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| Liang Po Po: The Movie | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Teng Bee Lian |
| Screenplay by | Jack Neo |
| Produced by | Eric Khoo |
| Starring | Jack Neo Mark Lee Henry Thia |
| Cinematography | Yoke Weng Ho |
| Edited by | Lawrence Ang |
| Production companies | Mediacorp Raintree Pictures Zhao Wei Film |
| Distributed by | United International Pictures |
| Release date |
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| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | Singapore |
| Languages | Chinese (Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese) |
| Budget | S$800,000 |
Liang Po Po: The Movie (梁婆婆重出江湖) is a Singaporean crime-comedy film directed by Teng Bee Lian in 1999. It starred director Jack Neo himself, who cross-dresses as the titular character, whose name in English is translated as "Granny Neo" or "Grandma Neo".
Plot
Liang Po Po (Jack Neo), an 85 years old elderly lady, ran away from her retirement home in search of a new life, with a belief that she can still contribute to society.
On her first day, Liang Po Po was robbed by female gangster named Ah Lian (Patricia Mok) and her gang known as Lotus Gang (莲花党), and when Liang Po Po attempted to work as a filling station attendant at a filling station, chaos ensued when she wasn't able to perform her job properly by inserting the gasoline pump in the car engine. Liang Po Po then met and befriended a couple of gangsters named Ah Beng (Mark Lee) and Ah Seng (Henry Thia), and got involved in a secret society that is involved in crimes, which is known as Brothers Gang (兄弟党). Taking advantage of Liang Po Po's unsuspecting nature, the society used her to sell pirated VCDs, as well as debt collection. As a loan shark runner, she resorted to stalking, housebreaking and other harassment tactics by disguising as a taxi driver on the borrower, thus evoking great fear in her victims into repaying their loans. Her feats exceeded the loan shark's expectations but the borrower deliberately underpaid her.
As Liang Po Po develops a genuine friendship with Ah Beng and Ah Seng, Big Boss (John Cheng), the crime boss, loan shark, gangster and debt collector who runs Brothers Gang (兄弟党), decided that his gang should be respected, and enlisted the service of Brother Wei (Eric Tsang) and Sister Wen (Sheren Tang), because both of them are Hong Kong and Taiwan Triad Consultants, in an effort to improve the image and profile of the gang. Brother Wei and Sister Wen criticises the gang for engaging in petty crimes and squabbles, and trained them to commit bigger crimes like arms trafficking, mass murder and robbery. The gang members, included a still clueless Liang Po Po, began a serial slaughter of enemies on random nights in order to put fear in the hearts of Ah Lian and the Lotus Gang (莲花党). Brother Wei and Sister Wen also insisted that the gang members should be dressed in suits and sunglasses to reflect their new image. The gang's new aggressive actions caught the Singaporeans and the authorities off-guard, who struggled to react to the sudden rise in violent crimes, but still failed to pinpoint Big Boss as the leader of Brothers Gang (兄弟党).
With Brother Wei and Sister Wen's encouragements for the gang to exert greater influence on civil society, Big Boss declared an election campaign as an independent politician. His declaration was well-received by most of the people with the exception of a few, notably Liang Xi Mei (also portrayed by Jack Neo) and her younger son Albert (Marcus Ng Yi Loong) (Both of them reprised their roles from Comedy Night/Comedy Nite 1996 to 1999), where both mother and younger son Liang Xi Mei and Albert apparently knew Big Boss's criminal background. To raise money for the upcoming election campaign, Brother Wei and Sister Wen persuaded Big Boss to orchestrate a bank robbery. Being impressed by Liang Po Po's achievements so far, Big Boss pressed the bank robbery job onto her, feeling that she's the most ideal person because no one would suspect an elderly person for the bank robbery, and if she really got arrested by police officers, she is expected to gain sympathy from the authorities. The plan was discovered by Ah Beng and Ah Seng, who then tried to send Liang Po Po away. Liang Po Po, however, refused to leave Ah Beng and Ah Seng behind, and that she was determined to follow through with the mission, unaware of what it actually entails.
