At 51 part time security guard and taxi driver Harry Lee, does not look back on his life and consider it a success. Having spent time in Singapore's army and as a Merchant seaman, Harry believes he has seen much of what life has to offer, but now he only really wants one thing. To emigrate to the Australian city of Perth and start a new life away from the crowds of the Island state. How ever as his wife has long since gambled away his saving and with security work drying up as complicated computerised security systems replace manpower Harry needs to find a way to make a bit of extra cash. Harry younger friend the volatile Angry Boy Lee suggests that Harry and his close friend Selvam join him working for a gang that controls prostitutes; he says its easy work requiring only that they drive the girls around to meet high class clients.

Haunted by his past and unable to get on with life in the present Harry can only hope emigration will offer him more, so he builds up Perth into a near "dream City" which will finally offer him the life he desires. Meanwhile he drinks more and more heavily beats his wife and his son "a modern man" wants nothing to do with his "salt of the earth father". One of the prostitutes he drives is a young woman recently arrived from Vietnam with the classic intent of immigrant prostitutes worldwide that she will earn enough from the grim trade to support her family back home. Harry begins to fixate on the girl hoping to save her from herself maybe in a way to prove that he can still do something, that somehow if he can "free" her he still matters and maybe can find redemption for a past failure.

Perth is a character study which looks at feeling of impotence within society. Harry Lee is a man out of his time, no longer relevant to a modern world where a mans typing speed is of more value than his physical strength. He longs really for a time when "men where men" and often talks of himself as a simple man looking for a simple life. How ever in a city as densely populated as Singapore simplicity is not really the thing, life moves at a breakneck pace and the likes of Harry are quickly left behind outdated dinosaurs in a world that no longer values them. Though there is much here that is unique to Singapore in terms of the ethnic make-up of the characters the hybrid English dialogue. At the heart of the tale is a story and themes that are relevant to areas all over the world as human life and society progress many find themselves irrelevant atavisms.

Billed as Singapore's most violent film and released both in the US and UK via Tartan's "Asia Extreme" imprint, Perth is a film that owes much to Martin Scorsese's 70's classic Taxi Driver though is more homage than any kind of attempt at a re-make. The film is directed by a fellow who goes by the name of "Djinn" which I guess is meant to be enigmatic, who previously directed a horror film called Return to Pontianak. The cast is mainly unknowns (at least to me, maybe they come from a TV background in Singapore), but they all do a reasonable job, though some of the acting and the dialogue does not feel natural. The film does have a brutal undertone, but I don't think anyone should get carried away by the "Extreme" and "most violent ever" tags. The violence itself is often filmed in a way that it makes the blows look very obviously fake which breaks any real belief in the physical brutality. That said veteran actor Kay Tong Lim (Shanghai Surprise) does a good job of carrying the film with his performance as Harry Lee. He definitely plays a drunk well as his turning scene in which he drinks on his own is funny and creepy.

If your the kind of person who thinks about themes thrown up by a movie after it finishes, you will get more out of this than someone whose been sold on it by the "Singapore's answer to taxi driver" and "Singaporess most violent film" quotes on the DVD Cover. Perth falls into the realms of "good" not "great", but it's certainly an interesting movie that I feel is worth watching.