Love Matters, But Does Jack Neo?

Apparently it does, Jack Neo is still one of the most celebrated film directors in Singapore.

So we are invited for the Gala Premium of “Love Matters”.  It is good that our team from the Association of Bloggers (Singapore) that is still at its infancy stage have the opportunity to meet up in a causal non-work related setting.  As I looked across the theatre, taking mental pictures of our team members, I felt as though we have worked together much longer than just a few months – from media kit to logistics, from membership to sponsorship to partnership and more.  We’ve just put up a FAQ section in our temporary website.  10 of us, working voluntarily, with a day job to do in a challenging economic environment whereby, all of us should focus on what earns us a living instead.

A comedy like “Love Matters” is good, to lighten up the mood.  I remember 2008 started with bloodshed conflicts (remember Pakistan?) one after another.  2009 too started with one (read about Israel lately?) topped with a global financial meltdown that not only affects the investors, but now the aftermath is felt by the common people on the ground.  Like me and perhaps, you.

I don’t assign stars to my reviews.  Take “Love Matters” as an example.  You can’t really compare it side by side with an International film like, say, “Love Actually” (my friend Ed and I were just talking about “Love Actually” at a café while waiting for the Red Carpet event to take place).  To be able to see something closer to our local culture on a big screen, local talent Jack Neo’s films are as close as it gets.  Three love stories intertwined into a single plot, there is this young boy having a crush with his schoolmate who is attached, there is this flamboyant young man who doesn’t know what love is beyond physical intimacy, and there is an old married couple whose well of passion has dried up long time ago.  As Jack Neo wrote in his blog, the following translated paragraph summarized what he envisages the film to be.

Those who are not in love yearn for love; those who are loved don’t know how to love; and those who are in love for too long no longer feel the love.

There are pockets of quality jokes that even for Cynthia who doesn’t know a single word of Chinese, she laughed hard.  Beyond bits and pieces of comedy (my favorite one is the gigolo scene) is a bit of horror (“Hard Candy” anyone?) and a bit of tragedy with tons of tears.  It is relevant to our current environment on what sex in the fifties is like (think Viagra in Chinese potion) and what teen sex is like (sex videos getting uploaded into the Internet sounds familiar?).  Perhaps the topic of sex has earned the disappointing NC-16 rating, at least to Jack Neo.  I would think that the younger crowd may have some to learn from the story.

Yes, I wish “Love Matters” has the cinematography quality of “Dance of the Dragon”.  The backdrops are a bit too ordinary to me.  And yes, I wish the story is tighter and less irregular in terms of scripting quality.  At some parts of the story, Cynthia and I would turn and look to each other and have the “huh?!” look.  Having said that, I am happy to support the local industry and “Love Matters” is Jack Neo’s 13th production that will certainly give you a good laugh and a tiny bit of something to ponder about no matter how old you are.

Photos shared here are those that I have taken during the Red Carpet event.  Yes, I just have to throw in pictures of Cynthia taken at the rooftop of Vivocity because I have always wanted to take some pictures of her there.  This set of photos is also the first time Nikon’s Color Efex Pro 3.0 for Capture NX 2 is being featured in my website, as a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop products.  Stay tuned for further write-ups on what software is for you if you are a Nikon digital photographer.