Ah Long Pte Ltd
Encyclopedia
Ah Long Pte Ltd is a comedy film
directed by Singapore
an film director
Jack Neo
, starring Fann Wong
and Mark Lee
. Co-produced by MediaCorp Raintree Pictures
, Scorpio East Pictures and Double Vision (Malaysia), the film was mostly shot in Malaysia, in the city of Kuala Lumpur
, with a budget of S$1.2 million. This film is also the seventh collaboration between MediaCorp Raintree Pictures and Jack Neo.
Ah Long Pte Ltd was released in Singapore on 7 February 2008, and in Malaysia on 13 March. Its languages consist of Mandarin
(in a heavily Johor
-accented version as spoken by Mark Lee), Hokkien
and Cantonese
.
) system" with as little use of violence as possible while making debtors pay back.
Lihua and several of her subordinates start implementing a series of creative methods to attract people to borrow money. They also practice hilarious methods to pressure debtors to repay in a way that is anti-violent. However, this restructuring is met with opposition from the majority of the "elders" in both her own and rival triad (the Qinglongs).
Lihua was pressured by her mother to get married. Lihua decides to force Mr Fang, an effeminate dance instructor, to marry her. Mr Fang agrees to the proposal, wanting to prove his masculinity. Subsequently, Mr Fang offers to help Lihua out by introducing creative ways to reduce violent methods of debt collection.
Chen Jun is opposed to these less-violent ways of debt collection, but appears to have a change of heart. However, Lihua and her gang members get embroiled with a fight with a rival triad, whose head, it is later revealed, is acting under Chen Jun's instigation. Lihua and Fang go on the run with the Malaysian police and three gang members on their heels. Chen Jun, Lihua and Fang get caught by a number of street urchins, who turned out to be children of debtors who were killed after failing to pay back Chen Jun's gang their loan money.
Finally, the Malaysian police nab Chen Jun, Lihua and her company for their illegal dealings. They are sentenced to jail terms (except Chen Jun, who was sentenced to death). Mr Fang fetches Lihua on the day of her release, and surprises her by bringing her to an office dealing in legal business, run by former members of the Shao He Triad (whom some of them once had terms of 8-10 years). Lihua finds the drive to lead again after being in jail for 10 years.
s are "heartless and evil", however after research, he has found out that there are "kind and caring" loan sharks as well. He was sure that the film would be well-received by Singaporeans. The scriptwriting took 6 months to complete, while the film is shot in 35 days. Neo went against the social norm by using a woman as a loan shark (ah-longs were generally male gangsters) and having her propose marriage (which is against traditional Chinese custom).
on 19 January 2008.
Ah Long Pte Ltds commercial success was evident despite mixed reviews from the press. The Straits Times
reported on 13 February that over the Chinese New Year
weekend, the film reaped a box-office takings of S$1.47 million, coming in second behind Stephen Chow
's CJ7
($2 million), while beating Jay Chou
's Kung Fu Dunk
($1.41 million). All three films were released in Singapore on 7 February 2008.
The ranking remained the same as of 19th Feb, when the box-office earnings of CJ7 was almost S$3 million ($2,840,282), Ah Long S$2.4m and Kungfu Dunk at S$1.96m.
Reviews from local magazine 8 Days
were largely negative. The film was rated as half a star out of five.
. There was also a scene in which Lihua performed soccer tricks, and was pointed out by critics for copying Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer
.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
an film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Jack Neo
Jack Neo
Jack Neo Chee Keong , PBM, credited as Jack Neo on screen, is a Chinese Singaporean film and television actor, host and director...
, starring Fann Wong
Fann Wong
Fann Woon Fong , better known by her stage name Fann Wong, is a Singaporean actress, singer and model.At Singapore's Star Awards 1995, Fann became the first actress to win both the Best Actress and Best Newcomer awards in the same year...
and Mark Lee
Mark Lee (comedian)
Mark Lee Kok Huang is a Singaporean Chinese comedian, actor and film director. He works in MediaCorp and J Team Productions with Jack Neo. He is famous for, amongst others, playing the title role in Singapore's MediaCorp TV Channel 5 television sitcom Police & Thief as Lee Tok Kong, Phua Chu Kang...
