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HOMECOMING (笑着回家) PRESS PREVIEW
Surprise, surprise ….
If you surf the internet for this name HOMECOMING, your findings might take you to one B-grade horror film.
Or you would arrive at a gay-genre feature bearing the same name.
There’s nothing original with this ambiguous word “HOMECOMING”, but this one hits closer to home.
Balik Kampung?
Yeah, during the Lunar festive season, every Chinese working in Kuala Lumpur would be flocking home to their respective provinces for that scrumptious reunion dinner, where every member of the family sits at the table with the patriah and matriah who preside over the glorious food spreads.
This is the once-a-year family time, folks.
Wanna “tikam” here?
It’s either one sweet BALIK KAMPUNG or SMILING ALL THE WAY HOME, which you prefer, leh?
PRESS CONFERENCE IN KUALA LUMPUR, JANUARY 18, 2011
Here’s a feature film with three heartwarming stories that are intertwined.
Sieve through the chaff and you get thespian actor JACK NEO attempting his cross-dressing best. He plays a real “she” – as AH NIU’s mother.
It’s one thing to play a gender bending role but to play a full-blown woman with a face and fluffed body like JACK NEO?
If JACK NEO can get away playing a real dame, then all the women on this earth might as well be men in guise.
This is JACK NEO’s redemption exercise, with apologies, in a come-back role to prove that he still has the grit and the mettle, despite those awful sexual episodes he churned out in the press more than one year ago.
Sock it to him, tear him apart, but he’s back with aplomb – in one piece.
Welcome back, JACK NEO.
It’s mind over matter and never too late to have a second chance.
We know that the script has been specially crafted for you (JACK) to endear you to us, and you did penance in the movie by not just doing one good deed, but two.
As Karen Neo you sacrificed your winning lottery ticket of 8,000 dollars for an air ticket to help a teenage gal to return to Singapore for the LUNAR NEW YEAR.
Plus, your character gets to deliver a baby in a cab. Sweet.
We may forgive and forget, JACK. But we are still not sure we can love you yet.
Show us some.
Back to the three interlocking stories leading to the same destination – everyone wants to ‘balik kampung’ or heading home to savor the annual reunion dinner and familiness.
We are introduced to all kinds of weird and comely characters that are here so that you can laugh yourself into stitches.
There is this “don’t-you-mess-with-me” Hong Kong Chef (MARK LEE) who is a control freak, but yet he cannot get his own daughter to understand why he has so little time for her. A nice example of familiarity breeding contempt. Story One.
Then we have this giddy-eyed sweet damsel (REBECCA LIM) who has butterflies in her tummy because she is due to meet her future in-laws at their first reunion dinner. (Story Two)
Finally, we have the bosomy ‘ma nenek’ (naggy woman) played by JACK NEO who’s returning to Kuala Lumpur by coach with her son AH NIU. She just cannot let things be and gets into all kinds of scraps and escapades. (Story Three)
Naturally, it’s all well that ends well.
We have one happy ending where the warmth, tears and joy are rolled, set in and shared,when everyone sits down and enjoys the new year spread.
Curtain call ….
It’s family time.
Bravo!
The casting of Malaysian ace comedian AFDLIN SHAUKI as a well-meaning, but blundersome taxi driver is as good as you can get.
He grunts, rants and squeals and brings the house down with his unintended idiosyncrasies.
AH NIU is excellent as a ‘blur” blob who’s alway ever tolerant of his insufferable mother (JACK NEO). He wears the cheeky, benign look.
It’s been reported that his days as a singer may have hit a rut these days, and he is focusing on an alternative career as a comedian.
He’s good.
Strong dramatic performances from the Singapore actors JACK NEO and MARK LEE ensure HOMECOMING as a wonderful feel-good comedy.
And the pretty leading ladies – JACELYN TAY, REBECCA LIM and KOE YEET earned our rapturous adoration for their superb acting.
Specific mention must be made here about LEE THEAN-JEEN the Singapore based film director who delivers a commendable job of pulling artistes from both sides of the causeway to render a refreshing story of warmth and sunshine to usher in the Chinese New Year.
His visual treatment is splendid.
We are drawn immediately into the celebratory festive mood by an uplifting Lunar New Year music score, the moment the movie starts.
Camera tracks leading lady JACELYN TAY as she saunters into her restaurant whilst negotiating a deal on her mobile.
In the closing scene of the film, the significance of family bonding is apparent when everyone at the table is in a jolly mood to toss the ‘loh hei”.
As the condiments fly into the air, the camera closes on and freezes, capturing an endearing moment of bliss to usher in the Chinese New Year.
