Money No Enough (1998) User Reviews

Movie which reflects the true-self of Singaporeans

[wui75 · 6 January 2001]

For my own opinion, I feel that this is a very good movie which potrays the everyday life of an average Singaporean, a very true-blue Singaporean movie. The actors and actresses are quite natural too, as they're basically acting their own characters in true life.

I don't think this movie degrades Singaporeans in any way, instead, it made us realise that we are just as kiasu(scared to lose), as greedy, as lavishing as the characters potrayed.

The theme of this movie is a good one. It's about 3 Singaporean men, an office worker, a renovation contractor, and a coffee-shop assistant. The office worker Keong, starred by Jack Neo, spends more on what he earned each month buying on luxuries and stocks. One day he resigned from his job as he was discriminated by his boss, and he lost alot of money from his stocks too. In the end, he had to part with every of his luxury items and waiting to be sued by the bank. The contractor Ong, starred by Mark Lee, borrowed money from a loanshark to import imitation tiles from Taiwan .In the end he got cheated, and had to hide from the loanshark in Johor Bahru(Malaysia). The coffeeshop assistant, starred by Henry Thia, is perhaps the most honest but funny character. Without him, the movie will be boring. He fancied a girl who patronised the coffeeshop, and bought a large antique handphone because he thought he can woo the girl with a handphone. Because of his lusty mind, he even visited a prostitute but don't have the courage to have sex!

I hope that the Jack Team Productios will make more of such movies in the near future. It's certainly a great production with a smack of true Singaporean languages like Singlish, Hokkien, Mandarin, etc. You can't watch any show with these contents on TV as dialect programmes are banned from showing on public TV channels.

Jack Neo, keep up the good works!

It's not too bad

[azuresea · 4/10 · 10 February 2005]

Although I really cringed a lot watching this film, it really has to do more with the venacular, the mixture of badly expressed Chinese, mangled English and hokkien swear words. However, I would have to applaud the director for actually being about to touch the homeground of the locals about the materialism of our society. To be honest, while not everybody speaks like this, but to criticise the show based on the language would be like trying to crit American directors for choosing to portray ghetto societies and their language. Not really relevant. This money was the first local movie in recent history to hit the box office with runaway success. Although I admit most of the humour is lost with foreigners, this movie really stands out because of the milestone it has made in singapore film history being the first recent film to attract locals away from big budget Hollywood movies.

Disgusting

[kirsten tan · 1/10 · 8 February 2000]

This show is definitely one of the worst around by far. There is no plot, no storyline, no character development and no nothing except bad and crass humour. I felt bored by the film and felt like sleeping throughout. I'm amazed at how it did so well in the singapore box office compared to other much better singaporean shows like eating air, the road less travelled etc. The show is a degradation of all singaporeans and portray us as money-minded bigots with a crude sense of humour. I left the theatre with a huge feeling of repugnance and indignance. Even the sound recording and filmography was bad. Jack Neo should stay out of the burgeoning Singapore film industry lest he tarnishes it even more with his crude direction and monopolist attitude. Watch this if you're feeling really masochistic.

This is literally the worst show ever.

A sort-of reality check on our society. Singapore, that is.

[dy158 · 8/10 · 21 June 2006]

It's still considered as one of the best runaway success from local director Jack Neo because comparing to his later works, it's still among the tops in terms of local box office earnings for local mainstream films.

Maybe not all can understand the rationale behind the making of this comedy given some of the slangs used are not known to the outside world, especially with the westerners. But at times really, I don't know at times what those American TV shows are all about from what our local TV are showing. Fair and square. It doesn't mean the entire world can understand your own personal slang and kind of language because everyone is brought up differently.

And so I can understand if there's anyone outside of Singapore who does not really understand much of the plot, it's kind of forgivable. Though maybe the born and bred Singaporean in me will be shaking her head that the outside world do not get it. It's a personal thing.

Singaporeans' sort-of 'obsession' with not enough money in our pockets is shown through an office worker, a contractor, and a coffee-shop helper. Singaporean style of humour aside, but when reality sets in, who likes it anyway? I remembered I had a good time watching it when it was at the cinemas then. But then maybe at times watching some of those so-Singaporean parodies being played out at screen is a little weird and at times, funny. Kudos to director Jack Neo for doing all that.

A comedy devoid of laughs...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 30 March 2023]

I stumbled upon the 1998 Singaporean comedy "Qian Bu Gou Yong" (aka "Money No Enough") by random chance here in 2023. And with it being an Asian movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I sat down and gave the movie a fair chance.

But this movie was a difficult movie to sit through. It is listed as a comedy, but there wasn't a funny moment throughout the course of the movie. So talk about a swing and a miss from writer Jack Neo and director T. L. Tay.

And it didn't help much that the entire character gallery was a farce. It was all characters that I took no liking to, nor could associate with in any sense or form. And that just added to the frustration of an already lacking movie.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, as I am not overly familiar with Singaporean cinema. But I have to say that I wasn't impressed with the performances that I saw on the screen.

There is also a part II for this movie, made in 2008, but after having suffered through the ordeal that is the 1998 first movie, I can honestly say that I am not even going to bother with the sequel.

My rating of "Qian Bu Gou Yong" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.