Ilo Ilo (2013)

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Nobody around us owns the title of a relationship, whatever the relationship between children and parents, romantic partners, siblings and whatsoever. Ilo Ilo depicts a strange relationship between a young boy,lonely as his parents are busy making money and support family, and a maid, also left her young boy to her sister to another country and come to Singapore for earning. Boy shows as a naughty one, but keep in mind, no one comes this world with "evil" heart. Less of care and loneliness bought those stuffs inside him.Most striking stuffs was that LUCK has it's own way to treat people. The boy found the pattern for lucky number to won the ticket, which only works for his school teacher, but not for him when he was badly needing that money.You don't have to make relationship by force or by any precedent connections. It builds through "love",goes by "love", ends for "love". Nothing else may exit for time being, but surely not persist.

Poignant, funny and heartbreaking, Anthony Chen's feature debut in ILO ILO is a true gem of a Singaporean drama.Winners of this year's Camera d'Or award (an award for best first feature film) at the prestigious 2013 Cannes Film Festival as well as the recent Taiwan's Golden Horse Award (which nabbed four awards including Best Film and Best New Director), this low-budget Singaporean drama ILO ILO is truly a remarkable feat for a first-time feature director Anthony Chen.WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?Set in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, ILO ILO revolves around 10-year-old Singaporean boy, Jiale (Koh Jia Ler) and the newly-hired Filipino maid, Terry (Angeli Bavani) who at first doesn't see eye-to-eye against each other. But their relationship gradually improves when the resilient Terry manages to earn affection and respect from the hardheaded Jiale. Meanwhile, Jiale's parent -- pregnant mother Hwee Leng (Yeo Yann Yann) and recently jobless father Teck (Chen Tianwen) -- are struggling to deal with their own family and financial matter.THE GOOD STUFFPrior to ILO ILO, Anthony Chen has already crafted his name in the world of short films with critically acclaimed efforts such as AH MA and HAZE. In ILO ILO, Chen proves to be a gifted filmmaker who knows well how to tell a great story. In fact, he actually inspired the movie from his own personal experience when he grew up in 1990s Singapore with a Filipino maid and a family suffering from financial woes. Chen's direction is meticulous to details where everything here is presented in a uniquely Singaporean manner. Among some of the themes that everyone (at least for Singaporeans) can relate to, is the kiasu (literally means "fear of losing") attitude of a typical middle-class Singaporean family when dealing their domestic or personal problems, as well as Chen's hilarious perspective on how people usually react when comes to buying lottery numbers. Production values are suitably top notch, especially for Benoit Soler's down-to-earth cinematography which perfectly evokes the sense of time and place of the 1997 Singapore.The cast here are just as noteworthy, with newcomer Koh Jia Ler impresses a lot as the troublemaker Jiale. Despite this is only his first acting debut, Koh Jia Ler proves to be a gifted actor who definitely has bright future ahead. Angeli Bayani is tour de force as the Filipino maid Terry, while her chemistry with Jia Ler is genuinely heartfelt. Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann (who recently won Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Horse Award) is pitch-perfect as a typical Singaporean working-class woman, while Singaporean theater and TV veteran Chen Tianwen shows amazing range of top-class acting in his first big screen debut as the family's breadwinner who faces uncertainty in life after losing his job.MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT(S)There are plenty that I wanted to include here, but among them are the funny scene where Jiale tries to escape punishment from his discipline teacher by offering him a lottery tip and of course, the bittersweet finale between Jiale and Terry.THE BAD STUFFNone available.FINAL WORDSNo doubt ILO ILO is well deserved for all the accolades it has received thus far. This is certainly one of the must-watch movies of the year.

