SINGAPORE SWING Mee Pok is a cheap fish noodle dish, but if fills the life of quasi-catatonic creep (Ng), who sells it to prostitutes, pimps and thieves in the bowels of Singapore. Eventually, however, his obsession with the beautiful whore Bunny (Goh) eclipses everything. We are talking Psycho and Apartment Zero here; the well-meaning fast-food vendor envelops Bunny with a love that turns out to be greater than life itself. Let's not give away too much of this striking movie's bizarre plot, but suffice it to say that Bunny is both a dreamer (she thinks a pretentious British photographer will take her away) and an innocent (the diary her younger brother reads in voice-over tells us that). She is so harassed by her sadistic pimp (Tong) that the mee pok man looks pretty safe by comparison. Khoo's pulsating score and direction stand in marked contrast to the stultifying modernity and uniformity of repressive Singapore. (Remember the canings?) He's not afraid to lace his slyly subversive take on his homeland with footage of developments, workers moving like clones across anemic plazas and most significantly, TV lectures on pushing children to overachieve. Mee Pok Man is the first film from Singapore ever to be screened at the festival in its 19-year history, but one can only hope for more discoveries like Eric Khoo. Howard Feinstein

TIME OUT, AUGUST 28, 1996 Would there be a Singapore film without Eric Khoo? He's been making original and provocative no-budget short films for years (e.g Pain, VIFF '94), and this debut feature sets the best possible precedent for an attitude and a style of fimmaking which could yet turn Singapore into a centre for lively independent production. The plot may be The Collector with a twist, but the style is all Khoo's own : cool, tender and stoic, even in the face of extreme perversity. The Mee Pok Man, named after the flat noodles he makes and sells from market stall, lives in the stern shadow of his late father. Shy, taciturn and a soft touch for a loan, he doted from afar on the world-weary hooker Bunny, a frequent customer at his stall. Bunny is regularly bullied by her pimp and tries to persuade her scum bag boyfriend to help her emigrate. The Mee Pok Man dreams of saving this tarnished angel ...... and gets his chance when he finds her bleeding after a hit-and-run accident and takes her home to nurse her. Will she succumb to his nervous advances? The storyline gives free rein to Khoo's taste for perverse and bizarre, but this is a disciplined and mellow film. Lit up by excellent performances from Joe Ng and Michelle Goh, it announces Khoo as a director of real promise. Tony Rayns

MEN'S REVIEW, JAN 1997 Take some Love/Food/Sex/Urban life and give it a twist, and there you have it - all the basic ingredients for Eric Khoo's memorable first feature film and Singapore's best in years. On one level an offbeat story, Mee Pok Man is a proves more complex and nuanced than its ingredients first suggest. Joe Ng's mee pok man is a social misfit and lonely fish ball vendor and the film traces his silent longing and adoration for the angelic Bunny, played by Michelle Goh. Working as a local bar girl, Bunny's going nowhere fast - vainly hoping for an overdue lifestyle exit, she's surrounded by greedy pimps and a disconnected family life. Cast together by virtue of the noodle stall, their fate is heavily circumscribed by the social wasteland in which they live. Ultimately, it's a world where everyone wants something from someone. Bunny's pimp grope her for sex, our mee pok man gets bled for loans, working girls seek overseas residencies, the archetypal mat salleh photographer seeks serial oriental pussy. Spiritual counselling comes Cash On Delivery. Even Bunny's mother stings her daughter for gambling money in sly off-handed moment. It's a sharply observed portrait of urban life that Khoo and cinematographer Ho Yoke Weng commit to screen. No tourist disinfected view of Singapore here! Stylitically, Mee Pok Man is a treat. Blue-green neon and coffeeshop fluoro wash the film's cool spectrum surface; hauntingly ordinary and atmospheric at the same time. Flat interiors are monotonous and bleak, underscored by the black humour of the "try harder" advice offered to near suicidal exam students on ubiquitous talkback radio. Though a small film, operating within the constraints of a tight budget (with cast and crew doubling up and working for free), Khoo's artistic vision looms large and promisingly. Disturbing undercurrents of alienation and sexuality deftly float up through its narrative. What's really strong is Khoo's restraint - no arty fart artifice here. Though the film holds moments of near transcendent beauty, it's always against the grisly backdrop of mundane life that such moments emerge. Where Juzo Itami's now classic noodle film Tampopo delves into the albumen eggwhite wet pleasures of food and sex, here food is stripped of sensuality. Blunt jump-edits intercut opening shots of naked flesh and stall food. Oysters, mouths, breasts, Game Boy and animal carcasses - all are melded together via the frenetic aural energy of the Opposition Party soundtrack. It's unforgettable, a brilliant thrash assemblage of greed, decomposition and the satiation of base desires. One of the most jolt-worthy film openings currently on offer, from any cultural position. Khoo expresses his intentions for the film quite differently to how I read its ambigous conclusion. At one level, Mee Pok Man can be read as a dark and highly subversive film, overturning and subverting the very foundation of a 'love story' on which the film is built. That's partly because the story of a 'relationship' throws light onto society's failure to foster healthy realations. That's highly metaphorical reading and not the only level of meaning left open to the viewer. As mee pok man takes the injured Bunny back into his flat, things slip into a hazy twilight zone and the theme of unconditional love wells up to the surface. It's no mean feat pulling off a monologue with a propped up corpse, but for all the small budget flaws, perforamnces from Joe Ng and crew pull together a tenderness and realism thats right on target. Sometimes, a film haunts with such intensity that you can't help but return to it. Images pop into your thoughts much later and its backwash laps for days. Mee Pok Man is that rare breed of film; big on lingering aftertaste, powerful because of its deceptively low-key bite. Miss this Singaporean offering at the Australian Film Festival at your own cinematic peril. Magella Blinksell

