SYNOPSIS:
Viewed
as a jinx and mistreated by her hardcore gambler father, Hock
Lee Poh and spendthrift sister, Donna, Fu Xin is actually
a surreptitious 'Lucky Star' who always manages to avert precarious
situations; turning unfavourable conditions into favourable
ones having the Midas touch in everything she does.
When Poh and Donna find themselves in trouble after heavy
losses at the gambling tables, Fu Xin arrives to their rescue
with help from her new-found friend, a casino magnate.
MOVIE REVIEW:
We
have tried our best, but we really cannot find any incentive
to recommend this movie. When it was released in the theatres
a few months ago during the Chinese New Year period, we were
scratching our heads silly why this movie was made to premiere
on the big screen. Sure, Singapore is coming strong and mighty
with its integrated resorts craze, and in there somewhere
is a social message of curbing those bad gambling habits,
but knowing Singapore’s strict and politically correct
stands on most things, why did the filmmakers decide to produce
this movie?
Reason number one: To cash in on the crop
of Chinese New Year movies (which included many far more superior
productions). Reason number two: Fans of local stars Fann
Wong, Patricia Mok, Richard Low and Liu Ling Ling may actually
fork out hard earned money to watch this movie which is better
watched on your home television set. Really, we saw no merit
in watching this movie in the cinemas at all.
Marketed as a family comedy with the intention
of preventing people from addicted to gambling, the ever luminous
Wong plays a girl who is considered to be the jinx of the
family, until she unexpectedly helps her gambler father (Low)
to win a handsome sum of money. After a series of misadventures
involving the bratty older sister (Mok), we follow the family
and an old family friend (Liu) to the casinos of Cambodia
where a final showdown awaits.
It is interesting that the production actually
shot on location in Cambodia, considering that the local authorities
would give the filmmakers a hard time should they request
for filming in the local casinos. That aside, the production
value of this movie jarringly reminds us of a telemovie, from
its simplistic sets to its lighting structure. And this does
not bode well for the already haphazardly scripted movie.
Wong does what she does best in the 103 minute
movie, riding her bicycle around Singapore, looking as breezily
refreshed as she can. Low does a competent job hurling vulgarities,
while Mok and Liu do their best not to look bored in their
roles. Watch out for other familiar local faces like Marcus
Chin, Cassandra See and Wang Guan Wu.
It
is difficult to maintain interest throughout the movie as
you’d be bored to tears while the predictable movie
plods along with line after line of been there done that dialogues.
Would we be happy go lucky after the movie ends? Probably
not. Would we be inclined to quit our bad gambling habits
after watching this show? We were never addicts to begin with.
Would we still want to pay the local casinos a visit? You
bet we want to, because we didn’t get a glimpse of them
in the dreary movie.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
We do not have any complaints about visual transfer of the
movie. It is presented in its original Mandarin and dialects.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING:
Review by John Li
Posted on 2 August 2010
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