By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Edmund Yeo
Starring: Andy Darrel Gomves | Li Xuan Siow | Liu Tzu-Chuan | Stanley Yau | Vivian Sung
Year: 2026
Running time: 142
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35486511/
Val says: “THE AGE OF GOODBYES is a film full of quiet longing, with twists and turns that intrigue rather than shock. A story of overlapping pasts, presents and futures with lush costumes and beautiful production design. The setting of Ipoh, a small town in Malaysia, stuns onscreen with its caverns providing the setting for some of its more poignant scenes. The set is used to great advantage here, as the characters experience their moments of freedom and revelation in the caves, letting the caverns provide covering and openness rather than trapping and confining. Having just finished the book, it was hard for me to do without the more blurred lines and magic feeling that the novel by Li Zi Shu provided. It was more playful and tongue-in-cheek about its breaking of the fourth wall than Yeo’s adaptation, which follows the story more closely and chooses other avenues to bring in elements of magical realism. Still a successful, fully realized story and a joy to watch. Vivian Sung (Du Li An) and Li Xuan Siow (Lu Lian) play their complex mother and daughter relationship brilliantly. Siow is a relatively new Malaysian actress and she brings a quiet complexity to the role that mesmerizes onscreen. Sung disappears into Du Li An. I did feel like I was missing some of the more ‘unlikeable’ aspects of the character that are so prevalent in the book, and Sung’s Du Li An strides the line on the more traditional side of the heroin. It’s a visual feast, and a poignant watch. I wish I had watched the film before reading the book though! 4 cats.”