Watch Ilo Ilo For Free

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Ilo Ilo is a movie from Singapore which see's a families problems combined with a new maid for the family caught in the mess but also trying her best to be good at her new job. Throughout this movie we see glimpse of true emotion, the kind that only a real life situation can bring out in people, this does feel a little too real as if they forgot to make it a movie sometimes but all in all it is sweet and the end I feel finishes off nicely and in a way that suits it best.Anthony Chen kicks off his career in feature films writing and directing this and shows some promise, sure it's the kind of promise you may only see at international film festivals(if you don't live in Singapore that is) but I think his crafting of this movie is alright, not top notch but I appreciate it slightly. The film can feel like award fodder at some moments if not the whole thing and as I said before feels too real, movies are not meant to be so much like real life that it just feels like a camera following everyday events like cleaning the house, Chen does well to shift that feeling away but the film can still feel kind of too dull at times. I wasn't so keen as well on the camera's, a lot of shaky cam that although makes it feel slightly more real makes the scene just not work for me. Koh Jia Ler portrays the instantly unlikeable child Jiale whose insufferable misdemeanour's makes him very annoying to not only watch but even when at times when he is not messing around, you still don't like his character. Yeo Yann Yann as the mother of Jiale is OK and although her character can also be at times very annoying, she manages to do it in a way which carries Chen's message that she is strong but also at times can be very weak minded and easily offended. I found if any slight part of this movie provides comedy relief then Chen Tian Wen as Jiale's father is kind of funny, I mean this is by no means a comedy but he makes some scenes kind of odd in a fun way. Terry is the maid and really the star of this movie, through her eyes we see what she goes through and she is treat rather basically but she does not care, Jiale is not behaving well but you just know she has it in her to finally control him and get him to shut up. If you want a deep meaning and interesting story this is nearly that, it seeks to make you feel something for the people involved but ends up not really doing that, although Angeli Bayani who plays Terry tries hard. I'm not saying Chen has made a bad piece here, I can see why this won awards and although I don't know if I would agree with them, this certainly contains moments which I know for some could be very meaningful and reflect not only the culture of family life in Singapore, but also what family is and what it means to us all worldwide as well.

This flyweight Singaporean film is the surprising winner of Golden Horse Award in 2013, snatches 4 awards including BEST FILM honor from its stiff competitors, Johnny To's DRUG WAR (2012), Zhangke Jia's A TOUCH OF SIN (2013), Ming-liang Tsai's STRAY DOGS (2013) and the front-runner Kar Wai Wong's THE GRANDMASTER (2013, 8/10). First-timer director Anthony Chen wins BEST NEW DIRECTOR and ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY, while Yann Yann Yeo stands out in BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS race. Under the curtains of Asian financial crisis in the mid-90s, Anthony's first feature closely examines an ordinary Singaporean nuclear family's happenings when a new Philippine maid Terry (Bayani) is arranged to help out with the chores and take care of the 10-year-old brat Jialer (Koh) as his mother Hwee Leng (Yeo) is pregnant with a second child and is swamped by her daily office work, whereas the father Teck (Chen), a salesman, is on the brink of losing his job due to the unhealthy market. The film's mandarin title can be literally translated as "when parents are not at home", so audience may assume that the major chunk of the story would involve the interaction between Jailer and Terry, a spoiled schoolboy and a wide-eyed interloper, surely it is what happens, their narrative arc is too predictable yet Anthony's camera unassumingly records the changeover with poise and impartiality, Jiale is an really imp, not only in school, his initial hostility towards Terry will understandably thaw when they spend more time together to understand each other during the absence of the parents, since Terry takes on the duty of a caregiver whom Jiale is desperately in need of.Meanwhile, Hwee Leng and Teck loom large in the storyline too, the former suffers from the angst due to the budding affinity between Jialer and Terry (her worst nightmare is to be supplanted by an outsider for the maternal bond with her child), also is victimized in a faith- boosting racket, and repeatedly inculcates herself with the empty slogan "Hope is within myself" to sustain her belief in the troubled water. The ambivalence of her psychology is impeccably conducted by Yeo, who is overflowing with compelling nuances and tenable craft, the same can be said to Tian Wen Chen, a veteran actor (personally I watched many TV series starring him during my childhood), showcases his most authentic emotion under the helm of Anthony's astute perspicacity as the father who conceals his misery with disguised front of dignity required for the man of the family. The film is also an excellent example of leaving out the unnecessary verbal communications and balances the contents with exchanges of eye-contact or the tacit silence, which is not a easy task to accomplish, but here, it is a marvel to behold (e.g. the maid Vs. hostess scenario is perpetually piquant under various contexts). Anthony Chen injects tons of human touch into the quotidian storyline (the strand in the cemetery vignette for example), enriches each character with the inescapable pressure from surviving, even for Jailer, he has to pay for his misbehavior and accepts the unavoidable separation in a hard way.Overall, ILO ILO is exceedingly levelheaded and structurally faultless for a neophyte, its attentive intimacy toward the common lives reminisces of Ann Hui's top-notch THE WAY WE ARE (2008, 9/10), Anthony Chen is no wonder a name worthy noticing for his future projects and on his way to bring more glory to his itty-bitty motherland.

