It’s always hard to share one’s thoughts on local films, because you may either come across as being a plain fanboy or an elitist, depending on which way you lean.
But I’ll just be as honest as possible.
I went to this show with high expectations, as the publicity campaign was pretty strong and most of the reviews I had read were rather positive.
The first thing you have to know about this film is that it is consists of four distinct stories set in the past, as told by an old man (played by Chew Chor Meng) upon seeing old photographs of people loosely related to Great World City who were familiar to him.
To cut to the chase – did I enjoy the movie?
Well, not so much.
I mean, it had its moments, and it certainly was a pleasant experience, but ultimately it wasn’t a movie that deeply intrigued me nor tugged at my heartstrings.
It certainly had an impressive cast list, with the likes of Chew Chor Meng, Henry Thia, Nancy Sit, Joanne Peh, Bryan Wong, Kym Ng, Chen Shucheng, Xiang Yun, Huang Wenyong, Yvonne Lim, Ng Hui, Ben Yeo, Marcus Chin, Zheng Geping, Apple Hong, Guo Liang, Dennis Chew, etc in it.
It’s almost as if three-quarters of the artiste roster at Mediacorp was roped into this movie.
There were even appearances by artistes such as Olivia Ong (pretty major role), and theatre actress Emma Yong (very small role).
(I do wonder why Emma Yong was roped in to play such a bit role? She had only one line in the entire film.)
Anyhow, I felt that the stories were rather predictable, and most of the characters were largely two-dimensional.
Also, there seemed like a lack of development in many of the stories.
For example, in the second story, which was a love story between two young people, Joanne Peh seemed to be rather cold towards Zhang Zhen Huan even after the ride in the haunted house, and thus, when she starts to cry uncontrollably upon his sudden departure, it’s hard to feel sad for her because there didn’t seem to be a proper fleshing out of her feelings towards him prior to that.
I felt the best performance in the movie definitely came from Xiang Yun.
She made the third story the most memorable and touching story in the entire film.
One thing I wanna say is that because we are all so familiar with so many of the TCS stars, at times it was hard to take some of their roles seriously, especially if they were trying to act serious.
One good example was when Guo Liang appeared to Xiang Yun at the Flamingo night club, after disappearing from her life for ten whole years.
That was supposed to have been a very dramatic moment, but the audience couldn’t help but chuckle the moment he first appeared.
That’s the problem with casting too many TCS stars in a movie.
The good thing I will say about the movie is that it tried very hard to recreate the old world nostalgia of the former Great World City, back in its glory days.
It’s probably a good trip down memory lane for those who are old enough to remember the way things were back in the old days.
It’s never easy doing a period piece, and kudos to the entire team for doing the necessary research and building the necessary sets and props.
However, I would have to say that many of the sets looked slightly artificial, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the audience had this “Yeah I know what you’re trying to recreate here, and while I think it’s a good effort, I can still tell that it’s all fake” mentality while watching the movie.
As for the scenes which required plenty of extras, e.g. the crowd waiting for Elizabeth Taylor, and the crowd inside the Flamingo night club…well, let’s just say that it all felt like a scene from a typical TCS TV drama.
Lastly, the use of the various dialects as dialogue in the film was a nice touch, as it lent an air of authenticity to the stories.
If you’re undecided about this movie, I would advise you to go watch it because it is quite an endeavour to have had pulled this off, and I think the film deserves your support.