. Co-produced by MediaCorp Raintree Pictures
MediaCorp Raintree Pictures
MediaCorp Raintree Pictures is a film production company based in Singapore. The company, a division of MediaCorp Group, was established in 31 March 1996. The company occasionally ties up with other film companies to produce Asian or Western films...
, Scorpio East Pictures and Double Vision (Malaysia), the film was mostly shot in Malaysia, in the city of Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, with a budget of S$1.2 million. This film is also the seventh collaboration between MediaCorp Raintree Pictures and Jack Neo.
Ah Long Pte Ltd was released in Singapore on 7 February 2008, and in Malaysia on 13 March. Its languages consist of Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
(in a heavily Johor
Johor
Johor is a Malaysian state, located in the southern portion of Peninsular Malaysia. It is one of the most developed states in Malaysia. The state capital city and royal city of Johor is Johor Bahru, formerly known as Tanjung Puteri...
-accented version as spoken by Mark Lee), Hokkien
Hokkien
Hokkien is a Hokkien word corresponding to Standard Chinese "Fujian". It may refer to:* Hokkien dialect, a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken in Southern Fujian , Taiwan, South-east Asia, and elsewhere....
and Cantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...
.
Plot
Chen Jun is the leader of Shao He Triad, which has a number of illegal businesses operating in Malaysia and Singapore. He is retiring from the Triad and money-lending business. He is succeeded by a young lady, Wang Lihua, who tries to restructure the "Ah Long (loan sharkLoan shark
A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....
) system" with as little use of violence as possible while making debtors pay back.
Lihua and several of her subordinates start implementing a series of creative methods to attract people to borrow money. They also practice hilarious methods to pressure debtors to repay in a way that is anti-violent. However, this restructuring is met with opposition from the majority of the "elders" in both her own and rival triad (the Qinglongs).
Lihua was pressured by her mother to get married. Lihua decides to force Mr Fang, an effeminate dance instructor, to marry her. Mr Fang agrees to the proposal, wanting to prove his masculinity. Subsequently, Mr Fang offers to help Lihua out by introducing creative ways to reduce violent methods of debt collection.
Chen Jun is opposed to these less-violent ways of debt collection, but appears to have a change of heart. However, Lihua and her gang members get embroiled with a fight with a rival triad, whose head, it is later revealed, is acting under Chen Jun's instigation. Lihua and Fang go on the run with the Malaysian police and three gang members on their heels. Chen Jun, Lihua and Fang get caught by a number of street urchins, who turned out to be children of debtors who were killed after failing to pay back Chen Jun's gang their loan money.
Finally, the Malaysian police nab Chen Jun, Lihua and her company for their illegal dealings. They are sentenced to jail terms (except Chen Jun, who was sentenced to death). Mr Fang fetches Lihua on the day of her release, and surprises her by bringing her to an office dealing in legal business, run by former members of the Shao He Triad (whom some of them once had terms of 8-10 years). Lihua finds the drive to lead again after being in jail for 10 years.
Cast
- Fann WongFann WongFann Woon Fong , better known by her stage name Fann Wong, is a Singaporean actress, singer and model.At Singapore's Star Awards 1995, Fann became the first actress to win both the Best Actress and Best Newcomer awards in the same year...
as Wang Lihua - Mark LeeMark Lee (comedian)Mark Lee Kok Huang is a Singaporean Chinese comedian, actor and film director. He works in MediaCorp and J Team Productions with Jack Neo. He is famous for, amongst others, playing the title role in Singapore's MediaCorp TV Channel 5 television sitcom Police & Thief as Lee Tok Kong, Phua Chu Kang...
