Poor Rosa. Poor Harry Lee.

Poor Rosa and Ester. Rosa because she kenna haunted by ghosts in THE MAID. Ester because she was kenna raped and killed by her employers in THE MAID.

Poor Harry Lee. Because you'll just feel sad for him. Hailing from slightly before our father's generation, this is a man without a degree, sweating and toiling to make his ends meet in qualification-essential Singapore. He's actually not very far off from us despite our so called dipolmas, A'levels and impending degrees (if any). Harry is this man that's very nice to others and goes all the way out to please others at the expense of himself. This comes at the cost of his family. Neglecting is one thing. Abusing is another. For a fact I know some parents are like this. Damn nice to outsiders. Treat the family like punching bags (no need to be physical punching bag, can also be verbal - like PMS). It's atypical of people of a certain era I would think. Or I would like to HOPE that future generations would eventually phase this bad trait out.

Always thinking of others, always helping others. Getting nothing in return. A gambling addict for a wife, a son that doesn't acknowledge him, losing his job. Despite all, he maintains and optimistic outlook on life and concentrates his goal on (what else) - migrating to Perth. In a way you know he'll never get there. It's like this unattainable goal, just out of reach despite everything going so smoothly (right). From the start you know that Harry is a typical man that everyone can relate to. His Ally-McBealish daydream of beating up the bus driver is something that we've always wanted to do but only in our dreams. In a way, he is contrasted starkly with AB, his ex-employer cum good friend. AB does not hold back on showing people how he feels about them. When cut off (on the road) by a bunch of ang mohs, he tells Harry to catch up, and promptly beats them up to teach them a lesson. Where Harry bottles up his negative feelings and emotions from outsiders, AB doesn't give a damn and just goes ahead and whack. In this aspect, I'm sure we all relate to Harry in one way or another. A simple man trying to live a simple life. Right.

Perhaps the defining moment would be when Harry drinks at home and he just goes all out loony. Staring in the mirror, he confronts himself (literally) asking himself "Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am?... DO YOU?!" It's true. The Harry that people see is just this facade that he wants them to see. The nice Harry. But deep down inside, he's something else. I'm sure many people are like this. The real you is the one inside screaming to get out and speak your mind, to do whatever fuck you want without a damn. The one outside is like the representative (mask), filtering whatever you say, making sure you don't make a fool out of yourself and basically telling people what they want to hear to let them have a decent impression of you. It's who we are inside that's dangerous as we learn from Harry's demise. In a way, it's also an explaination as to how come people can do impossible, shocking things. In a mock interview after the massacre, his friends were trying to convince the viewer that Harry wasn't ever a gang member. One would think so from the ferocity of the attacks. But really, he's just a bloody oppressed individual that had at one moment, let it all out. Potentially everyone could be a Harry. Really. I know I could. Just the right catalyst and I'll probably hang (touch wood!). You could too. Hopefully it'll never happen of course.

That was the more personal aspect of the film. How one can relate to the main proteganist. Going about the storyline, it's a tad strained. But it does work in a way. Unfortunately I see typical Jack-Neoish coffeeshop talk present. Yeah, it was a good laugh, but deep down I really don't fancy laughing at myself or laughing at the government. In a way, I do hope that Be with Me (the upcoming Eric Khoo film) will be sans-government bashing. Perhaps one might say it's impossible to show the real life of the lower denizens without bad-mouthing the government a little. Unfortunately I do agree with this statement. But it must be done in moderation. Somehow hearing people say "the bloody buggers in the gah-ment" just doesn't do it for me as much as them discussing more personal issues. Like when he reminscents about his wife "that liar. that fucking liar." You can feel more in the pauses between his sentences there than a rambling on about government policy, how it affects the low level people and eventually leading to them losing their jobs to diploma kids and getting picked on in army by pre-pubescent 2LTs.

