''Be with Me'' is a 2005 Singaporean

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Eric Khoo use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , resting_place = , nationality = Singaporean , alma_mater = Uni ...

. The film is inspired by the life of deaf-and-blind teacher

Theresa Poh Lin Chan Chan Poh Lin (9 July 1943 – 6 June 2016), better known as Theresa Poh Lin Chan, was a Singaporean writer and teacher.Holden, Stephen ''The New York Times'', 29 September 2006. Born in Singapore, she was known in her youth as "the Helen Keller of ...

. It

premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

d as the Director's Fortnight selection in the

2005 Cannes Film Festival The 58th Cannes Film Festival started on 11 May and ran until 22 May 2005. Twenty movies from 13 countries were selected to compete. The awards were announced on 21 May. The Palme d'Or went to the Belgium, Belgian film ''L'Enfant (film), L'Enfant ...

. It was also the official entry from Singapore for the 78th Academy Awards in the foreign language category. In December 2005, the academy body disqualified the film on grounds that the dialogue is mainly in English. Out of 93 minutes, the film only has two and a half minutes of dialogue. ''Be with Me'' is the first film in Singapore to explicitly feature a lesbian relationship.

Cast

* Ng Sway Ah as Father * Sanwan Bin Rais as Security Supervisor *

as Herself * John Cheong Puk Fai as Sam's father *

Elizabeth Choy Elizabeth Choy Su-Moi ( née Yong; 29 November 1910 – 14 September 2006) was a Singaporean educator and councillor who is regarded as a war heroine in Singapore. Along with her husband, Choy Khun Heng, she supplied medicine, money and mess ...

as Herself * Leong Kooi Eng as Mother * Lim Poey Huang as Jackie's mother * Seet Keng Yew as Fatty Koh * Shaun Koh as Sam's brother * Ezann Lee as Jackie * Poh Huat Lim as Brother * Sherry Lim as Sam's mother * Toh Cheng Onn as Neighbour * Lynn Poh as Ann * Chiew Sung Ching as Shopkeeper * Jason Tan as Brian * Royston Tan * Samantha Tan as Sam * Maximilan Wong as Neighbour's son * Lawrence Yong as Son * Seet Keng Yew as Security Guard

Release

''Be with Me'' premiered at the Director’s Fortnight selection of the 2005 Festival de Cannes.

Reception

Ong Sor Fern of ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was established ...

'' rated the film 4 stars out of 5 and wrote, "The way Khoo has marshalled his technical skills in the service of more characterisation and story marks a new stage in his development." Geoffrey Eu of '' The Business Times'' gave the film a rating of "B-" and wrote that "Chan's story overwhelms everything else around it and the result is a film that is elegant but uneven in tempo - the soft-edged style is there in abundance, but the movie's progress is perhaps not as smooth as it could be."

References

External links

* * * 2005 films 2000s Cantonese-language films 2000s English-language films Hokkien-language films Singaporean independent films Singaporean LGBT-related films Lesbian-related films 2000s Mandarin-language films 2005 romantic drama films Tactile signing-language films Films directed by Eric Khoo Films about blind people Films about disability {{2000s-romantic-drama-film-stub