This has been the year for streaming videos on demand.
With the pandemic causing many people to stay at home, and with social distancing rules shrinking seating capacity, movies have been squeezed out of physical cinemas and into the ones on laptops and computers.
Today, subscription-based services such as Amazon Prime Video, HBO Go and Netflix tempt viewers with original offerings as well as titles obtained from Hollywood and other studios.
But pay-per-view contenders have emerged. In September, Cathay Cineplexes launched its Cathay CineHome video-on-demand service. Cathay's portal joined on-demand services launched this year by other cinema operators and distributors, including Shaw Organisation's Kinolounge and The Projector's Projector Plus.
With popular new Hollywood, Asian and European titles grabbing the lion's share of cinema screens, the streaming portals allow cinemas to keep niche content, such as festival films and older titles, available to viewers for longer.
Here are the top 20 movies to stream.
HBO Go
SHAZAM!
2019, 126 minutes, PG
There is a lot going on in this DC Comics superhero origin story. There is the 13 Going On 30/Freaky Friday body-swop comedy bit because when Billy (Asher Angel) becomes Shazam, the deal comes with an adult male body. The adult version of Billy is played with infectious glee by Zachary Levi and he behaves just as you think a kid would if all his Christmases came at once. Not only can Billy throw lightning bolts from his fingers, the world has to now take him seriously.
ABOMINABLE
2019, 92 minutes, PG
This American-Chinese animated feature, voiced by Chloe Bennet, Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Sarah Paulson and Eddie Izzard, has enough warmth and magic to rival anything from Pixar. No seizure-inducing rapid cuts or rapid-fire pop culture references, just a satisfying, character-driven road movie about plucky kids who run away from home only to discover the true meaning of family.
AQUAMAN
2018, 137 minutes, PG13
This is the superhero origin story re-imagined as a psychedelic fairy tale, an excuse to take science-fiction thriller The Abyss (1989), an Indiana Jones hunt for buried treasure and giant scoops of Lord Of The Rings-style mythology and stuff everything into a blender.
If the result sounds like a mess, that is because it is. But everything is just coherent enough to hang together as a story, and the visuals are spectacular. The scale of things here - the battles between undersea kingdoms and the species of fantastic beasts - beats anything seen in the more character-driven Wonder Woman (2017).
THE HARRY POTTER FRANCHISE
Eight films, 2001 to 2011, PG
Hardcore fans would have by now bought the DVD box sets, but there are many who own the sets and still watch the films about the boy wizard every time they land on cable television. With all eight films available on video-on-demand, a solid weekend of binge-watching is not a bad way to pass the time.
- Subscribe directly through iTunes or Google Play at $13.98/month or $119.98/year.
Download the HBO Go app at App Store or Play Store and get a 7-day free trial. Access HBO Go via StarHub, Singtel and meWatch or at https://www.hbogoasia.com/. HBO Go is now available on Android TV, Apple TV, LG TV and Samsung Smart TV - and comes with AirPlay and Google Cast functionality.
Netflix
28 DAYS LATER
2002, M18, 113 minutes
This was the movie that showed that zombie horror could be deep and emotional, even though director Danny Boyle claims it cannot be classified as a zombie picture. In any event, this seminal work about Jim (Cillian Murphy), a patient who awakens from a coma to find a desolate London, would spawn everything from the series The Walking Dead (2010 to present) to Train To Busan (2016).
ROAD TO PERDITION
2002, NC16, 117 minutes
Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Daniel Craig star as gangsters caught in conflicting loyalties. Director Sam Mendes made this world look as dark and shadowy as the morals of the men involved. Cinematographer Conrad Hall won an Academy Award for his work in this story about Sullivan (Hanks), a mob enforcer who goes on the run after he runs afoul of his boss's son, Connor (Craig).
THE THIN RED LINE (above)
1998, PG, 170 minutes
This winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival was also nominated for seven Academy Awards. This account of a group of soldiers slogging across the Pacific became known for its silky cinematography and poetic way of expressing the thoughts of men thrown into the meat grinder. Celebrated director Terence Malick attracted a cast of heavyweights, including Sean Penn, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson and Jared Leto.
- Netflix subscription plans in Singapore start at $11.98 a month. View on the Netflix app or netflix.com
20 top titles to stream now
Anticipate Pictures
HOUSE OF HUMMINGBIRD
M18, 138 minutes, 2018
South Korean Kim Bora's first feature is a semi-autobiographical look at her childhood, an existence marked by the pain of cram schools and everyday sexism. Eun-hee (Park Ji-hoo, above) is a girl who finds relief from the pressures at home and school when teacher Young-ji (Kim Sae-byuk) begins to take an interest in her as a person rather than as just another student.
THE GUILTY
PG13, 88 minutes, 2018
The audacious gimmick behind this film is that there is only one character, Holm, on screen. Everything that happens outside his space - emergency despatch centre of a Copenhagen district - is heard through his headset, and never seen.
Emergency despatcher Holm (Jakob Cedergren, above) takes a call from a woman who appears to be in distress. As the hours tick by, her situation becomes more desperate, but because he is unable to discover specific details, he can only listen helplessly as she draws closer to being the victim of a grisly crime. This was Denmark's entry to the Best Foreign Language category of the 2019 Oscars.
