Mee Pok Man (1995) User Reviews

A Nutshell Review: Mee Pok Man

[DICK STEEL · 6/10 · 4 September 2005]

This is probably the movie credited with sparking a comeback of Singapore films, and watching it, you can probably spot various influences this Eric Khoo film had on the other more contemporary attempts by the various local filmmakers like Djinn and Jack Neo (whom of course, were in Eric Khoo movies).

Joe Ng (of local band Padres) front the cast as the title character, and Michelle Goh, in her debut, stars as Bunny, the prostitute he is infatuated with. Being a dim witted noodle seller, he's naturally shy and worships her from afar, as she's one of the regulars at the coffee-shop where his shop is at. Bunny, on the other hand, thinks lowly of the mee pok seller, and in your usual SPG character, goes for the ang-mo Jonathan, some sleazy photographer played by David Brazil.

The storyline's pretty basic, and you might think that at the point when Bunny became a victim of a hit-and-run, that the plot might pick up. Actually it sort of went downhill from there, as the mee pok man carries her injured body off to his home to care for her, to be with her. Alas, you should know what happens without proper medical attention.

Towards the end of the film, it drags with mee pok's man soliloquay, and Bunny didn't have much to do except be there to complete the scene. Somehow with the forced dialogue, it lengthened a scene which should have been shortened to improve the pace, which was quite erratic throughout the movie.

In its day, the language might have the audience taken aback, with characters mouthing off profanities in different dialects. But like I mentioned, it probably had made others sit up and notice that perhaps local movies should feature swearing to give it more street cred? Something else which stood out - while featuring many languages in the movie mirrors our multi-racial / multi-language society, having characters converse in different dialects (like the Fortune Teller scene) sometimes doesn't cut it too realistically.

Another point of controversy at its time was the nudity, or perceived nudity. The opening credits had still shots of a boob, butt and the female pubic region. You might wonder if it's necessary actually - doesn't really serve any purpose or facilitate the plot. Or the fact that Jonathan shoots nude photos. Given today, it'll probably be glossed over without much thought, and given an NC-16 rating.

Characterisation called for attention, as the main characters Bunny and Mee Pok man didn't really have much of a motive, the former seeking inner peace and to leave Singapore, the latter just wanting to be with her until the morbid end. Other characters, like Lim Kay Tong's Mike Kor the Pimp, was stereotyped, as are many of the minor characters in the movie. Cameos were plenty too, like X'Ho, Djinn, S.M.Ong etc.

But I still reckon it's a pretty decent first effort, and marked improvement can already be seen in 12 Storeys. While awaiting eagerly for Eric Khoo's latest offering Be With Me, this movie would allow you to appreciate how much things had changed for the better.

Good luck

[cfisher13 · 4/10 · 27 April 2006]

I guess this movie would have been a little better if common sense was used. The main character comes in counter with the prostitute when she's struck by a car. Okay that's fine and dandy but let's take her to a hospital for help. Not to the apartment when you think you can cure her. I have to be honest the plot of this movie could have been extremely better. I didn't like seeing him lay with a dead body in his apartment until her body is decaying. I mean no cops showed up because of the smell. It just seemed like a lame Romeo and Juliet story. I did like the fact that he decided to stick up for himself a little. But he didn't handle death very well. Which is common for most people who experience loved ones passing. She found a way out of prostitution but I don't think that was the way she expected. I honestly wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone.

Avoid this one.

[a.v. boy · 2/10 · 17 November 2001]

A repulsive little film. Presented in the form of high melodrama, the story line is a repugnant mixture of self-loathing, obsession, and delusion, but that makes it sound much better than it is. In the hands of this amateurish first-time director, even a far better script would have gone down the toilet. As it was, faced with this depressing and unwatchable mess, I ended up fast-forwarding through the last couple of scenes just to see if anything would change my impression.

Some of the actors, most notably the female lead and the head gangster, do their best to pull off a believable performance, but you sense they were sabotaged at every junction by bad directing. The male lead, never quite sure which leg he was supposed to limp on, or what exactly was wrong with his back, probably heard directions like "Now, look at the camera. No, wait, don't look!" A few of the actors were truly inept, raising the question as to why they were ever cast, although that brings us back to the director.

Just in case you're still thinking about seeing this film, I'm going to now include a SPOILER. Stop reading now, if you're absolutely intent on ruining your own evening.

Spoiler/spoilage (pun intended): Our hero, the noodle man, is supposedly some kind of mentally deficient loner. Other than depression, and low self-esteem, we're never quite sure what his deficiencies are, any more than we are what is wrong with his leg or back, or maybe the other leg. He takes a fancy to one of the women who frequents his noodle stall, one of a group of prostitutes who hang out in the communal market between "bookings". His morose life drones on, almost as boringly as the movie, until one evening when his secret love interest, drunk after trying to drown her sorrows, is hit by a car outside the market. Heartbroken, desperate, and not knowing what to do (call the ambulance, moron!) he picks up her bleeding, unconscious form, hails a cab, and yes! takes her home. That's right, to his home, not the hospital. We are then treated to pathetic scenes of him trying to save her by lovingly mopping her brow, while she presumably is dying of internal injuries. Not only that, but he continues to go to work, day after day, leaving her at home, suffering, semiconscious, unable to take care of herself, while we are treated to voiceovers of her diary entries being read by her bored brother, at home. Eventually, they make love, she dies, he grieves, he dresses her up and props her up at the kitchen table, and talks to her for many days until she decomposes. And the neighbors never notice? You shouldn't notice either. Don't watch it. The end.

