You Mean the World to Me (Movie Review)

A beautiful movie about the not-so-beautiful family

Language : Mandarin / Hokkien

Classification : 18

General Release Date : 04 May 2017

Genre : Drama

Running Time : 1 Hour 36 Minutes

Cast : Frederick Lee, Neo Swee Lin, John Tan, Chelsia Ng Director: Saw Teong Hin

Lushly emotional story of a mother and her sons set entirely in Penang Hokkien and clearly a labour of love, and the most personal movie the director has made. Saw Teong Hin, the director behind “Puteri Gunung Ledang” takes the helm of this movie with a supporting cast of actors set in old town Penang.

The spirit and nuances of authenticity is what keeps the director steadfast in his decision to keep the language of the movie entirely in Hokkien - a dialect widely used in Penang and the story was a work in progress for 7 years in the making. This movie started out being written for a movie, which was adapted into theatre play where it debuted in the 2014 Georgetown festival to critical acclaim. Now it has gone full circle as the story morphs into the big screen and aired on May 4th 2017.

The story takes place in the 70's when mental illness was widely misunderstood and central to the theme of this movie. Our hero is shoved into the world learning (and failing) to adapt with living with a disabled family member. We follow him as he tries to make sense and cope with his situation by making a film about his family, which is met with criticism by his own loved ones. The movie paces through with stunningly beautiful shots and pragmatic cuts, albeit slowly inching towards the climax where the director drops all the feels and emotions directly onto our face. With a running time of 1hr 36 minutes, it’s a worthwhile movie that explores what it means to persevere and hurdle through the hardships in life.

VERDICT

ENGAGING MOVIE WITH A SLOW BUILDUP TO AN EMOTIONALLY EXPLOSIVE CLIMAX.