MOVIE REVIEW: TIGER WOOHOO

TIGER WOOHOO (Mandarin/U)

Genre: Comedy
Release Date: 14 January 2010
Distributor: Astro Entertainment
Running Time: 95 mins.
Director: Chiu Keng Guan
Producers: -
Writer: -
Casts: Royce Tan, Jack Lim
Plot: 'Woohoo' (tiger dance) is a tradition practiced in a small village (Beserah, Kuantan) during a prayer ceremony every 60 years. As the only elder who knows "Woohoo" can no longer perform, his filial granddaughter put up a misleading advertisement which in turn attracts five youngsters from different backgrounds - bad-tempered bank security man Ah Beng, indecisive Char Kuey Teow hawker Ah Huat, effeminate designer Rain, university student Bobby and smart alec Alan - to be trained as 'woohoo' players. After some tough training, they finally look like a formidable team. However, few days before the anticipated festival day, the only 'tiger head"'is accidentally destroyed by the mischievous kids in the village.

THE VERDICT

It is not easy to accept this at first, been Malaysia's first CNY movie. First look, you doubt it. Once you give it a try, the movie is entertaining and feels good. It is practically appear that this movie did in fact very well on the ticketing performance over the last month and it attracts largely those who are familiar with those soap drama which features those from Astro.

Five tiger year-born youngsters bound together by fate and chance that they meet up in Kuantan. Three of them; bad-tempered bank security man Ah Beng, indecisive Char Kuey Teow hawker Ah Huat and effeminate designer Rain come to Kuantan called by an ad in the newspaper for jobs that pays well. University student Bobby come to Kuantan due to his passion to write about the culture of 'woohoo', while the head of village's son Alan is forced to join the team because of lack of one member. They are convinced to perform a long tradition and performed only once in 60 years culture of tiger dance, but in the process they have to deal with many obstacles and experience that changes their life forever.

Plot wise, it is kind of predictable. It struck down to the very last chord that things are sort of happen to pave way for the success of revival of the tiger dance in the end even with a slight mistake by this mischievous kids that try to play with the water buffalo with the 'tiger head'. The story is not so solid and it did not gave me much enjoyment. The humours are there and very effectively driven while the feel good factor is always there. (I repeat feel good, not total excitement).

But here is the thing, the writing board managed to muscle in five different stories from five different point of view and all fit in well. Every character has their own dilemma and problem to worried about albeit sometimes it feels very odd and lame. Nevertheless, the differences between character background are highlighted well and provided with a good character build-up. Luckily, there is no attempt of creating dialogue which is so sickening, a pure line by line that many could be appreciated and that makes this a stand out then other trying-to-be-funny Chinese movies.

Acting performance is moderate. Again, fortunately, there is no attempt to make this something very much like the Taiwan or HK soap drama acting - popular but worst in acting and that makes this movie way better than any of those soapy.

Perhaps, the only one thing that deserves more credits than the others is its technical craft. Not that this movie can rival any high budget production with a flawless pop-out like in Avatar, but the cinematographic approach is been decent. Camera angles are ample to feature the nice scenery view of Kuantan itself and the beauty reflects by itself. I enjoy the technical aspect of this movie very much, rather than the mediocre story.

If this is a Malaysian movie that goes by the standard, this is perhaps one of those that I can enjoy watching. Story needs some polishing but otherwise, this film will bring some laughter during this Chinese New Year!!