1997 · drama · singaporean
12 Storeys
Directed by Eric Khoo1h 45m1997
The film depicts 24 hours in a HDB block of residential flats in Singapore. There are three main storylines. San San, fat, silent, and alone, hears the ghost of her mother constantly upbraid her. Ah Gu, a tofu soup vendor, is at odds with Lily, his materialistic immigrant wife, who longs for something he cannot provide. Meng spouts every moralistic bromide of the striving middle class, but is unhinged by his teenage sister May ("Trixie" to her boyfriend) who won't study, parties all night, and seems doomed by youth culture.
Our read: 12 Storeys (1997) reads as a sombre, measured, grounded drama · singaporean entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook.
Sombre, measured, measured drama / singaporean, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, measured.
- sombre
- measured
- bleak
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How 12 Storeys feels to watch.
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“You want a blackly comic Singaporean portrait of HDB lives, ghosts and quiet despair.”
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