SYNOPSIS (IMdb)
Follows Jia Hao, a drag queen, who returns home to care for his mother with dementia, leading to healing and self-discovery through deception.
REVIEW
In one of the film masterclass talk recently, the invited guess (a renowned film critique fr the US) asked the floor and participants (who were mostly Malaysian) the question - what do we need in the local film industry.
The first guy hold up his hand and answered - “No film about LGBT, in fear of influencing the young generation.” Yet an upcoming local film we have the title semantically sanctifies ‘rempits’ by connecting them to ‘malaikat’ (angels).
Talking about ‘influencing’ eh.
Anyways. Relevant to this film (A Good Child), the main character is a drag queen, played brilliantly by the Singaporean actor Richie Koh. The subject of dementia is actually just a ‘red herring’ for his character to walk his ‘Hero’s Journey’ arc. As Joseph Campbell label it as ‘The Call To Adventure’ for self discovery.
I think the writer/director Kuo-Sin Ong is aware about this. And this is actually an adaptation of a story of a real person. The opening scene is of the hero performing an act on a stage, which is also where the film ends.
Which fits the poetry of that infamous Shakespeare quote, “All the world’s a stage.”
Wait for the question he asked the floor at the end (and the audience too!) The scene of him unmasking his make-ups in the ending credits and beautifully completes his character arc.
Underneath that playful drag queen mask lies a Jungian anima/animus, strong masculinity trope. Never judge a person by their covers.
The guy earlier mentioned who wanted no LGBT content in flims would be missing the whole point entirely.
Currently showing on Netflix.