Genre: Romance/Comedy
Director: A Niu
Cast: Lee Sinje, A Niu, Gary Chaw, Fish Leong, Victor Wong, Eric Moo, Yi Jet Qi, Nicholas Teo, Penny Tai
RunTime: 1 hr 45 mins
Released By: Clover Films & Golden Village
Rating: PG
Official Website: -

Opening Day: 22 April 2010

Synopsis:

ICE KACANG PUPPY LOVE is a profoundly emotional tale of puppy love, parental love, generation gap, truth and make-believe. Set in a unique small town of 1980's Malaysia, the story evolves between a nice but bashful boy- Botak and a brave and adventurous girl- Da Jia Yu.

A woman brings her daughter, Da Jia Yu, and runs away from her husband. They live in a small old town and stay at a friend's house. The son of the kopitiam tauke, Botak falls in love with this small little girl. In Botak's life, Da Jia Yu plays an important role. She accompanies Botak till they grow up. Botak secretly admires Da Jia Yu. Along the journey, he explores the meaning of true love, devotion and forgiveness.

Movie Review:

Who would have guess that Ah Niu, the Malaysian Singer who gave us the popular song "The Girl across the Street, Look Over here" had always wanted to be a director instead of a singer. After 'unexpectedly' achieved success as a singer, appearing films like Summer Holiday with Richie Ren and taking six years to write the screenplay for, he had finally achieved his directorial debut with Ice Kacang Puppy Love.

He brought along a cast of Malaysian artists that had found success in respective medium in the Taiwan and Asian entertainment field. There's Lee Sinje who is well known for being the Pang Brothers' squeeze for scream queen role in The Eye and Re-cycle. There's Victor Wong, the bespectacled singer who is probably well known as the former one half duo of Wu Yin Liang Pin. There's Gary Chaw, the popular Ballads singer who gave us the soulful "Betrayal" song and Fish Leong, the popular queen of love songs who gave us many songs to choose at karaoke.

It's a wise decision to cast these well known Malaysian artists. Their star power made this film interesting to watch and these Malaysian celebrities who had done well overseas had a very apparent camaraderie that transmit well onto the big screen. It helped to create a believable friendship between them within a short time frame, allowing the script to build on other elements of the movie.

The various character designs created for them were also memorable highlight of this movie. Lee Sinjie was a strong anchor as the main love interest for this movie. Her strong performance as the tough tomboyish girl (Fighting Fish) who got her own set of troubles made it engaging to watch. Then there's Victor Wong strumming away as the neat and tidy Prince Charming who wasnt' giving his best effort to fulfill his potential. Gary Chaw hammering it up as a Malaysian Ah Beng with a super strong Malaysian Mandarin accent that goes high pitch at the end of every sentence. Last but not least, Fish Leong's Barley Ping (Barley Ice), a (almost) silent femme fatele who's constantly sucking on a ice packet drink was easily the most likable and fun character among the supporting cast.

Beside those stars mention above, Ice Kacang Puppy Love was also filled with cameo appearance by the Bruce Lee lookalike Hong Kong artist (Danny Chan who found his breakthru in Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer) and Eric Moo (who was once thought to be a Singaporean artist). Among all the cameos, Eric Moo's role as the father of "Fighting Fish" was particularly memorable as the uncouth gambler who had a few words of wisdom about letting go to the young protagonists.

Star gazing aside, Ice Kacang Puppy Love is as you probably have guess it, a story about first love set in the rural area of Malaysia. The central story was on Botak (Ah Niu) mustering his guts to express his love to Fighting Fish. To spice matters up, they are surrounded with friends who had their own puppy love issues and are falling for each other. Adding onto the fray, Fighting Fish had matters to resolve with her dad and her mom was suffering from vicious gossips attack by people around her.

As a story teller, Ah Niu had succeed in creating a dreamy tale of puppy love with music and visuals. The comic timing was quite spot on and the stars were worth their weight in gold. But as a first time director, there are more refinement needed for the story telling aspect. Certain subplots and characters could have been remove to make the story stronger. Certain character motivation and dilemma could have been better structured to make their case more strong and unforgettable.

Nevertheless, this is Ah Niu's baby and the heartfelt effort he put into this project was easily felt in many ways. It's been reported that back in the past, Ah Niu had a crush on Lee Sinjie but was rejected. Perhaps he used Ice Kacang Puppy Love as a closure to that bittersweet episode of his life. With his star studded friends and entertaining story telling, reliving his puppy love was pretty fun ordeal to go through.

Movie Rating:



(Quirky and dreamy ... an entertaining look at first love with nostalgic old Malaysia as backdrop)

Review by Richard Lim Jr