Perth

Ex-army commando Harry Lee (Kay Tong Lim), who dreams of emigrating to Australia, takes a lucrative job ferrying prostitutes to clients in seedy parts of Singapore until his attraction to a Vietnamese hooker named Mai (Ivy Cheng) turns obsessive, resulting in tragedy. Clearly inspired by Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver—in fact, parts of it seem almost identical—Perth nevertheless establishes its own identity with its harsh depiction of Singapore's sordid underbelly. A fair amount of time is spent with the characters in coffee shops, but once we see the areas where Harry brings his passengers it's easy to understand why he wants to escape this soul-deadening milieu and migrate to Western Australia, which he views as some kind of paradise. Director Djinn Ong has turned out a gritty, uncompromising film that—like Scorsese's classic—also culminates in a bloody, downbeat finale. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one with director Djinn; the other with lead actor Lim Kay Tong), an 11-minute set design featurette, six minutes of deleted scenes with commentary by Tong (6 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a solid film.] (E. Hulse)