A Delicious Serving of Nasi Lemak 2.0

Honestly, I do not watch local movie productions that much. Those that I did tend to reduce my intelligence to a pulping slime from a few hours to weeks. I would like to support the industry. I really love to but I’m just to dissappointed to support crappy lame action/drama/comedy types that are being churned out. Until now that is!

With the untimely death of Yasmin Ahmad I really though I would never ever watch a good local made movie again. It was not until I saw the trailer and poster of controversial rapper/singer Namewee first ever movie. With a cast of local big names like Adibah Noor, Rashmonu, Aflin Shauki just to name a few it looked promising and fun.

Directed, written and staring Namewee himself it was a huge challenge for him in producing this movie. Albeit especially with a limited budget of less than a million ringgit. But all I can say that it was done rather well for a first time with limited budget and equipment.

The story in short (as I do not want to spoil the story for you) is about a boy who grows up to become Chef Huang (Namewee), a local neighbourhood hero who helps the people in the area of their problems. Facing financial trouble after his return from studying Chinese cooking in China he helps Xiao K (Karen Kong) to get back her father’s restaurant in a family dispute through a cooking competition.

Facing his arch rival from China, Lan Qiao (Dennis Lau) he goes on a journey after receiving guidance from Kak Noor (Adibah Noor) the incredible Nasi Lemak seller to make the best Nasi Lemak. On this journey he meet various people and find out the true meaning of Nasi Lemak.

A story full of satire based on Malaysian culture, race, food and general (mis)conceptions on everything Malaysian. It is a movie that will tickle your tummy silly and will blow you away with the witty dialogue and the parody of local current events. Worth every cent spend.

The movie however is not perfect but it is certainly passable. The editing and video quality need much improvement as transitions from one scene to another was quite sudden and sometimes just weird. Although how good a Canon Mk2 might be the quality can be seen to be not on par if it was shot with a more higher end professional movie camera. Camera work can be done a little better as well. Do NOT get me wrong. Even with this slight shortcoming due to the budget obviously it should NOT deter you from watching this movie.

Although mainly in mandarin which I do not speak although I understand it to a certain extent(I’m what you call a Banana, just don’t call me chao banana!) with a dash of various others like Malay, English, Tamil and even Hokkien and Hakka the script is witten pretty good, the music…funny, the story is awesome and you’ll come out the hall with a smile on your face. I highly recommend that you watch it with friends for the extra atmosphere especially if they are well informed about local current events.

The trailer:

Official themesong from the movie:

Will definitely rewatch again.