Pao ba hai zi

Having Homerun shown on television tonight was an opportunity to compare the masterpiece of the original Children of Heaven, and the local remake done by Jack Neo. To his credit, taking on such a film and remaking for the local audience is a feat of courage, and given that the young rookie Megan Zheng had actually won a Golden Horse award for her performance, I thought it would something at least. Sad to say, the movie is really quite devoid of a soul and lacks the innocent charm of the original. If you really want to watch this, then make sure you haven't seen Children of Heaven, or you'll be disappointed.

First of all, it's an adaptation, so key scenes are replicated in Homerun. While not shot-for- shot, it still has elements that are instantly recognizable, and in attempts to deviate slightly from the original, some scenes were played out in verbatim, or found a needless desire to be explained in every minute detail. Jack Neo did try to infuse some environmental changes with Homerun, and had the setting and premise in 1965 Singapore, where we still had villages, and the production values allowed a Singapore of yesteryear to be recreated. However, in trying to carve out something still unique for Homerun, he put in what he knows best - I Not Stupid. While acting talent is scarce here, putting familiar faces into the movie, and again with the school setting, draws too much similarities and can't shake off the ghost of the I Not Stupid series.

What created a slight ruckus at the time, was the incorporating of the spat between Singapore and our neighbour, in not-too-subtle scenes that on one hand tried to draw some laughter, and on the other trying to add some much needed depth to a bland copy of Majid Majidi's classic. In doing so, what was essentially achieved was to divert attention from the main story, and introduced some scenes of football, petty school spats (you just got to love hating those small sized boys with big mouths) and the issue on water, all of which only achieved one undesired objective, and that's to extend the runtime. Homerun was anything but a homerun in the making, and could have actually cut down such unwanted scenes to tighten the pace.

While Megan Zheng might have won the Golden Horse award, she's no Bahare Seddiqi. The former's expression relied on plenty of tears, and a perpetual scowl she puts on her face. While Seddiqi endears, Zheng can't do any of that. Her screen sibling Ah Kun, played by Shawn Lee, is no better than Amir Farrokh Hashemian too. Ah Kun turned out to be lacking the street smarts, and was quite dependent on his friends to pull him out of his predicaments. So if you're looking at Homerun on the basis of the leads alone, they can't hold a candle to the original casted siblings.

Honestly, Homerun is a decent production, but when compared to the original, it pales by plenty of miles. Understandably Jack is no Majid, but one thing that really irked me, is how Jack consistently shovels sympathy down your throat by replaying scene after scene of reminders of how pitiful the children are, now that they have to share a shoe, and reminders of how the shoe's disintegrating, and included a scene involving broken glass bottles, which is ridiculous and only there to milk some more sympathy points (which backfired of course). Come on, we're not stupid, and too much of something done in such an obvious manner, will only cause the rolling of eyes.

Children of Heaven, this is definitely not. Stick to the original, and nothing less.

Note to non-Singaporean readers:

Homerun is an official remake of the Iranian film, "Children of Heaven". Melodramatic, nostalgic, and arguably, mildly entertaining, this flick is doing brisk business in Singapore right now. This following piece is not a standard film review, but rather a post-viewing commentary. Any question to the film itself would best be answered in its official website. So here goes.

Unlike some Singaporean critics, who absolutely detested this Un-subtle flick, I was mildly entertained. IMHO, the above-average child performances in this film were its saving graces. Especially liked that small kid in the "Singaporean camp" who talked brash, talked big. He will go far...

The female child lead was surprisingly good too, as this film's abundant "water supply". She kinda reminds me of a kid version of those Chinese weepy soap opera heroines, who can turn on their gushing tear ducts on cue. One word. Scary. She should consider pursuing an acting career in Taiwan.

But seriously, I kinda admired the old-world rustic charm of this flick too. The kampongs (villages), the "old" schools, the large fields and the muddy tracks are all remnant features of a time long before I was born. (Making it all the more ironic that authenticity can only be achieved through location shoots in the lands of my country's neighbour, Malaysia).

Speaking of Malaysia, this is one film that will send "cross-straits" temperatures rising. The film attempted to weave in satiric commentaries, mirroring the tension-filled relationship between Singapore and Malaysia over the years. But it's poorly executed, overtly espoused politics wound up being more offensive than allegorical.

