Genre: Drama
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone
Runtime: 2 hr 12 mins
Rating: M18 (Secual Scenes and Violence)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 1 January 2026
Synopsis: The Housemaid (2025) stars Sydney Sweeney as Millie, a young woman who takes a live-in job with the wealthy Winchester family, hoping for a fresh start. Amanda Seyfried plays Nina Winchester, the elegant but secretive lady of the house, whose polished life begins to crack as Millie uncovers disturbing truths. Tension builds when Millie forms a connection with the mysterious landscaper Enzo (Michele Morrone), revealing deeper layers of deception. The film is a gripping psychological thriller about trust, manipulation, and survival.
Movie Review:
Paul Feig’s The Housemaid is not the kind of film you analyse so much as indulge in. It is wildly entertaining, knowingly trashy, and gleefully aware of its own appeal—a glossy guilty pleasure powered by a ridiculously good-looking cast and a willingness to push buttons. You may tell yourself you’re here for the mystery, the twists, or the thriller mechanics, but let’s be honest: a large part of the draw is watching beautiful people behave badly in exquisitely staged surroundings.
Feig, the director behind 2011’s Bridesmaids and 2018’s A Simple Favor (as well as its 2025 sequel), leans confidently into a heightened genre space here. The Housemaid blends elements of erotic thriller, mystery, and pulpy melodrama, tossing in sex, violence, and enough narrative feints to keep audiences guessing. It’s not high art, nor does it pretend to be. Instead, its greatest pleasure comes from the communal experience—watching it with a crowd, collectively gasping at the twists, holding your breath during one of the most climactic confrontations we've seen in a while, and occasionally laughing in disbelief when the story gleefully goes off the rails.
The casting is, frankly, impeccable in terms of visual appeal. There is eye candy here for almost every demographic, and the film makes no apologies for flaunting it. Italian actor Michele Morrone pops up in a minor role, but his presence alone will delight fans of erotic thriller 365 Days (2020) and its sequels. Even with limited screen time, he brings the same smouldering intensity that made him an sex icon, proving once again that sometimes less is more.
Brandon Sklenar (It Ends With Us), meanwhile, is cast very much as the beefcake of the piece. The camera knows exactly what it’s doing when it lingers on his well-built physique, often framed behind a singlet or in moments of physical intimacy that feel designed to draw appreciative sighs. His performance doesn’t stretch far beyond the archetype, but it doesn’t need to—he fits seamlessly into the film’s fantasy-driven logic.
Sydney Sweeney (Anyone But You) delivers a solid and surprisingly grounded turn as the titular housemaid: a seemingly vulnerable young woman whose intelligence and resilience gradually emerge beneath her carefully constructed exterior. Sweeney is fully aware of her, ahem, assets, and doesn’t shy away from it, but she also gives her character enough emotional weight to make audiences root for her. As secrets unravel, she becomes the film’s moral anchor who is determined to survive the dangerous web she’s been pulled into.
The standout, however, is Amanda Seyfried (Mank). As the volatile mistress of the house, she delivers a performance that is both controlled and delightfully unhinged. Seyfried gets to tap into something feral here, oscillating between icy composure and moments of explosive, almost berserk abandon. When she finally lets loose, the film crackles with energy, and it’s clear she’s having enormous fun pushing her character to unexpected extremes.
Ultimately, The Housemaid is best enjoyed without guilt. It keeps you hooked from beginning to end, not because it’s profound, but because it’s confident in its own excess. And sometimes, that’s exactly what a movie of this genre should be.
Movie Rating:
(A glossy, twisty guilty pleasure that knows exactly how good-looking it is, this is a thriller best enjoyed with a gasping audience in the cinema)
Review by John Li
Genre: Drama
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Nolte, LaKeith Stanfield
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes and Nudity)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 18 December 2026
Synopsis: Set in rural America, Die My Love is a portrait of a woman engulfed by love and madness.
Movie Review:
Hardly anyone remembers that Jennifer Lawrence’s breakout role was in the indie tragedy Winter’s Bone, long before she went mainstream with commercial hits like X-Men: First Class and The Hunger Games. With Die My Love, it seems the actress is once again dipping her toes back into independent drama and we must say, what a performance it is.
