Be with Me (2005)

Directed by: Eric Khoo | 93 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Theresa Poh Lin Chan, Elisabeth Choy, Seet Keng Yew, Ezann Lee, Lynn Poh, Chiew Sung Ching, Jason Tan, Royston Tan, Samantha Tan, Lawrence Yong

Singaporean Theresa Chan is a special woman. At the age of fourteen she first became deaf, and then also became blind. As a result, her life became a severe ordeal. She kept hope, however, and through chance encounters with inspiring people, she learned to save herself. She learned Braille and she also mastered the English language – previously she only spoke Cantonese. She did that by telling herself that it didn’t matter as long as she was alive. By keeping hope, showing courage and perseverance, she became a strong, extraordinarily independent and inspiring woman. Director Eric Khoo (’12 Storeys’), also from Singapore, used Theresa Chan’s biography as a stepping stone for his film ‘Be with Me’ and also gave the woman an important role. ‘Be with Me’ is a subtle and intriguing film about love, hope, despair and loneliness. The film consists of three parts. In each of those parts, love is central at a certain stage of life.

In the first story, we see an old shop owner (Chiew Sung Ching) who cooks meals for his critically ill wife in the hospital. When she dies, he has a hard time accepting that. He closes his shop, feels her presence in the house and has difficulty coping with her loss. He turns into a lonely, grumpy man who doesn’t feel like doing anything anymore. The second story revolves around Fatty Koh (Seet Keng-Yew), a gluttonous middle-aged security guard who is secretly in love with a much younger successful businesswoman who lives in his flat. He is at odds with his family, who he still lives with, and to make matters worse, he is fired when he falls asleep on the job. To pass the time, he decides to follow his great love to her house. He also writes her a love letter. Will she ever see him? Finally, the third story revolves around the puppy love between the two teenage girls Jackie and Sam who met through a chat box. At the beginning everything is rosy and bright, but as soon as Sam starts dating a boy and then leaves Jackie out in the cold, intense emotions surface.

At first glance, all these stories seem to have little to do with each other, except that they share the same overarching themes of love, despair and loneliness. It’s only when Theresa Chan appears halfway through the film that the puzzle pieces slowly fall into place. Chan is also the personification of the theme of hope in this film. Her life story is told to the viewer through images and subtitles, which initially seems a bit out of the blue. If you are just in the middle of the three stories, you suddenly jump to the life story of this lady. But the introduction of Chan has a clear reason. The fact that two of the three stories ultimately end in tragedy only reinforces the power of the third story. A consuming and beautiful image of love lingers with the viewer after the film.

Communication plays an important role in the film. It is only after almost twenty minutes that there is spoken for the first time; before that, the dialogue appears on the screen in the form of typed or written text – either via a typewriter (Theresa Chan), a love letter (Fatty) or via email or text message (Jackie and Sam). Impersonal communications are often misinterpreted and declarations of love can easily be undone – simply by pressing ‘clear’ in the case of texting, for example. It is typical of the film that it is Theresa Chan – the one who has the most difficulty expressing herself because of her physical limitations – who does the most talking. The director probably wants to make it clear that he thinks she is setting a good example. If we follow her example, there is still hope for us.

‘Be with Me’ is a serene portrait of three people in search of love. The beautiful images and matching musical score add to the power of the film. Not to mention the actors’ strong renditions; since there is hardly any speech, they do everything through body language and facial expressions. The old shop owner in particular has a beautiful weathered head that you can look at for hours. A small subtle masterpiece that, despite the heavy tragedies at the end, still gives you a glimmer of hope.