Siew Lup

Needless to say that I had never heard about this 2016 Singaporean movie titled "Siew Lup" prior to stumbling upon it by random luck here in 2023. And with my love of the Asian cinema, of course I opted to sit down and watch the movie without knowing what I was getting myself into.

The storyline in "Siew Lup", as concocted by writer and director Sam Loh, definitely had potential, because the essenstential basis layout of the storyline was actually good, but it was ruined by an excessive amount of pointless nudity and sex scenes. While I am not a prude, then I just don't enjoy an abundance of pointless lewd nudity and sex scenes to take away from the narrative of a movie. And that was the case with Sam Loh's 2016 movie, unfortunately no.

I am sure that there is an audience out there for a movie such as "Siew Lup", I just happened to not be in that audience. And I managed to suffer through about half of the movie, before I gave up out of sheer and utter boredom. I have to say that the entire narrative was just ruined by writer and director Sam Loh's urge to show nudity and sex scenes.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but they put on good enough performances when they were acting, and not being naked and imitating sex on the screen.

"Siew Lup" was not my cup of tea, not even remotely. And I am not going to bother returning to attempt finish watching the movie, because I just simply was put off by the nudity and sex scenes, as it took away too much from the narrative of the script and storyline.

My rating of "Siew Lup" lands on a generous three out of ten stars, given some adequate acting performances and the production value of the movie.

No pun intended - especially because there is more meat to it all (did I pack another pun into my first one? Maybe ...). But let me begin with Rebecca Chen - someone I did not have on my radar and someone who does not seem to have many films under her belt (or over it, depending on your viewpoint).

Overall the movie is by the numbers and you can guess the twists if you want to call them that. Even the ending is ... well not surprising at all. But up to that moment you get enough nudity and violence to keep you "entertained". All under the understanding that this is a movie - there is no fun or anything good happening if you'd consider this for the real world of course.

But this is a movie and it obviously uses many cliches to lure the viewer in. And then just does its job ... nothing more and nothing less. If you are into that kind of movie you will be completely satisfied ... which cannot be said about every character in the movie (sorry for that pun)

Inspired by Korean director Park Chan Wook's Revenge Trilogy, Singaporean director Sam Loh creates Angels of Vengeance Trilogy, which combines food with abused female victim turned femme fatale. Siew Lup (Roast Meat in Cantonese) is the second chapter of Angel of Vengeance Trilogy, preceding the 2015's first chapter, Lang Tong (Boiled Soup in Cantonese). Featuring new and young actresses, the trilogy serves to push the boundaries of sex, violence and cannibalism in Singapore film history.

Siew Lup focuses on Mia (Rebecca Chen), an ex-prostitute who was rescued from Quan (Sunny Pang), a roast meat shop owner from the pimp who terrorizes her and Mia's mother. Mia enters a loveless marriage with Quan, which his sexual impotency leads to poor self-esteem, hence venting out his frustration through physical violence and rape on her. An encounter with Wu (Louis Wu), the owner of a funeral service company, Mia decides to live with Wu forever and leaves Quan for good. When a sinister plot of getting rid Quan and Wu's encounter with Xuan (Melody Low), a beautiful lady whose days are numbered due to terminal illness, Mia is out on a road of revenge and cannibalism is making its way to the roast meat shop serving unsuspecting diners.

Premiered in Singapore International Film Festival 2016 (SGIFF 2016) with a sold-out screening, Siew Lup seems promising when it comes to pushing the boundaries of graphic sex and violence on Singapore's big screen. Never before did any Singaporean film-makers dare to make a film which promises large amount of carnal pleasures and bloodshed on the big screen, considered that this is a taboo which not only challenges the censorship regulations in Singapore, but also makes us question if Singaporeans are ready for such content. Hence it is no surprise Siew Lup fills the curiosity among Singaporeans to see how the country is ready to make a movie which lashes out sex and violence openly.

While graphic sex and violence is the main selling point of Siew Lup, the story line was however, needs much substantial content to strengthen up the overall presentation of the film. Though the plot seems to be easy to fill up a film with duration of only 82 minutes (5 minutes shorter than the original 87 minutes SGIFF 2016 version), there are some pointers which were left unexplained. Quan's attraction towards Mia and Wu's affair with Xuan were quickly featured without deeper explanation.

Being a newcomer in Singapore film industry, Rebecca Chen has what it takes to portray the role of Mia: hot figures, beautiful looks. While it seems that Chen's Mia was a ready-made femme fatale, not much reason was given to justify her sudden change of personality and her penchant of killing her victims and turns them into roast meat. As the story develops, we can see how the people around Mia drives her to where she is: Pang's Quan is like a typical average Joe, whose profession and low-self esteem turned hot tempered individual, draws the attention of the audience. Not only did we see how it helps him to bring Mia into his life, but also drives her to become a femme fatale. Wu and Low's respective role of Wu and Xuan serves as a fuel for Mia to seek her freedom and paving the road for revenge.