To say Die My Love is a difficult watch would be an understatement. Adapted from Ariana Harwicz’s 2012 Spanish novel Matate, Amor, the film follows Grace (Lawrence), a mother with a newborn son living in rural America. She has just moved into a house inherited by her boyfriend, Jackson (Robert Pattinson), from his uncle—dilapidated on the surface, but sufficient for the young couple to start a family. At first, they appear happy together: playful, sexually charged, talking about their future. Everything seems fine… until it isn’t.
Those familiar with the work of Lynne Ramsay will know this is not going to be an easy watch (remember We Need to Talk About Kevin?). And indeed, it isn’t. There’s no conventional narrative or heavy plot development packed into its two-hour runtime. Instead, the film unfolds as a series of loosely connected events and images. Ramsay and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey shoot Die My Love in a strikingly aesthetic manner, making the visuals, at the very least, a stunning achievement.
At its core, Die My Love is a film about parenthood and postpartum depression. Jackson appears to have lost his fire after the birth of his son, weighed down by long working hours and the pressure of providing. Pattinson is given the thankless task of playing the passive, in-denial husband. While the British actor has proven himself in several impressive indie roles, this film ultimately belongs to Lawrence, who is given the far more demanding and showier part.
Jennifer Lawrence truly embodies a woman suffering from mental illness, even as the story itself struggles to maintain coherence. She screams. She masturbates in the wild and in the bedroom. She crashes through a glass door, crawls on all fours, and imagines herself having sex with a stranger. There is something wild and raw in her performance that pulls the audience into sympathising with her suffering as she slowly spirals into madness.
Yet the film’s highly artistic presentation may discourage general audiences, despite the presence of veteran actors like Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte as Jackson’s parents. An intriguing subplot involving Spacek’s character sleepwalking while carrying a rifle ultimately goes nowhere. Grace’s childhood trauma is briefly mentioned but never fully explored. By the end, Ramsay simply continues to show Grace’s descent into the abyss—no healing process, no explanations, just pure, brutal struggle.
Die My Love could have been a powerful and compelling film about mental health, parenthood, and marriage. But Lynne Ramsay is not a filmmaker who simply shows and tells. She communicates through feelings, images, and performances, refusing to package her stories in an approachable or commercial way.
You have been warned.
Movie Rating:
(An uncomfortable, uncompromising performance from Lawrence is the main selling point here)
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: When a raging flood traps a researcher and her young son, a call to a crucial mission puts their escape — and the future of humanity — on the line.
MOVIE REVIEW:
The Great Flood starts out like any other disaster movie. A scientist, An-na (Kim Da-mi), and her son, Ja-in (Kwon Eun-seong), are trapped in a high-rise building after an asteroid hits Antarctica, causing water levels to rise drastically. A security personnel, Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo), sent by her company, arrives to escort An-na to the rooftop to await a helicopter rescue.
As it turns out, this is no ordinary rescue mission, and The Great Flood is not just another disaster movie by any means.
It’s clear that director and writer Kim Byung-woo (Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy) is not satisfied with delivering a visual-effects-heavy sci-fi spectacle. The Great Flood feels like a culmination of Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, and Source Code, with an AI-driven theme thrown into the mix.
Some viewers may feel confused or even lost after the exhilarating opening, because survival is not the central focus here. This isn’t about climbing to higher ground, escaping a tsunami, or avoiding looters. Instead, it’s about the future of mankind and a desperate attempt to understand human emotions if that makes any sense.
Whereas Korean disaster films such as Haeundae, Ashfall, and Concrete Utopia are brilliantly staged and more straightforward in their storytelling, The Great Flood can feel complex and even laborious. Avoiding spoilers as much as possible, it’s enough to say that The Great Flood involves not only human melodrama, but also time loops and sophisticated AI simulations.
For a Netflix original, the CGI is impressive. The production design and sense of scale despite being largely confined to a single apartment block are effective and believable. Kim Da-mi is fully committed, as we watch her navigate underwater obstacles and repeatedly make her way up and down staircases.
