MEETING THE GIANT (再见巨人) (2014)

Genre: Drama/Sports
Director: Tay Ping Hui
Cast: Ian Fang, Chua Sen Jin, Michael Lee, Lim Shengyu, Ng Hanbin, Jack Choo, Na Guangzi, Wang Shuo, Zhuyan Manzi, Bernard Tan
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Rating: PG
Released By:Golden Village Pictures & Clover Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 19 June 2014

Synopsis: To boost the standard of Singapore basketball, Long, a magnate and known figure in the basketball scene decided to fund the import of young talents from China, hoping to reinvigorate the sport in Singapore and create the next Yao Ming. Away from home the first time, the young squad of Chen Hang, Shaohua, Dadi, Xiaodi and Gao Ming have to overcome many challenges while integrating into Singapore, both on and off court. Junhui, born and bred in Singapore, does not see eye to eye with his foreign teammate Chen Hang. Apart from the vast difference in height and basketball skills, there is also a stark difference in their sense of identity and belonging.

Movie Review:

There hasn’t been a true blue sports movie from Singapore for a while, and picking up the gauntlet is actor Tay Ping Hui, who makes his directorial debut with the basketball-themed drama ‘Meeting the Giant’. As far as such genre movies go, it isn’t half bad, not least for the fact that Tay had picked a relative cast of unknowns made up of real-life basketball players to play the key roles in his film; but if authenticity isn’t the issue, didacticism is, in particular in what it has to say about the import of ‘foreign talents’ into Singapore’s sporting scene.

With a story credited to veteran Channel 8 actor Zhu Houren (credited here as Jack Choo) and written by YES 93.3 FM deejay Danny Yeo, the preachy film attempts to echo the Government’s call to look past the xenophobia and appreciate just what these individuals can contribute to our society - which, according to Yeo, is the ability to uplift the quality of our game. After all, that is what captain Wu Junhui (Chua Seng Jin) learns following his encounter with the titular character Chen Hang (Delvin Goh), who is mockingly called Yao Ming thanks to his height.

Turns out that Junhui’s father is more savvy than the young boy himself - he manages a new team of players from China funded by a wealthy businessman (played by Choo), and as Junhui tags along to observe the rest of the exclusive team play, he begins to realise that there isn’t quite any need for the animosity and mistrust that he had for Chen Hang in the first place. Not only do each one of them including Chen face adjustment issues from being away from their families, these “foreign talents” are also made to endure the cynicism of their Singaporean counterparts, who are none too welcoming to whom they perceive as squeezing out opportunities for locals.

And just like that, Tay wades squarely into the hot-button issue of locals versus foreigners, a deeply evocative one that manifests itself both on and off the court as he expands the story beyond Chen to include that of his fellow teammates - He Xiaodi (Ian Fang), He Dadi (Lim Shengyu), Wang Shaohua (Michael Lee) and Gao Ming (Ng Hanbin). From a storytelling perspective however, adding more characters ends up diluting the initial focus, moving past Junhui’s budding friendship with Chen Hang to a token romance between Shaohua and the coach’s daughter Zhang Fang (Zhuyan) as well as to the sibling rivalry of Xiaodi and Dadi who wind up on opposing sides.

To be fair to Tay, he does a fairly competent job keeping the narrative flowing, but the fluid pacing can’t quite mask the shortcomings of Yeo’s script, which flits from character to character without developing any of them fully. For that reason too, we don’t blame the newbie actors, who approach the material with as much confidence as they can muster - at the very least, they look utterly convincing playing their respective parts on the court, which is already saying a lot. Neither do we fault the dubbing, which hey actually makes more sense than hearing the Singaporeans try to imitate a China Chinese accent as befitting the nature of their characters.

Where Tay does stumble is in adopting a heavy hand for the emotional scenes, and a good case in point is how he milks Chen’s sendoff when he leaves Singapore for home. He also ends up pushing the film’s central message in straightforward moralistic fashion, and while the intentions are admirable, his execution could do with a lot more finesse. He does however prove much more fleet-footed as a director when it comes to the on-court action, which provides some energetically choreographed sequences that are nicely spliced together to give a genuine sense of excitement.

Were it merely an inspirational sports drama, ‘Meeting the Giant’ would probably benefit from sharper story and character development; as it is, the multiple characters end up taking too much time away from each other, so much so that no particular one resonates as much as it should. Tay deserves praise for taking on as provocative an issue as foreign import, but his handling of the delicate subject matter could certainly do with a lot more nuance. It’s still a promising debut though, and as far as local sports movies go, this is certainly one of the better ones we’ve seen. 

Movie Rating:

(A promising directorial debut for actor Tay Ping Hui, who boldly takes on the local-versus-foreigners issue in a basketball-themed drama that packs some exciting on-court action)

Review by Gabriel Chong