Review of Be with Me (2005) by Jeremy Y — 13 Jun 2007

Basically "Be With Me" is a film about hope and love with made up of 3 stories. Fraternity Love of the elderly, difference in social class in relation to love of the middle aged and teenager's disoriented puppy love.

Unlike Eric Khoo's previous work, 12 storeys (multiple stories which parallels one another and yet has no connection), all 3 stories in "Be with me" are connected with story of Theresa Chan as the center of the film.

Theresa Chan is a single singaporean woman who became blind and deaf at the age of 14. Despite that her world is filled with Silence and Darkness, her strong faith in god, zealous character and interests in people make her an inspiration to all mankind.

Be with me can be considered as Theresa autobiography as the film showcased her unpublished self written autobiography. On top of that, we are able to see this physically handicapped woman performing daily task like any of us and even better.

Eric Khoo brilliantly made used of her autobiography to link all three stories together. The title "Be with me" actually questions us how exactly we are able to be with these characters, especially Theresa, and also functions as the yearnings or calling out of these characters when they are in pain.

Use of silence has always been Eric Khoo's signature style, this time we can find plenty of them in Be With Me. However the use of silence is very much different as compare to 12 storeys (For those who haven't watch 12 storeys or have no idea what it is about, you can check it out here).

Silence in Be with me has much more underlying msg and depth than just amplifying pain. Do take note of them when u watch this wonderful master piece. In summary, one can only describe be with me as a beautiful film that describes the melancholy love of the minorities in the society and yet reflecting hope in love and life.

Must see for Singaporean.