparity is too much to ignore. Ishak’s Khalid is extremely stiff and uncharismatic, which as the lead, takes down the entire film a notch. Feliziana is also extremely dull as his pretty wife, which directly affects the scenes of punishment she has to endure later in the movie.

Nam Ron as the witch doctor will probably be a polarising figure. I enjoyed his performance, even though he does repeat himself just a little too much. I would also have loved an actual interaction between him and the pontianak. But his manic portrayal might come across as cheesy to some others, though still by far better than the tragedy that was in a certain TV anthology with the same horror theme.

Revenge of the Pontianak remains a commendable effort despite some lack in casting and acting, but Asian folklore deserve more presence on the screens, and this serves as a worthy entry to enjoy.

What would have made it incredible would be better pacing (the long, drawn out scenes of the pontianak feels necessary at times), better acting (again, picking up on the delivery pace would make the performances less uncomfortably deliberate) and to totally unleash the supernatural force of the pontianak upon her victims for a true homage to vintage cinema.

Movie Rating:

(It suffers a little in pace and acting from some characters, but the amazing cinematography and production values bolster this and make it a worthy retelling)

Review by Morgan Awyong

Genre: Romance/Comedy
Director: Jeff Chan, Andrew Rhymer
Cast: Jack Quaid, Maya Erskine, Ed Begley Jr.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene and Some Mature Content)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 5 September 2019

Synopsis:  It’s wedding season, and for Alice and Ben, it seems like everyone is tying the knot, except them. Alice is going through a breakup, and Ben’s best friend is getting married, leaving him behind. To make matters worse, his dad springs the news that he's getting remarried in a few months. Feeling alone in their singleness, Alice and Ben agree to team up, going as each other's dates, and embarking on an odyssey of ten weddings, where they'll make new friends, meet each other's odd families, confront their hangups with love and relationships, and ultimately push their friendship into uncharted territory.

Movie Review:

Ah, if only this writer’s life turned out to be like this movie.

The premise is probably nothing new. Two college friends come together to attend wedding parties because, well, everyone around them seems to be getting hitched. Both of them are single and looking for someone to settle down with. The girl just broke up with her long time boyfriend and is still recovering from the heartache. The guy is a no nonsense charmer, and while he is seemingly serious, he is a natural with the ladies. The unlikely partners accompany each other to weddings, help each other with speeches and take fun pictures at photo booths.

Yup, you can see from a mile away where this is headed towards: a happy ending awaits. Yet, there is something refreshing about this 109 minute romantic comedy that makes it an engaging watch from beginning to end. The chemistry between the leads is so endearing, you’d want to look for and hang out with people like that in real life.

Maya Erskine, who has a European father and a Japanese mother, has a charisma that makes her fit into the role very nicely. The character’s eccentricity Is what you wish your friends possess. The fun and cheekiness lifts the spirit of the whole movie, and you’d be a Scrooge if you have issue with her personality. Her co star is Jack Quaid, the Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. You may have seen him as the vigilante seeking revenge in the popular TV series The Boys, but his role here is completely different. The dude is someone you can count on when you need a shoulder to cry on. Behind his prim and proper appearance is a guy you’d want to hold on to.

The movie revolves largely around how these two individuals navigate through their current life events. In the mix is the upcoming wedding of the guy’s father, which makes things a little awkward for everyone. There are people falling into swimming pools, seemingly inconsequential flirting and seduction, as well as other gags that make this movie very enjoyable.

Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer are making their feature debut here. Taking on the role of both writers and directors, it is clear what they want for the film. The sure handed direction can be seen how the story progress at a breezy pace. With supporting characters played by Ed Begley Jr, Beck Bennett as Matt and Finn Wittrock, this is a perfect movie to catch after a stressful occasion.  

The events portrayed in the movie may feel lightweight, but it is an apt reflection of human relationships happening in the urban society. This writer, for one, often wonders what his life would be like now if he had spent tons of time with a single friend.

Things aren’t all fun and triviialised in the movie. When things get a little serious towards the end, you know life isn’t all a joke. There are decisions and commitments to be made, and this mature piece of work reminds you about that.

Movie Rating:

(Reel life very much reflects real life in this breezy romantic comedy which scores with its charismatic leads)

Review by John Li