Random Musings

I recently read that Glen Goei sold his London apartment in order to self-fund his latest movie project “The Blue Mansion”, so I decided to give the movie a try cos one, it looked interesting, and two, I applaud his taking this leap of faith and wanted to support him as best I could.

But I also recently heard through the grapevine that Glen Goei comes from a very wealthy family, so I suppose the outcome of this movie venture would probably not threaten his very existence as much as we think it would.

Which is just as well, cos I honestly didn’t think the movie impressed in any way. (But this is just my personal opinion.)

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Identity

I think the main problem with the movie is that it had no “identity”, and that is always going to be a problem with any movie.

You need to establish your “identity”, or your “tone” early…which I think “The Blue Mansion” failed to do.

It tried to be too many things, but ended up being nothing much.

By watching the trailer, you’d think that you’d be set up for an intriguing whodunit in the classic style of Agatha Christie or what-have-you, with subtle yet vital clues being peppered throughout the movie, with provocative plot twists that lead to an ultimately explosive and unexpected finale.

Sadly, it never materialised.

And the movie tried to be funny at times, but I guess the attempts at humour didn’t really fly with the audience.

It was a confusing mix of suspense, parody and humour…which resulted in the net effect being the audience not knowing how to take in the movie.

I personally found it difficult to get myself emotionally involved in the movie throughout.

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Parody

One thing you can’t accuse the movie of is being “subtle”.

One can only wonder what the movie might have been trying to parody by introducing a rich, powerful family with three children (two sons and a daughter) – the eldest son having had an ex-wife who committed suicide due to unrelenting pressure from the disapproving parents for having borne a child who was abnormal, and the daughter being unmarried after all these years…amongst other things.

Yes, if you wanted to draw parallels between the movie and a certain real-life family, you probably could have drawn many…but my question ultimately is: Was there a point?

What was the point of all the parody?

I really couldn’t see it.

At times it felt to me like it was parody for the sake of parody.

(And blatant parody at that.)

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Concluding Thoughts

I thought the movie was filled with a wealth of acting talent, what with Adrian Pang, Lim Kay Siu, Tan Kheng Hua, Neo Swee Lin, Karen Tan, Emma Yong, Pam Oei, etc. acting in it.

There was even a hilarious short cameo by Sebastian Tan.

And director Glen Goei himself made an appearance in the movie too.

Ultimately, I felt that the actors could have been rewarded with perhaps a better script, and I also felt that perhaps there were a few roles which seemed rather superfluous. (Four daughters for Wee Bak Chuan’s brother? Was that necessary??)

In all honesty, I felt quite disappointed with the movie, as I didn’t think it satisfied the movie-goer in me.

The denouement, I felt, was quite a mess and was utterly unfulfilling.

In all fairness, I thought it was quite admirable and refreshing to see someone else other than the usual suspects trying to make a local movie, so kudos to the team for that.

(Please note that I’m not trying to slam local works. I’m just trying to give my honest, unabashed review.)