Watched the movie,“The Days” with Wilson later at night after all that photoshoot.
Was actually quite looking forward to it, even though I did not even see the trailer. Maybe it's cos we also watched another show together that was somewhat similar way back in NP days. That show was “Eating Air”.
It is one of my favourite local films. Even inspired my choice for my first motorcycle. Well pardon me for enjoying brainless entertainment but that's the way I enjoy a show.
“The Day” in comparison was a total letdown. Perhaps my expectation was way too high. It ain’t fair to compare the 2 movies together, it ain’t fair to compare any movies since all director has a different vision for their movie which we may or may not comprehend. But still…..they have way too many similarities: local production on Ah Beng theme, tragic ending, old 70s type Chinese manga animations, etc.
Whereas EA delivers, TD falters.
Starting from the beginning of the film, EA starts off the laughter with the imaginary scene of the Ninja sword fights and then flows smoothly into the rest of the film with help from the talented Boredphucks’s soundtrack which helped a lot.
Somehow the beginning dialogue of TD starts to make me snooze maybe it’s due to a full day of strenuous shoot. The conversation of the brothers somewhat lack emotions you would have found familiar in a hoodlum. The first 10 mins of a film is the most critical portion of film. If you don’t get the audience’s attention then you better have more juice coming up later. Didn’t they learn that in film sch? The rest of the show never picked up the rhythm much either.
A few points to note is that the show starts stating in a news report that it was 1990. I got to admit part of me wanted to see this film so much cos I wanna have the nostalgic feeling of seeing those early 90s local locales / Beng and Lian behavior and fashion(or lack of). Unfortunately, what was part of it’s driving pt ultimately was its demise. A lot of the 90s features seemed like purposely included inside. Wayyy too forceful until it’s like the director is trying to show off the knowledge and props he got from the last decade. An example would be the phone booth with the old Telecom sign. What is worse is that the director tried to glaringly emphasize the things we did in the 90s…..albeit at a totally wrong period! The street Fighter II games was not introduced or popular until the mid to late 90s and so wasn’t pagers on students. Back in 1990 pagers are only for adult businessman or execs who can afford the price plan at that time. New year day and Christmas fireworks celebrations was also not common until the late 90s. All these and some small wrong details just kinda make you cringe.
Somewhat like an ah Beng trying to sian char boh on how smart he is by toking about all the wrong info!
Most of the shots were very tight close up of the places and I can hardly see any old places that I can reminisce with. A lot of the shots I can recognize is from within Toa Payoh perhaps one of the more larger aging neighbourhood in Singapore I had to say this wasn’t totally the director’s fault as Singapore is fast changing as can be seen in my previous posts of complains. Still, the location scouts could have done better. There are not many places left from the 90s but they can be found.
The casting could also have been better. Most of them are grossly over-aged. Other than the “Xiao Lao Da” acted by Anothony Levi Kho who is quite natural and enjoyable as a Beng, the rest fails to convince. Zhihao who is suppose to be Zhilong’s baby brother whose role is a fresh secondary 1 kiddo has more developed muscles than some people I know! He tried too hard to bring the innocence of a pre teen and ended up looking like one of those who should be admitted to MINDS Jurong Gardens School rather than Ming Fa Sec. The female lead also looks abit old to be a pre U student too.
Despite all these critical views, it’s still no bad movie overall, just that I am more sensitive towards local heritage and history. Credits should still be given to the fashion of the 90s bengs which was faithfully recreated but too bad no staple accessories like Jean Paul Gaultier extra longish wallets and pointy combs.
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