The Best Bet
I caught the Singaporean movie
"The Best Bet" last weekend, courtesy of Uncle Ho. VCD lar, doink :P Anyway, it was my dad that wanted the movie so badly, and so happens we were having dinner at Bdr Menjalara (I was with my ex-colleagues on one table, my family & friends were at another table. But same location). Uncle Ho's assistants were walking around holding copies of VCDs & DVDs, asking each table if they wanted to buy. I bought a DVD, then I heard my dad asking me to get the Jack Neo movie as well, so I got it for him lor. Actually the movie was selling at RM6, my dad asked for RM5 but failed to get that price so he refused to buy. I managed to bargain until RM5 instead :P
Being a
"banana", watching the Jack Neo movie was quite a challenge. Bear in mind the entire movie is either in Hokkien or Mandarin. And being a
"banana", my grasp on both the language & dialect is... well... not quite there lah. So I had to depend entirely on whatever I can grasp and the subtitles. Never the less, I had a good laugh watching the movie, albeit the few times I had to ask my bf to translate some parts of the conversation to me. Had to ask ler, my dad and my bf were laughing their asses off, while my mum, sisters & I were just stone like that :P
"Wa eh hiau tia tan pok"
The storyline is quite simple: In Singapore, everyone wants to get rich. Everyone wants to hit the jackpot. Everyone tries their luck at 4D, Toto, Magnum etc. Even going to illegal bookies. Got chance mar, try mar. You don't try, means no chance ok. And this story revolves around 3 friends... Huang is a compulsive gambler who's negelcting his family's bak-kut-teh stall, Richard is a family man, but spends most of his money on buying numbers hoping one fine day he'll strike it big (thus always bickering with his wife) and Shun, a young man with an ambitious mind who detests the gambling habit, but is stuck with a money-sucking girlfriend. A twist of events lands both Huang & Shun into prison, thus leaving Richard to fend for himself and the bank loan. Go find out what happened yourself, too lazy to type here :P
What Jack Neo is trying to potray here is that the chinese community (in general).... are a gambling money minded lot :P It's true, we're money minded. Everything we do comes down to the sounds of
"ka-ching!" Eventhough this is a Singaporean movie, it appeals to all, especially the chinese. In the movie, it also shows what people would do anything to ensure they strike it big: pray to the dead, accident happen jot down the car number plate first, police give you saman (summon), take the saman's reference number and buy 4D etc. You see places like Magnum as your
"Choi-Sun-Yeh" or God of Prosperity. In actual fact, the buyers are the REAL
"Choi-Sun-Yeh" - cos you're giving away your money to lottery counters. Ekekekekekeke :P
I don't buy numbers, mainly cos the odds are against me and I don't really like the idea. Although once a while my bf will buy just for the fun of it (
read: contribute to make places like Magnum & Toto richer), we're not obsessed about striking the jackpot lar (
read: it would be good to strike it though :P). Buying numbers is merely an alternative method of wasting your money, it has no guarantees. Don't be obsess in striking it big, borrowing from loan sharks and bla bla bla. In the mean time, my colleague just kena saman, so excuse me while I jot down the reference number :P