You Mean the World to Me

Bro was in town for mum's birthday, so as usual he would arrive on Thursday night and fly back to Singapore on Sunday night. Every Sunday he would join us for mass, and after that we would go for lunch. This year, I tweaked that plan a bit. We went for early English mass to catch a movie at noon-- "You Mean the World to Me", Malaysia's first Hokkien film. Some 'big' names in it-- Frederick Lee (looks oh-so-familiar because he is Christopher Lee's brother),  Steve Yap, John Tan, and Neo Swee Lin (from Phua Chu Kang fame). Steve Yap plays the down-and-out drunkard father who was cheated out of the family fortune by his brother, and yet manages to maintain his hunkiness. John Tan plays the crazy brother who has the mentality of a sexed-up Standard One boy, but somehow manages to be all buffed. See the pattern? LOL. Anyway, the story is based on the events in the life of the director. A heavy theme about social stigma and family ties. There's some interesting themes in the film. Firstly, I noticed that the main actor always sits down at the dinner table only to leave it 30 seconds later without touching anything. Secondly, there's a few subtle gay hints surrounding the main actor. The audience never gets to see or hear main actor's love interest. They argue over the phone. The kiss and make up over the phone.  And the main actor hardly shows any interest when his old schoolmate offers him a grope of his strumpet. All in all, I wouldn't give this a high rating, but it is a great attempt for Malaysia's first Hokkien film. And the theme song is kinda catchy.