Personally I thought it was a good movie.... money well spent .. I enjoy myself luffing in the cinema. =)
Personally I feel that it appeals more to the chinese dialect speaking people who are more attune to a bombastic way of communication and littering their prose with flowery expressions. There's one part when the eldest son came home and the mum was asking her whether he has eaten. He said he did. Being old and forgetful, she turned aorund a second later to ask him the same question again. This happened many times until the son relented and told her "no he hasn't" eaten and the story goes on. It's a normal everyday phrase that every parent will ask and probably most of us answer it Everyday. In the movie it uses one element in humor guideline in that scene (there are a couple of standard guide lines in humor much like the rules of the third in photography, leading lines ...etc ) to create the ridiculous effort to the everyday scene; and if the patrons can relate, they will find it funny, if not, it's below passing grade.
I think that if the movie-patrons hasn't even heard of those dialect phrases, then the movie is one tough theme to catch. I am quite surprise that there's lotsa malays who actually sat around me !!! Maybe like me, they have a more diverse command of our local dialects?
I remember when 881 was out, a non-chinese movie reviewer had to review the movie and on TV she gave it a below average rating.... I bet she's the only one in the cinema not laughing or tearing because she couldn't much grasped the language, much less the culture and therefore the theme. We cannot blame her. It's her job and she's entitled to her opinions. However, we have alot of wondering-minded people susceptible to such culturally chanllenged opinions. Imagine if I were asked to review a Hindu movie, and unless I see alot of half naked girls dancing and bouncing around, I would give it a bad rating as well !!! :sweatsm: