Be with Me (2005)

Director:

Eric Khoo

Writers:

Theresa Chan (inspiration)
Eric Khoo (screenplay)

Release Date:

8 September 2005 (Singapore)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

"Be with me" consists of three stories of love vs. solitude : 1)An aging, lonesome shopkeeper doesn't believe in life any more since his wife died...

Plot Keywords:

Swimming | Suicide Attempt | Social Worker | Minimalism | Widower

Awards:

6 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Theresa Poh Lin Chan	...	Herself (segment "Meant To Be")
Chiew Sung Ching	...	Father (segment "Meant To Be")
Lawrence Yong	...	Son (segment "Meant To Be")
Leong Kooi Eng	...	Mother (segment "Meant To Be")
Elizabeth Choy	...	Herself (segment "Meant To Be")
Seet Keng Yew	...	Security Guard (segment "Finding Love")
Lynn Poh	...	Ann (segment "Finding Love")
Ng Sway Ah	...	Father (segment "Finding Love")
Poh Huat Lim	...	Brother (segment "Finding Love")
Sanwan Bin Rais	...	Security Supervisor (segment "Finding Love")
Toh Cheng Onn	...	Neighbor (segment "Finding Love")
Maximilan Wong	...	Neighbor's Son (segment "Finding Love")
Ezann Lee	...	Jackie (segment "So In Love")
Samantha Tan	...	Sam (segment "So In Love")
Jason Tan	...	Brian (segment "So In Love")

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

Singapore

Language:

Cantonese | English | Hokkien | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A | Argentina:13 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | South Korea:12 | France:U | Singapore:M18

Filming Locations:

Singapore

Company:

Zhao Wei Films (I)

Trivia:

The Singapore Film Commission selected this as their submission to the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The film was approved by the Academy and screened for the Foreign Language Film Committee. Several days after the official screening, the Academy disqualified the film saying that although the film featured characters speaking three languages (plus one lead deaf and blind character who could not speak), they had "measured" each one and found that there was too much English spoken for them to consider it a Foreign Language Film.

"A tapestry of three stories..." But... it's about as exciting as watching the same piece of tapestry for an hour and a half!

'Be With Me' is almost the ultimate wallpaper movie. Just leave it running in the background. chat amongst yourselves and return to it whenever you like and at some point it'll end.

Alas, as I watched it alone, and so I felt like I almost watched the world's worst, longest and most drippingly sentimental beer commercial by the time I just about managed to keep my eyes open as the end credits rolled; and I then managed (just a) a few more moments of wakefulness to witness a 'Thank you' to the movie's sponsors - which included Asia Pacific Breweries. Aha! Methought: How surprising is *that* - given all the shots of Tiger beer interspersed throughout this most forgettable washout of a movie?

Meanwhile, dialogue spurts between individuals with occasional stabs at depth, but all too usually nothing of any particular advancement to the movie's overall story is said or witnessed. It's as if one could switch off at any moment and return at any later point and you'd really have missed nothing which would have been an unmissable contingency, or part of its plot, as far as the movie's overall progression was concerned. Thus the ultimate "wallpaper movie"!

Well I wonder... What movie were those who positively reviewed this one watching? I wonder and continue to wonder... It certainly couldn't have been this arty to the point of artless Singaporean excuse for a camera's rolling. Allegedly, 'Be With Me' is supposed to be woven around the themes of "love, tragedy and redemption". But all I witnessed was boredom, a half baked screenplay with a smattering of gormless text messages, and the only redemption was that which occurred when this utterly useless movie ended. What a wistful waste of time, it ended up being! It was also said that the characters in this movie were fictitious except for Theresa Chan who is a "remarkable woman who has triumphed over adversities..." Well, no disrespect to Ms Chan, but given that she was such a marvellous & amazing character, why at all did the screenplay have to involve the stories of other characters without the most tenuous attempt to connect their lives together? Yet it still proved to be an almost insufferably boring movie whose highlights included the credits rolling. Rather than tying in the fates of all characters, I really felt that the movie ended up attempting the near impossible and evidently fell between stools as far as any viewer engagement could be concerned.

I am generally an art-house movie fan and don't usually object to slow pacing (of which here there is no shortage, believe you me!!). I hate such movies as 300, Transformers, Fight Club, but consider, e.g., Eric Rohmer as a great film maker. So I hope that puts my criticism into some perspective. Nonetheless, there was no redeemable feature whatsoever in the entire movie's conception and delivery which could prevent one's eyelids slowly drooping downwards as each minute of 'Be With Me' dripped by. Watch this movie if you need to feel like wasting time. Otherwise your life would be none the richer for having missed it. 3/10