I don't know why people bother comparing the movie to Taxi Driver. That's not going to help you appreciate or study the movie. That's just gonna make you play Spot The Difference, which will make you pretty restless because there are lots of differences. The restless audience is not an attentive audience.And oh, I don't understand why it's been tauted as "Taxi Driver in Singapore" either. Talk about bad marketing, they tell you what to think even before you see the movie! These rants aside, Perth is a movie about a simple man who wants to live the simple life. Indeed, you will find many nicely shot scenes in the movie and you will also hear the plink-pinks of the lonely piano piece that is its theme. These things may or may not work for you but Perthdeserves some merit. I may have given the movie four stars, but that's only my opinion... I say it deserves merit, because it is the first movie made about the pioneer generation of Singapore.It's the raw story of a 51 year old man, who feels this place doesn't care for people like him. It's the raw story of a man who is raw in the way he deals with things and often, people. Just like the society and government he claims that does not care enough for him and the lesser-educated generation of his time.Overall, the pace is not too bad, but a little uneven. Music is nothing special, you won't hear much more than the lonely piano. Which can be problematic, even if this was what the director intended, for the loneliness to seep through from the emptiness visually and aurally. This is mostly due to lead actor Lim Kay Tong, who well, over-acted big time. His voice is what you will be hearing a lot, this man literally tries to spit out rage. The bigger problem with his over-acting is not his speech though, but with he chooses to use his body. Frankly, it can sometimes become quite laughable, which I am sure is not what the director intended.I also have a problem with the violence. Don't get me wrong, I love violence. Which is why I have a problem with how the violence is portrayed. Why did Tartan buy this movie? How is Perth "Extreme Asian Cinema"? (Again, bad marketing, because Perth is just about as Extreme as it is parallel to Taxi Driver.) Trust me when I say the "violence" is totally unbelievable and phony, though perhaps towards the ending it became a little bit more realistic. The blood on Angry Boy Lee's hand after teaching the "ang mohs" a lesson was a nice touch, though.I will end by describing my favourite scene. It's a scene near the ending and by the way, I think the resolution of Harry's final fight was probably the best thing in the whole movie. The best thing about the best thing in the whole movie, for me, would be Harry seeing Mai one last time. That really ties up things nicely. The rest of the ending, I'm not sure if I could say I liked.

Perth is the dream of a simple man, named Harry Lee (played by actor Lim Kay Tong), a fifty-one year old security guard and Taxi Driver. Harry's only dream is to leave Singapore and immigrate to Perth, where he plans on living the simple life. According to Harry, everything is cheaper in Perth, which is why he works two jobs, in order to save up for his retirement plan.The company where Harry works security is run by a local gangster nicknamed "Angry Boy Lee" (played expertly by actor Sunny Pang.) Harry also has an estranged wife and son, as well as a best friend named Selva, played by actor Victory Selvam. After a few scenes depicting Harry's everyday life, we learn that the company he works security is down-sizing, thus Harry is out of the job.In order to stay to stay on schedule for his trip to Perth, Harry and his best friend Selva take jobs escorting prostitutes for Angry Boy Lee's Boss. Once on the job, Harry becomes infatuated with a young prostitute named Mai, played by Ivy Cheng.If the plot sounds reminiscent of Martin Scorcese's Taxi Driver, it's because it is. Thematically, the film also explores the same feelings of rage, loneliness, and isolation, that Taxi Driver does. Although, the motivations behind Harry and Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle are hardly the same. But largely, both films are gritty character studies, which degenerate into extremely violent and disturbing climaxes. While Taxi Driver is certainly the better film, Perth is much more violent and just as memorable.Just like Taxi Driver, Perth is paced slowly, but never becomes boring. Much of the film involves detailed character development of Harry and Salva. Most of the conversations, in the film involve the need to "live the simple life", thoughts on faithfulness (mostly inspired by Harry's Ex-Wife), and of course, Perth.One of the things that surprised me most about Perth, was that the majority of dialog in the film was in English. That, or a medley of English an several other dialects, such as Mandarin and Vietnamese. If you ever want to learn swear words in multiple languages, Perth is definitely your movie. Indeed this film features so much cursing that at times it seems a bit overdone, but it also adds to the underlying dark humor in Perth (Even as dark and menacing as Perth is, it still manages to make you laugh now and then).The performances themselves are quite good, but sometimes become a little too melodramatic (Specifically, the scene during Harry's son's wedding). But on the whole, Lim Kay Tong is heart wrenching as the abusive, alcoholic, wife beating Harry Lee. The other performances are all above par, especially Sunny Pang's Angry Boy Lee. The prostitute Harry falls for (Ivy Cheng) is beautiful, but her character is sadly underdeveloped. Also, the dialog being in English, (although most of the characters speak English quite well) sometimes it takes away from the acting. Don't get me wrong, the dialog is easily understandable, it's just that it doesn't always flow as smoothly as it does in the native language.The direction in the film is especially well done, and Perth features some of the best cinematography I've seen in awhile. Coming from the director of the horrible Return to Pontianak, Director Djinn proves he has talent and then some. Perth is shot in such a way, that the film has a very grainy, very raw feel to it. Perth features many beautiful shots of cityscapes in Singapore. The film also features many abstract shots, including a recurring ticking clock, which might create the impression that time may be running out for our characters.All in all, Perth is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. While it might be a retread of territory staked out by Martin Scorcese, it is still an exceptionally well done film. The performances are good, the dialog is good, the direction and cinematography are great, and the ending is amongst the most memorable endings I've ever seen! My Rating (9.5 out of 10) Perth is a slightly flawed masterpiece.

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.

"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.