Unfortunately, this South Korean sci-fi apocalyptic film won’t be remembered as a notable disaster movie (because it isn’t), nor as a particularly engaging sci-fi thriller. The concept, while ambitious, is weighed down by heavy-handed execution. It certainly presents intriguing ideas, but the final payoff is far less satisfying than what the premise initially promises.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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LET PRADA STAR-STUDDED CAMPAIGN TAKES YOU THROUGH THE HOLIDAYPosted on 22 Dec 2025 |
Genre: Drama
Director: Li Taiyan
Cast: Jackie Chan, Peng Yuchang, Zhang Jianing, Pan Binlong, Li Ping
Runtime: 2 hr 1 min
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 1 January 2026
Synopsis: Zhong Bufan (Peng Yuchang), a broke tenant struggling to make ends meet in the city, never imagined his life would take such a bizarre turn — when his elderly landlord, Ren Jiqing (Jackie Chan), mistakes him for his long-lost son! With no savings and nowhere else to go, Bufan ends up stuck under the same roof with a hilarious bunch of oddballs — Su Xiaoyue (Zhang Jianing), a drifting tenant with her own dreams; Jia Ye (Pan Binlong), a middle-aged "slash" housing agent who thinks he knows everything; and Jin Zhengu (Li Ping), the nosy but warm-hearted neighbour who treats everyone like family. They're not related by blood, but fate — and cheap rent — bring them together. Between Ren Jiqing's unpredictable memory lapses, endless mix-ups, and bursts of fatherly affection, Bufan's life becomes a rollercoaster of laughter, chaos, and touching surprises... until he discovers the old man's secret that changes everything.
Movie Review:
With age, Jackie Chan has struggled to redefine himself as an actor, and up until last year’s gripping ensemble thriller ‘The Shadow’s Edge’, had either failed to recapture the glory of his heydays (with both ‘A Legend’ and ‘Vanguard’ being outright flops) or languished in forgettable roles that riffed on his heydays (think ‘Ride On’ or ‘Panda Plan’ that rode on Jackie being Jackie). In that regard, Jackie’s latest as an elderly man struggling with Stage 2 Alzheimer’s Disease (otherwise known as senile dementia) is a rare departure from his recent roles by being a purely dramatic part, and to his credit, Jackie imbues his character Ren Jiqing with genuine pathos.
As the title implies, the movie is about the ragtag group of individuals which rally around the elderly Uncle Ren during this period. There is Su Xiaoyue (Zhang Jianing), a young female tenant working as a health supplement promoter who is given a meagre backstory of having run away from her parents for treating her like an ATM; there is Jia Ye (Pan Binlong), a middle-aged businessman who runs his own car servicing workshop and who has no qualms being a grifter trying to con odd-job labourers to work for peanuts at his workshop; and last but not least, there is Jin Zhengu (Li Ping), the elderly neighbour who despite her nosiness cares deeply for Uncle Ren.
When a young man Zhong Bufan (Peng Yuchang) shows up at Jia Ye’s workshop looking for work, the latter takes the opportunity to also offer him a tenantship at Uncle Ren’s apartment, precipitating a case of mistaken identity when Uncle Ren thinks of Bufan as his long lost son Zhuangzhuang. It doesn’t take much to guess that Uncle Ren has had an estranged relationship with his son Zhuangzhuang, and that he longs to be reunited and reconciled with the former World Men’s Youth Weightlifting champion. Without giving too much away, let’s just say it is only at the end of the movie that we find out why Zhuangzhuang had left all those years back and never returned, and the truth is surprisingly heartbreaking.
It is all the more disappointing then that ‘Unexpected Family’ is only fitfully engaging throughout the rest of its two-hour duration, let down unfortunately by newcomer Tai’s inability to find the right balance between comedy and drama. One moment Bufan is diving into the back of a rubbish truck in a frantic attempt to retrieve his belongings that Ren had disposed of, and another Bufan is at the bank fending off two bank security guards while trying to trick Ren to give him a handsome sum from the latter’s retirement savings account. Both are no doubt played up for laughs, but done in such exaggerated fashion that it comes off farcical.
These are interspersed with excessively maudlin moments that often come up cringeworthy. One such scene has Ren rush to the front of an abandoned train station with a dated ticket from years ago, in the hopes that Zhuangzhuang will be returning on the next train home, and refusing to leave despite the pleadings of Jia, Xiaoyue and Auntie Jin; and let’s just say there are a lot more of such scenes in the second half of the movie when Ren’s condition takes a turn for the worse after almost drowning while diving into a pond to try to save Bufan.