A Movie That Never Got a Fair Chance

[scharnbergmax-se · 10/10 · 15 February 2009]

We are in the red light district in Singapore, with a group of prostitutes that are "owned" by a criminal gang. Before the girls start their night work they will usually gather at the fish noodle restaurant owned by the Mee Pok man. He is secretly in love with Bunny, but had never dared to talk to her. She is the most beautiful and also the one who draws in most money to the gang.

Before I shall tell how they finally meet, I cannot avoid some polemics, because the erroneous memory of an external reviewer has influenced other people's perception of the plot in more than one way. This reviewer states that "Bunny is beaten and thrown out of a car", evidently just outside the fish noodle restaurant. - However, who could have beaten her and thrown her out of a car? As I understand the movie, the gang and not the girls find all the customers, so a customer could hardly have done it. Could it be the gang? A beautiful prostitute is a valuable asset. It would be against the interest of the gang just to throw the girl out without further ado. And if the intention is to punish a girl, it is easy to inflict pain in such a way that her capacity as a prostitute will not be impaired. One of the gangsters actually says that all their girls should be spanked once a week.

Bunny hopes intensively to get away from her profession. All her "colleagues" know that she is dreaming about some foreign tourist who would take her to his homeland. Indeed, she asks some of her customers for such help, but with no success.

We will never see the accident, but it cannot be doubted that a car bumped into Bunny just outside the restaurant, shortly after it had closed for the night. Mee Pok man finds her and takes her to his apartment. His first thought it to call a doctor or an ambulance. But he immediately realises that then he will lose her. So he cuts the telephone instead.

To Bunny it is a great and touching surprise that a man could care for her without immediately thinking of sex. It is quite possible that she would eventually have recovered from his loving care.

Bunny had disappeared without a trace, and the gangsters are searching everywhere for her. They search the home of her mother and younger brother. They thoroughly beat up an English customer, who was never interested in anything more than performing sex and taking photos.

At last they come to Mee Pok man. If they had beaten Bunny up and had thrown her out of a car just outside this restaurant, this would have been the first place to turn to.

Here is also one of those scenes which make me conclude that Mee Pok man was not merely very shy, but mentally retarded. If he had not been so, he would have realised that the gangsters had no reason to suspect him of having anything to do with the disappearance of the girl. But he might have seen some other guest talking to her.

There was no sensible reason for him to shout a 12-letter-word (which IMDb would censor) against the gangsters. So they beat him up much more thoroughly than the Englishman. But they definitely do not do it in order to have him talk.

But beating him up, almost until he fainted, would have serious consequences. When he comes home he sleeps with Bunny for the first time. Of course, he had always longed to sleep with her. But as far as I can see, the reason why he really does it now, is for consoling himself after the beating.

But Bunny had not improved sufficiently for sexual intercourse. Her face reveals her pain, but her profession had probably taught her not to say stop.

The sex act is presented in grandiose symbolism - a grandiosity which, in my view, is exceeded only by the sexual intercourse in Jules Dassin's movie "Phaedra".

But Bunny dies during the act.

Then Mee Pok man slaps his face many times while shouting invectives against himself.

Afterwards, he places her corpse in a chair at the table every time he is eating, as if they were eating together. She decays more and more. In the final scene he is lying next to her altogether putrefied body in the bed, decently fondling her and saying, "Others loved you only when you were beautiful, but I still love you."

This movie has had two plot summaries. Having written one of them myself, I am not in a suitable situation to decide which of them is the best.

But both had been taken away, when some user complained somewhat like the following: "Now that I know how the movie ends, there is no reason for me to see the movie." I think such an argument is not worth listening to. If it were true, there would be no reason to see any movie more than once.

What is today's situation? If someone should happen to encounter the title, he or she could not look up IMDb and get any information that would help him decide whether to buy or lend this movie.

I think that the director and his team deserve better than that.

It is obvious that this is not a movie which everyone would appreciate, but there is definitely a group that would love it.

I do not expect everyone to share my evaluation. But in my view this is the best Asian movie released outside Japan.

fish noodle surprise

[chinpeng · 8/10 · 4 July 2004]

This film drags on a little too long, the story is cheesy, but there's humour in here. To simply judge this as a drama is an error. This is dark comedy. Perhaps not particularly well-executed at parts, but a comedy nonetheless. The fish noodle man runs his late father's shop in Singapore. He sees a prostitute get injured, takes her back to his apartment etc. The main character is not 'retarded' in the way that we use the word. He's just different, and a little slow. Singaporean dialect is used here, mixing up Chinese and English.

I only recommend this film to people with a dark sense of humour.