A Land Imagined is described as, and perhaps hoped to be, a neo-noir mystery about an insomniac policeman, who somehow dreams (spot the contradiction) his way into solving crimes. ( Hello Special Agent Dale Cooper!) For those hoping for some sort of crime procedural thriller, don't hold your breath, because it never arrives. We don't even find out who reported the missing guy Wang, that Officer Lok seeks and we never actually see Lok in any sort of police environment.
A Land Imagined is one of those badly constructed films that just doesn't know what it wants to be. It's certainly no mystery thriller, though it kind of attempts to start that way. Then Lok disappears from the narrative for a good half of the film as it goes into social critique mode, exploring the lifestyle (if you could call it that) of (cheaper) immigrant workers from (mentioned in the film) Bangladesh and China. This is not to say the concept itself is unworthy of exploration. But it just doesn't fit, done in the neo-surrealistic style we see here, employed by writer/director Yeo Siew Hua, who to be quite frank, just doesn't have the storytelling goods to let all these different influences coalesce coherently into a worthwhile story.
Unless you're looking for relief from insomnia, I recommend staying well away from A Land Imagined.
