Nasi Lemak 2.0 辣死你妈 - Movie Review

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Nasi Lemak 2.0 辣死你妈

Presents : Prodigee Media Sdn Bhd
In Associate With : UB Prodigee Entertainment
Producer : Fred Chong & Sylvia Lim
Director : Namewee
Movie Genre : Comedy
Movie Duration : 1 Hour 48 Minutes

Languages :
Manglish, Malay, Tamil, Mandarin, Japanese &
Several Chinese Dialect (Cantonese - Hakka - Hokkien - Teochew)

Cast :
Namewee, Karen Kong, Adibah Noor, David Arumugam, Afdlin Shauki,
Kenny & Chee, Dennis Lau, Reshmonu, Nadine Ann Thomas

The Plot
A young chef, Huang Da Xia (played by Namewee) struggles to get his restaurant business going. The reason his restaurants rarely gets customers is because he cannot adapt to the "localized" cooking his patrons are looking for. However, contradicting his unpopular cuisine, he is also well-known as "Hero Huang" in the local neighborhood where he carries out good deeds in helping the community (e.g: Filming videos and putting them on his Youtube account) until he met Xiao K (played by Karen Kong) who asked for his help.


Xiao K's father, owner of a famous Chinese restaurant, is fighting with her aunt for the ownership of the restaurant. After some complicated discussions, they decided to hold a contest to see who can cook the best Chinese dish. Desperate to get his life and the restaurant business back on track, Chef Huang decided to help Xiao K. Huang seeks help from a mysterious hawker stall lady (played by Adibah Noor), who summons him to embark on an extraordinary journey of his life. During this self-enlightening experience, he will also meet many "local heroes" each lending their support to help him re-discover his roots and the real hidden message of "Nasi Lemak". (Taken from Wikipedia)






The Verdict
Somehow the unoriginal plot and the ending could been a Malaysian masterpiece film. Despite the lack of budget for production, Nasi Lemak 2.0 indeed is very well done. The convincing acting performance, the local sense of humour and the commendable attempt on educating the spectators about multi-racial unity non-politically. As from the movie, it is shown that Namewee's first time acting is very Stephen-Chow-influenced.


I put it the way that the plot is similar to Chow's God of Cookery. The movie itself defeats 1Malaysia purpose as it is more of a local Chinese film more than anything else. The best part of the movie is where the old timers like Kenny Chan and Uncle Chee (from the 90s sitcom "Baba dan Nyonya") is featured.






The Negative Norms Explored
If a non-local to head into the cinema to watch this movie, it is somehow sad to to say that they won't be able to understand the negative norms explored in this movie. I personally give both my thumbs up towards the negative norms been brought out through the movie; For example :


1. Malay road bullies
2. Stubborn traditional mindset of Chinese citizens
3. Sudden electricity and water cuts
4. Slow internet connection
5. Most citizens lack of courage to help those in need
6. Slow services of restaurants
7. Bright non-Muslim students unable to enroll into universities
8. Authorities bias in favour of Malays
9. Chinese educated citizens speak poor English


10. Typical Chinese disco goers
11. Low salary
12. Immigrants issues
13. Hang Tuah's unsolved identity mystery
14. Try-hard Japanese Malaysians
15. English educated Chinese lack of confidence in speaking Chinese language
16. Kuala Lumpur a busy and unsettling city
17. Some non-Chinese could speak better Chinese
18. How obsessed Malaysia are with online social media.






The Message
The most convincing message in this movie were the Malaysian Chinese are Malaysians, not China-Chinese. So, the Malaysian Chinese should be proud to be a Malaysian. The young generation can also learn the Malaysian's multicultural custom and each and every races' tradition.


For my personal view that I initially had no intention to watch this movie, but somehow the ease of comments by friends and the public had made me to take this opportunity to watch this well done film. No matter in what condition, it is recommended to head into the cinema for the crack of jokes of this film. Watch the trailer below, I am very sure you will totally agree with me.

Movie Rating : 9/10

P/S :
Taking this opportunity to send my condolences
to one of the cast who acted as the Baba in this movie
- Uncle Chee Hood Siong, 66.

He was best known for his rold as Baba in the 90's sitcom
Onde-Onde together with Kenny Chen (Nyonya).

Rest In Peace, Uncle Chee !