Chicken Rice War

• Title: Chicken Rice War
• Country: Singapore
• Year: 2000
• Director: CheeK
• Production: David Leong, Raintree Pictures, CheeK
• Screen Play: CheeK
• Cast: Pierre Png as Fenson Wong, May Yee Lum as Audrey Chan, Catherine Sng as Wong Ku, Gary Yuen as Vincent Chan, Kevin Murphy as Leon Deli, Kelvin Ng as Sydney Wong, Su Ching Teh as Penelope Chan, Wui Seng Cheong as Wong Terr, Irene Ong as Wendy Chan, Weng Kee Lee as Chan Tick, Gary Loh as Muscle Mike, Jo Jo Struys as Cheryl, Randall Tan as Nick Carter, Zalina Abdul Hamid as Fat Lady, Mohan Sachden as Muthiah, Alias Kadir as Ahmad, Edmund L. Smith as Mr. Pillay, Paul Tan as TV presenter, Tanya Chua as herself, Jonathan Lim as Hugo A Go Goh, Uttsada Panichkul as himself, Kevin Poh as Capulet, Jamie Yeo as herself
• Camera: Daniel Low
• Editor: Lawrence Ang
• Length: 100'

Chicken rice war is loosely based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in the same way as Shakespeare in Love. In this movie the Montagues and Capulets are represented by the families Wong and Chan. Both families run Chicken Rice stalls side by side in the same market, something that the authorities say is impossible, since it's not allowed. The underlying conflict is about the secret family recipes that has been kept secret for generations, but apart from that nobody really knows what the fight is about.

Audrey Chan is a beautiful, vain and spoilt girl who is the most popular girl in school. Fenson Wong is an insecure young man with a stutter who, of course, is madly in love with Audrey. Their only common interest is Shakespeare and the version of Romeo and Juliet that they are setting up at school. When Fenson gets the chance to replace Audrey's beautiful but dim boyfriend as Romeo he starts seriously dreaming about capturing Audrey's heart.

Although this is the main story line, it is all the side stories that make Chicken Rice War a truly enjoyable comedy, with the continuous fights between the families scaring customers away, the to idle gossipers, the go-go dancing chicken whole seller and the Fat Lady, to mention but a few.

On top of the comedy element, CheeK gives you a whiff of Singapore with their "Singlish" mixture of Singapurean and English, which increases the enjoyment factor. There are also a lot of funny details, like the fact that Audrey's boyfriend has different European national football team shirts on all the time.

Fenson: -Do you have a gum?
Leon: -Are you mad? We're in Singapore, don't you remember?

On a closing note, make sure that you have a Chinese restaurant handy for afterwards, since this film will make you hungry.

Written for the Everything Quests: Film Reviews