All throughout, Jackie is a consummate professional. Not only does he give each scene his best, Jackie also brings out the best in his fellow actors; that is especially so for Peng, whose role as Bufan sadly lacks a compelling backstory and is only defined in regards to holding up the pretence of being Ren’s long-lost son. Tai and his co-writer Lv Zhuo also do short shrift with the rest of the supporting characters, but given how central the father-son dynamic is to the premise, it is especially glaring how little we know about where Bufan came from before stumbling onto Ren and therefore how generous Jackie’s performance is in drawing out the best from Peng.
Contrary to its title, ‘Unexpected Family’ ultimately holds little surprise. You know despite initially approaching it as a job that Bufan will eventually come to embrace Ren as his own kin; ditto the rest of the bunch of oddballs of this makeshift family. You know too that the truth behind Ren’s estrangement from his son probably has to do with how he had imposed his own ambition upon Zhuangzhuang to win the world’s men weightlifting championship. And you know that the denouement will be bittersweet, with Ren’s makeshift family coming together to recreate a pivotal feel-good moment from his past in order to inject some much-needed joy in his twilight years.
Comparisons with our very own ‘A Good Child’ are somewhat inevitable, given how both deal with the difficult subject matter of elderly dementia; and yet, we dare say that Ong Kuo Sin movie is so, so much better. It isn’t that Jackie doesn’t try his best, and in fact, it is only because of his larger-than-life presence that ‘Unexpected Family’ is still watchable; pity that whatever pathos he brings to the role is lost in a tonally uneven, cliched and even cringe-worthy comedy drama. If there is a silver lining, it is that Jackie has genuine dramatic chops, and we hope as he continues to age that he will find new tailwinds as a serious actor as he had always hoped to.
Movie Rating:
(Jackie Chan injects genuine pathos into his character of an elderly father struggling with regret and dementia, but the rest of the movie is a tonally uneven, cliched and even cringe-worthy comedy drama)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Disaster/Thriller
Director: Ric Roman Waugh
Cast: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roman Griffin Davis, Amber Rose Revah
Runtime: 1 hr 38 min
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence and Intense Sequences)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 8 January 2026
Synopsis: Set 5 years after the Clarke interstellar comets decimated Earth in Greenland (2020), the Garrity family must leave the safety of the Greenland bunker and embark on a perilous journey across the wasteland of Europe to find a new home.
Movie Review:
These days, the word “Greenland” may immediately bring to mind U.S. President Donald Trump and his renewed interest in the country — a geopolitical talking point that has made headlines for very different reasons. That, however, is a story far removed from the cinematic destruction depicted here.
In cinema, Greenland remains firmly in the realm of global catastrophe rather than political controversy.
Greenland 2 picks up where its predecessor left off, returning audiences to a world still reeling from near-extinction. In the first Greenland (2020), a civilisation-ending comet shattered into fragments and rained destruction across the planet, forcing ordinary citizens into impossible choices as they fought for a place in underground bunkers.
The sequel expands the scope of that trauma. Life after the impact is no less punishing, as humanity struggles to rebuild in a world permanently altered by catastrophe. Once again, the Garrity family is thrust into peril, navigating hostile environments, scarce resources, and the ever-present threat of human desperation.
Gerard Butler returns as John Garrity, and he once again anchors the film with a performance defined by exhaustion and quiet resolve. Butler looks visibly burdened throughout the movie — and rightly so. His character carries not only the responsibility of protecting his family, but also the psychological weight of everything he has seen and lost. It’s a grounded, weathered performance that fits the bleak circumstances, reinforcing the film’s emotional stakes even when the narrative leans into familiar territory.
As a genre, disaster movies often evoke nostalgia for a time when blockbuster filmmaking meant showcasing jaw-dropping CGI on an enormous scale. Greenland 2 proudly embraces that tradition. Crumbling landscapes and the aftermath of collapsed infrastructure offer visual reminders of a world pushed past its breaking point. There’s an undeniable fascination in watching national icons reduced to ruins, a spectacle that disaster films have long used to underline humanity’s fragility.
