23:59

Has a nice creepy factor to start with but quickly goes downhill. The middle and end of the movie you have trouble realizing what is happening or what is even the plot at all. Editing and pacing is definitely off after 15 minutes, almost like they ran out of budget and had to get to the finish line. Several of the main actors seemed like cardboard caricatures.

I had no expectations going into this one, and was pleasantly surprised.

The film is set on an Army training base in the Seventh Month, when ghosts and spirits are said to roam free. There are all types of rituals to appease and avoid them, which most people take part in even if they don't seem to believe.

A new group of recruits is just about to finish their training there when things begin to go wrong. I won't go into detail because I want people to see this for themselves, but I will say that there are vengeful spirits, wrongful deaths, and lots of creepy atmosphere! The rainy jungle march is one of the best scenes! One of the group is missing, and the instructor has them count off "one...two..three..four..." Something right behind them whispers "fffiiivveee"....

The movie does move a bit slowly at times, but I was never bored. The acting was fine, and the characters were likable enough that I cared about them and what was happening to them. Give this one a chance, you won't be sorry!

23:59 tells the tale of some army cadets in training on an island who have the misfortune of running into a local ghost with revenge on her mind.

The strongest points of this film are the the unique army barracks setting (for a ghost story) and the attempt to develop the main character arcs.

A better execution of the basic concept would have given a vicarious experience of what it is like to be an army recruit under these circumstances. The gold standard for this kind of thing in my opinion is FULL METAL JACKET (1987). Unfortunately, this film largely fails on that front.

On the character development front, we have, among others, one character who goes from being a skeptic to a believer in ghosts, and another who goes from being a bully to an empathetic person. Unfortunately, the first seems rather like an endorsement of superstition, and the second failed to be pulled off in a way that seems authentic. At least I still had reservations whether the bully's remorse was sincere. That actor's wooden performance may have contributed to my impression.

Apart from these issues, there is also a problem with the overall structure of the movie. Frequent flashbacks add hints about what had happened, but they are introduced in such a clumsy way that one cannot help but think of them as film-maker contrivances, and that takes us immediately out of the movie. Also, the story becomes more confusing because of the way the film is constructed.

The ghost character is yet another variation on the "Stringy-haired ghost girl" archetype, called onryo, which, it seems, has been milked dry in Asian horror. Perhaps it is worth noting that a Singaporean film availed itself of a ghost originating in Japanese folklore.

It is really all too bad. The premise is fresh and with better execution could have yielded a decent horror flic. As it stands, this is not a good film.

The overall look of the film is good, actors are consistent and both sound and photography are better than films with such a small budget usually are. Pace and timing are its main failings but I think the local audiences were probably willing to overlook that.

The movie sets up the basis for the spirits, but in two ways, and then throws in a third. One is that a villager was killed in the past by a recruit, so at 23:59 its spirit comes forth. The other is that if a pregnant woman commits suicide, she and her daughter will come to haunt. And the recruits do see spirits. The movie has a group of recruits in training. There is a suicide, and another one dies under mysterious circumstances, so they are on edge. Their Sgt even provides them with talismans and later a medium is brought in. While all the recruits have similar and short haircuts, the Sgt has a very bushy do, and the officer certainly isn't regulation. That is a detail that should have been trivial to know and fix. The movie is decently done, although if what was shown was reflective of their training, not much of a fighting force. It simply is not that interesting although if one was familiar with the legends, perhaps more so.