MOVIE REVIEW: 12 LOTUS


What if your favorite song from your childhood would be the exact story of your life? Would you even recognize it as you were singing it? Would you even want to admit it? Welcome to 12 Lotus.

HEAVY SPOILER ALERT REVIEW.

I really had no idea what I was going to watch when I sat down to see this film. The only 2 bits of information were the Pusan International Film Festival short description and a very bad review on IMDB. (The IMDB review stated that half of the screening audience in Japan, walked out of the film) I can honestly say that no one walked out on the 12 Lotus showing at the PIFF.

We are introduced to a little girl by the name of Lian Hua. Her main goal in life is to one day become a Getai singer and to sing her favorite song "12 Lotus" before the Getai crowd in Singapore. Her father, who is a widower, has told her over and over again that, The can be no love without pain and that their can be no pain without love. This message sets up the rest of the film.

One is never sure what you are seeing when you see this film. Are you watching a musical with all of the musical numbers that were in this film? Are you watching a bad tale of love=pain as her father had told her? Or are you watching a sad music video with her life going exactly as the song has foretold? The PIFF crowd seemed to believe that it was all 3 and they enjoyed the film for it.

When you see the real lie of the film and how our lotus never recovers from it. It just makes you that much sadder when the final note is shown upon her life and the movie. i kept looking for "Welcome to my Nightmare" by Alice Cooper to play in this film because one the lie happens you slowly see the slide into insanity and the lotus is never the same.

END SPOILER ALERT.

The film is shot to make her life into a long musical video and also a look into madness. Please go see the film for a true look at both.

Grade A.