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.
The story brings you back to their experience of first love and crushes or what we call puppy love. The first love feeling is like the popular ice-kacang (shave ice) melting away even before one can truly taste it, only its sweetness painfully residing in our memory.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Most will probably remember A-niu best as the singer behind the folk-ish tune “Dui Mian de Nui Hai Kan Guo Lai” popularised by Ritchie Jen in the late 1990s. It seems like it has been a few years since we’ve heard of him, but he has since bounced back with a debut feature starring some of the most well-known Malaysian celebrities- Angelica Lee, Gary Chaw, Fish Leong, Victor Wong, Eric Moo and Nicholas Teo (or Zhang Dong Liang)- not bad for a singer/songwriter who is almost a one-hit wonder.
Like the “girl next door” ditty, his first debut feature revolves around his life as a kampong boy in Malaysia and the theme of unrequited love. The ensemble cast play out a bevy of characters, some bland and some more colourful, in 1980s Malaysia. At the centre of it all is a quiet shy boy called Botak (played by none other by A-niu) whose first love of the outspoken, Tomboyish girl called Fighting Fish (Angelica Lee) explains the movie’s title.
Their time spent together consists of playing fighting fish, chasing the other local boys who like to make fun of them (the Ah-Bengish Gary Chaw their leader), lying on a wooden bridge out in a lake, and having ice kacang whenever the weather gets too warm. Ah the insouciance of kampong life, disrupted only by abusive husbands (Eric Moo) and irresponsible fathers (still Eric Moo).
A-niu’s love for the times past is evident in the many nostalgic moments that A-niu brings you back to- the open-air Indian barber shops, the neighbourhood coffee houses, the scooter rides along bumpy roads- that are as much part of Malaysia’s past as they are of Singapore’s. It is a trip down memory lane that those who have lived through will certainly enjoy and those who haven’t- like this reviewer- will still find very interesting.
Too bad then that A-niu changes tone in the second half of the movie, focusing instead on the tenuous relationship between Fighting Fish and her mother whom she blames for chasing her father away. It is run-of-the-mill melodrama and played with a heavy hand by A-niu that contrasts with the cheerful first half. It is also unnecessary and distracts from the romance between Botak and Fighting Fish that should be at the heart of the movie.
Fortunately, A-niu has a fearless performer in Angelica Lee and the star of horror flicks like “The Eye” endures the clichés of her character and the movie. Next to her, A-niu’s Botak is positively nondescript and played with too much restraint by A-niu. The rest of the ensemble cast don’t fare much better too, given as how most of their characters are either one-dimensional or inconsequential.
The only real pleasure in A-niu’s feature debut is the reminiscence of those halcyon days when life was simpler and love was easier. Though the film loses some of its charm in the second half, there is still enough appeal to leave a smile on your face. This ‘kampung boy’ will have to do much more though if he wants to prove that he’s more than just a one-hit directing wonder.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
There is a 40-min “Behind the Scenes” featurette which reveals the effort that A-niu placed into making his debut feature, and his passion for the film shines through clearly.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Audio is presented only in Dolby Digital 2.0 and sounds mostly flat. Dialogue too tends to be less distinct from the ambient sounds than desired. The visual transfer preserves the colours of the setting in which the film is shot and set, but the presentation of the film in widescreen within a 4:3 ratio is disappointing.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING:
Review by Gabriel Chong
Posted on 5 October 2010 |
