12 Lotus

After a very impressive 881, I expected more from Royston Tan's 12 Lotus.

In 12 Lotus, they have some of the same cast as 881, this time round Qi Yu Wu has a more involved role than his last. It's another musical (Getai singing) film, but I really prefer the previous film which has already set a much higher standard. The lipsync was quite bad too... due to the songs being sang in dialects. Some great songs though.

The show depicts the life of a girl, Lian Hua (Lotus in English), and I reckon 12 refers to the 12 chapters of her life which she sang in the film. From young, Lian Hua hoped to sing and perform on the stage (Getai - please refer to my previous 881 post if you're not sure of the Chinese cultures). Her dad was a compulsive gambler, and every bit of her earnings unfortunately was feeding his bad habit. Till the day, he actually gambled her daughter's life away by signing a paper that has then changed her daughter's destiny. Selfish bastard. On his death bed, he gave Lian Hua a last word of advice but unfortunately he himself was the cause of her misfortune. Her daughter fell in love with another fellow Getai singer who secretly manipulated her and plotted her sexual assualt with his "friends". All these because of one thing, money. Evil. Money is the evil of all sins.

Anyway, the whole story is tragic, it didn't touch me like 881 did. But instead it reminded me of my childhood where money was everything... and sometimes it still is. I hate it when anyone argues over the sake of money... So keep your mouth shut or stop complaining about money if you do not want me to shut you up.

My verdict: 3/5