as Jojo Fang - Richard LowRichard LowRichard Low , also known as Richard Low Qianyi or Richard Liu Qianyi; also spelled as Richard Loh, is a Singaporean Chinese veteran MediaCorp TV Channel 8 actor. He used to be typecast as villains or characters with unruly behaviour...
as Chen Jun - KK Wong as Bingtou
- Daniel Tan as Huangdi
- Jack Lim as Hong Qinglong
- Lai Ming as Lihua's Mother
Production
Jack Neo feels that most people think that loan sharkLoan shark
A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....
s are "heartless and evil", however after research, he has found out that there are "kind and caring" loan sharks as well. He was sure that the film would be well-received by Singaporeans. The scriptwriting took 6 months to complete, while the film is shot in 35 days. Neo went against the social norm by using a woman as a loan shark (ah-longs were generally male gangsters) and having her propose marriage (which is against traditional Chinese custom).
Reception
A series of roadshows were held at Ang Mo Kio HubAMK Hub
AMK Hub is a suburban shopping mall located in Ang Mo Kio, within the North-East Region of Singapore...
on 19 January 2008.
Ah Long Pte Ltds commercial success was evident despite mixed reviews from the press. The Straits Times
The Straits Times
The Straits Times is an English language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore currently owned by Singapore Press Holdings . It is the country's highest-selling paper, with a current daily circulation of nearly 400,000...
reported on 13 February that over the Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
weekend, the film reaped a box-office takings of S$1.47 million, coming in second behind Stephen Chow
Stephen Chow
Stephen Chow Sing-Chi is a Hong Kong actor, comedian, screenwriter, film director and producer.- Professional career :Stephen Chow began as a temporary actor for TVB. He entered TVB in early 1980s, and was trained there, although he had few opportunities to appear in films. Chow graduated from...
's CJ7
CJ7
CJ7 is a 2008 Hong Kong science fiction/comedy film co-written, co-produced and directed by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the film. It was released on 31 January 2008 in Hong Kong. It was also released on 14 March 2008 in the United States....
($2 million), while beating Jay Chou
Jay Chou
Jay Chou is a Taiwanese musician, singer-songwriter, music and film producer, actor and director who has won the World Music Award four times. In 1998 he was discovered in a talent contest where he displayed his piano and song-writing skills. Over the next two years, he was hired to compose for...
's Kung Fu Dunk
Kung Fu Dunk
Kung Fu Dunk , also known by its former title Slam Dunk, is a 2008 Chinese-language live-action film. It was directed by Taiwanese director Chu Yin-Ping and filmed in Taiwan and mainland China...
($1.41 million). All three films were released in Singapore on 7 February 2008.
The ranking remained the same as of 19th Feb, when the box-office earnings of CJ7 was almost S$3 million ($2,840,282), Ah Long S$2.4m and Kungfu Dunk at S$1.96m.
Reviews from local magazine 8 Days
8 Days (magazine)
8 Days is a weekly Singaporean magazine published by MediaCorp's publishing arm MediaCorp Publishing, aimed mainly at the teenage and young people market. The magazine is predominantly about the latest celebrity gossip and television news as well as television synopsis for every episode, with small...
were largely negative. The film was rated as half a star out of five.
Criticism
Various film reviews indicated that this film had "copied ideas" from Cho Jin-gyu's My Wife Is a Gangster 3My Wife Is a Gangster 3
My Wife is a Gangster 3 is a 2006 Korean film. It is a sequel to My Wife is a Gangster 2.This movie, however bearing the My Wife is a Gangster title has little to no relation to the previous movies.- Plot :...
. There was also a scene in which Lihua performed soccer tricks, and was pointed out by critics for copying Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer
Shaolin Soccer
Shaolin Soccer is a 2001 Hong Kong comedy film co-written, directed by and starring Stephen Chow. A former Shaolin monk reunites his five brothers, years after their master's death, to apply their superhuman martial arts skills to play soccer and bring Shaolin kung fu to the masses.In 2008 a...
.