Eating Air

Another valiant attempt to kickstart Singaporean film culture, focused (like Eric Khoo's films) on characters who aren't exactly model citizens of the nanny state. This lot smoke, get drunk, wear tattoos, trade in pirated pornoVCDs, drive dangerously on motorbikes and, in one case, fantasise about slaughtering parents. Amid the flow of juvenile delinquent pranks, a shy girl stuck in a boring shopping mall job makes friends with a boy who rides a second-hand 125cc - simply because she likes racing through the night on his pillion. Both the performances and the direction have a rough and ready charm. It's a gusty, physical movie, in no way as constipated as the city it describes. And it's cut to a quite tasty alt-rock beat.