Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

matt-wagner-1 So the box totally suckered me into renting this one. I was browsing around Blockbuster and the bright yellow flash caught my eye. The tag lines on the box read "Singapore's answer to Taxi Driver," "Singapore's most violent film," and "The best and grittiest character study of rage, regret, and redemption yet seen in a Singapore film." That's some pretty heavy press. It seemed like all good things.Man, was I ever wrong.The parallels to Taxi Driver are so obvious its almost ridiculous. Its not an homage to Taxi Driver, its not inspired by Taxi Driver, it simply copied from Taxi Driver.The protagonist is in no way a likable character and he has no redeeming qualities. A character study of rage? If that involves extreme intoxication maybe. Regret? It's hinted at, but never really explained. Redemption? Hardly, if anything, he only ruins things for all the people around him.I was really excited about this movie. For me, the most exciting part was the previews for the other movies put out by Tartan Asia Extreme. Either Singapore just has really weak movies, or I missed something major in this movie.It is interesting at times, but the slow pace is a killer, and its blatant rip-offs of scenes from much more distinguished movies really brings it down.

noize23 Having just visited Singapore for an extended stay, one of the first things I did, as an avid movie buff, was to hunt down the best in local cinema. Perth is one of those movies. Not only does it offer the viewer a small glimpse into everyday Singaporean life with it's brilliant use of Singlish dialog, it delivers a great story that gets you right in the gut. (hehe)My only complaint is that the DVD is not (that I can find) multi region so I can buy copies for my friends back home in the States. However, I will settle for the VCD release for the time being.Lets hope this goes into wider release soon. It is a film that needs to be shared, and is yet another example of the need to eliminate region specific coding.

lennard_ong "Perth" shouldn't be taken lightly. It is a film that will sear itself into your memory with its unforgiving portrayal of Harry Lee, a local denizen in every sense of the word.What is it to be Singaporean? Cash, Car, Credit, Chicks and Condo. Harry Lee lacks all of this, but he has dreams of immigrating to Perth, and that makes him the quintessential Singaporean on the wrong side of the income bracket. Harry Lee goes on and on about Perth. Whenever a mishap befalls him or problems abound, he says, "its okay. Don't worry about me. I've got a plan – I'm going to migrate to Perth! Leave all this behind." And like tomorrow never comes, you know that Harry will never go to Perth. It's the proverbial castle in the sky.The film is like an extension of Harry Lee's soul, which is interesting because he gives so little. One is cloudy about his past, which reveals itself only when necessary. He was in the merchant army, a security guard, a taxi driver and worked for a pimp. "I'm just a simple man, who wants a simple life," he often says.He is also fond of expressing his loathing of unfaithfulness, and even names a dog he finds in the park "Faithful". His wife is an unfaithful gambling addict, while his son is ashamed of him, and even excludes him from his wedding. The dialogue has a habit of revolving around these three things – the simple life, migrating to Perth, and faithfulness, like a broken recorder always tripping. One feels the claustrophobia of Harry's life, a life he's dug himself 51 years too deep into, has nothing to show for it, and at the same time, nothing to go look forward to except the illusion of Perth. But through this, he has two friends. Selvan, himself an ex-army guy turned taxi-driver, and Angry Boy, his ex-supervisor. Their conversations are strictly Singaporean, occurring in coffee shops with common slang like "I salute you brudda!" that abounds. Through Angry Boy, Harry gets a job under a pimp as a driver. There, he sympathises with a Vietnam prostitute who reminds him of a girl he once loved. The details of this mystery girl remains, well, a mystery, but that's Harry Lee for you. He loathes himself and sees no value in remembering his past.This is where the Taxi-Driver references come in. While the actions of the characters may be similar (Harry Lee, like Travis Bickle, wants to free the girl of her slavery), their motivations are worlds apart. While Travis is just a bit crazy, Harry is every bit sane and all his actions practically rational, though sometimes ethically skewed.Though I've left a lot out, in a nutshell, Angry Boy promises Harry the girl's freedom. Pimpboss doesn't allow this, and Harry goes on a particularly brutal and gory alcohol-fueled rampage with a parang and a corkscrew. He frees the girl, but at the cost of his own life as well as four others, and all this happening a week before he's supposed to leave for Perth. Personally, I cannot imagine Harry ever really going to Perth. Perth is, to him, a state-of- mind, not a physical location. Its just he didn't know that difference.I'd like to believe the final shot, an up-ward aerial pan of Harry's lifeless limp body in the backyard of a Geylang pimphouse, is in fact Harry's soul is going to heaven, because despite his outward toughness, Harry is a just good soul caught up in a bad life.Watching the ending, I wondered what it would be like if such an incident really happened in real life. Harry Lee would be vilified in the papers- condemned for his lack of achievements ("I'm sorry my father achieved so little in his life," lamented his cocksure son), his dodgy career history and wife-beating habits. His motivations would be skewed and he would be sold, like a prostitute, as a good-for-nothing gang member. But "Perth" makes no judgments on Harry, and doesn't try to make him a pariah, hero or villain. It doesn't paint Harry's actions (beating his wife, freeing a prostitute, getting drunk) in any emotional light. It just shows Harry as a common everyman who just wants the simple life that went horribly wrong for no explicable and avoidable reason. And that's something everyone can identify with. While I feel the film would benefit from more economy, both of scenes and sounds, it still stands as one of the best films I've watched in recent memory. Watch "Perth" because it is a landmark Singaporean-made film that transcends Singapore, but doesn't forget it either. Watch "Perth" because this review doesn't even begin to do it any justice.

