Movie of the Week

5 Senses
5 characters, each, representing 5 senses. 5 senses, each, revealing the story behind these 5 characters.

I love this film because with the introduction of every new character, you start to guess which of the 5 senses he or she represents, like a detective. You pay attention to their body language: a far cry from spectacular visual effects and DVD-quality sound effects which has become the focus of film experience these days. It is not a film for those pampered by CGI or bullet-quick bitching dialogues. Yet, for those who watch art films, you will find the pace of this movie surprisingly, and pleasantly, quicker than the really artsy ones.

I think the film paid attention to the use of personal and social distance to tell the story. If you people-watch in public places, such as the subway, you can tell how close two people are by how close they stand apart from one another. If two persons are less than half a meter away from one another, they would be intimate, even if the persons are two guys. In this film, the camera captures the characters from more than a meter away most of the time, and in some scenes, captures the characters in motion from at least 3 meters away. The audience is never meant to become personally attached to each of the characters but maintain a overall picture in their head about what each character represents in terms of the 5 senses.

Therefore, for those who prefer your film to be anchored in a single characater that will drive the plot through, this film will leave you impatient. Dialogues are hardly brilliant. The emphasis of this film is in the mood and feeling of the characters. I admit these emotions hadn't been always been clearly conveyed, making me wanting a little more coherence in the story telling. This film is in its bones a film of the mood.



The rest of this article is only useful to those who would not watch the film and those who had already gotten to enjoy this film. For if you do want to watch, you won’t like the spoilers here.

HEAR: What would you most want to hear before going deaf? In the movie, the eye doctor chose the churning sound of crashing sea waves, the drumming beat of the railway track and the rhythmic pulse of a person’s heartbeat. All of which are daily ‘noises’ which goes unappreciated.

If you are going deaf, will you become so obsessed with listening that you forget how to live life? The eye doctor was utterly obsessed until, a woman whom he sleeps with reminds him that he still can ‘listen’ with other senses despite losing hearing. Through the lost of hearing among the 5 senses, the film reminds you not to lose sight of what is important in life. It seems hearing was not meant to listen for things. It was meant for listening to relationships.

SMELL: A bisexual man whose house-keeping occupation demands him to remove odor from homes is actively searching for a scent of love. To use smell to find the right guy or girl is a direct violation of the intellectual rules which he uses to eliminate those whom are not eligible to date. Intellectually, he would advise us not to date a person who is too good-looking or is attached already. Yet, he found his scent of love in the most unlikely circumstances: from one of his client, who is such a cute man and, who is also married to a woman.

He accepted the scent of love over his intellectual rules for love. Can you make that leap of faith too?

TOUCH: I am keeping this entry, and the next three, short. I would not want to give too much of the film away. What I can say is this: Touch is a powerful tool for physical healing in the hands of a masseur but it can be a powerful tool for healing of the heart in the hands of a family member bearing an emotional grudge for the longest time.

SIGHT: It is amazing how this character in the movie can ‘see’ who you are inside when it isn’t apparent at all on your outside. A memorable dialogue from this story: People can have sex with people they don’t necessary like, sometimes they just want sex; you can tell by where they put their eyes when they are having sex.


TASTE: This story involves the prettiest girl and the cutest guy in the film. Their story is the most important to me because of the way it ended. So many of us are afraid to taste the reality of life. If there was a baker who never tastes her cake, what do you think would make her face the truth about her cakes and taste it?

So rent ‘5 Senses’, though not exactly a steal, just watch it.

I studied film when I was in university. I have a mild addiction to journalize about films and sometimes itch for job opportunities to research and/or write about film, I am blatantly telling you to interview me for the job…now. Freelancing is not an issue. Is anyone keen?