Jiyuan qiaohe

As much as I'd like to support the local film industry. it's movies like CRW that make me more unwilling to part with my 6 bucks. This film had some amusing parts like the Chinese-singing Malay woman... a few one-liners here and there... but that's about it.

The premise of the film wasn't the problem... the execution was. First of all, let's get over the "Singapore-being-food-paradise" c*** thing and stop over-killing on mundane shots of food being prepared... we get the idea! The chemistry between May Yee and Pierre was not there either. I wasn't sure if it was because of their lacklustre acting or the weak script-writing... **Gee! She succumbed to a Tiffany necklace? How's that for true love?** Speaking of acting, was that what May Yee was doing... or just giving her haughty modelling poses and facial expressions? I didn't have a problem with her in 12 Storeys, but it really looked like she wasn't trying at all in this effort. The other actors basically sufficed as caricatures of the hawker centre fare. Like most of my friends, I was also wondering about the purpose of the character Leon. He seemed like a "token" gay character to attract local gay audiences to the movie. But even then, his chracterisation was weak and ambiguous. It was only till the end that all was revealed and he was portrayed as a psycho-stalker of an MTV VJ.

Therefore, like the food served at myriad chicken rice stores we see at food courts all over Singapore, Chicken Rice War is bland, forgettable and lacks that something special. As Pierre Png uttered in the film.. "This STUPID chicken rice war!" Nuff said...