A Land Imagined – Huan tu (2018)

Directed by: Siew Hua Yeo | 95 minutes | drama | Actors: Peter Yu, Xiaoyi Liu, Yue Guo, Jack Tan, Ishtiaque Zico, Kelvin Ho, George Low, Debabrota Basu, Andie Chen, Khalishan Liang, Qin Tianshu, Ottylia Liu, Xiao Jing, Andy Nyo, Joey Heng, Gabriel Yeo

The photographically razor-sharp ‘A Land Imagined’ takes place largely at night, a world in which everything seems possible, and which changes into a sandy construction site in daylight. This contrast is a charm, as documentary style with obscure content collides promisingly – a good introduction to Singapore into the second decade of the 21st century, a bursting city-state where industry and liveability meet in land reclamation.

Chinese construction worker Wang (Liu) is missing, Detective Lok (Yu) follows in his footsteps. What does he think? A world of exploitation? A love drama? Much remains unclear, but Yeo holds onto the promise of a whodunit for a movie. Don’t expect a crime scene with a detective who disappears from view while sipping a cigarette, but a social history such as you can discern in films by Ja Zhanke (‘Ash is Purest White’).

Just like in modern Chinese film, where social developments are the engine of plot and drama. Slow as a river in this case, and we have to pay attention to where the current takes us as a viewer. Scanty dialogues, a point of improvement rather than a conscious choice, give this film a contemplative character; it remains difficult for a Westerner to feel any emotion at the situational way in which Asians approach each other.

Wang is followed in flashbacks. He spends his free time in a game hall, where he meets Mindy (the excellent Kwok). She likes Wang, and challenges him; Mindy is another source of information for Lok, but it remains static, especially through Yu. As a viewer you feel like a spectator who has to stay behind glass. ‘A Land Imagined’ (Best Film and Actress Locarno 2019) is successful as a concept with a social message, but as a drama too cerebral and therefore more distant than necessary.