Two things make this local lightweight, light-hearted mahjong comedy about heng-suay (good-bad) luck pleasing and easy to watch.
One — Luckily, no pun intended, this isn’t another CNY cooking competition show. There’s a Kung Fu Mahjong-style ultimate showdown, for sure. But breast-stroking tiles (slang for shuffling) on a mahjong table is more refreshing than chopping chicken breast on a kitchen table.
Two — Richie Koh (A Good Child) is a truly winsome young punk suddenly cursed with a chronic losing hand. Confirmed — this dude is a charming rascal.
Don’t expect big laughs. It’s mostly small chuckles propelled by a zero-challenge plot and an entirely likeable cast — directed by Singaporean Eric Wong (2024’s Hi Noel) — who should stick together for another pic. Even unsmiling Tay Ping Hui playing the heavy here isn’t a turnoff.
Koh plays Zhuo Tian Cai, a cocky expert mahjong-er who goes from being the annoyingly lucky “godson of the Fortune God” to a total-bad-luck loser after an encounter with no-nonsense “legend of legends” champion, Gu Lei (Tay). The stern, white-haired Gu scolds the wannabe for his arrogant attitude, bad temper and low-class behaviour. “Know your limits,” he warns.
The man taps Tian Cai’s shoulder and instantly the kid’s luck goes from super heng (Hokkien for lucky) — he can even play two tables at the same time — to super suay (unlucky).
Okay, the s**t literally hits the fan with some lame toilet jokes here. Tian Cai’s phone drops into a WC to turn into, I guess, an Oppoop. Sorry. I digress.
A mysterious AI online site tells the puzzled lad that his previously blessed good fortune has been jinxed by a Fate Overseer, meaning: Mr Gu. To get his MJ (mojo) for MJ (mahjong) back, he needs to enrol in a mahjong school for proper training to beat his nemesis in a big-time King Of Kings competition.
Here, director Wong dots the plot with characters who are fortunately, no pun intended again, mostly pleasant and pleasantly local.
Newbie Cynthia Li (who’s apparently actually trained as a pharmacist) as Xin Yi, Tian Cai’s primary-school crush and reconnected girlfriend. Joey Swee as his loopy youngish mom. One zany palm reader. And even a boorish MJ king from Geylang.
FYI. Mr Geylang waxes funnily about mahjong’s holy grail — the Thirteen Wonders — which is a boss-level feat so rare it tops even Arsenal winning the Premier League. Good to know.
The cast is ably rounded up by four amiably offbeat teachers from that said mahjong school, MIT — Mahjong Institute of Technique, geddit? — which looks like an Airbnb shophouse for TCM refugees.
There’s a low-rent mystic-mountain Karate Kid thingy going on here. Tian Cai is subjected to disciple abuse by the masters who instil tough battle-table discipline.
Real-life cosplayer Rurusama pseudo-BDSM-ses the fella into maintaining a poker face as though she’s corralling horndogs at a computer fair. Elderly sage (Wet Season’s Yang Shi Bin) dispenses herbal-tonic mumbo-jumbo — “If you cannot respect the mahjong tiles, the mahjong tiles will not respect you.
Huh? Er, does this include bathroom tiles too?
It’s all light, harmless fun that could’ve used a seriously wicked madcap boost, Stephen Chow-style, given that the game cast is clearly up for a gaming good time. Alas, this flick plays it family-fun safe and predictable.
Director Wong should’ve installed more mahjong-playing scenes. The climactic showdown at the pro-level competition table is a bit of a letdown when it could’ve been jazzed up to high sweaty-brow tension. Genuinely out-ponged mahjong players laughing at the absurd plays here, notwithstanding.
But Wong, of course, has something better than good fortune here. He has Singapore cinema’s find of our time, Mr Charisma, Richie Koh.
Good luck or bad luck, this easy charmer wins all the time. (3/5 stars) in cinemas Feb 17