Sunday March 25, 2007
Just follow Neo
Singaporean director Jack Neo’s latest movie is not just a comedy – it’s a reflection of the common folk’s frustrations with bureaucracy.
By ELIZABETH TAI
JACK Neo has done it again. In 2002, with the hit movie I Not Stupid, the Singaporean actor-director made people laugh and think about the republic’s ruthless education system. Now, he’s poking at its civil service.
“I’m worried that civil servants will be offended. If I have to go to a hospital in the future, I’m worried that they won’t entertain me,” he says, then bursts out laughing.
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Jack Neo, flanked by Gurmit Singh and Fann Wong, were in Kuala Lumpur last week to plug their new movie. – SAM THAM / The Star |
In the film, by-the-book civil servant Tanya Chew (Fann) gets to experience life as a blue-collar worker and a man when she trades bodies with handyman Lim Teng Zui (Gurmit). Lim, often frustrated by the bureaucrats’ need to approve everything and thus slowing down his job, realises that life on the other side isn’t rosy either. (Though he rather enjoys being a female!)
This movie came about from Neo’s personal experience as a government servant.
“I was in the military for eight years. I went through a lot of ‘funny’ things then. You have to get approval for the simplest things. I find that very stupid. Things cannot move forward just because you have to follow rules,” says the 47-year-old.
The movie has grossed over S$2.7mil (about RM6mil) in Singapore since it opened in February. And, surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), the Singaporean parliament brought up the “just follow law” issue right after the movie premiered. However, Neo says that Singaporeans have been discussing this issue for years. (He also diplomatically adds that despite these shortcomings, Singapore’s civil service has improved tremendously.)
“Singapore is very famous for ‘follow law’. This can make things more effective and efficient, but at the same time the situation can become so stiff that there’s a ‘no U-turn’ mentality,” Neo later says at a restaurant in Mid Valley Megamall after the press conference.
This attitude is not just found in the public service but in the private sector as well, he adds.
“Everything black and white, e-mail here, e-mail there ?” he laments.
“A lot of people say (in response to the criticism against the civil service), ‘You don’t understand because you’re not in my shoes!’ So, I thought let’s exchange shoes then!”
The soul-swapping plot device is a useful way to show that the grass is not always greener on the other side. However, it’s not easy to make it realistic, the auteur admits.
“We didn’t shoot the scenes in order, so we had to be very clear on who was who in what scene,” he says.
Neo, one of the city-state’s best-known filmmakers whose credits include the quintessentially Singaporean and no less enjoyable hit comedies Money No Enough (1998), I Not Stupid and its sequel I Not Stupid Too (2006), has been described by Time magazine in a 2002 article as Singapore’s “megaphone on the issues of daily life”. The man himself, however, says he makes movies just for the laughs.
“Some people say I’m a social commentator, but I do this because it’s fun. To me this is one way I can contribute to society,” says Neo.
However, there are some topics the maverick filmmaker would rather not touch – sensitive topics such as religion or race.
“If you’re not sure about it, and it’s not good to society, you better not do it. No point,” he shrugs.
“My purpose of making a movie is to make you happy. I mean, don’t you feel sick when after watching a movie you come out and think, ‘What, ah?’
“I don’t want people to feel that way after watching my movie. I want people to talk about it.”
Neo says that people are already asking him to do a sequel – there’s a scene after the ending credits which seems to suggest so, but Neo isn’t sure if there will be one, though he says that he has shot three alternate endings which he plans to include in the Just Follow Law DVD that will be released at a later date.
There are other titbits. In the movie, one of the characters – an old lady – created a blog: laozhabor blogspot.com. The blog actually exists. The production team created it because they suspected that people would log on to it out of curiosity, and boy did they visit!
“About 400 to 500 people visit it every day. My blog not so popular anymore (sic),” he says with a laugh.
Neo’s next big project is to direct another version of I Not Stupid, which is set in China. It’s a movie that will not be lost in translation, he says.
“The way the Chinese or Asians love their children – how they treat them or what they want them to be ? the mentality is almost the same, not like the ang mor,” he says.
He also plans to work on a triad movie and who knows, do a horror movie one day.
“A lot of people are waiting for me to make a ghost movie, but my ghost story will be very different,” he says.
“In what way?” I ask.
“It’ll still make you laugh!” he says with a booming guffaw.
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