“HOMECOMING” is a delightful film, aptly put.
Wah lau, and lest this Reviewer forget, here’s wishing all CHINESE on earth:
KUNG HEI FAT CHOY 2011!
“HOMECOMING” is jointly-produced by:
Homerun Asia, Double Vision, J Team Productions, SIMF Management and Tanshern.
So it has come to pass, that the ever successful 1982 JET LI classic SHAOLIN TEMPLE finally earns a remake.
You just don’t leave good things alone, right?
That’s the name of the game these days, to keep the film industry going, to stay afloat of doldrums.
The buzzword is “re-makes”.
Or you can cleverly guise this as "an old title, a new treatment".
The producers see gold if they can trade new ideas for old. So they pitched the feasibility of this “remake” to the investors, armed with an outstanding cast of A-Listers.
Hence the new SHAOLIN (新少林寺) is born.
It's true blue KUNG FU all the way, and the film director BENNY CHAN has created a new story that focuses on the art of ZEN, a refreshed form of fighting style that stresses on “mind over matter” superseding gory violence.
He laces philosoply behind the fighting.
Chiefly because ANDY LAU is actor, not a fight star like JET LI.
In terms of regional promotions, ANDY LAU and film director BENNY CHAN boisterously arrived in MALAYSIA on January 19 to launch their USD 25 million dollar epic SHAOLIN, amid much fanfare.
Notably absent were other famous co-stars such as JACKIE CHAN, FANG BING BING and NICHOLAS TSE.
We learn that a portion of the production was shot in the 1,500 year old Shaolin temple whose famous fighting monks were featured previously in some notable Asian as well as Hollywood ventures.
Great, it surely adds a authentic touch of realism.
The period is set in the turbulent 1920s.
The subject of feuding warlords takes center stage in this martial arts offering.
ANDY LAU plays Hou Jie who is obnoxious, arrogant and unyielding, who has always been top-notched in battlefields, adding conceit to his conquests.
He devised an assassination plot, but is double-crossed by his second-in-command Cao Man (NICHOLAS TSE).
When his entire family is almost wiped out by the betrayal, he is forced to eat humble-pie and seeks refuge in the temple with the forgiving monks.
And it’s here that he learns a new perspective on life and faith.
Whether you believe this or not, in every man’s life some rain must fall and we can choose to be guided by this element called redemption.
Nobody does the right things all the time. But we must know when we have done wrong and seek penance.
NICHOLAS TSE plays the antagonist Cao Man, who’s all out to nail him.
As the civil unrest spreads like wildfire and the masses suffer, Hao and the Shaolin masters are forced to take a fiery stand against the evil warlords.
They launch a perilous plan of rescue and escape.
JACKIE CHAN does a cameo as a scruffy Shaolin chef, one who does not measure his own abilities in kungfu.
Actually he has inadvertently devised a superior skill through making mantou and noodle, and is responsible for giving ANDY LAU some pointers in the Buddhist faith.
SHAOLIN dispenses the formulaic CGI tricks and treads the old school martial arts genre, where less is more.
In the action department, JACKIE CHAN and ANDY LAU strut stuff they can be proud of, with their well-rehearsed slick, clean moves, displaying the beauty of KUNG FU.
But it is action actor WU JING with his version of awesome, stunning Kung Fu maneuvers that elbows his way into our hearts and minds as a righteous protector in the SHAOLIN temple.
He’s cool, this dude, and he steals the thunder from the veteran actors.
The strikingly beautiful FAN BIN BIN has little screen time in the role of Hou Jie’s wife. All she is expected to do is to wail and cry all the time, when things go awry.
ANDY LAU pitches in a fine performance as a tormented warlord driven initially by glory and greed, then to watch helplessly as his entire old world falls apart.
He is this demented man embracing atonement for his past sins.
He seeks sanctuary in a temple where he once condemned as a lowly abode.
Suddenly he's made to realize that wealth and power are not everything in life. They do not provide peace of mind.
And KUNG FU is an act of self-defense, in line with the true Buddhist teaching.
Hong Kong filmmaker Benny Chan, who worked with Jackie Chan on New Police Story and Rob-B-Hood, is the film director.
SHAOLIN the movie is entertaining, moving and profoundly spiritual throughout and is quite possibly Benny Chan’s most accomplished film to date.
Cory Yuen serves as the action choreographer. Yuen’s credits include Lethal Weapon 4 and X-Men.
Relax, take a back seat
and bask in the fiery glow of the Kung Fu wizardry against a backdrop blood, sweat, tears and redemption.
For sure, you will be enthralled.
This new SHAOLIN is making its mark as another befitting tribute to the KUNG FU CINEMA.
