Did my annual supporting of the local films by paying to watch controversial Namewee's feature film, Nasi Lemak 2.0 in the cinema. I can tell you right now killing two hours in Tropicana Mall when you've already had dinner and by yourself is a huge colossal waste of time.
Anyway, on with the movie: Here's the official synopsis...
Young Chef Huang (Namewee) struggles to get his restaurant business going because he cannot adapt to the 'localized' cooking his patrons are looking for. However, contradict to his unpopular cuisine, he is also well-known as 'Hero Huang' in the local neighborhood where he carries out good deed in helping the community until he met Xiao K (Karen Kong) who got him into deep trouble. In order to get his life and the restaurant business back on track, Chef Huang must now seek help from a mysterious hawker stall lady (Adibah Noor), who summons him to embark on the extraordinary journey of his life. During this self-enlightening experience, he will also meet many 'local heroes' each lending their support to help him re-discover his roots and the real hidden message of 'Nasi Lemak'.Here's the trailer...
While it's mostly in Mandarin, there's also Malay, English and some Tamil so everyone is alienated in some point of the movie or another. Don't worry, there are subtitles.
- Reminded me a little of God of Cookery movies and its ilk.
- A lot of different Malaysian stereotypes (no race left behind here) are mentioned/portrayed.
- I was a little more upset by the passing of Chee Hood Siong (of the Baba Nyonya sitcom fame - he was also in drag in that show alongside Kenny Chan, just not for this movie) than I am by the passing of Steve (as I type this, the whole world and the Interwebs is shocked by the passing of Apple's Steve Jobs).
- Datuk David Arumugam (of Alleycats fame) teaching Huang to cook curry while they both speak different languages/dialects were hilarious. The head-bashing physical comedy also helped some.
- Afdlin Shauki as the fisherman with his four wives and numerous children? Not so much. But you have to watch out for the wife that speaks fluent Mandarin.
The movie is pretty ridiculous, but also entertaining (in the cheap laughs sort of way). It was funny, but not that funny lor (read: I don't know why other people in the cinema were laughing sampai liddat). My idea of fun watching this movie was spotting as many familiar faces (and there were plenty) as I could. Of course I missed a few, like Dennis Lau as Huang's culinary school nemesis, Lan Qiao (yah, giggle if you must). Which explains why his character keeps playing the violin in random moments...
Conclusion: Not much of a story, but entertaining enough. Go with low expectations and you'll be fine.
Conclusion: Not much of a story, but entertaining enough. Go with low expectations and you'll be fine.
PS. You might want to stay on after the credits / Rasa Sayang 2.0 - there's a stinger there.
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