20131012: Horror Review--23:59

23:59

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Singapore live action feature length film, 2011, rated R, 78 minutes, horror.  Spoken word, Mandarin with some English; English subtitles.
2. IMDB: 4.8/10.0 from 223 users.  Estimated budget: 600,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and no audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.7/5.0 from 7,497 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Gilbert Chan.
6. Starring: Tedd Chan as Tan, Stella Chung as Shirley, Philip Hersh as Boss (voice only), Henley Hill as Jeremy, Lawrence Koh as Dragon, Tommy Kuan as Lim, Josh Lai as Chester, Mark Lee as Sergeant Kuah, Benjamin Lim as Captain Hong.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Young soldiers who speak Chinese share ghost stories about the minute before midnight.


2. Tan is the designated weak member in the group and receives a lot of static for it.  He gets tied up and stuffed into a locker in the middle of the night.  Bullying in Asia.  No surprises.


3. Jeremy tries to help Tan through the military training course.  The endless references to ghosts and past suicides keeps Tan on a downward mood. Jeremy tries to steer him away from this thought pattern, since Jeremy's early childhood included some fakery in the profession of mediums. This is the setting when the last, worst, road march through the jungle is undertaken.


4. Tan gets lost.  His pack is found, and the sargeant tells the recruits to go look for him.  It starts raining.  They find his body; Jeremy thinks he sees a woman watching.


5. The sergeant tries to blame the supernatural for the loss of Tan.  This captain will not have it.


6. The recruits are uneasy the following night in the barracks.  Jeremy thinks he sees Tan's ghost, for instance.  Making matters worse, the next morning Jeremy receives word that his father passed away.  The next day, while out walking, Jeremy sees an old woman gesturing to him silently; Lim and Dragon do not.  That evening Chester starts banging his head against the lockers, then speaking in a weird voice.


7. They bring in a priest for Chester; the rites seem to help a bit.  Chester shows Jeremy where he and Tan had a strange experience.  Something had grabbed Tan's leg and Chester had beaten it off with his rifle butt.


8. Jeremy's dream about Chester dying comes true soon enough.  Jeremy meets the two principal characters from a couple of the ghost stories told early in the film.  Dragon, Lim, and the sergeant find Jeremy, but do not see the ghosts themselves.


9. Jeremy returns home, and the gift he thought he never had lets him see his dead father.


10. The movie jump shifts forward in time, and the ghost story cycle starts again.


3. Conclusions
1. The Chinese ouija board was interesting to see.
2. One line summary: A thoughtful Asian ghost story.
3. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 A bit bland, but always competent.


2. Sound: 8/10 A bit bland, but always competent. It was loud enough for a Chinese speaker to understand, and perhaps a quarter of the conversation is in English.  The subtitles were fine.


3. Acting: 10/10 Wonderful.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Moves along well.