Jiyuan qiaohe (2000) User Reviews

Romantic comedy that hits a home run on the comedy and strikes out on the romance.

[toclement · 7/10 · 17 November 2000]

From the tiny Southeast Asian island of Singapore comes a charming little romantic comedy, written and directed by Cheah Chee Kong, who also goes by "Cheek". The results are mixed, as the comedy part carries the film, but the romance is quite tepid and entirely unconvincing. The film is loosely based on "Romeo & Juliet", where two families who have chicken-rice hawker stands (that's a Singaporean neighborhood food stand) are violently feuding over customers and whose chicken rice is best. One child from each of the two families is preparing for their starring roles in a school production of the Shakespeare tragedy, and life soon imitates art when romantic feelings develop between the two.

The best parts of the movie are the often very creative scenes shot at the hawker stand with a smorgasbord of interesting characters providing life and color to the surroundings. It is in these scenes that one gets a real sense for the charm of Singaporean culture and the Singaporean people. From there we shift to scenes at the school, where the play is being rehearsed. The main problems with this aspect of the plot is that the female character Audrey, played exaggeratedly by Lum May Yee, is such a nasty girl that there is no way to understand why Fenson, played competently by Pierre Png, is so head over heels in love with her. The director tries (and fails) to convince us that the bond is based on a mutual love for Shakespeare, but the only credible explanation is based on superficial things like her looks and her cocky attitude. Similarly, the director tries to have us believe that the Fenson character is an awkward and unattractive nerd when in fact he is the most physically attractive person in the whole film. It's not his fault that he is good-looking, but he seems miscast in the role as a result. Early on in the film he has a stuttering problem (which might explain why he is a social outcast) but about 30 minutes into it, it miraculously disappears.

One other aspect of the film that I found a bit disappointing was the treatment of a seemingly gay character. Leon, the best friend of Fenson (played very well by Kevin Murphy), drops several clues that make it painfully obvious to observers that he is carrying with him this personal secret. For some strange and completely inexplicable reason the writer decided to resolve this issue by making him out to be a crazed stalker of an MTV VJ. Perhaps this was supposed to be humourous, but it only came off as senseless and homophobic and consistent with Singaporean stereotypes that it is an intolerant society to homosexuality. This is a shame.

These criticisms aside, I did enjoy "Chicken Rice War", and I think there is plenty in the film to appreciate. The best characters come from the supporting cast, especially the "warriors" from each family. Gary Yuen, Catherine Sng, Jonathan Lim, Zalina Abd. Hamid, Jo Jo Struys & Teh Su Ching provided some of the most memorable performances.

The movie starts out better than it finishes, but the characters involved in the actual "war" are just too hilarious to pass up. (7 out of 10).

A Nutshell Review: Chicken Rice War

[DICK STEEL · 7/10 · 22 March 2009]

Actually, it's not a far fetched idea having 2 stalls coexisting in the same hawker center in close proximity, as there was one (or maybe still there) at my interchange, where both sides employ their own minders to try and pull business to their stalls, where any passers-by will inadvertently be asked if Chicken Rice is their meal of choice. Things are a little civil of course, compared to the full blown verbal barbs and physical violence, with plenty of colourful vulgarities thrown in for comedic effect here in the film. In fact, my favourite scenes involve the brawl between the Wongs and the Chans, as they trade insults in dialects, which degenerate from hilarious touting to vulgarities flying.

So the stage is set with each side being on the warpath, and their offspring fated to fall in love with each other. Only that CheeK planned on his Shakespeare within a Shakespeare to be rather different. Yes it's a story about the star-crossed lovers Fenson Wong (Pierre Png) and Audrey Chan (Lum May Yee), but also about them having to star in a faculty play in an experimental punk rock version of Romeo and Juliet, where Audrey is in the lead role, and her boyfriend Nick Carter (Randall Tan) being the stud who can't deliver his lines, only to be unceremoniously replaced by Fenson the stuttering nerd/geek, much to Audrey's disdain.

CheeK had probably distilled some observations of the Singapore Girl here in crafting a Juliet that's materialistic from the onset. And that actually paints the heroine in a very bad light. In one fall swoop, we get to see that she prefers Leonardo DiCaprio-wannabes (such as Orked's best friend in Malaysian movie Sepet, something about the Caucasians having it easy should they be in this part of the world), likes to party hard, play childish mind games, and best of all, is totally materialistic through and through. For the infatuated Romeo to start wooing his lady love, he has to break the bank and get her Tiffany diamonds first, before getting some attention showered in which he maximizes with his language skills courtesy of Shakespeare.