Amongst the rather dry, sappy cine-scape of Singapore, Ilo Ilo sticks out like a sore thumb of talent, great acting and brilliant camera-work on the part of Anthony Chen.Nevertheless, it's a flawed film. The story is loose-hinged - which suits the atmosphere which the film is trying to create. It engages us with the enigmatic character of Terry, the maid, who stumbles her way into the Lim family only to encounter a world of foreign hostility and bizarre drama. The influences are easy to catch on. Ozu's pillow shots - Terrence Malick's bright light set-ups and atmospheric shots - Ingmar Bergman's face shots and chamber quartet direction - as well as Kurosawa. (The easiest way to note Kurosawa's influence is through Chen's use of door- shots - mainly popularized through Ikiru by Kurosawa)But Ilo Ilo picks up too much and plays too little. It explores the maid's psyche to some extent but her character nevertheless feels like it was tossed in and thrown out of a washing machine without much thought put into it. We see her come in fine - and somehow go away fine with no change whatsoever in terms of her personality and views towards her life in Singapore.Thematically it is confused. It plays with many different "dramas" at once - trying to handle the numerous strings pulled by the script - only to be let go of them halfheartedly through the film. Anthony Chen brings up the idea of smoke and alcohol addiction and subsequent marital tension - but just leaves it hanging in the air without much resolution. Furthermore he adds the concept of deceptive appearances and prejudices against the maid - but none of these blossom into completion. The theme of pregnancy is weaved into the film's script - yet the film's only reference to the gestation is the physical presence of large belly. What we get in the end is a half-film, thematically. Furthermore, plot-wise it is weak and incomplete as well. What happens to the maid's job as a hair-dresser? What does she do there? Does she simply ditch the job? What was up with the sleeping pills? What about the money she had? What of her child and the problem with the Sister she was grumbling about over the phone? What happens to Jia Le after he is caned? There are so many unresolved plot lines - only simply hidden by a conscious attention to speeding up time, thereby streaming away from the incomplete parts of the script. It seems absurdly unfinished.The characters also are weak. At her fundamentals, the Mother of the house-hold seems to have a bipolar disorder. At one point she hates the maid's presence in the house and doubts her - and yet all of a sudden cares about her and is grateful to her. The Father from time to time is upset, and temperamental - yet is gentle and calm towards his family occasionally. The characters possess uneven, odd personalities that only weaken their on-screen potency. Nevertheless, the film does boast some solid acting, pushing my rating for it up to a 6. Angeli Bayani does a tremendous job as the maid struggling to survive in Singapore - and I would like to specially acknowledge her for I believe that her performance is a master-class in indie-acting for females. Never does Bayani condescend to her role - always treating the character of the Maid with elegance and eloquent motion. "Yes ma'am, good ma'am".I am impressed - don't get me wrong. Despite the numerous flaws, Chen's sensitive direction makes the flaws forgettable and the film otherwise. So is it worth a DVD? Yes. Theatre? Perhaps - maybe not.

This movie captures the atmosphere of the end of the 90's in Singapore, when an economic tsunami devastated much of Asia, through the memories of a 10-year old.When Antony Chen was looking for a subject for his first feature film, he recorded an event of his childhood that he had since nearly erased from this memory: how he was heartbroken when the Filipino maid who was living with his family had to leave, following his mother's decision to stay at home to tend to the family. From there, vignettes of the past came back to him, that he sought to transcribe them in the movie in the most authentic manner possible.Antony Chen pushed that search for authenticity pretty far, as to find Ko Jia Le (the boy playing the central part), he trawled schools seeing some 2000 boys, interviewing hundreds, and inviting a hundred of them to do workshops. The result was not to take the cutest or the best-looking - something the director wanted to avoid - in fact you often feel ill at ease watching him, playing obsessively with him Tamagochi (remember those?) or making a nuisance of himself in all sorts of ways. You love him and you hate him, was the director's comment, and shooting the movie appears never to have been easy. "There were two children on the set, one in front of the camera, one behind", reminisced Chen. The embarrassment you feel watching him is a compounded by that caused by the tensions between the characters, sometimes so painful and so real that you wonder what you are doing there watching them.The period of the film is, in 2013, highly unusual: nobody to my knowledge has yet set an entire film in the 1990's. But none of the usual tricks to show the audience the period: no camera lingering on a period calendar, no newsreels announcing events identifiable with the period. Part of the time you forget about it, and get reminded by an audio cassette or an electronic typewriter.The movie is upheld by a brilliant cast of very eclectic actors. Chen Tian Wen (the father) comes from Singapore TV soap operas, Angeli Bayani is Filipino and worked in the Philippines in theater and in movies. The fact that the mother (Yann Yann Yeo), was really 6-month pregnant during the shooting, adds humanity to a character who would otherwise appear excessively domineering. The art director is French, met by Chen in the London school of cinema. Chen expressed how he had fears that being a westerner he would show a romantic view of Singapore, something like Woody Allen in Paris, which would have gone against his search for authenticity. The shooting does avoid any romanticism but remains highly interesting, occasionally tripping into a dreamlike quality at odds with the rest of the movie.In short, this is a movie like none other.