类型: 黑喜剧/动作
导演: 梁智强
领衔主演:
范文芳 (飾王立华), 李国煌 (飾方佐佐), 刘谦益 (飾陈军), 林德荣 (飾洪青龙), 黄国强 (飾兵头), 陈家风 (飾皇帝), 黎明 (飾立华母), 高艺 (飾复仇少女)
语言: 华语, 方言
A Non-Local Local Film
We have high hopes pinned on Singapore’s very first Director Jack Neo, especially after his daring “Money No Enough” and “I Not Stupid” which were critically acclaimed and won several regional awards. And then he rehashed “The Children of Heaven” and gave it a local twist giving him further credit as a director. Well, people don’t call him “Liang Dao” for nothing, right?
But since then, his subsequent works “I Do, I Do”, “Just Follow Law” and the recent “Ah Long Pte Ltd” appears to have lost much of his luster and touch as THE Director from Singapore.
What can I say, I always try not to have too high hopes when I watch Jack Neo’s movies. Not that he is no good. It’s more of now that he has earned so much to afford a three-storey landed property for his wife and four children, he seems to have stopped trying to provoke, to pin down on the nitty gritty issues and create emotionally-packed scenes in his movies. Not like how he used to before he was widely recognized as a Director.
His movies are certainly watchable. Who doesn’t wish for a good laugh in these stressful times? But do they are speak to us? Do we leave the theatre richer or have a greater appreciation for our culture, our country, our language? What ever happened to those moments in Jack Neo’s movies that are simple, straight-forward and that just tugged at your heartstrings, when you feel that your tear is about to drop out of your eye socket?
Why is he making do with average movies when we have seen that he can do better? The premise of Ah Long Pte Ltd has been said to be a carbon copy of the Korean “My Wife is a Gangster” which Jack himself claims not to have watched.
There are many loopholes.. The premise for the female lead, Fann Wong to get married is not strong. And neither is the push factors for Mark Lee’s character, JoJo to marry into her family. There are some laughs along the way, especially the scenes with Mark Lee’s effeminate character. But they are either rehashed comic scenes or those that are so silly that you feel embarrassed you do not feel the urge to laugh out loud.
Whatever happened to laugh out loud and thigh-slapping funny scenes? Are we no longer funny enough to appreciate humour? Ah Long Pte Ltd is certainly a watchable enough movie. But a movie that speaks to Singaporeans? Definitely not. And the effort made by Jack to speak to the Malaysian market is obvious. The use of top Malaysian actors/actresses, the use of Malaysia as the shooting location, the liberal use of Cantonese (which is badly expressed)… and of course, who will miss yet another chance to poke fun at the relationship between Singapore and Malaysia?
I do not know how Malaysians feel about this Made in Malaysia, Made by Singapore movie. From what I know of my Malaysian friends, the use of Cantonese is like a national language, much like hokkein in Singapore. Even non-Cantonese speaks that national language. So when the female gang leader Fann Wong actually spouts 1 line in Cantonese and the rest in Mandarin (that is not even tinged with the Malaysian accent), somehow the believability level has diminished somewhat. Throughout the film, one question keeps bugging me. What was Jack Neo thinking? If he wants to market his movie in Malaysia, a far bigger market than Singapore, he should have gone all out and filmed most of the film in Cantonese and find actors and actresses who are conversant in that language, instead of being neither here nor there.
Or did he think that the popularity of Fann Wong will help him sell his deteriorating film? Did he think that the nude scene was really necessary? Did he try to beg Fann to do it and got rejected because she didn’t feel that it was necessary to the plot? Yes we all know sex sells. But when you are filming a family film that will represent Singapore, I’m sure sex will be the least of your priority, Jack.
I’m not trying to put Jack Neo’s efforts and hard work down as a director. Just that despite telling myself not to expect too high out of such genres, I have been impressed with his past works to want more from our made in Singapore director.
Sigh. Now that this movie doesn’t really have Singapore roots, and is not exactly a Malaysian movie, what is going to happen to it? Perhaps Jack should not try to come up with at least one movie per year, in time for the CNY. He should instead focus his time and energy on making a really good, Singaporean movie that speaks to Singaporeans, like he used to.
No comments:
Post a Comment