A Yellow Bird (2016) Reviews

• Seeking Redemption In the Midst of Confusion and Harsh Reality

  samuelding852016-12-08

  Singapore short film director K Rajagopal's debut full length feature, A Yellow Bird, opens with a big bang in Singapore, since it was one of the two movies to premier in Cannes Film Festival 2016 (the other being Boo Junfeng's Apprentice). Combining his personal experiences and based on actual news, the movie looks into an ex-convict journey to seek redemption while struggling with reality upon release. Siva (played by Singaporean actor Sivakumar Palakrishnan) was released from eight years of imprisonment due to smuggling contraband goods. Unable to find his wife and daughter who have not seen him during his imprisonment, Siva was struggling to get a stable job while living with his mother (Seema Biswas, as seen in Shehkar Kapur's Bandit Queen). While working as a musician in a Chinese funeral company, he met Chen Chen (China actress Huang Lu), an over-stayer who takes up various odd jobs so as to repay debts back in China. Siva's hot temper not only almost got him into trouble with the law again, but also puts a strain on his relationship with his mother. While working as a odd-job worker, Siva develops affection with Chen Chen, who works as a prostitute in a illegal brothel den at a bush. Hoping to help Chen Chen, Siva was in crossroads between seeking help from his estranged mother and getting money through illegal means. By no means A Yellow Bird is a sugar-coated version of Victor Hugo's Les Miserable set in modern day Singapore. More rather, it is a view of an individual living in the underbelly of the developed society. To help the audience digest the movie, K Rajagopal and Jeremy Chua (producer) co- wrote the script and presents it in three parts: -The first part looks into Siva seeking for his wife upon his release from the prison and his strain relationship with his mother, who works as a cleaner and rents out the only bedroom in the government apartment to several China workers for survival. Through the different peoples he met, it helps to lay down the development on Siva seeking his wife, with his fury temper getting himself close to bar again. -The second part looks into Siva spending his time with Chen Chen earning a living through illegal ways. This is a unique development in the story, where both communicated through body languages, since Siva doesn't speaks Mandarin and Chen Chen doesn't speaks English. -The last part deals with Siva being mistaken as a rioter and escapes from the police, while trying to find his wife and daughter. This is more of a presentation on how Siva resorting to his old ways after being driven to the corner of the law. Siva's experience is just one of the ex-convict story, which represents a fraction of ex-convicts who are unable to readjust themselves back to the society upon release. Not only do they undergo an emotional torrent, their love ones are trying to find ways to readjust their lifestyle upon his release. From the jobs Siva take up for survival, not only do we see how an ex-convict were unable to secure a full time job, but also how he was ostracized for being an ex-convict. His lack of understanding on the protocols the civil servants has to adhere when asking for his wife's contact detail not only almost got him into trouble, but also makes him heading to seek his wife aimlessly. Sivakumar's performance as Siva not only brought the audience the harsh reality, but also makes you empathized with his loss and seeking for redemption. The encounter of Sivakumar's Siva and Huang Lu's Chen Chen is a unique combination of two people living in the underbelly of the society. Chen Chen was taking a risk of being an over-stayer when she is unable to earn enough money to repay debts. Right from the beginning where she quarrel with a funeral service supervisor after she was underpaid to working as a prostitute in a illegal brothel den, Chen Chen's encounter was a reflection of the other kind: illegal immigrants seeking for survival in Singapore. For Indian actress Seema Biswas, playing Siva's mother is a great challenge. As mentioned by K Rajagopal, Seema Biswas takes up the challenge through blending in the lives of commoners in Singapore. Through observation, speaking with the common folks to making her own sari she wore in the movie, Seema Biswas has not only successfully plays a commoner from Singapore, but has also develops a character that serves as a big contrast to Siva's character in the movie. A Yellow Bird is not your usual feel-good Singaporean movie that looks into how ex-convicts are able to restart their lives all over again upon their release. More rather, it takes the reality into your face value. At the same time, it looks into the struggle of people who are unable to make ends meet, and resorting to desperate means to meet their basic needs. This is a movie that should be watched by anyone who wants a deeper view of the reality in the developed society.

• A side of Singapore no many people know exist

  ringochen2017-05-12

  Director of the movie have obviously gone to great length researching into a small but important part of Singapore underground society. The entire story evolve around mostly people who have fallen through the cracks in one of the richest and modern city in the world. There are many scenes in the movie which are spoken in different ethnic dialects which many might missed. Perhaps there is a tad too much mainland Chinese characters in this Singapore based movie. This is a honest movie which focus on people whom many doesn't know they still exist. I must watch for Singaporeans and foreigners who wish to dig deeper into Singapore society and back alley

• Unremittingly bleak; could have been better

  lukechong2018-11-18

  The script needs serious work and although an Arri Alexa was used, this could well be shot on a DSLR. The plot is so tenuous that it's almost non-existent. Everything that can be said in the story could be done in 30 minutes, and better. The rest, like one reviewer has said, is all filler. Siva, an Indian man, was thrown in jail for smuggling contraband goods. He gets out of the jail and cannot find a proper job. He tries to locate his wife and daughter, while striking up the most unlikely relationship with a Mainland Chinese who later works as a forest hooker. Karagoal's vision is unremittingly bleak. Much of the dialogue in this film are swearing, cursing and expletives. Sivakumar Palakrishnan and Huang Lu do their human best to fill the roles with believable gestures, but they cannot do much to the underdeveloped characters. Some backstory would have benefited them, and certain details need to be ironed out. If all Chen Chen wants is to earn money, why can't she do the same in China? The ending is highly unsatisfactory--the director simply seems to have run out of things to say.

• What a snoozefest...

  paul_haakonsen2018-08-23

  I stumbled upon "A Yellow Bird" in the Asian section of available movies on Netflix. And not having heard about it, it did catch my attention right away. I read the synopsis and just had to watch the movie, because the synopsis sounded like this could very well be a great drama. But oh boy was I wrong. So very, very wrong. This was an amazingly long snoozefest, bordering on being downright torture. I suppose that it was an indie movie in every sense of the words, but are you kidding me this was boring. There was nothing much of any worth happening throughout most of the movie. Most of the scenes were endless scenes where the characters just milled about and doing nothing productive or crucial to the storyline. It felt like 90% of the entire movie was just filling put in there to make the suffering longer. I will say that the cast actually did good jobs with their roles, and they portrayed their characters very realistic and definitely brought a very real-life quality to the movie. But that did very little to alleviate on the boredom and pointlessness that permeated throughout the entire movie. I managed to stick with the entire 2 hours that the movie ran for, though it felt like a day. And I am not kidding you when all important scenes in the movie could have been amassed up to about a good 30 minutes. The rest was just pointless filling. This is not a movie that supports multiple viewings.