Ilo Ilo

Plot

Set in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Ilo Ilo chronicles the Lim family as they adjust to their newly arrived Filipina domestic helper, Teresa, (Angeli Bayani) who has come, like many other Filipinas, in search of a better life. The father, Teck, (Chen Tianwen) works in sales for a glass company; the pregnant mother, Hwee Leng, (Yeo Yann Yann) works as a secretary for a shipping company that is down sizing; and the ten-year-old son, Jiale, (Koh Jia Ler) is a troubled delinquent.

At first, Jia Le and Teresa (known as 'Terry') exhibit a troubled relationship, when during a trip to the bookstore Jia Le places some unpaid merchandise in the maid's shopping bag causing her to be accused of theft. After being scolded by Terry, tensions rise, causing Jia Le to climb over the school fence at dismissal just to avoid his maid. He runs home and locks her out.

When the father loses his sales job, he conceals it from his wife, secretly smoking on the steps outside their apartment. After some time, unable to find work in a career position, he accepts a temporary job as a security guard monitoring an egg farm. As he continues to lose money in the stock market, in a moment of depression, he acknowledges their losses to his wife who lambasts him over his failure. As the family finances begin to descend deeper, familial tensions grow as Jiale continues to act out against his family and Terry. Upon the death of a neighbour who jumps from the roof of their apartment building, Jiale and Terry begin to kindle a relationship.

While the mother is desperate to stay employed as she continues to script termination letters at her job, Terry and Jiale become fast friends sparking the mother's jealousy as their relationship develops. Desperate at home, and emotionally neglected by her son, Hwee Leng attends a motivational seminar where she is moved by the optimistic words of the speaker and immediately purchases his full catalogue of motivational books and CDs. During a lunch break at work, she attempts to call the speaker using a phone number included on the seminar's flyer, and discovers the line has been disconnected and rerouted. Later that night while watching television, she learns that the motivational speaker has been arrested for fraud causing Hwee Lang to break down in the presence of her confused husband as more money is lost.

Although Jiale is a poor student and is constantly in trouble, he shows high intellect and cunning in his obsessive calculation of past winning lottery numbers, which he catalogues in his schoolbook during class. One day, after being taunted by another boy that his maid only loves him because she is paid to, he pushes the boy into the bathroom wall causing him to split his head and bleed. Threatened with expulsion, and the school's administration unable to contact his parents, Terry arrives to plead for mercy on his behalf. After some resistance, the principal appears moved as Hwee Leng arrives angrily dispatching Terry and berating Jiale. As Hwee Leng and Jiale leave the administration office, Hwee Leng aggressively reminds Terry that she is Jiale's mother before snatching Jiale and walking away. Given a punishment of public caning rather than expulsion, Terry arrives to the school auditorium, powerless, as she watches Jiale being whipped in front of the student body.

After the family car is sold for scrap, the family acknowledges they can no longer afford to keep Terry employed as Jia Le's father has been recently fired from his job due to an accident tripping over eggs while attempting to find a suspected intruder. Desperate to keep Terry, Jia Le uses his savings to purchase lottery tickets but loses. He becomes tearfully despondent, cutting a lock of Terry's hair during a tense goodbye before she is sent home.

Holding on to his cassette player, Jiale listens to music with his father on a bench in the hospital as Hwee Leng gives birth to a baby girl.

Cast

Production

Partially funded by Ngee Ann Polytechnic and the Singapore Film Commission, the film's budget is estimated to be around S$700,000.

Reception

Ilo Ilo received a 100% rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Ilo Ilo received positive reviews at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was later awarded the Camera d'Or award, an award which recognizes the best debut feature film in the competition. It received six nominations at the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards., and won 4, namely Best Film, Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Yeo Yann Yann.

Film

Individual