Be with Me (2005) User Reviews

Love will bring us together

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 11 June 2008]

There are no memorable quotes in this film as it is mostly silent. It plays like a symphony with glances and expressions doing the talking.

It is about love: love lost, unrequited love, love despite the odds being against it.

Theresa Poh Lin Chan was deaf and blind. She did not sit idly by in misery, but became an accomplished women despite her handicaps. She is real. This story is about three fictional characters that crossed in her path, some only peripherally.

A man who lost his wife and sunk into the depths of despair until his son, a social worker, started taking his cooking to Teresa; a lesbian who found love on the Internet, and then lost it without explanation, and whose suicide attempt brought about the meeting with the man and Teresa; and a security guard who was hopelessly in love with a beautiful executive and passed by the man on the way to deliver a letter to his love - a letter that never made it because of the suicide attempt.

The strange twists of love are looked at languidly and with strong emotion. It is a beautiful film.

Surprisingly good....

[dzong · 7/10 · 8 July 2006]

I had heard mixed things about "Be With Me"...The critics, with whom I never agree, loved the film....Several of my friends, whose opinions I value, called it "pretentious".

I usually HATE movies like "Be With Me"....I hate pretentious movies, I hate slow movies, and I REALLY HATE movies with very little dialogue....

Well, "Be With Me" is slightly pretentious, very slow and has very little dialogue. It's not perfect and for the first fifteen minutes I was wondering exactly where the director was going....But it all comes together, and it ends up being a very sad, very inspiring, very relateable movie! I'd never heard of Theresa Chan, an amazing Singaporean woman who after being becoming deaf and blind at age 14, managed to learn English, write a series of books, travel the world and do a lot of volunteer/charity work....and now star in a movie! Her story really makes you want to do something with your life. Obviously, it's hard to make an "exciting" movie about a woman who obviously has a great deal of trouble speaking, but her story was very interesting (and is mostly told in subtitles)....She's definitely a woman who puts the rest of us to shame.

As a side-note, I would like to note that in my home country, the USA, there is a sizable minority of immigrants who live there for twenty years, and still cannot speak any English. In the country where I now live (Thailand), the majority of foreign residents (including many Americans) do not make any effort to learn Thai. And yet this amazing deaf and blind woman (raised speaking only Cantonese) can learn to speak and write English, and write several books in the language!!!! People should be ashamed at their laziness! The other three stories in the movie are more "arty" but all of them are handled fairly well. As much as we probably don't want to admit it, the vast majority of humankind can probably relate to the three stories of more traditional loneliness in the film....After losing his wife, a man loses the will to live.....A girl is spurned by her new "crush" for no apparent reason....Even the slow, fat man with a heart of gold was sympathetic....

And as this IS a Southeast Asian movie, there's even a ghost!! Anyway, this was a flawed film (too many closeup shots of people eating...), but definitely a surprisingly good one. 7.5/10

lovely piece

[La femme Nikita · 7/10 · 14 July 2005]

This movie is made up of 3 interwoven vignettes of people searching for love and connection. The setting is Singapore. The first is about a 61 year old woman named Theresa Chan who unexpectedly finds love when circumstances bring into her life a widower (played by Chiew Sung Ching) who struggles to let go of grief. Theresa Chan is played by herself as this story is partly based on her true life story. She lost her sight and hearing at the age of 14 from illness. She reminds me of Helen Keller. She is spunky and lives her life with more gusto than a lot of us seeing and hearing folks do. i was very moved by her segment. The 2nd tale is about a security guard ( Seet Keng Yew) who is very infatuated with a young, pretty executive (Lynn Poh) who works in the same office building. This sweet soul reminded me a little of Quasimodo, whose Esmeralda is oblivious to his existence. The last tells the tale of 2 teenage school girls who strike up a friendship while chatting on the internet. They meet and fall in love. Soon Sam (Samantha Tan) decides to callously drop Jackie (Ezann Lee), but Jackie cannot let go.

This is a lovely, poignant piece. If you have loved, or loved and lost, or experienced the pain of unrequited love or been jilted, something will resonate with you, even if you can't quite follow all the dialog. Just allow your heart to feel.

