''Unlucky Plaza'' is a 2014 Singaporean

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

film written and directed by Ken Kwek. It stars

Epy Quizon Jeffrey Smith Quizon (born January 23, 1973), professionally known as Epy Quizon, is a Filipino actor, television host and the son of comedian Dolphy. He is known as the antagonist, role as Jepoy / Stryker in the 2003 film ''Lastikman''. Earl ...

as a

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

immigrant to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

who takes hostages after falling for a scam. It premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

and was released in Singapore on 16 April 2015. The story is told in a series of flashbacks from the point of view of a talk show that has reunited the captor and his former hostages.

Premise

Filipino immigrant Onassis Hernandez mistreats his restaurant workers, causing a disgruntled cook to sabotage an inspection by the Singaporean health department. After Hernandez subsequently falls for a popular rental scam that targets immigrants, he takes several Singaporeans hostage and broadcasts his demands for social change on

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Cast

as Onassis Hernandez *

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as Sky * Judee Tan as Michelle Chan * Shane Mardjuki as Pastor Tong Wen * Guo Liang as Baby Bear * Christian Wong as Popoy * Andrew Lua as Ping * Osman Sulaiman as Inspector Asman * Janice Koh as Cindy *

Pam Oei Pamela Oei (born 26 January 1972) is a Singaporean actress. Oei is a theatre actress. Background Oei is part of the cabaret trio Dim Sum Dollies. She is also a certified Allen Carr therapist. Film roles Oei played the part of Peggy in the 1 ...

as Mrs. Heng *

Anita Kapoor Anita Kapoor is a television presenter in Singapore. She was born in Mumbai, India but has been living in Singapore since 1978. Career Anita has hosted shows on Discovery, TLC, Channel NewsAsia, okto and AXN AXN is a pay television channel ...

as herself

Production

The film was based on reports of rental scams that were popular on immigrants.

Release

''Unlucky Plaza'' premiered at the 2014

on 4 September 2014. Its Singaporean premiere was at the

Singapore International Film Festival The Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) (Chinese: 新加坡国际电影节) is the longest-running film festival in Singapore. Founded in 1987, the festival has a focus on showcasing international films and providing a global platform for ...

on 4 December 2014.

Shaw Organisation Shaw Organisation is a film distribution company and cinema chain founded by brothers Runme Shaw and Run Run Shaw who went to Singapore in the 1920s to expand their family business founded by Runje Shaw. The company originally operated as a dis ...

released it in Singapore on 16 April 2015, and it grossed US$46,331. Cinemaflix Entertainment released it in the US in January 2016. & finally released in the Philippines co-produced by VIVA Films in April 2016.

Reception

Collecting four American reviews,

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, a

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, rated it 38/100. Stephanie Luo of AsiaOne rated it 3.5/5 stars and wrote that it "highlights real issues in Singapore society well", though it has several unrealistic scenes. Iliyas Ong of '' Time Out Singapore'' rated it 2/5 stars and wrote the film's social satire, "As belaboured and on-the-nose as Kwek's point is, it's also terrifyingly real." Clarence Tsui of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote, "Sentimentality and small-screen aesthetics turn social critique into soap opera." Nicolas Rapold of ''

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'' wrote that the talk show framing device "destroys the suspense and seals a sense of the movie as both slick and amateurish". Martin Tsai of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' wrote, "Writer-director Ken Kwek means for the proceedings to be farcical, but seldom are they actually funny." Simon Abrams of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' wrote, "Kwek's refreshing focus on his terrorized protagonists' pre-abduction lives keeps Unlucky Plaza afloat once it invests in generic ticking-clock thrills."

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, unlucky_plaza 2014 films 2010s crime comedy films 2014 crime thriller films Singaporean black comedy films 2010s English-language films 2014 black comedy films Films about kidnapping Films set in Singapore Films about hostage takings Singaporean crime comedy films