Yet beyond the spectacle, the movie also explores the grim choices people make when survival is at stake. As resources dwindle and order erodes, desperation drives individuals toward morally questionable actions. These moments may not be deeply philosophical, but they effectively convey how thin the line is between civility and chaos when survival becomes the only currency that matters.
At its core, however, Greenland 2 remains a story about family. The emotional throughline is not the scale of destruction, but the lengths people will go to protect those they love. That focus gives the film a sense of purpose, grounding the explosions and peril in something recognisably human.
While Greenland 2 is unlikely to spark deep reflection or redefine the genre, it knows exactly what it is. The setups are often convenient, the story beats predictable, and surprises are few. Still, it is competently made and consistently engaging across its lean 98-minute runtime. For viewers seeking a solid, no-frills disaster flick, Greenland 2 delivers an entertaining and serviceable ride — one that understands that sometimes, survival stories don’t need reinvention, just conviction.
Movie Rating:
(Collapsing worlds and a burdened Gerard Butler make this solid disaster sequel one that prioritises survival, family, and spectacle over surprises)
Review by John Li
Genre: Animation/Adventure
Director: Phil Cunningham, Brent Dawes
Cast: Phil Wickham, Brandon Engman, Brian Stivale
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Rating: PG (Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 December 2025
Synopsis: From the songs of his mother’s heart to the whispers of a faithful God, David’s story begins in quiet devotion. When the giant Goliath rises to terrorize a nation, a young shepherd armed with only a sling, a few stones, and unshakable faith steps forward. Pursued by power and driven by purpose, his journey tests the limits of loyalty, love, and courage—culminating in a battle not just for a crown, but for the soul of a kingdom.
Movie Review:
For its intended audience, ‘David’ needs no introduction. The story of a shepherd whom the prophet Samuel had anointed as a boy to become King of Israel is one of the more familiar tales from the Bible, not least for the well-known fable of David versus Goliath where the young David defeated the giant Philistine champion Goliath with just his faith and a slingshot.
So rather than trying to be too clever, co-directors and co-writers Brent Dawes and Phil Cunningham focus on telling David’s story faithfully from the Books of Samuel. Their story begins with David (voiced by Brandon Engman) tending after his village’s flock of sheep, where he displays both courage and compassion defending the flock against a lion and then freeing the lion after it falls off the cliff and gets trapped in a rock formation below. That opening scene foretells his calling as a shepherd, pronounced by the visit of the prophet Samuel (Brian Stivale) to his family in their Bethlehem home.
Not long after, David is escorted by the palace guards to the palace of King Saul (Adam Michael Gold), who has grown cantankerous obsessing over whether God will secure his victory over the Philistines and the Amalekites. With a lyre and the voice of God, David manages to soothe his troubled soul and in so doing, earn his trust and place in the kingdom alongside Saul next to Saul’s son Jonathan. The first act chronicles the father-son bond that develops between Saul and David, culminating not surprisingly in the battle of David versus Goliath that rekindles the Israelites’ faith.
In contrast, the next two acts details their tragic fallout after a raid on a nearby Amalekite site leads Saul to recall how God had stripped him of his kingship after he disobeyed God’s orders to slay the Amalekites years ago and how David is the prophesied King. By then, David is already a young adult (now voiced by Phil Wickham), and together with his family and followers, is driven out of Bethlehem in order to escape Saul’s persecution. Even so, David harbours no malice against Saul, and as Scripture would have it, will go on to lead an uprising of the Israelites against the Amalekites in the desert and claim his rightful throne as King.
Though familiar, there is much to take away from this retelling. Arriving right on time for Christmas, it is first and foremost an affirmation of the power of faith, of believing that God will set out to protect those whom he has anointed as his own. It is also a story of surrender, of surrendering one’s will, thirst for glory and power, and even mortal fears, because these things are ultimately ephemeral. And last but not least, it is a story of selfless love, of what it means to love thy enemy, as David did by sparing Saul’s life when he could have easily taken it in the cave.
