This quiet and ultimately sadly moving drama, directed by Patrick Tam, was released last year and premiered at the Reel Asian Film Festival here in November. It stars pop star Aaron Kwak as Sheng, an illiterate and volatile father with a gambling problem in Malaysia. Sheng is married with a wife, Lee (played by Charlie Yeung) and a young son, Boy (played by Gouw Ian Iskander). The film really has two parts. In the first section we witness the the odd love-hate relationship between Sheng/Lin before her ultimate abandonment of both husband and son. Left alone, and saddled with gambling debt, Sheng and Boy become itinerants, roaming from city to city in a downward, sad, spiral that leads to violence, theft, and beatings. In this second section we witness the odd love-hate relationship replay itself but between son/father ... until they too separate. This film is very quiet but I did enjoy it. I felt immensely sad for the little boy and perhaps, at its root, this was Tam's intent: when families disintegrate children suffer.
My rating 6 out of 10.
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