The Maid is one of the few Singapore horror film to be made, which somehow, follows the footstep of the previous Singapore horror, Return to Pontianak, which is a box office flop accompanied with tonnes of bad reviews.
The movie is surprisingly, a hit in Singapore. Opened on the 14th of July in the Chinese lunar calender, The Maid surrounds a maid's survival of the Seventh Month in the Chinese lunar calender, which is also known as the Hungry Ghost festival. It seems that young director Kelvin Tong, who previously brought us Eating Air, a wild comedy of Singapore street punks, is bringing us a different kind of his touch with The Maid. Featuring Chen Shu Cheng and Hong Hui Fang, the well known Singapore veteran actor, together with Alessandra De Rossi, the Phillippine actress, it is about Rosa, a Phillippine girl, who was employed as a maid by old Mr and Mrs Teo. Both Mr and Mrs Teo lives in Singapore and they are Chinese opera performers. Rosa arrived Singapore on the 1st day of the Seventh month, and she broke several taboos set by the old Chinese on the Seventh Month.
She ends up seeing ghost in the end. Not one, not two, but plenty. Including the people living around her.
Worst still, her brother living back in Phillippines, desperately need money for treatment on illness due to poverty. To ensure that she gets her pay, she must survived thru the Seventh Month.
However, from there onwards, it seems that the show is a mixture of horror and suspense from Hitchcock's previous works. When Rosa saw ghosts around her, it creates a tension atmosphere in the air. Instead of having ghosts roaming around the streets, the ghosts are staring at Rosa, giving her 'Why are you doing this to me?' look. And the rather illogical storyline makes up part of the suspense. Instead of working as a maid for the Teo's, Rosa seems to have plenty of free time looking around the house she works for. Instead of doing household chores, she opens up every single door to look for the ghost, who has been haunting her since Day 1. Instead of horror, it created Hitchcock's suspense.
And when Rosa discovered that Mr and Mrs Teo is a pair of psychos, it creates a feeling of having a pair of Mr and Mrs Hannibal Lecter controlling a helpless victim. This gives a touch of murderous atmosphere in the movie, which somehow, doesn't really seems to match with the genre and the title of the movie.
The movie, however, did a great job on adding horror in the film. You see ghosts who wears a red cheongsam and a red scarf over her head, just like the corpse bride. But i am not selling the upcoming Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's The Corpse Bride over here. It has nothing to do with the animation following the style of the duo's old film, The Nightmare Before Christmas. More rather, we have ghosts who has the look of Japanese horror, with the ghost from the Japanese horror, One Missed Call 2 aka Red Candy as the best example. The main ghost in The Maid looks like the ghost in Red Candy, and that's all i could say.
Alessandra De Rossi brought out the fear a woman in a foreign land faces. Her helplessness and fear in The Maid brought out the helplessness and fear most Philippino maids who worked in foreign land had.
As for Chen Shu Cheng, he gives Singaporean audience a new look on playing the role of Mr Teo, who was a psycho beneath the skin. It leaves a more lasting impression of a heartless creature, compared to Hong Hui Fang, who was also a psycho beneath the skin. Though Hong played psychotic roles in her local drama series career, The Maid leaves a more lasting impression, compared to her drama series, but not that much memorable than Chen.
In all, there are rooms for improvements for The Maid, but it seems that Singapore are catching up with their standard of movies.
The movie is surprisingly, a hit in Singapore. Opened on the 14th of July in the Chinese lunar calender, The Maid surrounds a maid's survival of the Seventh Month in the Chinese lunar calender, which is also known as the Hungry Ghost festival. It seems that young director Kelvin Tong, who previously brought us Eating Air, a wild comedy of Singapore street punks, is bringing us a different kind of his touch with The Maid. Featuring Chen Shu Cheng and Hong Hui Fang, the well known Singapore veteran actor, together with Alessandra De Rossi, the Phillippine actress, it is about Rosa, a Phillippine girl, who was employed as a maid by old Mr and Mrs Teo. Both Mr and Mrs Teo lives in Singapore and they are Chinese opera performers. Rosa arrived Singapore on the 1st day of the Seventh month, and she broke several taboos set by the old Chinese on the Seventh Month.
She ends up seeing ghost in the end. Not one, not two, but plenty. Including the people living around her.
Worst still, her brother living back in Phillippines, desperately need money for treatment on illness due to poverty. To ensure that she gets her pay, she must survived thru the Seventh Month.
However, from there onwards, it seems that the show is a mixture of horror and suspense from Hitchcock's previous works. When Rosa saw ghosts around her, it creates a tension atmosphere in the air. Instead of having ghosts roaming around the streets, the ghosts are staring at Rosa, giving her 'Why are you doing this to me?' look. And the rather illogical storyline makes up part of the suspense. Instead of working as a maid for the Teo's, Rosa seems to have plenty of free time looking around the house she works for. Instead of doing household chores, she opens up every single door to look for the ghost, who has been haunting her since Day 1. Instead of horror, it created Hitchcock's suspense.
And when Rosa discovered that Mr and Mrs Teo is a pair of psychos, it creates a feeling of having a pair of Mr and Mrs Hannibal Lecter controlling a helpless victim. This gives a touch of murderous atmosphere in the movie, which somehow, doesn't really seems to match with the genre and the title of the movie.
The movie, however, did a great job on adding horror in the film. You see ghosts who wears a red cheongsam and a red scarf over her head, just like the corpse bride. But i am not selling the upcoming Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's The Corpse Bride over here. It has nothing to do with the animation following the style of the duo's old film, The Nightmare Before Christmas. More rather, we have ghosts who has the look of Japanese horror, with the ghost from the Japanese horror, One Missed Call 2 aka Red Candy as the best example. The main ghost in The Maid looks like the ghost in Red Candy, and that's all i could say.
Alessandra De Rossi brought out the fear a woman in a foreign land faces. Her helplessness and fear in The Maid brought out the helplessness and fear most Philippino maids who worked in foreign land had.
As for Chen Shu Cheng, he gives Singaporean audience a new look on playing the role of Mr Teo, who was a psycho beneath the skin. It leaves a more lasting impression of a heartless creature, compared to Hong Hui Fang, who was also a psycho beneath the skin. Though Hong played psychotic roles in her local drama series career, The Maid leaves a more lasting impression, compared to her drama series, but not that much memorable than Chen.
In all, there are rooms for improvements for The Maid, but it seems that Singapore are catching up with their standard of movies.