4.30
Went to watch Singapore Film Festival closing film at Lido yesterday. Was Royston Tan's Film 4.30.
4.30 is about a boy who is isolated by his businesswoman of a mother. Constantly busy in some foreign land, she never has time for the boy and leaves the boy with her korean tenant, who himself is nursing some heartbreak from his breakup with his girlfriend. The boy becomes lonely that he starts an unhealthy obsession with his mother's korean tenant, where he spies on him every morning at 4.30 am. The boy has very few highlights of the day. Besides spying on details of the korean everday at 4.30, he must switch off the radio of the taichi practising group every morning on the way to school and run away. He goes to the clinic very often to get cough syrup, and drinks them by the bottle everyday. School is another place of isolation, where teachers do not make an effort to understand the boy and always punish him for seemingly nonsensical stuff that he does.
Essentially, the film tries to explore alienation of people, especially children. Because Royston Tan shot the film in the boy's perspective, the film is larely silent with nary a dialogue to reflect the silence and loneliness of the boy. The boy has no one to accompany him and no role model in life. The film does not explain why his father is not around. So the boy decides to take the korean tenant as his role model, trying to understand the older man by studying his habits and personality.
There are a few homoerotic scenes where the boy tries to bridge out to the tenant. The boy and the tenant take turns to pee while each other is bathing. The boy pees into the bathtub while his tenant is bathing. The boy sleeps close next to a drunk tenant and takes a picture using a handphone. Finally, to check whether a hair found on the soap was his tenant's he cuts pubic hair from the tenant while the tenant is sleeping. Though so, this is not a gay film but these scenes are used to portray the intricate interaction between the boy and his tenant.
The film is very painful because we could well feel the sadness of the situation and the isolated world of the character. Xiao Li Yuan as the role of the boy turned in a very strong performance, conveying his emotions well to the audience with his detailed acting. The Korean was pained enough, though sometimes I was worried that he might sag in his performance. The pacing of the film was good, diliberately slow because director proably wants us to feel how slow each day can be for the boy. Accompanying music is kept simple like the simple lighting and setting, to bring out the focus on the solid story
The film takes a dark turn when the highlights of the boy's life is slowly taken away from the boy. The clinic closes so he no longer can get his cough syrup. A construction site occupies the park and the taichi group shifted to some unknown place. Finally, even the korean tenant moves out just when the boy and him started to interact.
Perhaps the tenant is afraid of investing his emotions in another person, as he has lost too much in his previous relationship. The film does not explain why and how did the relationship ended, but the audience are not meant to know because the film is shot in the perspective of the boy. Perhaps the tenant feels he might not be a good role model for the boy and he chooses to leave.
In the end, the boy's world become very dark and desperate, as reflected by the last few scenes and especially the closing scene, where he starts to paint his windows black in colour.
I loved the film because everything else is so simple so that we can focus on the simple solid story and not lose focus. The story is also focused enough, not trying to explain everything because in real life not everything can be explained properly or made known to us. Everything was quite thoughtful, though I felt at times that the film is too conscious of itself, especially in the last few scenes.
22 dollars was well spent and I look forward to Royston's next feature
4.30 is about a boy who is isolated by his businesswoman of a mother. Constantly busy in some foreign land, she never has time for the boy and leaves the boy with her korean tenant, who himself is nursing some heartbreak from his breakup with his girlfriend. The boy becomes lonely that he starts an unhealthy obsession with his mother's korean tenant, where he spies on him every morning at 4.30 am. The boy has very few highlights of the day. Besides spying on details of the korean everday at 4.30, he must switch off the radio of the taichi practising group every morning on the way to school and run away. He goes to the clinic very often to get cough syrup, and drinks them by the bottle everyday. School is another place of isolation, where teachers do not make an effort to understand the boy and always punish him for seemingly nonsensical stuff that he does.
Essentially, the film tries to explore alienation of people, especially children. Because Royston Tan shot the film in the boy's perspective, the film is larely silent with nary a dialogue to reflect the silence and loneliness of the boy. The boy has no one to accompany him and no role model in life. The film does not explain why his father is not around. So the boy decides to take the korean tenant as his role model, trying to understand the older man by studying his habits and personality.
There are a few homoerotic scenes where the boy tries to bridge out to the tenant. The boy and the tenant take turns to pee while each other is bathing. The boy pees into the bathtub while his tenant is bathing. The boy sleeps close next to a drunk tenant and takes a picture using a handphone. Finally, to check whether a hair found on the soap was his tenant's he cuts pubic hair from the tenant while the tenant is sleeping. Though so, this is not a gay film but these scenes are used to portray the intricate interaction between the boy and his tenant.
The film is very painful because we could well feel the sadness of the situation and the isolated world of the character. Xiao Li Yuan as the role of the boy turned in a very strong performance, conveying his emotions well to the audience with his detailed acting. The Korean was pained enough, though sometimes I was worried that he might sag in his performance. The pacing of the film was good, diliberately slow because director proably wants us to feel how slow each day can be for the boy. Accompanying music is kept simple like the simple lighting and setting, to bring out the focus on the solid story
The film takes a dark turn when the highlights of the boy's life is slowly taken away from the boy. The clinic closes so he no longer can get his cough syrup. A construction site occupies the park and the taichi group shifted to some unknown place. Finally, even the korean tenant moves out just when the boy and him started to interact.
Perhaps the tenant is afraid of investing his emotions in another person, as he has lost too much in his previous relationship. The film does not explain why and how did the relationship ended, but the audience are not meant to know because the film is shot in the perspective of the boy. Perhaps the tenant feels he might not be a good role model for the boy and he chooses to leave.
In the end, the boy's world become very dark and desperate, as reflected by the last few scenes and especially the closing scene, where he starts to paint his windows black in colour.
I loved the film because everything else is so simple so that we can focus on the simple solid story and not lose focus. The story is also focused enough, not trying to explain everything because in real life not everything can be explained properly or made known to us. Everything was quite thoughtful, though I felt at times that the film is too conscious of itself, especially in the last few scenes.
22 dollars was well spent and I look forward to Royston's next feature
posted by Kian Tong at 1:39 AM
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