Born 36 years ago in the year of the pig, Peng has progressed to a perfect spot in his life. Well, "perfect" being a relative word since he is single, plays video games all the time, eats junk food and works in IT support when he is seen as a fat pig by his colleagues. When a red envelope drops through his door with a note showing a map to a place of treasure and reward, Peng assumes it is a lottery ticket that will change his life. He is wrong about the former but perhaps the latter is true.
I do not often see the main Sky movie channels showing short films so when I spotted this one in the listings I assumed that it must have a certain something that meant it became one of the few to make it onto the channel and so I taped it. From the very start the tone was all wrong as it delivered this weirdly jaunty jokey tone in regards the music and look but not in the material. This air continues across the film without any sign that it will be clever or funny. Instead what the film is is a "message" film about getting from life what you put into it or, more specifically, volunteering to help others in need is more rewarding than sitting in your bedsit playing video games on your tod.
This is a worthy enough message but sadly the film totally fumbles it. By trying to build on top of this rather strange and unsuccessful comic feel the film cannot get any sense of the value of the message and just extends the unfunny delivery. To make matters worse, scenes of Peng volunteering are delivered with this terribly woolly, multi-cultural, middle-class "help the little people" feel that is really off putting and simplistic. For all his weaknesses as writer, Wu backs up his back ideas with bad delivery as well, drawing really bad performances from everyone. The "real people" at the end I can forgive (although they are painfully "am-dram" or awkward) but the main two are really misjudged. Tan and Yu overact in a really silly fashion; credit to them for trusting the director that this would work but the truth is that it just doesn't and they come off looking silly (Yu's flapping particularly uninspired).
Worthy message then but a terrible way to deliver it.
