Movie No. 37 (2015): ILO ILO

Ilo Ilo (2013)
Director: Anthony Chen
Cast: Chen Tian Wen, Yeo Yann Yann, Koh Jia Ler, Angeli Bayani
In Chinese and Tagalog, with English subtitles

The director's autobiographical of his coming of age is an intimate look at a typical working class Singaporean family. The man of the house loses his job; the wife, who is pregnant with their second child, is unaware. The pre-adolescent son is pre-occupied with the pains of growing up practically alone because his parents are seldom home. So, comes the househelp, a domestic from the Philippines.

The characters and the things they do are very interesting, which make the narrative rich. The man of the house loses his job because the glass he sells easily breaks. He gambles his savings in the stock market and loses. The series of events in the movie take place during the Asian Crisis in 1997. The wife's main work at the time, because she is pregnant, is typing termination letters for her co-workers. She attends seminars about get-rich-quick schemes, which turns out to be scam. One of the son's pre-occupations is finding patterns in the winning lottery numbers. The house help moonlights as hairdresser during her day-off. So, every character cares about money. In the backdrop is the Asian Crisis.

The coming of house help mirrors the foreign labor force that locals of Singapore find threatening. There's one scene when the wife becomes offended when the house help, wearing the old dress she gave her, comes to school in her place to attend to the son's case at the principal's office. 

Everything about the movie is simple but meticulously crafted. The screenplay is rich in characterization and symbolism. The hand-held camera projects a cinematography that makes every scene intimate. The editing is masterful. No wonder this won Best First Feature at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013.

Rating: 4.0/4.0

Date seen: July 23, 2015 

(on Netflix, in New York)