A Land Imagined: the starting point and main plotline of Yeo Siew Hua’s neo-noir of sorts is an intriguing and promising one, and update and relocation of many solid stories before it. However, as it distances itself from the starting point and tries new things, it gets more confusing and less enticing. Nevertheless, the film touches on a few thorny issues, which deserve to be portrayed. Peter Yu is a fine choice as the old-dog detective type, and he plays it effectively. Liu Xiaoyi is OK as the victim, and Luna Kwok is appealing as the femme fatale of the story. Cinematographer Urata Hideho captures the colors of Singapore at nighttime nicely, even if the camerawork itself is very low-key and simple. The rarely seen margins of the city-state are certainly eye-opening for a very different set of reasons.