It doesn’t hurt that ‘David’ doesn’t simply aim to preach to the converted, but also to be accessible to the general public. Despite hailing from the little-known Cape Town-based Sunrise Animation Studios, ‘David’ is surprisingly handsome to look at, nicely detailed, brightly coloured and pacey enough with a good mix of exposition and catchy tunes. There is a fine line between religious fervour and restraint, and ‘David’ strikes a good balance between being preachy and being persuasive.
At its heart though, ‘David’ remains a Biblical story, and is clearly intended for the faith-based audience during this Christmas season. It is no Disney or Dreamworks Animation, but at the same time, it hardly needs to be – for what it sets out to achieve, and that is, to retell a familiar story about the power of faith, ‘David’ does so beautifully enough to win your hearts, your minds and even your soul..
Movie Rating:
(A familiar, but no less uplifting, affirmation of the power of faith, especially for the converted)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama
Director: Chloe Zhao
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Zac Wishart, Joe Alwyn, Justine Mitchell, Emily Watson, David Wilmot
Runtime: 2 hr 6 min
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes)
Released By: UIP
Official Website:
Opening Day: 22 January 2026
Synopsis: From Academy Award® winning writer/director Chloé Zhao, Hamnet tells the powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. After losing their son Hamnet to plague, Agnes and William Shakespeare grapple with grief in 16th-century England. A healer, Agnes must find strength to care for her surviving children while processing her devastating loss.
Movie Review:
Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet reaches quietly, devastatingly into the innermost chambers of grief, touching those who have known loss with an ache that feels almost too intimate to bear. Yet, in true Zhao fashion, the film does not leave its audience stranded in sorrow. Instead, it guides them—gently, patiently—towards the fragile but unmistakable possibility that life, even after unimaginable heartbreak, can still hold beauty, meaning, and renewal.
Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed novel, Hamnet reimagines the life of William Shakespeare through the lens of personal tragedy. The story centres on Shakespeare, his wife Agnes, and their children, particularly their twins Hamnet and Judith. When illness strikes the family, the narrative unfolds not as historical biography but as an intimate meditation on love, mortality, and the ways grief reshapes those left behind. Zhao resists melodrama, choosing instead to let emotion surface through silence, gesture, and the passage of time.
Jessie Buckley is extraordinary as Agnes, embodying a woman ahead of her time—intuitive, fiercely independent, and deeply connected to the natural world. Buckley conveys Agnes’s devotion to her husband and children with a raw, physical immediacy, while also capturing her longing for autonomy within the confines of her era. Her performance pulses with life, making Agnes both grounded and ethereal, and anchors the film’s emotional weight.
Paul Mescal, as Shakespeare, is quietly mesmerising. He portrays the playwright not as a towering literary figure, but as a man marked by tenderness, guilt, and unspoken sorrow. Mescal’s restraint allows vulnerability to seep through in unexpected moments, making his absence from the Supporting Actor race at the 98th Academy Awards a notable snub.
One of the film’s most inspired choices is the casting of real-life brothers Jacobi and Noah Jupe as Hamnet and the actor playing Hamlet on stage. Noah, in particular, gives Hamnet a gentle curiosity and warmth that makes the loss all the more piercing, while Jacobi commands presence with his limited screen time.
Visually, Hamnet is immersive and transportive. The production design meticulously recreates the textures of the period, drawing viewers into a world shaped by earth, wood, and candlelight. Zhao’s frequent returns to nature—rolling fields, forests, rivers—offer moments of visual breathing space, grounding the film in cycles of life that endure beyond human suffering. These scenes feel restorative, reinforcing the film’s belief in continuity and renewal.
Max Richter’s score is both beautiful and devastating, weaving through the film like an emotional undercurrent. The decision to use his 2004 composition “On the Nature of Daylight” during a climactic moment is inspired—its aching simplicity elevates the scene into something transcendent, etching itself into memory with quiet force.
Nominated for eight Academy Awards, Hamnet stands as one of Zhao’s most emotionally resonant works. It is a film that hurts deeply, yet offers solace in equal measure—a reminder that grief and joy are not opposites, but companions. Through delicate storytelling and profound empathy, Zhao crafts a cinematic experience that breaks the heart, then carefully, tenderly, helps it heal. Hamnet is not the kind of film that ends when the credits roll; it lingers quietly in the mind, returning in fragments of images, music, and emotion long after it has faded from the screen.