Totally oblivious that Liang Po Po was carrying a real, loaded pistol, she brandished it before firing it off, unexpectedly horrifying the then-complacent bank receptionist into giving her the money. Even though an escaped Liang Po Po disputes the amount in private, the bank reported a much bigger amount of money missing, sparking a nationwide hunt for her. Meanwhile, Big Boss, Brother Wei, Sister Wen and even the authorities race against each other to find Liang Po Po and recover the money first. As she goes on the run, Liang Po Po realized that she was used by Big Boss, Brother Wei and Sister Wen. Deciding that she had nothing to lose due to her old age, she takes the pistol and geared up for one final confrontation with Brother Wei and Sister Wen, whereas Big Boss was arrested by the police officers first and was not involved in the confrontation and Mexican standoff with Liang Po Po, Brother Wei and Sister Wen. A Mexican standoff occurred between Liang Po Po and Brother Wen, in which it ended with Brother Wei feeling extremely astonished when he realized that he was actually firing a water gun towards Liang Po Po - which he intended to give to Liang Po Po for the bank robbery. Police officers then arrested both Brother Wei and Sister Wen thereafter.
In the aftermath of the confrontation, Ah Beng and Ah Seng are the only gang members other than Liang Po Po who avoided the police arrest. The three friends decided to go straight, and realizing that they can make more money posing as an elderly and selling goods and products, Ah Beng and Ah Seng dressed up as look-alikes of Liang Po Po and began their new lives anew and dumping Liang Po Po behind once again.
Cast
- Jack Neo as Liang Po Po/Liang Xi Mei
- Mark Lee as Ah Beng
- Henry Thia as Ah Seng
- Patricia Mok as Ah Lian
- John Cheng as Big Boss
- Ah Niu as Filling station attendant
- Eric Tsang as Brother Wei, one of Hong Kong and Taiwan Triad Consultant
- Sheren Tang as Sister Wen, one of Hong Kong and Taiwan Triad Consultant
- Marcus Ng Yi Loong as Albert, Liang Xi Mei's Younger Son reprising his role from Comedy Night/Comedy Nite 1996 to 1999 (Cameo)
In addition, Zoe Tay, Chen Liping, Evelyn Tan, Kym Ng, Robin Leong, and Chris Ho have cameos in the film.
Production
In an interview, Neo claimed that he was inspired by western black comedy films like Beetlejuice and Death Becomes Her to make a Singaporean equivalent. This film was the first produced by Mediacorp Raintree Pictures, and was based on a popular character created and popularized by a Television Corporation of Singapore (now MediaCorp) television series known as Comedy Night/Comedy Nite from 1992 to 1995 where the titular character first made her appearance there and performed many different skits and sketches which resulted in her jokes becoming extremely hilarious and popular.Later, she would reprise her role in the comedy variety series known as The Return of Liang Po Po (which has the same Chinese title as this film also known as 梁婆婆重出江湖, where Jack Neo, Mark Lee, Henry Thia and Moses Lim reminisce the times they put in the effort and created this elderly lady character and the different skits and sketches which were extremely hilarious, popular and memorable) (2001) and also in Comedy Night/Comedy Nite 2003. After almost a decade, she also reprised her role in the variety programme known as The Channel 8 45th Anniversary Gala 2008 (45载光芒8方贺台庆) (2008), in which she received the most iconic and popular award, comedy skits with Mark Lee as 'Use Me' Dustbin ("请用我" 垃圾桶) in Star Awards 2015 (2015), and in the Singaporean Blockbuster Drama known as Hero (2016) in which she made a cameo appearance, and also made another cameo appearance in the Chinese New Year comedy film known as Wonderful! Liang Xi Mei (2018) in which she appeared at the beginning and ending of the film, and also starred in the dialect variety series known as Happy Can Already! 4 (2018).
Utilizing a crew of 50, this was the first Singaporean film to feature high-speed chases, as well as choreographed fight scenes involving hundreds of extras.
In an effort to broaden the film's appeal, well-known Hong Kong celebrities Eric Tsang and Sheren Tang, as well as Malaysian singer Ah Niu were cast in supporting and cameo roles respectively.
References
- ^ "Liang Po Po: The Movie". MediaCorp Raintree Pictures. Archived from the original on 25 February 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- ^ "Production Notes - Liang Po Po: The Movie". MediaCorp Raintree Pictures. Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- Tong, Kelvin (8 August 1998). "Got a story? Climb on-board Raintree". The Straits Times. p. 3. Retrieved 2 February 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
External links
| Films by Jack Neo | |
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