Film Review #104: OVERSTEER

Film Review #104: Oversteer

Oversteer: Accelerating Into Another First In Singapore Cinema

Released at the end of January 2024, Oversteer, dubbed Singapore’s “first car-racing” movie, is the latest film by local director, Derrick Lui. The 48-year-old Creative Director at Vogue Films, has produced and directed a number of films, notably 1400 (2015), before embarking on this ambitious project.

Inspired by a true story, Oversteer centers around Fung (Aden Tan) - a car enthusiast from a very young age - as he pursues his dreams of opening up a mechanic workshop despite his father’s disapproval. Fung leaves his house following an argument with his father and sets out to bring his passion to reality. Not long after, the looming debts of a new workshop pressures Fung into dabbling in street racing for fast cash. 

Themes of love, friendship and family outline the story, much like the Hollywood’s Fast & Furious franchise. Though one might expect the racing aspect of it to be similar too, Oversteer focuses more on the main protagonist as he overcomes financial tribulations, betrayals and familial acceptance together with his love interest, Yu (Janassa Neo) and his best friend, Foo (Hanrey Low).

The cinematography of the skyscrapers and landscapes of Malaysia, where the story takes place, is impressive to say the least, and the racing scenes set in the backdrop of Malaysia’s busy highway were a treat to the audience. Appearances by some of the professional Malaysian racers and drift masters such as Drift Princess Ashley Wong and former Team Petronas racer Farique Hairuman also make the racing scenes realistic and gripping.

While the storyline is linear for the most part, the transitions between the different milestones in the protagonist’s life could have been more fleshed out if there was more focus on the characters and their relationships, and though this might have been to keep to the 86 minute runtime, it allowed the film to feel compact and fast, just as a racing movie should.

The making of Oversteer, which took 10 years, has a slew of its own challenges.Lui opened up about financing it with his own savings, which almost halted the production of the movie, after finding it difficult to find sufficient fundings and international collaborators. His run-ins with Malaysian police while filming and multiple rewrites of the script had also been the highlight of his personal struggles with trying to keep the wheels turning, no pun intended.

If any cognisance is to be taken of the experience, it would be Lui’s own determination, paralleling the character, Fung, to see his ambitions through. At one of the screenings at Golden Village Yishun, Lui enthusiastically made a brief appearance to share his sentiment, “I hope that people can see that Singapore is able to produce these kinds of action movies and it can only be done so with all of your support by turning up”. It indeed seems like this is just the beginning of many action films by Derrick Lui.

Oversteer continues its theatrical run on 3rd and 10th March 2024. Get your tickets on GV website now: https://www.gv.com.sg/GVMovieDetails?movie=2145#/movie/2145 

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