Reviews Singaporean Reviews

Film Review: A Land Imagined (2018) by Yeo Siew Hua

A Land Imagined still

Winner of the Golden Leopard in Locarno for the first time in Singaporean cinema, “” is an intriguing urban noir that unfolds much like a dream.

Set in industrial Singapore, in the country’s coastline that has been reclaimed from other countries like Vietnam and Malaysia, the story begins with police detective Lok investigating the disappearance of migrant worker Wang. Lok, who suffers from insomnia, undertakes his task with very little eagerness, but the story becomes more complex when another worker who used to hang out with Wang,  Ajit, also goes missing. Somewhere at that point, the focus of the story changes and Wang becomes the central character. We witness him also suffering from insomnia after an accident during work that has him working as a driver for half the meager pay he already received. His lack of sleep leads him to a nearby internet cafe run by Mindy, a gorgeous but very tough woman who wastes no time before she starts flirting with him. He also starts talking to a mysterious persona online, while he spends most of his time playing Counter-Strike. Eventually, the person of focus changes to Lok again.

directs a very strange film that implements a combination of noir with social commentary, through an approach that bends the borders between reality and dream quite frequently. This sense of disorientation, which is enhanced by the fact that Lok and Wang’s lives share a number of parallels, works quite well in terms of the presentation of the noir element, but somewhat faults the social comments. This last aspect deals with the harsh lives of immigrants in the country and the awful tactics their employers implement, as much as the unknown, “lower” setting of Singapore, who is rarely depicted on screen. However, I felt that the slight surrealism and the intended disorientation of the narrative did not allow these comments to flourish, with the noir-mystery aspect taking over.

Mindy and the internet cafe, along with the stranger on the web work quite well as catalysts of the story, but again I felt that these arcs could be explored a bit further, as is the case with Lok, who is eventually put in the background for Wang. The latter, though, is presented quite thoroughly, in a very interesting character that functions as the personification of the issues foreign workers face, with doing a great job in the part. The same applies to as Lok and as Mindy, but, as I mentioned before, the two do not get so much screen time.

A Land Imagined still

With the film being a genuine noir mostly taking place in night, Hideho Urata had a difficult job with the cinematography, which he fulfilled completely, presenting a number of impressive images, both in the dark and in the neon-lit internet cafe. At the same time, his presentation of the reclaimed land, which looks much like a dystopia, is also impressive, as it is realistic. Daniel Hui’s editing implements the film’s complex aesthetics fittingly, through a relatively slow pace and a succession of scenes that add to the sense of disorientation Yeo Siew Hua wanted. Two Wei Yong’s music also moves in the same path, while the various scenes where the protagonists are dancing to music in slow motion is where the production values find their apogee, in, probably the most visually impressive aspect of the movie.

Undoubtedly, “A Land Imagined” is a very intriguing film, which succeeds as a noir, but I felt that it would benefit from a longer duration that would allow the director to explore the other two arcs more thoroughly and to present his comments about immigrants with more detail. Definitely deserves a watch though.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

Panagiotis (Panos) Kotzathanasis is a film critic and reviewer, specialized in Asian Cinema. He is the owner and administrator of Asian Movie Pulse, one of the biggest portals dealing with Asian cinema. He is a frequent writer in Hancinema, Taste of Cinema, and his texts can be found in a number of other publications including SIRP in Estonia, Film.sk in Slovakia, Asian Dialogue in the UK, Cinefil in Japan and Filmbuff in India.

Since 2019, he cooperates with Thessaloniki Cinematheque in Greece, curating various tributes to Asian cinema. He has participated, with video recordings and text, on a number of Asian movie releases, for Spectrum, Dekanalog and Error 4444. He has taken part as an expert on the Erasmus+ program, “Asian Cinema Education”, on the Asian Cinema Education International Journalism and Film Criticism Course.

Apart from a member of FIPRESCI and the Greek Cinema Critics Association, he is also a member of NETPAC, the Hellenic Film Academy and the Online Film Critics Association.

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