Despite my being a Singaporean, I won't blame Malaysia if they so decide to ban this flick. Since they've already banned such fiery flicks like Zoolander and Daredevils already, they may just as well do likewise for Homerun. At least this flick deserves to be banned for its unreasonably one-sided and almost laughable takes on Malaysia/ Singapore relations. Like I said earlier, I loved the child performances in this movie. It is the adults' fault (principally director Jack Neo) for forcing other alleged, unnecessary agenda on the flick.

The way I look at it, Homerun's director Jack Neo, Singapore's most commercially successful director to date, may have been intoxicated by the positive critical responses to his previous film "I NOT STUPID" (another unsubtly veiled satire, which was warmly received in Hong Kong). As a result, he may have aimed too high with Homerun by inundating the flick with sledgehammer-like symbolism and painfully obvious current affairs laden in-jokes.

Ironically, such efforts greatly diluted the innocence and quality of the original Children of Heaven film, thus bringing a bad distaste to many a discerning film lover in Singapore. This film sort of lost its "local credibility" and arguably marked a critical low for Jack (bringing his `artistic' ambition down a peg or two, that's for sure).

Okay, so far, I have dispensed with the good and the bad. Thankfully there's nothing left to say that will make this piece any uglier. While acknowledging the less than positive critical reaction to this flick, I personally thought Homerun's allegorical elements were too amateurishly handled to be taken seriously. To me, it's just a standard Jack Neo flick, and nothing more. However insidious it's made out to be, I don't think its target audience will bother about its politics. They are merely looking for a good time. And arguably, it delivers in that area.

My above take is written with a deeply entrenched Singaporean perspective. As pointed out by one fellow film lover in Singapore though, this film may possibly even be a break-out hit outside of Malaysia and Singapore because its allegorical elements will not be as detectably `in-your-face' as citizens of both affected countries. And the pedigree of the "Children of heaven" association will not hurt its chances either. I did say it's a mildly entertaining flick, didn't I.

As at time of writing, Homerun has become a certifiably huge commercial hit in Singapore and its company (Raintree) seemed poised to mount a marketing campaign to launch this film regionally (internationally) soon. So look out for it.

In closing, I have this to say about Mr. Jack Neo. Subtlety is an art, which he lacks immeasurably. Hopefully, he will take stock of the myriad spectrum of critical responses generated by this flick and learn to strike a better artistic/ commercial balance in his future projects. As it is, I hold the same view for all local (Singaporean) filmmakers; hopefully, their current product is not their best, not their last

Right off the bat, let me say the kids were great. Jack Neo has a way of tugging at the heart strings by getting us to feel for the plight of the children in his movies. And the teacher, played by Marcus, is brilliant! He was easily the best actor in the entire film. But apart from that, it was a TV movie at best. Except for the kids and Marcus, every other character was played so over the top, it made the recent Brothers 4 actually seem good. And it was hard to miss the massive Homerun ads on TV, in cinemas, in magazines. It was a bad move to constantly drill it into us that this was "a remake of the award winning Iranian film, Children of Heaven". Comparisons will obviously be made, and Homerun is far inferior to the magnificent original.

Sorry, the title I wrote is just a joke, now let's cut to the chase.

This Singapore film, again by Jack Neo, very touched, about a boy and a girl called Chew Seow Fang and Chew Kiat Kun, both poor and optimistic, when Chew Kiat Kun accidentally lost his sister's shoes, he knew he had to do something, but, to be honest, Chew Seow Fang's feet looked quite good, I know it's not right, but I had to say that.

I guess I saw a very touched scene that I came to my tears, Chew Kiat Kun tried to convince his parents and headmaster to let him join the race to win the shoe prize, and he did his best and won it, I can help myself no more, and I was deeply touched.

Remarkable film, competed to the I Not Stupid Too (2006). I ranted 10/10.

Wonderful performances by children, good family messages and some truly funny laugh-out-loud moments ("one, two, three, kick!").

The Singapore vs. Malaysia water politics were completely missed by me, and it was only after my Singaporean friends explained it to me that I understood the controversy. Anyone not from the region will simply not even notice it.

At the same time, the water politics give the movie an interesting aspect, and probably bring light to an issue that most people outside the region would never have heard of previously. So, regardless on your stance on the issue, it can't hurt to bring more attention to the issue.

Definitely see this film with your kids!