Months after staging its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and opening the Singapore Film Festival, Ken Kwek’s Unlucky Plaza is finally having a regular cinema run this week.
The film has a cast of excellent actors that includes Adrian Pang, Judee Tan, Shane Mardjuki, Liang Guo, Janice Koh and Liang Guo — and they are joined by a brilliant actor from the Philippines named Epy Quizon.
Quizon plays Onassis Hernandez, a down-on-his luck permanent resident who owns a failing Filipino restaurant at Lucky Plaza. He turns into a hostage-taker after being swindled of his last $10,000 by Michelle Chan (Tan), wife of motivational speaker Terence Chia (Pang) who inspite — or precisely because of — his flashy lifestyle is being hunted down by a Chinese syndicate for money he owes them from gambling.
Despite a slow start and confusing timelines, the movie manages to take a compliant audience to a highly entertaining and comical hostage scene. The movie starts and ends with the hostage-taker and his victims being interviewed by TV host Anita Kapoor (who plays herself), and is a wry observation on how criminals acts can sometimes be a stepping stone for something bigger, like fame and celebrity.
A welcome treat for design aficionados: the hostages scene was shot in one of Singapore’s most stunning and modern residences, the award-winning Ninety7 @ Siglap, designed by Aamer Architects, a three-storey curved house atop Siglap Hill.
Unlucky Plaza is on Shaw, GV, Cathay, Filmgarde and Eng Wah cinemas from April 16. For updates, check Unlucky Plaza’s Facebook page.
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