23:59

To the Western audience this may seem strange or slow or lacking in the frights. It certainly isn't big budget at all. However the basic storyline is good. I think it suffers a bit in translation culturally but on the whole it is a really good effort for a very low budget. The concept was superb and if more money had v-been utilised I think it would have improved the outcome. I don't mean doing the big Hollywood thing either as that gets done to the point where many films are just ridiculous.

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 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.

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.

It's not bad, but it's far from good, but as I love the curse/haunting horror theme, and alternative films, very pleasant to watch a Singaporean film, some small flaws, made for less demanding cinephiles to trash horror lovers, I liked it ....