When the credits suddenly rolled and the film came to an unexpected end, i thought,"Wait, stop, i need a moment here. Can i please have a moment? My tears have not dried."

A Nutshell Review: Be With Me

[DICK STEEL · 10/10 · 7 September 2005]

This is the third feature length film of internationally renowned local director Eric Khoo, and given the hype of this film's response in Cannes, I'm sure many in Singapore are eager to watch it, given that Eric Khoo's last movie, 12 Storeys, was a long 8 years ago.

Meant To Be An old shopkeeper longs for his loved one to continue to be with him. He opens the movie by closing his shop, drawing us instead into his private life, where we see him alone, aloof, and in pain to see his loved one suffering in sickness. Try as he might, there is nothing he can or will do, or is it?

When you're with someone you love for so long, what does it mean to lose him or her? Will you also lose the will to continue leading a meaningful life? Or will it away in a mundane fashion?

Tying in with Theresa Chan's autobiographical tale, this segment is touted by most as the strongest and most touching.

Finding Love A timid security guard Fatty Koh is a secret admirer of a high flying executive, and longs for her to be with him, somehow. An infatuation, a crush, how do you bring yourself to declare your feelings for someone, when you're shy, and knowingly aware of the huge social divide?

With a letter. Where you are given time and composure to write your thoughts down, hoping to bring the right message across, and harbouring the hopes of acceptance.

We see Fatty fighting his inner shy demons as he carefully pens a letter of admiration for his dream lover. Fate seems to be against him, as he cannot seem to concentrate with the ruckus from the neighbours, and from his own family where he's looked down upon. At times it's like a look back into the life and times of the timid fat lady in 12 Storeys, who incidentally, appears (as a different cameo character of course) in this segment briefly.

He steals glances at his love when at work, and hangs around the perimeter of her home after work, worshipping her from afar. He's like a gentle giant, never meaning any harm, but probably coming across as a desperate stalker.

Love conquers all some say, but will it?

So In Love Ezann Lee plays Jackie (note the androgynous name), a lesbian who longs for her new lover, Sam (played by Samantha Tan, note the androgynous name too), to be with her.

Most teenage/young adults in the audience will definitely be pretty familiar with this stage of puppy and experimental young love, which was given a modern retelling showcasing relationships in the era of pervasive computing devices - Internet Messaging and Short Message Service. And of course having two pretty young leads in non-conventional roles do help too,

They first meet online, and we follow their new shared lives as they finally meet in person, doing things couples do like watching movies, go clubbing, hanging out, shopping, the works. Everything seems lovey-dovey, happy-go-lucky, doesn't it?

However, the motive of Sam getting involved with Jackie is examined, and the universal theme of unrequited love comes to the forefront. What happens when a lover is suddenly spurned by the other, when all along you thought that everything was going wonderfully well, and you see a future with the other half? You'll be terribly hurt, but what will you do, especially when lied to? Was everything just one big illusion?

For folks with weak hearts, being lied to is like having a tonne of bricks collapsing onto you. Like a cautionary tale of being responsible with feelings and not toying with those of another, it is a reminder that as fast as these perceived love begin, it is never as easy to erase it from one's life like deleting an incoming SMS message.

The narrative introduces us to the various characters from the 3 segments, intertwining their lives with one another in brief moments. The style used in the movie is different, where we begin with the introductions of the segments until forlorn conflicts in each sets in, hanging us in the balance where we ponder and reflect the futility of each character's actions thus far.

Until we're introduced, in more detail, to Theresa Chan's inspiration life. One of difficulties and immense challenges, but one who exudes courage to face up and tackle life by the bull's horns. Losing both sight and hearing, Theresa is a double handicap. To many, we take our senses from granted, until we lament the loss of one. But what about two, without warning? Will we be able to find the same courage within us to smile and carry on living?

Theresa's life story is told, not by narration, but by subtitling. We read in silence her struggles and life filled with chance encounters which made her stronger. As mentioned, her life story is read by the old shopkeeper, integrating her tale into Meant To Be, taking center stage in the middle of the film, and leading all the segments of the movie into its closure.

This is mainly a silent film, not that it doesn't have any dialogue, but rather the characters have more silent time than speaking lines. Kudos to the cast for having to really express their thoughts through body language and facial expressions - this film really does plenty of close ups.