Director Anthony Chen's brilliant debut feature film 'Ilo Ilo' is a compelling drama about how a simple Singaporean middle-class family gets affected by the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997.'Ilo ilo' is a Mandarin phrase which means 'Mom and dad are not at home'. The setting itself was quite nostalgic, personally. A simple middle-class family, two hardworking parents, a naughty son, and how he gets attached to the new Filipino maid hired by the family. Everything goes normal until the financial crisis hits the community; people start losing their jobs, and we see its effects on the community through the lives of these four characters.All the characters in the story are quite intriguing: The honest hardworking father, who after losing his sales job, tries to hide it from his family and applies for other jobs. The pregnant working mother, who's always irritated by her naughty son's antics at school, but feels jealous when she notices the close bond her son forms with the maid. The single child, Jiale, who's known for his naughtiness, but slowly mends his ways when he finds a friend in the new maid. The Filipino-immigrant maid, who has a baby of her own (back at her sister's house), but stays and works at this house, and also does hairdressing part-time, trying to make ends meet; she finds a son in Jiale, and starts caring about him immensely.Even when situations get really bad, we as people often try to mask our pain and difficulties in front of our friends and relatives in order to appear fine and sorted; that's what seems sad in our communities. The urge and need to maintain our image takes precedence over anything else.All the four leads are really talented actors, and have done a commendable job. The cinematography and the crisp colours make the story quite rich and real. The screenplay is simple and uncomplicated, yet immensely moving and absorbing. And the most beautiful aspect of the movie is that there is no background score at all. Instead, the silence lets us ponder over the real and moving situations unraveling in front of our eyes. The only song in the movie is played in the last scene, and it's a really beautiful Filipino song.There are many beautifully shot and memorable scenes in the movie. By the time the movie ends, you unconsciously become a part of the family, and empathise with each of the four characters.

This film "Ilo Ilo" put Singapore on the map of world cinema when it won the Camera D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Finally, it is now being shown here in the country where the titular place name originates.We do not even hear the word "Ilo Ilo" mentioned during the film's 99- minute running time, though we do hear the maid Terry speak in the Ilonggo dialect of Iloilo province when she makes a long-distance phone call back home. I doubt if non-Filipinos will recognize that little linguistic detail, so they might wonder about the English title. The Mandarin title of this film is actually "Father, Mother Not At Home." This was exactly what the movie was all about.We meet a middle-class Singaporean family, the Lims, feeling the crunch of the Asian Economic Crisis during the late 1990s. The father has lost his job in sales and has to make do by accepting a more menial job. The mother is pregnant with their second child, and has a thankless clerical job, typing letters for employees about to lose their jobs. The son Jiale is a naughty little rascal who is obsessed with the lottery, his Tamagotchi and getting himself sent to the Principal's office.To help with the household chores and to take care of Jiale, the couple decide to hire a maid from the Philippines, Teresa. It was a huge challenge for Terry to get integrated into the family system and into Jiale's troubled life, but she eventually does. But as the Lims continued to experience escalating monetary woes, they need to make an important decision about Terry.This is actually a simple story of a family going through rough financial times and their relationship with their helper. We usually see this type of story from the point of view of the helper, but this time we see the employer's perspective. The actors who play Lim family are very real in their roles. Tian Wen Chen essays the down-on-his-luck father role with just the right amount of humor. Yeo Yan Yan portrays the frustrations of her character with her life, her husband AND her son very well. Her inner conflicts when she sees Jiale bonding with his Auntie Terry were eloquently reflected on her face. The child actor who plays Jiale is quite the natural in his portrayal. It was surprising to find out later that this was his first ever film role, maybe that is why it was bereft of artificiality.As for Terry, we don't really know who she was before she came here. She has several skills like cutting hair or driving, but what exactly did she do for a living before going to Singapore? We will also not know what will happen to her after her last scene. Teresa was not really the main character here but she was the important catalyst for the family's story to be more interesting. Filipina actress Angeli Bayani hits the right notes in this role, perfectly mixing her character's timidity and subservience with loyalty and dignity.Director Anthony Chen toned down everything in his treatment of this story, the script of which he himself wrote based from his own memories about his childhood and his Filipina yaya (or baby sitter). The colors were muted to a pale sepia. There were no scenes of exaggerated melodrama, no over-the-top shouting nor crying, which makes the emotions so authentic. The actors were all subdued in their acting, which makes the performances so realistic. You can feel that the intentions of the film were only modest, but the sincerity is very palpable, and that is what makes the film connect so well with its audiences. 9/10.