This delightful Singaporean film follows a lovable Tamil magician (played by real-life magician Bosco Francis) whose magic tricks are brilliant to behold on screen! Performing magic to make the locals smile, including fire tricks, jaw-dropping glass-eating and loads more (all performed in reality!), this big-hearted magician is an important figure to his son but hard times allow cruel bosses to mistreat him, and he struggles with drink. A moving tale about the magic of love and its ultimate triumph over exploitation, and truly brimming with heart, beauty and humour, this is a love-letter to the queen of all illusions – cinema!
- Countries
- Singapore
- Director:
- Eric Khoo
- Running Time:
- 75 mins
- Subtitles:
- Yes
- Year:
- 2008
- Showing:
- This is a past event.
There are no planned future listings for this event, and as such tickets are currently unavailable; however, any future screenings will be posted here, so watch this space!
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I want to see more films from places I know very little about. I like seeing films that come from a culture where narrative is treated differently, where the visual aesthetic is a bit awry in my eyes, where you get a bit of a challenge instead of the ‘rooms where cattle gaze at washing machines’ we call multiplexes and their mental fart fodder.
So I was hoping for a bit too much from this, I guess, though it’s loveable enough ‘fare’ (sorry, shoot me now). The magician is a stone groove and a curiously affecting portrait of an alcoholic – I didn’t really get why (well, his wife was hung – I suppose it’ll do. It always seems to be. My uncle mindlessly totalled three marriages and was an insurance-selling bon viveur for years before realising his earthly person was alcoholic suicide, but that’s just my family) but I thought his stoic showing was pretty true.
This should have been a short – it doesn’t have enough flesh to be a feature – and it feels over-westernised in plot shape and in the camera.
But I don’t know Singapore, so maybe this film is bang-on and deals with different losses and more elusive hopes than this particular square-eyed bovine can speculate on.
Person? Purpose. Dementia or dyslexia? Who gives a f***.