I highly recommend this brilliant yet unconventional film. It has something for everyone, be it touching on your personal experiences in love and life, or simply reminding you of the good things you have in life, or inspiring you to do a lot more. Life's full of ups and downs, but it is the perspective in which you view it from, which matters. The choice is yours.

We all long for love

[YNOT_at_the_Movies · 26 March 2006]

A very inspiring Singapore film "Be with Me" poetically explores the human desire of longing for love. The pictures shows a elder shopkeeper moans his passing wife, a fat awkward guy secretly admires a girl, and two high school girls madly fall in love, then maybe not. Through these three groups of seemingly unrelated people from different walk of lives, the picture shows us how universal and powerful the longing for love really is. Then the film cuts into its "documentary" element about Theresa Chan, whose real life autobiography is the inspiration of this film. Theresa Chan became deaf and blind since the age of fourteen. In the film, Theresa Chan (who plays herself) makes her life joyful and makes an incredible impact of the lives of others, and eventually connected those three group people blended in the movie. The cinematography of this film is simply amazing. It's the quiet type of film, out of ninety-three minutes, the film only has a two and a half minute dialogue. But strangely, it's not a depressing film. When the movie is over, you feel inspired by Theresa Chan.

When the credits roll, the casts are listed under three categories: "Mean to be," "Looking for love," and "So in love." I can't help but fitting myself in one of those categories. I found out that I can't be put into any one single category exclusively. Is that the message this film is trying to let me to take home with? We are all in this game longing for love, no matter who you are.

I would see this movie again

[no_wars_no_cars · 7/10 · 31 May 2007]

I watched this movie today on DVD. There are several touching stories, I felt I could relate to all the characters quite easily. I was happy to see that it was a "different kind" of teenage love story, the old man's face I could look at forever, so sympathetic it was, and the story of Theresa Chan was uplifting, how could it not be.

I admit there were a few moments where the movie seemed not so strong but by the end of it I found that I really did appreciate the unconventional way of telling a story that this movie provides. That most of the story is told through images or subtitles and without dialogue is refreshing and reminds us that there are several ways to make a good movie. The ending alone is beautiful and sums up the entire film for me. I specifically went into Videodrom not wanting to rent a Hollywood film and I happily did not get one. This is a special movie, forget being critical about the techniques, be carried away by the story.

Silent Inspiration

[Fong_Chun_Kin · 9/10 · 12 September 2005]

Be With Me is essentially a quiet film with minimal dialogue and action, but yet radiates a certain degree of power and influence on the audience throughout the course of the show. Three short stories are interwoven around a real-life docu-drama featuring the indomitable Theresa Chan, who although blind and deaf, displays more strength and hope than any of the other characters in the movie.

Did the film make me cry, as it supposedly did to many critics around the world? No it didn't. So you mean the show wasn't touching for me? Wrong. Do we have to cry when something touches the heart? Many times what goes on inside the heart does not translate to what comes out from the eyes. My emotions were stirred and I felt my heart clench at various moments when the characters suffered through the quiet desperation they went through.

It was an enjoyable movie, though the ambiance and overall darkness of the film may suggest otherwise. I felt most amazed at what Theresa Chan was capable of accomplishing despite her most unfortunate disabilities. Not just the physical aspects, where she showed us her astonishing ability to take care of herself, but also the mental and spiritual aspects of her life, where she is so strong in the mind and the faith in her God. It would be so easy to blame the heavens and let go of life but yet she displays a remarkable determination to make the fullest out of her existence. Her situation puts the other characters' plights in the shade and render our own complaints with everything around us irrelevant.

Be With Me not just provides a silent inspiration to audiences, it also showcases the many facets of local life rarely experienced in a busy world where everything revolves around us at breakneck speed. Take a time out and allow yourself to sit through an hour and a half of peaceful contemplation with what is it that really matters most in our lives.

