Karry
Best movie of this year hands down!
Rio Hayward
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Jenna Walter
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
philjquitt
Worth watching but will need rejuvenating to be worth a second series. As a version of a detective series, not bad at all. Don Hany seems to carry the show as the suitably stubbled cool expat Australian ex-military man. At least that's what I thought until in one episode he is seen as a client in an opium den. Then I thought... "so he's not so much meant to be cool, as much as being a sort of deadbeat who gets the job done", like many central characters in detective novels. Would be good if he could be seen looking roughly normal and shaved for say 5 minutes in one or two episodes. Some value for it's portrayal of colonial Singapore in transition, but perhaps not trying to be authentic. Joan Chen is beautiful when smiling, but has a profoundly down-turned mouth often which makes her look strange rather than composed - is this too much surgery? Pamelyn Chee is a novel character with her ??English accent. The bad guy dragon gang leader who looks like Bruce Lee is very good.
pkloeden
Watching this series as a Singaporean was a cringe-worthy experience for me - it seemed like it was made for the Western audience, with all the accompanying stereotypes of the "mysterious East": Bugis Street transvestites, prostitutes, American sailors, Chinese triad gangsters.Little attention was paid to the details: Malay women were shown wearing the "hijab", which did not appear till the 80s, as the lacy "selendang" were worn in the 60s setting of this series. The Chinese were shown speaking Mandarin to each other, whereas it's the Hokkien or Teochew dialects that were commonly spoken then.The only redeeming feature was the elegant Joan Chen, though her character was also a caricature of the exotic Oriental lady: always clad in the high-necked, form fitting Chinese "cheongsam" and carrying a bamboo parasol when she's outdoors. And she inexplicably speaks with an American accent.The biggest surprise to me was the fact that the Media Development Authority of Singapore actually has a hand in producing this series!
Andrew Hirst
I think 'vapid' was a bit harsh; it's a little messy and yes, a bit predictable, but I like it! What I do NOT like is the fact I can't hear half the dialogue for the blasted background noise! It might be really clever, and well thought-out, but if it were more important than the actual actors' speech, you may as well call it 'foreground noise' and tell us all to turn on the subtitles. It's extremely annoying -please adjust the levels, and I'll continue to watch. Thank-you. Addendum, following an online message from you: 1) I've said what I wanted to say -why should it be a minimum of ten lines?! 2) Please don't tell me how to spell -I AM an Englishman, writing CORRECTLY IN English, and that is how the word 'dialogue' IS spelt! If you've set your stupid system to that thing which is ridiculously called 'American English', just because some cretin decided that he would change the future spelling of MY native language, which had been richly composed of words from many cultures, over several hundred years, then that's your stupid choice. And now it's well over ten lines, I'm pretty annoyed, and will probably not be able to watch your show in future without becoming annoyed again, so thanks for that, too!
cheeftanz
I live in Asia and was looking forward to this Singapore drama by HBO for months. Many of the finest programs come from HBO, expectations were high. The cast is good, the Asia backdrop inviting, and the premise engaging. Embarrassingly, this series could have been set in Saskatoon and named Saskatchewan road - there is none of the rich history of British colonization, no remnants of Japan's extreme brutalization are evident, no Indian element (though a major Singaporean class). Nothing for us Asian fans at all (except old radios and period dresses). Still, the idea of entire episodes being formulaic, predictable and riddled with bizarre and exasperating moral preachiness left everyone in our house deeply troubled... this is NOT daring work, not in any way insightful, the plots never bite into real issues. We have an absence of exhilaration or even titillation.Smoky bars and prostitutes galore (with transvestite darlings who get their testicles fondled as pivotal part of plot development?), check. Ridiculous fist fights from deeply into middle-age Sam who gleefully dives headfirst into rooms full of actively fit muscular young men serves only to prove that our protagonist is unable to think through even the most simplistic of predicaments - decidedly sloppy for a character who is purported to be wise. Bar brawls sprinkled in every 20 minutes is in all absolutes not an Asian cultural reality, quite specifically this must be a 'Western adaptation' as any Asians would label this behavior dense and unrefined at best. Forlorn broody looks from love interests that go nowhere, yep. And of course, all Americans and America are always evil, all Australians saints? Ahh yes, this is clever award winning stuff .... And the ONLY black person in the series is an innocent - falsely accused by the Evil Empire, check. Zero humor, zero twists, zero tension, zero... How, how did this ever get past quality control? HBO should be ashamed.. . Rrrrr, such hope...