Siew Lup may not suit everybody's palate, considered that it is an 82 minutes worth of sex and violence. Though the story is easy to understand and pretty straight forward, an expansion on the duration to build up the development of the story will definitely serve as a bonus to the audience, which marks a sweet and delicious end to a meal.

Earlier this week, at the gala premiere prior to Siew Lup's official theatrical run, the CEO of mm2 Entertainment (the production company behind the film) took to the stage to promote the movie, touting it as one that attempts to fill the erotic-thriller niche in the local film market, which has been dominated by the likes of other genres such as comedy and horror. And why shouldn't it, given the success of Hollywood's Fifty Shades adaptations, he argues. He also noted that the audiences at the screening were mostly male, and exhorted them to bring their female counterparts and spread the word.

He is right on some counts. There hasn't been a Singaporean movie quite like it in recent memory, except perhaps its predecessor Lang Tong靚 汤; (Siew Lup is the second instalment of director Sam Loh's planned femme fatale revenge trilogy) and the raunchy sex scenes are without a doubt gleefully audacious by local standards. But let's not harbour any illusions – Siew Lup is, unabashedly a movie that panders to the male gaze and to suggest anything less would be disingenuous.

Sex sells of course, as evidenced by its earlier festival run, where it was the first among more than a hundred films to sell out at the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) last November, and there sure is a lot of sex in Siew Lup. And not just sex, but gratuitous violence; anyone vaguely acquainted with the culinary themes of Lang Tong (which translates loosely to "tasty soup") and Hong Kong's The Untold Story series ("人肉叉烧包" or literally "human flesh char-siew buns") will no doubt already have an idea about the unsavoury origins of the roast meat in this film.

Much like with Lang Tong, the director has decided to cast first- time actresses as the female leads. Rebecca Chen (whose day job as a dancer pays off handsomely on the big screen in the form of her svelte curves and athletic physique) stars as Mia, who starts an affair with Wu (played by a broodingly dashing Louis Wu). Halfway in the film, Wu has a change of heart and falls for another girl, the terminally-ill but temperament-wise milder Xuan who appears serendipitously in his life. The latter is played by Melody Low, styled to look like some buxomly J-pop or K-pop-type ingénue who, let's just say, also lets out some pretty choice noises during the sex scenes, reminiscent of the kind Japanese AV idols at work).say?

The decision to use fresh faces is not necessarily a good thing though, as the gulf in acting chops between the newcomers and the other more experienced actors is played out to stark effect. Chen, who arguably has the most challenging role in the movie, appears stiff and inexperienced next to her fellow actors. It's a shame, because it would have been interesting to see her delve more deeply into her character's journey from suffering ex-prostitute to indomitable femme fatale. Add the fact that her dialogue is unnaturally dubbed in a crisp Mandarin that doesn't even sound like it's from her voice, and the result is a wholly wooden and uninspiring performance.

On the other hand, the best acting goes to Sunny Pang, who plays Quan, the butcher husband of Mia. He manages to convey with nuance both frailty and brutality when a scene calls for it. Hardly surprising, considering he has had more than a decade of working in regional films over the past 10 years.

The problems with the film don't end there though. The storytelling is poor and the filmmakers do not seem interested in creating realistic set-ups, making it difficult for audiences to truly invest themselves in the film. Just to list a few: in the film, characters seem to have difficulty keeping their doors locked, constantly inviting trouble for themselves; there's a perverted voyeur on the loose in the film who seems to be omnipresent and ever ready with a recording device on hand to film Mia in the throes of passion; in the film's universe, murders seem to have no legal consequences; towards the end of the film, one particularly incriminating piece of evidence of a murder is left around carelessly – of all places – on the floor; Xuan's character is terminally-ill but it is never mentioned what she is suffering from – she certainly looks like she's in the pink of health for the most part. The list could go on and on. Again, not helping is how artificial the dialogue is in general (one particularly cringeworthy line was spouted by Xuan - "one of my dying wishes is to be here with the person I love – just like this").

In a post-Yangtze Cinema era when Singaporeans can get far more salacious content on the Internet for next to nothing, Siew Lup's undifferentiated offerings of softcore sex and violently-procured roast meat is tantamount to asking moviegoers to part with good money in exchange for less. Still, Loh deserves some credit for the boldness of his vision and for his conviction in pushing the boundaries of local films. One can only hope the final macabre dish he serves in the trilogy will come with a bigger dollop of solid storytelling.

Singapore films are just so weak these days. A long history of hyper local content controlled by a few legacy companies protecting their spots has not allowed the country and its productions to grow and evolve. This is just another Mediacorp/Mediacrap show but with some nudity cos the director Sam thinks he's some sort of auteur. He credits himself as a director AND writer. Ouch! Talk about delusions of grandeur. The dialogue is bad, acting is horrific, plot is all over the place (Actually what plot?!) and the production resembles 1980s Hong Kong shows but not in a good way - more TVB than Wong Kar Wai. Easy pass unless you want to see some terrible softcore stuff. Check everything wrong with cinema these days - creepy male gaze, misogynistic tropes, terrible production value etc. MM2 actually thought they did something! Oof!