TIFF is always a good place to discover smaller international films, and this year is no exception. While Ang Geck Geck Priscilla‘s Ah Girl already premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (where it took the Youth Jury Award), SABU‘s Arrested Memory made its world premiere in the coveted Midnight Madness program. Both films are starkly different from one another, but highlights the diverse selection of films offered by the festival.
Ah Girl
Ah Girl is a tender portrayal of a broken family through the somewhat fantastical lens of an innocent child. That lens, however, is tainted by a sense of forced maturity, one that Ang Geck Geck Priscilla tries her best to juggle within the limits of a fairly innocuous narrative. The result is a fairly interesting, yet cautiously safe, feature film debut.
Set in 1990s Singapore, the film follows 7-year-old Ah Girl (Ong Xuan Jing) and her younger sister Ah-Tian (Sydney Wong) as they navigate a complicated and shattered family system. While being shuttled between her mother (Carrie Wong) and father’s (James Seah) home (where her paternal grandmother, played by Doreen Toh, does most of the caregiving), and being surrounded by dysfunctional adults, Ah Girl is forced to grow up with sensible maturity.
Priscilla is thoughtful in crafting a story that’s deeply personal, and certainly takes a tender and respectful approach to recreating parts of her own childhood. There’s a whimsical element to how Ah Girl experiences trauma as a mere 7-year-old, which is conveyed with poignant accuracy, yet steers far away enough to avoid being exploitative. There’s exceptions to this with a few particular scenes, but Priscilla does well in calibrating a mixed tonality that serves her story well.
As far as child acting goes, Ong is fantastic, and delivers exactly what is asked of her. The issue is that her character isn’t as thoughtful nuanced as Priscilla likely intended her to be. Far from being a caricature of the unfortunate child trope we’ve seen time and again, Ah Girl’s characterization isn’t overly original either. There’s hints of ingenuity in the portrayal of Ah Girl, but the narrative devices employed in the script more or less default to threads we’ve come to expect from stories like this. There’s nothing inherently wrong with making such a creative choice, but one can’t quite help to yearn for something more.
Ah Girl isn’t the most captivating story of its kind, but is nonetheless affecting as a very personal narrative feature. Crafted with precision and brevity, Priscilla shows a lot of promise as a young filmmaker. However, in deterring audiences from casting judgement on the film’s characters, Ah Girl also feels stilted at its emotional core.
Arrested Memory
Arrested Memory is a blunt and energized crime thriller filled with unexpected humour. Despite its premise, SABU has crafted an endearing narrative that somehow finds time to tug at the heartstrings, amidst all the violence and bloodshed. A standout film from a truly versatile filmmaker.
After his entire team is killed during a sting operation gone wrong, a veteran detective Lee (Ethan Juan) realizes his declining memory might be one of the reasons for the unfortunate fallout. Soon after, he’s formally diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s, and his amnesia episodes occur with greater frequency. This becomes increasingly apparent when a child of a rich Japanese businessman is kidnapped, and he struggles to lead the case.
Given its premise, Arrested Memory is sure to draw comparisons with Momento, but is really its own beast. Whereas Momento used its amnesia trope to help drive its primary narrative arcs, Arrested Memory uses it as a vehicle for what is ultimately an astute character study. One might argue that the character study isn’t necessarily a full and nuanced one, but having Lee be involved in a highly challenging kidnapping case while losing both his personal and professional identity, is a perfect recipe for self realization.
The film also succeeds as a character piece since SABU creates enough brevity to ensure that the film doesn’t fall into an inescapable ditch of darkness and sorrow. And in doing so, avoids alienating audiences from the story’s main emotional arc. It’s easy to feel empathy towards Lee, despite his dire and seemingly impossible circumstances, because the journey he takes us on is filled with unexpected endearment. The comedic moments are sharp and effective, with SABU efficiently utilizing his ensemble of performers.
When all is said and done, Arrested Memory doesn’t really play into its amnesia narrative device as much as one might expect, but in doing that, stands as a more singular character-driven story. SABU knows how to juggle between tender and intense moments, all while bathing his film with hints of comedic gold. One of the most enjoyable watches of the festival this year.
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