Circle Line

I happened to stumble upon the 2023 Singaporean movie "Circle Line" by random chance. Needless to say that with it being an Asian movie I hadn't already seen, then of course I had to sit down and watch it. And I have to admit that I was initially drawn in by the movie's cover.

Writers Tang Chi Sim, J. D. Chua, Siew Pek Chye, Juan Foo, Allan Ho and Andrew Chiang Meng Ngin put together a watchable movie, I will say that much. Now hold on, while "Circle Line" certainly was watchable, it was an incredibly weak and laughable storyline that the six writers had mustered to conjure up. However, I am amazed how six writers could collectively manage to come up with something so weak of script and storyline.

There were so many plot holes that even Swiss cheese would go "you got to be kidding me!" How could a creature manage to live hidden underground for 20 years? What was it feasting upon all those years? Why were the unlit subway tunnels so miraculously bright when they should have been pitch black? And that leads us to the main problem with "Circle Line"; the absolute lack of a point to the storyline. Yeah, I kid you not, the storyline had no focal point, and it just simply made no sense.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in "Circle Line". But then again, I am not well-traversed within the Singaporean cinema. I will say, however, that the acting performances in the movie were fair enough, taking into consideration that the cast virtually had nothing to work with.

"Circle Line" is the type of movie that invites you to fully shut off all brain activity and just lean back in your seat whilst munching on your selected choice of snacks.

Visually then I will say that "Circle Line" was good. The creature design was good and it looked realistic. Sure, it made no sense how it would have managed to survive for 20 years without any food source, but hey, this is a movie, after all.

While I managed to sit through all 80 minutes of what director J. D. Chua delivered here, I was only mildly entertained. And believe you me when I say that this movie most certainly does not encourage a second viewing, especially since there wasn't really enough contents to the storyline to support the first viewing.

What keep "Circle Line" afloat is the special effects, pure and simple.

In all honesty, then I have to say that I found "Circle Line" to be really, really disappointing. And if you enjoy a good creature feature, then there are far better choices readily available out there. Especially since "Circle Line" had no storyline and only managed to remain watchable because of the CGI.

My rating of "Circle Line" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars. The story warrants a single star only, but the special effects in the movie generously nudges it up to a three star rating.

The plot for this Singaporean horror film is simple.

A reptilian beast is released by the mother of it's owner after her child dies (implied); where it takes up residence in the subway system; and accidentally triggers a switch, to route one of the trains onto an unused track...where it gets stranded...and open to attack by said monster.

But not a whole lot in the film makes sense.

There are so many questions that go completely unaddressed.

First and foremost, what the hell the alien looking beast even is.

How the kid in the intro came to own it?

How big it got before they released it?

How long it was running rampant in the underground tunnels for?

How it survived?

What it was feeding on?

Not to mention all the gaping plotholes we are supposed to ignore.

Mainly...how you could conceivably "lose a train" in a modern subway system, in this day and age.

How the student's father was able to find them...while the rest of management was left in the dark about their location (despite the fact he told them where he believed they were).

And how they lost contact with him.

Not to mention, how the beast managed to procreate...when there is only one of them.

Though, I guess we are to assume it possesses the capability to reproduce parthenogenetically.

It certainly requires quite a bit of assumption, to simply engage with the storyline.

Which isn't exactly "good" writing.

(I won't even get started on the lop-sided character development)

On top of this...the monster is rendered with rather choppy CGI.

To be fair, it's not the worst CGI I've ever seen.

It's certainly better than the what we see in Cocaine Bear (to offer a reference point), for example.

That's for sure.

But they were way too ambitious with the action scenes...when their tech (or budget) just couldn't handle it.

Plus...the acting is quite bad.

Particularly in regards to the mother and son characters (who are the main characters in the film).

The kid was so damn annoying...I found myself rooting for his death.

I just wanted him gone.

And the mother wasn't much more tolerable.

But, alas...

I don't think you can blame Singapore for this.

It was a valiant effort.

I place the blame on Netflix for producing this type of high concept trash on the reg.

It's always been their policy to aim for quantity over quality.

I've no doubt this was a one-line pitch when it was green-lit.

Cause it shows.

2 out of 10.

Dear Director, Please finish your film school. Storyline should be more tighter. No head no tale. How the hell that things is in the abandoned tunnel and nobody in the control room know about it. The monster practically screaming it's every second. Cannot hear at the tunnel.pple screaming. The only saving grace is the gal and the little boy like they are freaking hero. Jessica Liu acting pretty much useless in the movie. She not be three still the movie can be made.

Ending super lame. Have such high hopes. Maybe you can ship some Korean script writer over. Their horror makes more sense. Avoid this movie at all cost. Verdict👎👎👎

This is a low budget monster film, poor storyline, poor cgi. So many logical flaws in this film. For starter, how come the monster did not kill the old man direclty? Why did it wait for the old man return to the train? It is also unclear how the monster did not kill anyone instantaneously, but spending view minutes walking around. The dialog is very shallow. There is not enough background story to make the characters real. The ending is even worse. Absolute trash. I really cant see any good point about this movie. Do yourself a favor, dont watch this movie and use your time for other useful activities.

CL is the perfect example of what can be done with limited budget -- quick intro of characters and bam! The Action starts!

No doubt the run time is relatively short, but it still manages to provide a tightly paced storyline, effective terrifying scares, nail-biting edge-of-the-seat suspense (of not knowing what's gonna happen!) and tender character moments.

The direction, acting, cinematography, creature design & visual effects are all very well done, and again, well executed under a lot of constraints, I would assume.

It is definitely one of the better Singapore-made movies that has emerged in recent years.