Opening Day: 30 December 2010

Synopsis:

JUST CALL ME NOBODY is a kung-medy (kungfu comedy) which tells the story of a
cobbler who loves to read martial arts comics and does not know any martial arts. One day he picks up a shoe left behind by a female martial arts exponent. He decides to set off to return the shoe to her. On the boat, he encounters two martial arts-skilled bandits who try to rob the passengers. The cobbler tries to help and unwittingly beats them. Unknown to him, a very skilled old man has been helping him in the dark. The old man then increases the cobbler’s internal strength. Subsequently, the cobbler encounters more incidents that improved his martial arts
skills.

Movie Review:

Let’s get one thing clear- though local comedian Mark Lee gets top billing in the poster, his role in the movie lasts no more than two minutes, so for those hoping to catch this film to support him in a regional production, I’d suggest you save your effort. Rather, whether you enjoy this ‘kung-medy’ depends on your tolerance for ‘mo-lei-tau’ humour- that’s right, the kind that doesn’t make much sense anyways and requires a particular palate to appreciate.

The director of this latest ‘mo-lei-tau’ affair is none other than the legendary or infamous (depending on where your sensibilities lie) Kevin Chu, whose name was synonymous with some of the most popular comedies of the 90s, including Shi Xiaolong-Hao Shaowen’s “Shaolin Popey” and Nicky Wu-Ng Man Tat’s “The King of Comic” and “Jail in Burning Island”. Thankfully, his latest “Just Call Me Nobody” is more in line with these movies than last year’s abysmal “Treasure Hunter”, though you probably shouldn’t get your hopes too high.

The basic backbone of the story goes like this- a village cobbler (played by China actor Xiao Shenyang) sets off on a quest to find a beautiful lady (Hong Kong’s Kelly Lin), who is also a martial arts exponent, to return her shoe. Along this road trip, said cobbler meets several other martial arts exponents (among them a dishevelled hermit played by Jacky Wu and a deadly royal assassin played by Eric Tsang) who mistake him for a gongfu master en route to participate in a martial arts competition in front of the King.

Among his competitors is none other than our very own Mark Lee, who plays a needle-shooting expert whom- as you would have guessed- is quickly dispensed off by the clueless cobbler. So yes, his presence is inconsequential- and so too is the story, which is no more than an excuse to throw every conceivable gag, no matter how ill-conceived, at the audience and see which manages to induce a laugh.

Not much of it works unfortunately (what passes for humour is the use of anachronistic Hollywood catch-phrases like “May the force be with you” or “I’ll be back” and OTT CGI-ed sequences like a big cloud in the shape of a foot literally crushing Mark Lee’s character flat), with inspiration in short shrift and few and far in-between. Those moments that recall the best of Kevin’s ‘mo-lei-tau’ comedies- like why the cobbler can’t be killed with a simple twist of the neck- are also lost amidst an unwieldy story with little appeal.

Kevin’s direction too mirrors Ning Caishen’s clumsy uninspired writing. The pacing here seems slack and lazy compared to the zany energy of his best comedies, and not even an all-star cast hailing from China, Taiwan and (erm) Singapore can provide enough comedic energy needed for such a ‘mo-lai-tau’ comedy- based as they usually are on a flimsy premise- to stay afloat.

The surest sign of its dire state is when the funniest segment of the movie- Little Bean’s English lesson in the village (which can also be seen in the trailer)- appears right at the end with the closing credits. Of course, that is little consolation if you have spent the rest of the 90 minutes trying to find something to amuse yourself. To be fair, it isn’t as terrible as “Treasure Hunter", but seeing as how it wasn’t difficult to top it anyway, that isn’t saying very much too. Even in his comfort zone of ‘mo-lei-tau’ comedies, Kevin Chu seems a shadow of his former self, and his latest no more than a trivial entry in his filmography.

Movie Rating:

(Yet another disappointing Kevin Chu film- in spite of its familiar 'mo-lei-tau' genre- and further proof that he has lost his funny bone)

Review by Gabriel Chong