Movie Rating:
(A film of aching beauty, Hamnet breaks the heart with grief and gently stitches it back together with hope)
Review by John Li
SYNOPSIS: Based on the acclaimed 2014 short film by Rod Blackhurst and Bryce McGuire, the film stars Wyatt Russell (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) as Ray Waller, a former major league baseball player forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness, who moves into a new home with his concerned wife Eve (Oscar® nominee Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin), teenage daughter Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle, this fall’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) and young son Elliot (Gavin Warren, Fear the Walking Dead). Secretly hoping, against the odds, to return to pro ball, Ray persuades Eve that the new home’s shimmering backyard swimming pool will be fun for the kids and provide physical therapy for him. But a dark secret in the home’s past will unleash a malevolent force that will drag the family under, into the depths of inescapable terror.
MOVIE REVIEW:
One of the most common Chinese folklore ghost stories is that of the water ghost. Reputedly, the spirit is searching for a “replacement,” lurking in bodies of water to drag unsuspecting swimmers down in order to free itself from the abyss. This is why elders often warn people not to swim alone or enter the water at night.
Coincidental or not, the gist of Night Swim is more or less aligned with this supernatural Chinese folklore, even though director and screenwriter Bryce McGuire hails from Florida, not Singapore or Malaysia.
Retired baseball player Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell), his wife Eve (Kerry Condon), and their two children, Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and Elliot (Gavin Warren), move into a house with a large swimming pool. The decision is driven by Ray’s doctor, who advises him to take up swimming, a less strenuous form of exercise as part of his multiple sclerosis therapy.
At first, everything seems fine, and Ray’s illness even appears to be improving. However, the children soon begin experiencing unexplained hauntings in the pool on separate occasions. Eventually, Eve starts investigating on her own and uncovers the unsettling truth behind Ray’s sudden remission. Worse still, Elliot may be the eventual target of whatever is lurking beneath the water’s surface.
The pool is arguably the real star of this Blumhouse horror thriller. This suburban deathtrap, seemingly ordinary at first glance, is beautifully shot and transformed into a terrifying gateway to the unknown. Much like the sewer in IT, the pool functions as a central location of dread—equally compelling and menacing. Beyond that, however, the film offers little explanation of what actually resides within. Deliberately or otherwise, a well-to-do Asian matriarch is introduced to recount her sacrifice of a daughter to cure her sick son, yet the origins of the supernatural threat remain frustratingly vague.
The shock value and jump scares are minimal. While there are a few intense, competently staged moments in the pool, the underwhelming creature design is a major drawback unless a knockoff version of the Creature from the Black Lagoon happens to be your thing. It almost feels like producer James Wan is reminding audiences that he’s still working on a remake of the classic monster movie.
Frankly, there are no real standout moments, despite Condon’s gung-ho performance as a fiercely protective mother. Night Swim takes its time setting up its premise and mystery but never truly delivers genuine scares or sustained tension. While it does have an intriguing hook, the end result is a lukewarm horror experience. Perhaps water ghost stories are best left to Asian storytellers to do them justice.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Action/Martial Arts
Director: Ng Yuen Fai, Jack Lai
Cast: Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Jessica Hsuan, Sonija Kwok, Joyce Tang. Michael Miu, Jimmy Au, Power Chan, Wong Man Piu
Runtime: 1 hr 47 min
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 31 December 2025
Synopsis: A wrongful imprisonment leads to a crisis that can change the course of history! To make up for his wrongful imprisonment, Ken (Michael Miu) vows to travel to the Qin Dynasty and become the Qin Emperor. Meanwhile, in the Qin Dynasty, Hong Siu-lung (Louis Koo) and his family have spent the last two decades in seclusion, but his every move is still being watched by his disciple, the Qin Emperor (Raymond Lam). Just as the emperor is on the cusp of ultimate power after conquering the six rival warring states, he is ambushed by Ken and his team. With nowhere else to go, he turns to Hong, the mentor that he both reveres and fears, for safety, reuniting them for the first time in 20 years. As Ken binds these men's fate once more, the emperor and Hong's long-standing grudge must be settled once and for all.
Movie Review:
25 years is a long time in between, and as much as absence does make the heart grow fonder, it will take a lot of fondness to summon enough goodwill not to be thoroughly frustrated with this pointless sequel.
