Mark Lee Says He Would Look For Henry Thia If He Needs Money 'Cos The Latter Spends S$1K A Month Shopping Online

8days.sg met Jack Neo, 63, Mark Lee, 54, and Henry Thia, 71, at the press conference for Money No Enough 3 at Resorts World Sentosa’s Equarius Hotel, and of course, we had to speak to them about, well, all things money.
The very first Money No Enough film premiered in 1998 to huge success, earning over S$5.8mil at the box office.
The second instalment of the franchise was released 10 years later, in 2008, with Jack, Mark, and Henry returning to play whole new characters.
Similarly, Money No Enough 3, which is set to premiere in cinemas next Chinese New Year, will see the trio returning to play a new set of characters, whose stories revolve around their — you guessed it — financial woes.
But why the 15-year wait?
According to Jack, who is once again directing the film, it took him some time to “grasp the concept of money and how it has changed over the years”.
“We’re going to introduce elements like NFT coin and cryptocurrency. We’re not going to make it a documentary, but we wanna let people know that in current times, money no longer just means cold hard cash. Money is a figure and people are not using ‘real’ money for transactions anymore,” explained Jack.
He also teased an upgrade in production quality, a script that matches up to the first two very popular instalments, and a “surprise” in the form of Mark’s acting skills.
“I wanted to challenge him, so he’s gonna play two characters,” Jack let on.

Before reuniting on the set of Jack’s The King of Musang King, which aired during Chinese New Year in January this year, it had been 13 years since Jack, Mark, and Henry got together to work on a project.
However, when seated in the same room, it was clear as day that their bond remains as steadfast as ever. As Mark puts it, “the chemistry is still there”.
We would be lying if we said we weren’t expecting something hilarious when we posed this question to the three of them: “If your ‘money no enough’, which of your other two cast mates would you approach to ask for a loan?”
Without missing a beat, Mark quipped: “No lah they very poor one. I won’t call them. But if I had to choose one, it’ll be Henry. Jack has lots of instalments to pay. Henry doesn’t, so of course I’ll call him lah.”
Henry immediately extended his arms dramatically and announced: “Welcome to my storeroom.”
See, they lived up to our expectations.
Mark continued: “He got a lot of extra money you know, he goes to Taobao to buy all the rubbish! He doesn’t even know what he buys. If he has a cash register in his storeroom, he can start a business there. Can you imagine he stays in a HDB flat, but he bought the kind of industrial saw people use to make furniture?”
As Henry started to tell us he “likes making things”, Mark interjected with: “He likes to make noise! [And] disturb his neighbours!”
Another of Henry’s impulse purchases? A small tabletop air conditioner which cost him “50 to 60 dollars”.
It was one of his most regrettable buys as it did not work as advertised.
According to Mark, “a fan is colder than the air-con”.
“I used to be an air-con [technician] leh. I still believed the air con could work [despite it being] so small. How stupid am I? I go and buy, I turn it on, it’s a heater,” Henry complained.
Despite being “scolded” by Mark for making the useless purchase, Henry revealed he still spends “S$1K a month buying things online”.
He then asked his assistant to bring him his latest gadget — a pen-sized acupoint massager — so he could show us how it worked.
“This is for massage. I see people using it so I bought it lor. My eyes kept twitching, so this is supposed to help with it,” said Henry, pressing the massage pen against his neck.
While we can see Henry’s head vibrating, Mark told us: “Actually his eyes are still twitching now, but his head is shaking, so you can’t tell.”
Jack added: “He’s easy to cheat, as long as you bring out the funny gadgets.”
And that was the hardest we ever laughed during an interview.
Watch more of the trio’s funny antics, and find out who amongst them have fallen victim to scams in our video interview below.
Photos: Dillon Tan
Video: Pyron Tan