"One can only hope for more discoveries like Eric Khoo" Howard Feinstein, Timeout Magazine "A vibrant punchy, sometimes moving street film. The characters are memorable, the sense of place pungent and colourful" Michael Wilmington, The Chicago Tribune "The strengths of the performances and visuals keep the level of interest high. Mee Pok Man is engrossing, and finally, touching" Tony Rayns, Film Critic ".... For an idea of the good things that may be in store for Singapore's nascent film industry, check out Eric Khoo's Mee Pok Man. This well-crafted story about a prostitute and slow-witted noodle seller packs a big wallop. This film rates three and a half morbid twists out of four." AsiaWeek Magazine "Mee Pok Man is a film I really enjoyed. Eric Khoo has all the makings of a wonderful film maker." John Anderson, New York Film Critics Circle "Khoo shows very strong visual expression and has a talent for a very good cinematic language. There is a lot of potential in the director and the team working for him." Wang Shaudi, Acclaimed Taiwanese Writer, Director and Producer "Singapore is not an easy place to make films, especially if you are a young director without much commercial backing and some radical ideas. But Eric Khoo, with very little money and under great difficulties, has provided us with the first genuinely Singaporean movie good enough to reach the festival circuit. It's the story of a poor noodle seller's obsession for a pretty model, whom he takes home after she is injured in an accident, which may or may not be provoked by crooks. Khoo paints anything but the usual portrait of Singapore, moving his film from drama to tragedy with real skill. Mee Pok Man has already been prized at two festivals, and is clearly the work of a promising filmmaker who appeals directly to the emotions and refuses to compromise. His final sequence is quite extraordinary." Derek Malcolm, Chief Film Critic of The Guardian "Mee Pok Man is stubbornly independent and low-budget...The film paints a gritty, hyper-realistic view of Singapore with its singularly obsessive take on desire - money, sex, fame and even love." Philip Cheah, BigO Magazine

"An often striking mindfuck... serves up nicely impacted images of need and loss amid Singapore's warrens of apartment-block interiors." Garry Dauphin, The Village Voice "To the rest of the world, Singapore appears to be sparkling clean and thriving. At film festivals from Montreal to Fukuoka, Mee Pok Man - a highly praised first feature by a 30 yr-old presents a startlingly different perspective, portraying Singapore's seamy underside, with its alienated and outcast. Khoo evaded an all-out government ban, but the film has a RA (Restricted Artistic) rating... nonetheless, adult Singaporeans are packing theatres where it is playing." Time magazine "The movie has guts; it eschews safe, commercial formulae and dares to experiment with technique, characterisation and narration. A sincere and resourceful piece of work which spells hope for the local film industry." Wong Kim Hoh, etc Magazine "An Asian Taxi Driver, Khoo's debut feature may become as significant as Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets." Tim Alder, Moving Pictures "A bold first feature that succeeds in vividly portraying a slice of Singaporean life." The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) "It has to be seen to be believed." Whang Yee Ling, 8 Days "A tragic love story which lays bare the desolation and alienation lying just beneath the sheen of Singapore's economic success story. Unpretentious and honest cinematic fare, Mee Pok Man, an excellent film provides rich and satisfying food for thought." Michael Wouthwill, The New Paper "Mee Pok Man is the best piece of local film in too long a time. More importantly, it holds that quality cinema is truly a possibility in Singapore." Corinne Kerk, Business Times "Eric Khoo makes an impressive directorial debut....Khoo exhibits considerable talent in evoking the right mood through extremely long takes and silent sequences, recorded by a nonjudgemental stationary camera. The lead performers, Joe Ng as the slow-witted man and Goh as the world weary prostitute, are decently credible." Emanuel Levy, Variety