”The only love that I really believe in, is a mother’s love for her children.”
- Karl Lagerfeld
It’s about time I started catching up with all the Asian horror in 2023 and that led me to pick out Singapore’s Circle Line; a 1 hour 19 minutes, survival horror-thriller creature feature.
I have been stuck on the London Underground once for maybe 3 minutes and let me tell you was that 3 minutes the longest of my life, staring into the darkness around the train, wondering what was out there, what might happen if we didn’t start moving soon, and then, blissfully, the train whirred on the tracks and that was my nightmare over.
This film is pretty much what my brain created over those 3 minutes and wee woo this is my nightmare.
Can we talk about Jesseca Liu’s acting here? Her character is astounding, and so, so brave and I am in awe watching how she so naturally plays the role of a mother. I don’t know how much the harrowing backstory was needed, but, it definitely served a good role of character development and understanding. The main four characters were remarkable, and I was really rooting for all of them, from the pit of my stomach. The dad as well did amazing in his role and I am just immensely amazed at what the actors managed to do with their script.
There’s something about this that’s just so centric to family and familial beliefs that is just strangely stunning. Maybe it’s the fact I haven’t watched all that many Singaporian films and I’m just new to the themes and formats they use, but it really took my breath away.
This being said, it isn’t the best movie; it’s a creature feature set in 2023 in underground train tunnels. It’s either going to be up your alley or not, as the par with most creature features. But for me? I loved this. I love the feeling of dread and horror, the emotional constipation between familial units, and more. I can see why people did not like the ending, but, I love the ending.
If you watch this with more of a focus on “family within tragedy and disaster”, the film hits a little more, I think. Monster looked hella good (and looking at those rats, we know where the CGI budget went). Acting was pretty good, if not great, and I’m very interested in what J. D. Chua comes out with in the future. Very tense and very good, albeit, weak in some areas and needed a bit of a tidy up. But, that promises more for the director and script writer(s) in the future, in my opinion, and it’s got me excited for future movies.