DICK STEEL Perth is Harry Lee's retirement plan. As an ex-army commando regular turned security supervisor of a shipyard, he leads a nonchalant life, where he regularly exclaims to others that he's a simple man with little materialistic desires, and harbours a goal to settle in Perth, Australia, where life down under is said to be good.When retrenched, he seeks employment as a taxi driver, but ever looking for that break in life to earn more cash to achieve his objective. However, things turn out more complicated for Harry. When sober, we see the empty facade Harry exudes to others, but we learn of the true state of his life when in drunkenness, pouring out his woes to his friends - he's separated from his cheating, gambling wife, and his son refuses to acknowledge him.His is a lonely sad life, and this movie takes a look at the life of the forgotten pioneers of Singapore's materialistic success. We follow his path to the seedier side of the Lion City, into the world of pimps and prostitutes, where he has a lucrative job to ferry the girls to their customers, no questions asked. A depression-proof job, says his friend Angry Boy Lee.Somehow, coffeeshops feature prominently in Singapore movies of late, and Perth is no different, where characters sit around and rant about the authorities, give subtle jibes on the army, and the eventuality of army regulars after their retirement from the uniformed services. They go on about how a better life in Singapore equates first to having a good education, how materialism has crept into society's moral fiber, and the greener pastures available abroad for the lowly skilled. The jibes on the ang-moh's are not subtle though, them being cursed at and assaulted.We know Harry is a violent man from his inner thoughts, but early in the film, it's like his bark is deadlier than his bite. The occasional rant aside, Harry is a man who values faithfulness and loyalty. He fails to see that though his family might not exhibit these values (probably due to his inner violent nature which led to domestic violence), his friends like Angry Boy and Selvam, actually do.The subplot on love and his budding relationship with a Vietnamese call girl at times drags the movie, but it is necessary to lead the movie to its extremely violent finale. The language used throughout is colourful, and I could not think of a local Hokkien expletive not spewed in this film.Perth looks like a one man show from its trailer and poster, with Lim Kay Tong putting in a wonderful performance in shouldering the movie, but gladly, a cast of familiar (and perhaps stereotypical) supporting characters help add some depth and sometimes, dark humour. You'll see familiar faces from local TV productions too, like Channel 8's Liu Qiu Lian as Harry's wife. From the laughter amongst the audience, Angry Boy Lee and Selvam are easily favourite characters of some.It's a dark and gritty film, some might consider a local adaptation of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. But perhaps expectations will be set too high if benchmarked against that classic. This is story of Harry Lee, not Travis Bickle, so put the comparisons aside, and enjoy the ride.