Communication, love and loss explored in 4 stories: 3 fictional, one true

[roland-104 · 7/10 · 17 October 2006]

A slow paced, often silent, web-of-life narrative drama cum documentary inspired in part by the real circumstances and autobiography of a 61 year old blind, deaf woman, Theresa Chan, who plays herself in the film. The movie begins in a simple, spare but thoroughly engaging way: as the opening credits roll, we watch the scene behind, in which an old man and woman are slowly, methodically, closing up their shop for the night, probably in the exact manner they have practiced for decades. A slow jazz piano solo accompanies the scenes.

We revisit this couple in frequent brief glimpses (that is the way we view each little story in this film about communication, love and loss) and realize in time that the wife has died. The old couple's adult son, a social worker, aids Ms. Chan, translating her memoirs, bringing her hot meals that his widower father prepares. The son arranges for his father to deliver the meal to Ms. Chan himself one evening, and they seem to hit it off, as the son, no doubt, had hoped.

Another story concerns a fat, lonely security guard with a boundless appetite. Treated shabbily by his family, he finds solace in downing huge meals. But he suffers from another kind of hunger, a longing for a chic young woman, Jackie, whom he idolizes from afar. Yet another story concerns a lesbian sexual adventure arranged – indeed conducted in large part – between Jackie and another young woman through cell phone and Internet chat room contacts. But the other girl soon falls for a young man and abruptly dumps Jackie.

Ms. Chan is an exceptional person. She lost hearing in childhood, and developed blindness not long thereafter. Following a long period of despair, she studied at a prominent school for the blind in Singapore, then mastered English in order to attend the Perkins School in Boston. She lives quite independently, works as a writer and also teaches pottery classes at the same school for blind kids that she had attended years earlier. It is interesting to watch how the social worker communicates with her using a tactile signing system applied to her outstretched hand. An unusual and quite charming film. (In Cantonese, English, Hokkien & Mandarin) My grades: 7/10 (B) (Seen at the Idaho International Film Festival, 10/01/06)

A Brave Effort

[soundvision · 8/10 · 17 September 2005]

"The cinematic spectacle has its rules, its reliable methods for producing satisfactory products. But the reality that must be taken as a point of departure is dissatisfaction. The function of the cinema, whether dramatic or documentary, is to present a false and isolated coherence as a substitute for a communication and activity that are absent." Guy Debord Critique de la séparation (1961)

Eric Khoo's "Be With Me" will divide its audiences. For some, weaned on slick Hollywood mega productions and blockbusters, the film's deliberate measured pacing is likely to exasperate, while others, plugged into the hype from the Cannes Festival, are likely to ignore its flaws and sing its praises.

The truth probably lies somewhere in between.

Interwoven among its three vignettes on love/lost/yearning, "Finding Love", "Meant To Be" and "So In Love" is also the semi documentary – on Theresa Chan. Told largely through subtitles, the story on how she had managed to overcome life injustices after being deaf and blind will strike a chord with many viewers. The segment does however come across as being rather detached, causing some of the other segments to be less developed.

Ironically, the poignancy of the film is corroborated by its Singapore setting, where the denizens are constantly admonished to be productive and efficient, and its humanity for the most part, relegated to mega TV charity fund raising programs. That "Be With Me" was able to speak to the heart of the ordinary, the downtrodden, the destitute and the minorities there, may perhaps then be the best accolade one can accord the film.

Good, but flawed

[josephchiang-1 · 7/10 · 8 October 2006]

I've watched all of Eric Khoo's films and I think this is one of his best. I like the way the stories are told, except that I think the 3 stories are somewhat 'forced' to connect with one another, especially the part where Jackie jumped and killed the fat guy instead. I can't help but keep feeling that is the way out for the writer to make the stories connect, which is not really necessary. But then again, I'm just being critical because it's an Eric Khoo's movie.

Apart from that, it's a nice effort!

Go get the DVD if you can, and just enjoy the film.

7 out of 10.

Should have been reworked before filming started

[johno-21 · 5/10 · 5 February 2006]

I saw this film at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival. It's difficult for me to be critical of a film with such a positive message and centered around the story of a real life person who overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to help others but this film is cluttered and has too many flaws. In the trilogy of stories two of them are really unnecessary. The story of the old man who has just about given up on living is terrific and this film should have expanded more on his story and dropped the other two. The actor playing the old man was great and you really sympathized with him. The other two stories were weak. The story of Theresa who helps him is actually a fourth story and being true and narrated by the real person as a documentary within a movie is cluttered and slows down the entire film. Her story could have been told differently and intertwined then with a singular story and not a trilogy because that's who she ended up helping anyway. I would give this a 5.5 out of a possible 10 and would recommend it only because of it's inspiration and not as an entire film in general.

