The Odyssey

Single-gender schools allow few chances for campus romance. Will inter-school activities provide the right opportunity? Ryan is both eager and afraid of mingling with the opposite sex after studying in an all-boys school for years. One day his friend Jayden makes him join a mixed choir formed with an all-girls school. There, he meets the enthusiastic singer Carol. Unexpectedly, Cupid’s arrow carries more than love itself. Ryan will also have to face life lessons such as a test of friendship and the unfairness of the school system. The film’s manga-like style and humourous scenes establish perfect comic timing. The innocence and ignorance of youth come alive while the ending suddenly turns into an anti-climax that reveals the bitterness of growing up amidst shattered ideals.

People may say the wedding vow of having and holding each other “in sickness and in health”, but commitment is often tested. Emma takes her husband Ivan who is suffering from brain disorder to a distant beachside. Under the facade of camping, she contemplates something sinister, but is overwhelmed by memories of the husband before the illness kicked in, the sanctity of life, and the merits of mercy killing. Torn by emotions, she doubts her own intention.

For Ki, the long-suffering wife, things are falling apart—her remorseless husband wishes to walk out on her and her son. Unable to cope, her uncommunicative son chooses to tune out of his parent’s arguments. Ki feebly refuses divorce to keep the family intact, but her husband is already eagerly anticipating a new marriage with a baby coming on the way. Ki has her searing anger building up behind the façade of normalcy. On the verge of a breakdown with pleading fallen on deaf ears, she takes matters into her own hands.

There are two kinds of loneliness: The sense of isolation in society which people experience from time to time, and the loneliness in searching for the meaning of life. A young man and an old man suffer the same pangs of emotions not uncommon in the city. They live across the corridor as neighbours but remain strangers, facing the absurdity of life with no means to escape. The vibrant city continues day and night, fuelled by the nameless people living within.