(Singapore) Directed by Ho Tzu Nyen. Stars John Low, Jo Tan, Hemang Yadav and Andy Hillyard. Continuing.

A simple film defined by its lofty aims and ideals, Here can be a trying experience for most of it 86 minutes. The plot is slow to unfold, the languid cinematography is off-putting and the story arc is, well, diffused—to say the least.

Director Ho Tzu Nyen’s debut feature was screened at the Directors’ Fortnight segment at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and although this film might sit well with a select crowd, when it comes to the real business of appealing to the public it will, in all likelihood, be met with a lukewarm response at best.

Here revolves around a middle-aged man, He Zhiyuan (John Low), who upon discovering his murdered wife, loses the will to speak and is interned at Island Hospital, a mental institution. He then becomes one of the many patient-subjects of a film crew who is sent to Island Hospital to document the lives of its patients.

Here’s where the film splits into two; one where the film crew goes round interviewing the hospital staff in a series of talking heads shots about the trials and travails of mental illness (including depictions of the hospital’s new-agey cure of using a particular kind of video therapy), alongside interviews of the patients themselves; the other storyline is of He and his life within. Along the way, the film’s lead also forms a bond with Beatrice (Jo Tan), a kleptomaniac dealing with her own demons.

 The lines of reality and fiction are blurred here and give the film a random, disjointed feel. The patients talk about other patients, are seen undergoing therapy and become involved in the story of He and Beatrice. The result is, indeed, a very many-island narrative, all seeming to flow in isolation to one another. If the aim of the director is to disorient his audience to reflect the mental patients’ mind-state, he has succeeded. Shooting the film in a disused loony bin lends it a credible sense of gritty realism, as does its use of a mostly amateur cast (Aware president Dana Lam makes an interesting cameo too; did the Saga drive her nuts?). But overall, Here does not shed new light on the hardships of mental patients and the beast that is insanity.—2 stars by Ramesh William