Old Cow Vs Tender Grass

Fok Chi Gai

It is pretty clear who had final cut approval for the film – the sponsors.

A certain brand of stout is mentioned by name, appears in several scenes with the label clearly displayed and even appears as an actual ad on the side of the cab driven by the lead Henry Thia.

When a China nurse, played by local radio deejay Siau Jiahui, gives some cockamamie spiel about moonlighting as a beer promoter in order to feel better about herself, you wonder if she has had too much to drink.

It all makes sense though, if you think of this movie as an extended advertisement for a handful of products padded out with bland stories.

Despite the slightly saucy title, which appears to reference the real-life older man-younger woman relationships of comedian Marcus Chin and film-maker Jack Neo, the relationship between Thia and Taiwanese newcomer Crystal Lin is supremely chaste. In fact, they sometimes seem to be in different movies.

Thia is recycling his hangdog expressions and sad sack persona from his comedies for the umpteenth time while Lin is stuck in a melodrama that has her trying to recover from some past trauma.

Meanwhile, another uninvolving romance between the nurse and another cab driver (Malaysian deejay-actor Jack Lim) is being played out.

All of this is handled clunkily, with clumsy scene transitions and an annoying soundtrack that hammers in the mood setting for each scene.

This old cow should just be put out to pasture.

(ST)