Alas the falling in love bits in the film, which is supposed to be central to the story you might think, was nothing more than a very flimsy portion of the entire narrative. Sure you know that they will, but it was a little bit abrupt, and what's with that cheesy sounding song each time they eat each other's mouth (yeah, that's how each kiss between Fenson and Audrey actually looked like). Not to discredit them both, but while they look the perfect couple on screen, they're very much upstaged by the other characters easily each time they come on screen, such as Catherine Sng's Wong Ku (The Fat Woman), Gary Yuen's Vincent Chan the Chan patriarch, Kelvin Ng's Sydney Wong the brother of Fenson, and The Su Ching's Penelope Chan the highly sex-charged teenage sister of Audrey. Cheong Wui Seng and Irene Ong rounds up the family members of Wong Terr and Wendy Chan, spouses of Wong Ku and Vincent respectively.

So while this is actually not much of a love story, there's still a lot going on in the film that kept it interesting at almost every turn in large part thanks to the supporting characters pulling their weight in delivering the crazy scenes crafted by CheeK. Like most early Singapore comedies, the authorities are almost always not left spared in being lampooned to look stupid and to speak improperly. Some other unavoidable clichés are how homo-erotic undertones are not too subtly presented, and some rather convenient plot development involving sidekick wannabes. The somewhat childish antics between the feuding families worked wonders in delivering the laughs, as do the translations that fly on screen to translate local colloquialism from vulgarities to meanings of Chinese horoscope which describe succinctly the characters they represent.

There were a number of moments where the 4th barrier was broken in part due to the semi- documentary/news fashion that Chicken Rice War adopted, no doubt allowing the Muppets- like old men in Muthiah (Mohan Sachden) and Ahmad (Alias Kadir) to muscle in with their commentary. But the real star of the show I feel, is the hilarious hamming it up by Jonathan Lim as the sleazy go-go dancing, chicken supplier Hugo A Go Goh, in a role that has to be seen to be believed. If I could but name one character in the spate of Singapore movies that personifies all that is zany, then this character is it, besting even all those created in Talking Cock the Movie.

Watching this now, I felt it was probably a little ahead for its time, but managed to pull it off given some creativity in production. You could tell when innovation was used in telling a story with little money, with costumes and off-focused shots being employed to mask details. The humour here would set the stage for many relatively newer local films today to employ, and so is the predominant use of dialects too (Cantonese) that would be the staple in many local films that make a dent in the box office, as are some cunning social observations fused into the narrative like how wealthy hawker centre operators can be, with a Mercedes being their vehicle of choice.

Without a doubt, Chicken Rice War comes recommended, not that it's a perfect film, but it's one that is unfortunately seldom seen, and deserves a lot more credit than the initial flak that it received. For starters, it has shown that we've come a long way, and in some ways (to the detriment of the current state of affairs), this still comes through as a more entertaining production than some of those produced today.

Modern Romeo & Juliet??? Could've Been Better

[Matt73 · 5/10 · 6 December 2000]

I waited for this movie eagerly only to be disappointed by its half-baked state. The script is so bad that most of the people were having hard time staying put on their seats. The acting is so exaggerated that it made me cringe. And the directing is so poor that the story went downhill faster than you can read the title.

The only good thing is the basic idea and the cinematography. The songs are quite nice, if only they could find a better singer...

Well, I still enjoyed the movie, but I wish that this modern Romeo & Juliet with chicken rice stalls setting were better!

Like food court chicken rice... this dish is mediocre

[iluvhead · 27 December 2000]

As much as I'd like to support the local film industry. it's movies like CRW that make me more unwilling to part with my 6 bucks. This film had some amusing parts like the Chinese-singing Malay woman... a few one-liners here and there... but that's about it.

The premise of the film wasn't the problem... the execution was. First of all, let's get over the "Singapore-being-food-paradise" c*** thing and stop over-killing on mundane shots of food being prepared... we get the idea! The chemistry between May Yee and Pierre was not there either. I wasn't sure if it was because of their lacklustre acting or the weak script-writing... **Gee! She succumbed to a Tiffany necklace? How's that for true love?** Speaking of acting, was that what May Yee was doing... or just giving her haughty modelling poses and facial expressions? I didn't have a problem with her in 12 Storeys, but it really looked like she wasn't trying at all in this effort. The other actors basically sufficed as caricatures of the hawker centre fare. Like most of my friends, I was also wondering about the purpose of the character Leon. He seemed like a "token" gay character to attract local gay audiences to the movie. But even then, his chracterisation was weak and ambiguous. It was only till the end that all was revealed and he was portrayed as a psycho-stalker of an MTV VJ.

Therefore, like the food served at myriad chicken rice stores we see at food courts all over Singapore, Chicken Rice War is bland, forgettable and lacks that something special. As Pierre Png uttered in the film.. "This STUPID chicken rice war!" Nuff said...