A love story

[fablesofthereconstru-1 · 10/10 · 20 July 2008]

Narrative pyrotechnics is not the exclusive domain of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman("Being John Malkovich", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"); it just seems that way. Nobody in Hollywood, off-Hollywood, or around the world, pulls off meta- with more lunacy, heart, and panache than the erudite iconoclast who forced the writers' branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to nominate his doppleganger, an identical twin brother named Donald, for Best Adapted Screenplay, 2002's "Adaptation", a film that "Be With Me" can be favorably compared with. But rather that skewer the blockbuster mentality of contemporary Hollywood movies, in which Kaufman created an alter-ego to purposely sabotage his winsome love story about real-life writer Susan Orlean(played by Meryl Streep) and an orchid thief with inappropriately formulaic screen writing, this gentle film from Singapore goes after something even more elevated. "Be With Me" attempts to be the missing link that sutures the documentary with the filmic tradition of neorealism.

An old man grieves over the recent death of his wife; a morbidly obese security guard swoons over an oblivious, and unattainable woman; a teenage lesbian is forsaken by a bi-curious vamp who jilts her for a boy; three linked stories that are interrupted well into "Be With Me" by a seemingly incongruous fourth one, an adaptation of a blind and deaf woman's memoir that plays like non-fiction. Her name is Theresa Chan, who like Orlean(author of "The Orchid Thief"), are installed in a narrative that tells the story of the forthcoming book's creation. While "Adaptation" may seem like the bolder film, "Be With Me" goes ones step further than the Spike Jonze-directed mind bender by having Chan play herself. With very little staging, the documentary within the narrative film(Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien used this technique in 1993's "Xi meng ren sheng") records the startling competency of this severely disabled woman who can cook her own meals and teach disabled children like herself to cope, to live. With modest daring, the documentary doesn't exist in a vacuum. Extracts from Chan's memoir on the screen like subtitles, as if silence itself was a foreign language. By not providing a voice-over, the film respects the interior language of the hearing impaired. Chan's subtitles mirror the camera's focus on the text-messaging that substitutes for spoken dialogue between "dumbangel 67" and "sympgirl". The correlation being: technology turns us into virtual handicaps. The two girls can't see or hear each other when they text message or chat online.

The man who accompanies Theresa to the market and bring her meals is also the widower's son. After his father shut down the modest grocery store he ran with his late wife, the old man exiled himself into a desensitized world of his own making. The black covering that shrouds the storefront gate looks like a metaphor for his "blindness". He lives with the ghost of his wife, a woman he can't see or hear. To lift his handicap, the son gives the father a Chinese translation of Chan's memoirs. In "Being John Malkovich". Craig Schwartz(John Cusack) discovers a portal that allows people to hack into another man's consciousness. Although there's no on-screen portal in "Be With Me", a similarly divine gateway is suggested by the son's ability to maneuver between both, the fictional and non-fictional diegeses of the film. Neo-realism, the Italian tradition of using real people in real locations, is given a self-reflexivity when the son visits his father, and then the lesbian, who is hospitalized after the security guard averts her attempt at suicide by sheer happenstance. The son instigates an alchemy wherever he goes. When the father reads Theresa's autobiography, the real words of the living and breathing turns this cipher into a real man. A ghost, a fictive story element that's anathemic to neorealism, no longer has a place in the spatial reality of the reconstituted father, transformed by his intertextual son and the text he carries from the real world. The father's corporeality is finalized when he boards the bus to deliver Theresa's food he prepared for her in person.

"Be With Me", far from being simply an "art" film, is a heart film. It's both metaphysical and emotional. Brilliant!

Slow or artsy? Go figure.

[meluvlord · 6/10 · 21 December 2005]

Just caught Be With Me on DVD. Must say that the slowness of the film caught me slightly off-guard. I have to agree though the film was inspired by Theresa Chan, i don't see much of a linkage as well. I felt that the three stories could have stood quite well on its own if given more screen time.

