Glen Goei's The Blue Mansion
I caught The Blue Mansion earlier this week and I really liked it a lot, though I must say that you really need a lot of patience to watch this film. It builds up rather slowly but when the ending comes, it comes with a punch.
I particularly liked Louisa Chong's portrayal of the elderly matriarch who is left to take over running the household, how she tried to maintain her dignified composure and poise even in the face of family politics and external gossip. I thought the acting by Tan Kheng Hua was particularly good as well, and fwah nobody told me she had such a MILF-like figure (which Glen Goei showed off to good effect, along with, er... Emma Yong's). My favourite scene though was the one with Sebastian Tan, hahaha! I also grew to empathise with Neo Swee Lin's character even though I initially did not like her very much due to her fanatical Christian beliefs. Patrick Teoh acted quite well too, especially in the scenes after Emma Yong appeared [if you watch the film you'll know why].
Being titled The Blue Mansion, I knew it was a reference to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, part of the Penang UNESCO World Heritage Site, but I also noticed the abundant use of colour, together with contrast and shadow, in the cinematography. Indeed, blue is the predominant colour in the film (and since it's my favourite colour I liked it quite a lot!) Throughout the film, the character Wee Bak Chuan is wearing gold (a reference to his position as the Pineapple King and being reminiscent of the imperial yellow, also a subtle hint at his dictatorial style, perhaps?) In the scene where he speaks to all his children when he was alive, if you notice carefully, they are all wearing blue. Emma Yong's character appears throughout the film dressed in a dazzlingly white wedding gown. I'm not sure but the symbolism I got from that was that it was to emphasise her purity of heart and that what happened to her was a direct result of her marriage, I think.
All in all, it is a very well-shot film, could have been better written, and acting was good although I don't get the highly contrived accents. Why can't they just speak like real people? I think it's ending its run soon so catch it when you still can!
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