28 Jan 2009

The Wedding Game

Director: Ekachai Uekrongtham

Starring: Fann Wong, Christopher Lee, Alice Lau, Chen Jian Zhou

Release: 2009-01-28

The Wedding Game opened in the cinemas last Friday to compete against Love Matters and All's Well End's Well for the Chinese New Year crowd. And admittedly, it's the best among the three. That's not to say, however, that the comedy is actually good. In fact, it's quite limp and unfunny most of the time, relying far too much on the star wattage of its lead actors to pull the story through.

Singapore's biggest celebrity couple Fann Wong and Christopher Lee (who are scheduled to wed soon) play Singapore's biggest celebrity couple who are scheduled to wed soon. But what the public doesn't know is that their romance is a sham and the two stars actually can't stand each other. The wedding plans were simply concocted by their ambitious managers (Alice Lau and Chen Jian Zhou) to generate buzz for their stars and seal lucrative endorsement deals.

Fann and Chris move in together to convince the public and the press of their growing commitment. At first, they struggle to put up appearances. But little by little, they start to see the sweet side of each other and eventually fall in love

The premise begins interestingly enough, but quickly becomes stale and predictable. Few of the jokes are actually funny, and the fact that Christopher takes off his shirt a lot doesn't do much good - he's not exactly young, after all. Fann and Christopher are so well-known in the TV industry that they've attracted plenty of cameos by the likes of Quan Yifeng, Zhu Houren and Cassandra See. But the thrill of star-spotting dies quickly too, and you're back with limp gags.

As a sidenote to LGBT readers, Taiwanese cutie Chen Jian Zhou plays Chris' manager who looks and acts totally gay. But by the end of the movie, he announces that he's straight. What a cop-out! The Wedding Game is strictly for fans of Fann and Chris.