It's not that Chan's story wasn't inspiring. In fact it's too extraordinary. That's why i find it strange why it was placed in this film. I get the idea that her presence motivated someone else but the part-fictional & part-realistic plot just messes up the overall feel quite a bit.

The three stories were actually well-written. Imagine two sweet lasses actually being lesbians? Makes u take a second look at good girl pals who go shopping together. Then, there's also the security guard who develops a crush on a beautiful lady out of his league. He's so big & bulky but yet lives a life void of courage. And the story of the uncle is such a soulful reminder that there is everlasting love after all.

In any case, congrats to Eric Khoo & his team for the awards & nominations in foreign film festivals!

Be with me???

[jaylhm · 1/10 · 11 September 2005]

This movie is about 3 stories put together revolving around 3 separate individuals. One of the worst movie that is available and even better if it is not available.

The Good : 2 pretty lesbians actress 1 true and touching story about Theresa Chan

The Bad :The main story that revolves around the blind and dear woman Theresa Chan does not need to be told in a movie format and more appropriate in a documentary format. No linkage between the 3 story lines. Minimum DIALOGUE in the film, substituted by SMSs and CHAT programs on PC. No cultural insight by the movie and it makes you forget even before you step out of the cinema.

A chance to exercise your imagination

[paul_s_law · 8/10 · 21 January 2007]

The film is special in that it takes away a very essential part of a film: the dialog. The director has to use another way to get across the messages, and this is by no means easy. The viewer also has to adjust to the lack of explicit dialog in order to appreciate the film. I sat through the movies uncomfortably. I nevertheless like the film since it gives me a chance to exercise my imagination.

Another unusual feature of the film is that the three parts of the film do not connect with each other. I see it as a way to express the core idea of individual solitude in a modern society. Everyone is confined to his or her own world. It's not easy to confront this unfortunate aspect of cosmopolitan life. To the extent that the viewer finds the whole film boring, it's already a success. Atomized life is indeed very boring.

I also saw through the deaf and blind character that we should not take our senses for granted. Try imagine how your world would be like if they are taken away from you. The character's will of accepting her physical deficiencies is very inspiring.

In contrast, the parts about the security guard and the short relationship between two young lesbian girls are not worth remembering. It's nothing new. You find these people all the time.

Worth a look not only because it's a Singapore film, but grows on you

[calvinchin-1 · 7/10 · 11 February 2006]

I had just caught this film on DVD, having missed its theatrical release. The other Eric Khoo film I've watched was 12 storeys some years back and still quite fresh in my mind, which I thought was excellent so naturally my expectations would have been rather high. Especially so given the publicity this film has received in Cannes.

The film opened beautifully, and the theme of finding one's soul mate is constant in the three tales of finding love in one's teenage, middle age, and senior years, with the true story of Theresa Chan, a blind mute lady who overcame great odds interwoven amongst the three stories.

All went on great for me until the portion on Theresa Chan came in. I felt that with the true account of Theresa Chan added in, this made it more like a documentary and not a movie, and hence killed the 'movie magic' for me. If I had wanted to watch an documentary, I would have gotten myself one. Halfway through the film in the Theresa Chan autobiographical segments where she recounted her early childhood, I found myself nodding off to sleep as it went really slowwwwwww. And the lack of audio/music which forced you to read the subtitles definitely contributes to the sleeping pill effect (I think the producers want the audience to understand it's not easy to be deaf, and to empathize with what Theresa has to go through). Again, I found myself making the best effort to stay awake to see what's Eric Khoo has in store for us. And he does not disappoint if you get over this bump. There is always something to keep you wondering what's going to happen next as the three separate stories unfold.

Of the three stories, I loved the one about the middle aged love best. The protagonist is played by an excellent Seet Keng Yew. Cast as a timid 37 year old bachelor working from job to job as a lowly security officer, with no ambition in life other than a eating eight meals a day which therefore ensures that life expectancy isn't one of his goal; the actor carries the role so well that one could probably be left to think that the character doesn't get intimate with anyone other than his left hand. Spurred on by his desire to find acknowledgment even as faint as a smile of approval from his pretty office executive love interest, he mulls on how to get get her to be aware of his existence, and how he pines for her. And when he finally picks up the courage to deliver his painstakingly written note to his love interest, fate deals him a hand he never expected.