M18 ENGLISH & MANDARIN LANGUAGES (COARSE LANGUAGE AND VIOLENCE) - They weren't lying when they said coarse language. Almost every minute was puncuated by some dialect curse usually involving a reproductive organ or two. Some may love it, some may hate it. People like to laugh at it. I'd prefer otherwise simply because it sounds pretty normal. It's really what we say in real life. Really. It's weird that people laugh at vulgar and coarse language. You might wonder why. I guess we still can't accept the fact that we can say such stuff on film. But if they can say fuck, why can't they say cheebye? I mean seriously, it's time to grow up sniggering whenever we hear stuff like KNNBCCB. It's as much as motherfucker or cunt. Which are really curse words. I thought that the violence was handled exceptionally well. Not too gorey. But enough to satisfy the audience and make them believe the amount of violence we're all fully capable of creating. I guess in this aspect, Perth is much more grown up than 15 in terms of what they choose to let the viewers see. Here, they like to leave the violence just slightly offscreen so you really can't see anything. In 15, they derive great pleasure in zooming for a close-up on a giant cock or focus on some real tongue piercing and/or wrist slashing action. Excess is best. 'See everything' was director Rayson Tan's mentality. I really don't like his work. He doesn't know when to withhold information and let the audience's imagination run wild themselves. I mean seriously. What's more effective. Seeing a parang cut through tissue and bone or having it done offscreen but with the sound effects of the damage being done?

In all honesty, I wouldn't say it was fantastic. Not to bicker on the choice of film (16mm - 35mm) but it just looks too jialat at times. A little inconsistant maybe because I didn't know what effect they were trying to go for. Sometimes the story stretched to include stuff that well... didn't REALLY matter in my opinion. Like the vietnamese part with the K. Rouge. I believe that was just silly. He doesn't need an excuse to want to save the Vietnamese prostitute. It's already in his character to be always putting others above himself. It wouldn't come to me as a surprise that he felt for this poor girl that was beaten up on the job. I'd try to get her out of it myself if I were in his shoes. We didn't really need backstories for everything. Sometimes people just do things because they feel like it. We don't need a reason for everything we do. In this aspect it could use a little work. I do like the aspect though of Harry really getting nothing in the end. True, one might say that killing the boss in charge of the prostitutes would grant the Vienamese safe passage home thus achieving Harry's goal of saving her. But if we realise that Harry's wish after his death was to have his ashes scattered into the sea, then he didn't even get his last wish because AB went to the temple to visit him in the end. Bitter irony really. How can we not feel sad for Harry?

By feeling sad for Harry we're essentially feeling sad for ourselves. Bottling up our feelings and repressions for so long can't be healthy. Letting it out can't be safe. Is this problem unique to Singapore? (Uniquely Singapore!) I don't know. But it IS a problem that PERTH has nicely addressed. In this essence, I applaud it because it IS different. Considering the language, I'm sure many of us will appreciate it because it's really every single curse word in hokkien you've every heard and more. I know Shellen will. Haha. There's a bit of loyalty and friendship inside that's really quite secondary to the main theme. His melayu friend is loyal to the end where he does help Harry out at a fight in the club and at the KTV lounge. AB is like those ah beng brudda-hood like of loyalty where at the deciding moment, turns agains his boss to help Harry because "anything you want, I promise you." and he keeps his promises. Silly? Shallow? Maybe. But as said, they're just secondary.

There's potential for more definately but it's quite an interesting homage to Robert De Niro's TAXI DRIVER. I certainly don't suggest you going in with De Niro in mind. It's just quite different. In fact, forget that I mentioned the TAXI DRIVER bit. Most people probably wouldn't have seen TAXI DRIVER anyway. Overall, interesting perspective that I'd really like to explore given the chance. Somehow in my own opinion, I *think* that Singaporeans are attracted to the vices that the government is desperately trying to shield us from. Topics like sex, drugs and violence are really the main draws in the local film scene. They are applauded for the wrong reasons though. Watching the trailer of Be with Me, I was touched instantly by the musical chords as I was when I saw 12 Storeys for the first time in 1997. 8 years ago. Notwithstanding the rave reviews I'd heard before it was slated for release in Singapore, I knew instantly from the beautiful images that this was different. It wasn't trying to be different, it was naturally different.

Perth is also different, but in a more I dunno... not trying to be pretentious sort of way. I guess. I also guess that I do like it. Considering the previous effort of Djinn (the director) in RETURN TO PONTIANAK, I suppose he has in a way redeemed himself a little. Doing something close to the everyday man's roots is a cleverer choice. But don't go all out Jack Neo of course. The simple concept of taking something like a brutal massacre then making the murderer so very human (not cold blooded) and so relatable to everyone really hits home the message that THIS CAN BE YOU. We're all human time bombs waiting to explode. It's just how short your fuse is. Now if only we could do something interesting with Repro...

"I am a very simple man. I am a security supervisor with the shipyards. I earn some extra cash at night driving a cab. Somehow along the way. My life has become a little too complicated..."