The Projector Plus
THE INSULT (above)
PG13, 113 minutes, 2017
Nominated for an Oscar in 2017 in the Best Foreign Language Film category, this Lebanese legal drama traces what happens after a Christian mechanic and a Palestinian refugee construction worker get into a fracas. The exchange of words and blows carries the weight of years of racism and political oppression. When the fight is taken to court, the country gets to see its national struggles appear in miniature, embodied in two squabbling men.
THE LAST ARTISAN
PG, 80 minutes, 2018
The Haw Par Villa theme park is a rite of passage for Singaporeans taken there as children and possibly warped for life by its dioramas depicting tortures awaiting sinners in Hell. This documentary by Singapore-based American film-maker and lecturer Craig McTurk chronicles the work of Mr Teo Veoh Seng (above), the person responsible for keeping exhibits fresh and who is under pressure to pass skills on to two trainees from China before he retires. The film premiered at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2018.
THE KINGMAKER
PG13, 101 minutes, 2020
This fascinating documentary is a study of Mrs Imelda Marcos (above), former first lady of the Philippines. She is still active in politics personally and through her son Bongbong (Ferdinand Marcos Jr). The film covers history: her past as a beauty queen from the provinces, her husband's rise to power and her time as first lady in the 1960s to the 1980s, when she sought to make Malacanang Palace, the residence of the President, a centre of culture and glamour. That fantasy of a Kennedy-style Camelot came crashing down when People Power protesters stormed the palace, revealing to cameras the extent of the family's wealth grab.
It also covers her current position as a teller of stories that revise the bloody, corrupt history of the Marcos dynasty. Director Lauren Greenfield, an American, will then cut to an image or interview that tells the opposite story, showing her to be a liar.
- Rent for $10 for a 48-hour rental period. The window begins once you start watching the movie. View at theprojector.sg/themes/now-on-vod/
Viu
PARASITE (UNCUT)
M18, 132 minutes, 2019
It is not clear what the Uncut refers to - its listed length is identical to the one in cinemas - so this can be taken to mean that this version has made it to streaming without changes. Bong Joon-ho's film, winner of the Oscar for Best Picture (starring Park So-dam, above), about a poor family who manipulate their way into the home of a wealthier one, is required watching for those who like their social critiques wreathed in black humour.
KIM JI-YOUNG, BORN 1982
PG13, 118 minutes, 2019
This drama starring Jung Yu-mi and Gong Yoo (both above) is based on a bestseller of the same name by Cho Nam-joo. It tells the story of a stay-home mother played by Jung, a woman whose life has been hemmed in by gender and age roles to which every woman in Korean society must adapt. When the 33-year-old begins acting strangely by channelling the behaviour of others, it provokes a harsh reaction from people around her.
Both movies are available only to Viu Premium users and Viu Premium is available at $7.98 a month. Browse and sign up at www.viu.com/ott/sg
Amazon Prime Video
BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM (above)
M18, 96 minutes, 2020
Or to give it its full title, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery Of Prodigious Bribe To American Regime For Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan.
This skewering of American politics and culture has already made the news for actor and co-writer Sacha Baron Cohen's skits involving the unwitting participation of United States vice-president Michael Pence and former New York mayor and attorney for US President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, who was filmed in a compromising position with actress Maria Bakalova.
This sequel to 2006's Borat sets the standard for risk-taking satire, a work that will have viewers rolling on the floor when not grimacing in horror at the antics of Cohen or the right-wingers he trolls with such delicious finesse.
- The Amazon Prime membership costs $2.99 a month. With this, all Prime members can enjoy unlimited access to movies and TV shows on Prime Video, including the Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, on top of other membership perks like free and fast delivery on Amazon.sg, free two-hour grocery delivery on Prime Now and free monthly games from Prime Gaming. New users can also opt to start a 30-day free trial at amazon.sg/prime before paying $2.99 for every subsequent month.
Cathay CineHome
MIDSOMMAR (above)
M18, 145 minutes, 2019
Horror can happen in daylight, in a place filled with gentle people wearing flowers and singing folk songs. That is the premise of writer-director Ari Aster and he makes good on the idea. When a group of outsiders visit a Swedish commune, they thought they were signing up for a trip filled with learning and healing. Instead, they find a village steeped in practices that have died out in the world at large long ago.
SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD
PG13, 112minutes, 2019
This Chinese thriller features Joan Chen as a Thai police inspector looking into the disappearance of her son. One of the chief suspects is a Chinese expat family who have lived in northern Thailand for over a decade, running an Internet cafe. A game of cat-and-mouse ensues between the cop and the family. This remake of the 2013 Malayalam-language movie Drishyam was one of the top-grossing films in China last year.
BRING ME HOME
NC16, 108 minutes, 2019
This South Korean missing-child thriller, called "not for the faint-hearted" by The Hollywood Reporter, stars Lee Young-ae (above) as a mother who has never given up hope of finding her son who vanished 14 years ago. The woman, who still puts up posters of her missing child, one day receives a clue that proves her instincts are right - her son is still alive, somewhere.
- Rentals are priced at $5.98. The movies are available to watch within a 14-day period at cathaycinehome.com
Shaw Kinolounge
SWALLOW
M18, 95 minutes, 2019
This psychological horror film centres on Hunter (Haley Bennett, above), the stay-home wife of the wealthy Richie (Austin Stowell). She seems to have it all, but the pressures of perfection manifest as pica, the uncontrollable urge to eat inedible objects.
This feature debut by writer-director Carlo Mirabella-Davis won Best Actress for US Narrative for Bennett at the Tribeca Film Festival 2019.
