Ilo Ilo (Anthony Chen, 2013) | Singapore

To be honest, I walked into this film not expecting much. I didn’t understand the name or what it meant and was equally confused about what it was about. To say that the film surprised me would be an understatement. It was a beautiful tale of a hardworking peasant women who traveled from her homeland to China to work as a housemaid for a Chinese family. In the beginning the family treated her harshly and like she was beneath them. The young kid was a trouble maker and loved to get the maid into trouble for no reason. The mother in the film treated the maid as something less than human, like she was beneath her just because of their difference in social and economic status. It was honestly heartbreaking to watch a fellow human being being treated that way. But as the film went along you begin to see the maid get closer to the family, much to the chagrin of the mother. The maid, in particular gets very close to the troubled young son of the couple she worked for. The boy begins to stop making trouble and instead even helps the maid at times when she needed it. It almost reminded me of the film “Mary Poppins” in that regard.

As the story progressed I began to realize that at the heart of this story it was all about love, respect, and and the relationships we make with other human beings. We all get so caught up in what profession that person is that we forget that that is only one aspect of a person. There is much more to a person than their occupation or social status. As the film goes along you really see the respect and love the begins to grow between the maid and the son. It made me think about how I treat people on a normal every day basis. Just because someone is your waitress or your maid, that doesn’t mean that that is all they are. That is just one piece of the puzzle that makes up who they are as human beings. Just like ourselves they want and need to feel loved and respected.

One thing about the film in particular that struck me was the amazing use of music to convert emotion in a scene. One scene that comes to mind is during the funeral scene, the music just made you feel empathetic for the maid and really brought home the message that the maids life is in total turmoil. She doesn’t have a real home, she left behind her child and family to come work for people that don’t even treat her with an ounce of respect. Another aspect of the film that I particularly noticed was the beautiful use of lighting in certain scenes. A great example of this is a suicide scene where the lights just went very bright and it really effected you emotionally.

In conclusion, this is a beautifully made film that takes you on an emotional roller coaster and doesn’t let go of you until the very end.