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RATING:  
SINGAPORE: Ten years after frolicking into cinemas with his debut Forever Fever, theatre and film director Glen Goei is back with a classic whodunit.
A recently-deceased Singapore pineapple tycoon is apparently stuck in purgatory, and haunts his highly dysfunctional family to unravel the mysterious circumstances of his unexpected death.
His wife (Lousia Chong) has to hold together a precarious familial cacophony created by greedy and snivelling relatives and business associates. His eldest son (Lim Kay Siu) is expected to take over the throne, while his younger, hot-headed son (Adrian Pang) is resentful of the automatic accession of power, even as the spinster daughter (Neo Swee Lin) is lost in this patriarchal system.
Sound familiar?
This ambitious and slick second talkie immediately brings to mind Robert Altman's Gosford Park although the delivery isn't quite as smooth as Altman's classic.
But it does have the heavyweight ensemble cast featuring thesp credibility and fun cameos, the all-encompassing house as a setting, and most important, the underlying commentary on class, socio-economic structure and politics.
Filmed entirely on location in Penang at the gorgeous Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, the black comedy runs with a storyline hitting bravely close to home.
Goei's storytelling skills are sharpened by the apt score from Oscar-nominee David Hirschfelder, while his visual eye is enhanced by a Hollywood production crew that includes Ian Bailie (art director for Atonement) and cinematographer Larry Smith (Eyes Wide Shut).
Cleverly lit and beautifully framed, it's nice to see the film's $2.8-million budget translate fittingly on the big screen, pushing local cinema's production values into a new league.
There are moments where The Blue Mansion feels overwrought with the mix-in of one-too-many genres. It also is in danger of almost forsaking its initial dark humour jaunt for heavy-handed morality metaphors.
But, overall, it's a coup for local cinema, pushing it just that one step further, whether it's Altman-esque or not.
- TODAY/yb
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