The unraveling of the movie, and how the three stories are interlinked by fate and destiny only happens towards the end, so make sure you stay awake for that! It may not hit you with the effect which Amores Perros with its 3 separate stories and that car accident scene had for the film. Be with me's punchline is a lot more subtle, and has a delayed effect. But it at least makes your investing of valuable time watching this and enduring through the 'documentary', which did nothing for me, worthwhile and rewarding. That, is the measure of a good art-house flick to me.

Simply Superb

[Denny-45 · 8/10 · 21 June 2006]

This Singaporean movie consist of 3 different stories, but there's a moment when the stories be connected (4 example like Love Actually). The ultimate story is "Meant To Be", a--narrative biographical--story about Theresa Chan, a single almost old lady who is deaf and blind. She conditionally made relation with an old cooker-man who is miserable since the death of her wive. The second, "Finding Love" is about a fat security guard who adore an elegant woman and try to get her. "So in Love", the 3rd one is about love story between 2 girls (lesbian), Jackie and Sam. The idea of the stories are so realistic and touching.I'm an Asian too, and have to admit that this is one of the greatest modern Singapore movie. This movie is lack of luxurious miser en scene or montage, contrary, it's so smooth and soft with it's minimum dialog between the characters and melancholic original score, and sentimental cinematography, make this movie so sacred and live.

3 stories on love at different stages of life.

[there_22 · 8/10 · 24 July 2006]

I was never a fan of "arty" movies. I thought this was going to be yet another "sappy" movie with a "inspirational" storyline. Anyway, my sis got the DVD and I was bored so I decided to watch. It was completely different from all the other movies I've ever watched. There was very little dialogue, but the show had me captivated and my eyes were glued to the screen all the time. Although it is true that the main protagonist, Theresa, could have been featured more in the other character's lives, it was such a touching story that I burst out crying at the end.

I would disagree with comments that the other two stories, besides the one regarding the old man, is redundant. The story regarding the old man is obviously very moving, but I was also amazed with the "realness" of the other two plots. I could relate to the one regarding teenage love absolutely.

Now if not for the weird ending of one character being crushed by another, I would have given it 10 stars.

Watch, and even if you don't like sappy stuff, I'm sure you'll view your problems differently after watching.

I ran to watch it!

[jee18 · 1/10 · 21 September 2005]

I literally ran to watch it, expecting a film that will make me cry, or touch my heart.

What I found was not heart-rending, but a lame exploitation of 1 strong human character.

Interwined between a pair of young lesbians and an obese man.

In a setting that is substantially devoid of sound not to mention acting of the most common.

It was not entirely BAD, as I have seen worst - and I left the cinema $10 poorer but wiser - that a FILM well advertised is not the same as a FILM WELL-MADE.

A rewarding experience

[sangsara · 8/10 · 8 September 2005]

A rewarding experience, albeit one that seems at least 30 minutes longer than it actually is. The slow buildup is for the most part careful foundation building for the second half of the film, a rarity in Singaporean film and a testament to Khoo's ever-growing maturity as a filmmaker and controller of pace, although when that second half comes, it feels like a jarring switch not unlike the one pulled by David Lynch in the middle of his 1997 film, Lost Highway. The signs are present that Khoo worked to bridge the discontinuity of the 3 stories and the order in which they are presented (foreshadowing and foregrounding of certain recurring visual images), but the fact that he does not perfectly succeed is of little detriment to the final product.

It is a well-made movie consisting of one strong tale of strength, recovery, and the beauty of love bookended by two other stories that would have benefited from being drawn as their own entities and stood up and apart from the central story of the blind and deaf Theresa Chan (pretty much Singapore's own Helen Keller). Instead, they try to conform to the model of sparse dialogue and psychostylistic sense-deprivation that serves that story so well - the result being that they appear unevenly matched. Still, a fine film.

(previously posted at 1minreview.com)

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

[supadude2004 · 3/10 · 12 April 2008]

'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