Erstwhile TVB fans will certainly recall the time-travelling science fiction TV series called ‘A Step Into the Past’ that was released in 2001, which not only marked the last TV drama for Louis Koo but also a breakout leading role for Raymond Lam. Koo’s affection for the series led him to acquire the rights a decade ago, and despite wrapping production for the movie back in 2019, ‘Back to the Past’ is only seeing the light of day now.
Unfortunately, we dare say for all involved that it would probably have been better if they simply went back to the drawing board to restart the entire endeavour, given how uninspired, tedious and downright silly the movie is. Not content to leave Koo’s Grand Tutor Hong Siu-lung to live happily ever after with his two wives, Wu Ting-fong (Jessica Hsuan) and Kam Ching (Sonija Kwok), this sequel has Hong facing off not just with his former discipline Chiu Poon (Raymond Lam) turned self-aggrandising Qin Emperor, but also a vengeful former employee Ken (Michael Miu) of the Lee family business who wants to take over the Qin Emperor.
Truth be told, it is all a big mess, what with the unfocused script trying to juggle the unresolved issues between Hong and the Emperor, Ken’s confusing motivations whether to kill the Emperor, take off with the Emperor’s riches and/or mend his estranged relations with his daughter Galie (Bai Baihe), and a treacherous member within Ken’s crew Max (Wu Yue) threatening to turn against him. We must confess we did not watch its TVB predecessor, but even then, it is hard to tell what sort of closure this sequel is meant for fans of the series.
Just as, if not even more, disappointing is the unremarkable action credited to Sammo Hung – other than a nice chase sequence involving wooden carts versus futuristic Tron-like motorcycles over rolling hills, there is literally little thrill or excitement in the fistfights, swordfights or gunfights. We’re not sure just what ended up on the cutting room floor, but what remains onscreen is shockingly inept for someone of Hung’s stature, and even if he may not have been the best choice for the mix of historical and present-day action, this is an utter embarrassment for so many reasons.
Without a proper story backbone nor for that matter any compelling character arcs, what is left is Koo’s occasional anachronistic wise-cracks. Some of his quips are amusing no doubt, but it is lamentable that the only entertainment we get out of this seemingly interminable venture is his utterances of ‘Thank you’ or ‘Good luck’ (yes, he says them in English, much to the confusion of his Qin dynasty peers). Koo is still a lively presence for the most part, but is let down by the weak plotting that leaves his character as well as the rest of his supporting ensemble stuck in the past.
Even sadder is the treatment given to Koo’s fellow TVB actors. We’re not sure what the deal was to assemble this reunion, but we feel bad for how both Hsuan and Kwok are given barely anything to do throughout the entire movie; ditto for other beloved supporting acts such as Sin-yau (Joyce Tang), Steward To (Jimmy Au) and Tang Yik (Wong Man-piu). While it would not have been possible to give their characters the same treatment as the TV series, we would have thought there would have been more care given to let each character play a role in the story for old times’ sake.
That the proceedings come off this sloppy is in large part due to the inexperience of first-time director Ng Yuen-fai (who had also directed Koo’s expensive, effects-heavy CGI experiment ‘Warriors of Future’) as well as his assistant Jack Lai. Neither seem to demonstrate any affinity for the source material, nor know their way around a high-concept production like this that requires a deliberate blend of historical drama, action and science fiction. Especially given the acting pedigree gathered here, it is even more a travesty that all that talent is wasted on an amateur production.
Seeing ‘Back to the Past’ after a more than six-year delay confirms our worst-held fears that it is not only because of the lengthy post-production that has held back its release all this while, but also extensive cuts and re-cuts that signal a production lost in limbo. By the time we get to the alternate ending whose sole purpose is to bring back Michelle Saram in a cameo, it is obvious that all this sequel was running on was pure nostalgia – and even so, like we said at the beginning, it will take a lot, a lot of fondness to summon enough goodwill not to be thoroughly frustrated by this pointless sequel that only reinforces why some things are better left in the past.
Movie Rating:
(It will take a lot, a lot of fondness with the 2001 TVB series to get over this pointless sequel that is a good example of why some things are better left in the past)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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