The Tiger Factory
虎厂
Malaysia/Japan, 2010, colour, 1.66:1, 88 mins.
Director: Hu Mingjin 胡明进 [Woo Ming Jin].
Rating: 1/10.
Dull, emotionless drama centred on a dull, emotionless teenager caught up in a baby racket.
STORY
Malaysia, present day. Pingping (Li Huimin), 19, who is under the guardianship of her aunt, Tian (Cai Baozhu), works in a pig farm and as a dishwasher in a restaurant. She’s saving to go to Japan to work in a car-parts company. Unbeknownst to Pingping, her aunt also runs a clandestine “baby factory” in which migrant workers from countries like Burma are used to impregnate young woman and the babies then sold off. Pingping gradually learns the truth about her aunt.
REVIEW
Along with his other minimalist compatriots, Malaysian New Wave director Hu Mingjin 胡明进 [Woo Ming Jin] has always been a rarified taste, ever since his diffuse debut Monday Morning Glory Lampu merah mati (2005). His fourth feature, The Tiger Factory 虎厂 returns to the more naturalistic, semi-documentary style of that first film but without its humorous undercurrents. With an expressionless lead in Li Huimin 黎慧敏 [Lai Fooi Mun] – the teenage lead in My Daughter 理发店的女儿 (2009) by Lin Lijuan 林丽娟 [Charlotte Lim] – who is followed around by the handheld camera without ever revealing what she is thinking, the only point of interest (at least for Southeast Asian viewers) is the casting of veteran actress Cai Baozhu 蔡宝珠 [Pearlly Chua], famous for playing the title role in Stella Kon’s monologue play, Emily of Emerald Hill (1984), about a nonya 娘惹 matriarch, for over 18 years. Unfortunately, the script by Hu and his co-producer Yang Yiheng 杨毅恒 [Edmund Yeo] is so woolly and underwritten – throwing up ideas and then abandoning them – that Cai’s character emerges as simply a cold abstract. Maybe because of the grubby subject-matter, Hu has even abandoned the visual poetry of his previous The Elephant and the Sea (2007) and Woman on Fire Looking for Water (2009), with the cinematography by Wan Chun Hung (Woman on Fire) undistinguished on any level.
CREDITS
Produced by Greenlight Pictures (MY), Kohei Ando Laboratory (JP).
Script: Hu Mingjin [Woo Ming Jin], Yang Yiheng [Edmund Yeo]. Photography: Wan Chun Hung. Editing: Yang Yiheng [Edmund Yeo], Kenny Chua. Art direction: Lim Seow Wei. Costumes: Lim Seow Wei. Sound: Cheong Sau Pan.
Cast: Li Huimin [Lai Fooi Mun] (Pingping), Cai Baozhu [Pearlly Chua] (Tian), Li Fengzhi [Susan Lee] (Mei, Pingping’s sister), Rum Nung Chung (Kang), Cheong Wai Loon, Lesly Leon Lee, Chung Chung, Loh Bok Lai.
Premiere: Cannes Film Festival (Directors’ Fortnight), 21 May 2010.
Release: Malaysia, tbc; Japan, tbc.
(Review originally published on Film Busines Asia, 26 May 2010.)