|
Watched this during the gala premier (20.01.2009) with free tickets courtesy of my mei xinyun at GV Vivo City. After the movie, I met some of the members of the committee of the Association of Bloggers (Singapore) who were also there. The movie is typical of Jack Neo movie, there is much jokes and laughter and also a subtle educational purpose behind it. In this case, perhaps a ‘lesson’ on family, marriage and relationship. Set in Malaysia, the story surrounds these main casts – Bo Seng (Henry Thia aka ‘Alamak’) and wife Jia Li (Yeo Yann Yann), playboy Jeremy (Jack Lim) and girlfriend Ms Wong (Cheryl Lee), and teenager Benny (Alex Leong) and crush Jennifer (Natalli). In my opinion, each of the couples in the movie depicts a stage of life – from the puppy love of Benny for Jennifer, Jeremy’s playboy lifestyle and his unwillingness to settle down to start a family, to Bo Seng’s otherwise stale relationship with his wife. I believe it is producers’ objective to make the audience ponder on the meaning of love, family and marriage as one stage wife Jia Li made the audience ponder with the question: Can’t there be love without sex? and playboy Jeremy justifying his lifestyle by claiming it to be God’s design. It also showed A breakdown in communication between parents and children in which mother Jia Li found a difficulty to bring up matters to son Benny, and Benny trying to hide mistakes he made in school from his parents. |
 |
|
On the down side, there are parts of this movie which is over-exaggerated, especially the parts depicting how Jeremy ‘turn over a new leaf‘ and choose to settle down. I found myself looking at the time and wondering when the movie will be over. My personal opinion was that even though everyone in those parts acted pretty well, it sort of killed whatever message that the movie wanted to bring across. But on the bright side, the ending while not spectacular nor unexpected, was good one. At least, Bo Seng finally understood he has a part to play to maintain a healthy marriage, Jeremy finally settled down, and Benny won the heart of his crush Jennifer. I’ll give the movie 3 stars out of 5 and not more as I felt it could be better done. |
|
Tag: ??
Movie: 钱不够用 2 & 十二莲花
 |
钱不够用 2 这是一部写实电影。梁智强以一贯的手法，轻描淡写的将新加坡人的一些不满和牢骚 – 如人民对 ERP、物价不断上涨和建赌场的看法 – 都给表达出来。但我要问，梁导演反映出来后除了得到了我们会心一笑，又对我们新加坡人又有些什么好处呢？政策从来就没有因为我们反映了而改变，通常还不是新加坡人自己咬紧牙关挨过去？ 不过可以肯定的是，电影里描绘的杨家三兄弟所遭遇的，却也是典型新加坡人面对的一些问题 – 如对年迈家长和孩子在物质上给予的肯定不会少，但是在关怀与爱护方面却肯定做的不够。我不禁要问，电影的主题是表达新加坡人对金钱和物质生活追求的荒谬呢，还是要给新加坡人理解一下 ‘树欲静而风不止，子欲养而亲不在’ 的真正意义，让我们更加明白孝道的定义？又或许要我们除了物质生活外，要更注重家庭和亲属？就是说，不管一个人在金钱上如何贫穷，总不会比一个事业和家庭都失去的人更孤独、更可悲。 不管如何，这是一部把普通的人的喜、怒、哀、乐完全都表现出来的电影。我不想讲太多电影里的情节，但这些情节虽然没让我悲从中来，但却令我热泪盈眶。因为实在是我们生活中可以感受的到的。它娱乐和教育性两方面都很高的，但结尾却有点不切实际。为何如此说呢？因为戏里杨家的三兄弟的不屈不挠虽然值得我们学习，但是实际上能像他们跌得那么惨却又能从新再来的人又有几个？ 总的来说，我个人虽然不是很喜欢梁导演，但仍然觉得这是部值得一看的电影。有空就去看吧，不过如果不太懂福建话的人就比较难理解里面的对白了。 |
|
十二莲花 我看电影通常都不会以艺术的角度来观赏，因为我缺乏艺术细胞。所以如果你问我， ‘十二莲花’ 和 ‘881’ 比较，我会比较喜欢哪一部，那么我比较喜欢 ‘881’ 多一点。原因很简单，虽然两部电影都以歌台为背景，但是 ‘881’ 就比较没有那么抽象和脱离现实。简单的说，虽然两部电影拍摄的手法都非常的 ‘波里活’ (Bollywood)，但是 ‘881’ 的娱乐性却是比较高的。 戏里主人翁 – 刘莲花 – 的悲哀命运让人心酸，可能甚至于掉泪。这也令我想起 ‘881’ 的结尾也是令人伤心的。我必须要问，是否导演陈子谦的人生中，个人遭遇了很多天意弄人的事？如果还有下一部以歌台为背景的电影，结局可否可以快乐一点？要不然王欣这个演员可能就会永久被定型，只能演那些楚楚可怜，命运坎坷的女子了。这样会否限制了一个演员的发挥空间呢？ 而且，没有多少部电影能让我不断的看手表和盼望它的结束。因为有些情节我真的觉得和现实完全脱节，令我觉得我必须调整，不以看现实剧的的心态、沉住气的继续看下去。 弹的说完，说些赞的。这部电影并不是完全一无是处。刘玲玲演技是不错的，在这部电影里可以说是发挥的淋漓精致。而且戚玉武演的两个角色都演得不错。他是演什么就不必多说了，免得破坏还没看的人的兴致。 我个人的建议是，没必要在电影院看。最好是等 VCD / DVD 上市了才买回家看吧。和 ‘钱不够用 2’ 一样，不太懂福建话的人就比较难理解里面的对白了。 |
 |