Liang Po Po Vs Ah Beng Review: Jack Neo’s Iconic Granny Crosses The Causeway — And Loses The Plot

Liang Po Po vs Ah Beng (PG13)

Starring Jack Neo, Jack Lim, Jestinna Kuan, Danny Lee, Ivory Chia, Yu Zhi, Terence Cao

Directed by Matt Lai

Pairing Singapore's Ah Ma with Malaysia's Ah Beng in brave-old-world Kuala Lumpur sounds not bad.

For half of this “separated old sisters” CNY reunion movie.

When Jack Neo's Liang Po Po, flitting from place to place with her hoo-hoo sounds, handbag and lau ah hmm shuffle, provides a running commentary about our Sin-Mal divide as though he/she is a dime-store social analyst.

“We Singaporeans never try to challenge people,” she exclaims to a jiuhu thug, reminding KL-zens that she’s an 85-year-old fish out of water. For added fishiness, LPPL — full name: Liang Po Po Lolita (if you know, you know) — goes under an actual table to learn about Malaysia’s very useful “under-table culture” of settling matters.

Wink wink.

And this is amusing — on our neighbours' side, Malaysia Boleh should really be Malaysia Boleh-ing. Since for over 30 years, the slogan is actually a work in progress.

So far okay.

But when this deal turns into a kidnap tale where Jack Lim’s squeaky-voiced Malaysian security guard Ah Beng comes more into play, this whole thing, directed by Matt Lai (All In), recedes back to lowbrow humour and lower-class acting like a ringgit-based cheap sale. Ah Beng’s beloved daughter, Xiao Yun (Emerald Hill’s Ivory Chia), is snatched, along with a rich kid, by unknown baddies.

Here's the thing.

If this Jacked-up team-up was sharper and bolder instead of being genially skit-patched to the lowest common denominator, man, there’s gold to be mined in its two-neighbours-divided-by-a-common-causeway existential hang-up.

Kudos to it for being the first pic to truly tap into our parody-rich cross-cultural crossfire.

Now, in competitive terms — as in bak ku teh, lohei yusheng, jobs, water rights, etc — which this flick runs through like a kopitiam complaint list, our Liang Po Po, admittedly a turnoff to some on our side, is actually funnier than their uncomical simpleton Ah Beng. The latter basically charges like a flustered bull through a Chinese-centric shop. There’s virtually no multi-cultural input here.

To be fair though, Lim’s Ah Beng Malaysian TV series and movies were spouted in thousand-times-more-entertaining Cantonese. Which means, of course, there’s a gag about Singapore's “authoritarian” killjoy percentage limit on dialects in films.

LPPL is in KL because after being rejected for a, er, bowl job — dishwashing lah — over here, she’s inspired to head up north by a Malaysian politician looking to turn Singaporeans into foreign workers.

Everybody laughs at this absurd 3-vs-1 currency-exchange career move as Liang joins a snooty rich family whose big house is like going from “Changi Airport to Tuas”. She becomes a Mrs Doubtfire-style nanny employed to look after chubby spoilt brat Ah Boy (Yu Zhi).

The kid has a crush on Xiao Yun who questions whether her own doting “useless” father is her real dad since she looks like a mini-Chaka Khan with zero-resemblance curly hair.

Gotta say. These two youngsters, stuck together in comically awkward puppy love, are funnier than the grown-ups here.

Somehow, both kids are captured by a bunch of KL-beng pai kias working for an unseen secret boss who’s linked to an even richer dude, human-organ traffickers and a surprise reveal right at the end. I know, I know. Even Ah Beng himself despairs in meta mockery, “Isn't this story over yet?”.

The show turns into a chase-com filled with tacky action scenes — the two Jacks are aided by a kickass schoolteacher, Jia Yi (Jestinna Kuan), and taxi driver Ah Gee (Danny Lee) — which the filmmakers presumably believe are what folks who are Liang Po Po’s seniority, senility and social circle would like to see.

Maybe.

Wait. Hold that thought.

Our astute kaypoh amah observes wryly that Singapore “by law, settles” while Malaysia resolves things through discussions with kopi.

You know, both ways should’ve led people in charge here to decide not to kidnap this pic away from its primary comedic asset, Ms LPPL.

Okay then. Maybe not. (2.5/5 stars) in cinemas Jan 17

Photo: GV Pictures