In fact the set-up suggests that a local filmmaker – not to say just Neo – should have thought up the whole film just by looking around in Singapore: a pair of Filipino guest workers and manual labourers live a bitter-sweet life in a foreign land, with only their fantasies, dreams, and hopes keeping them alive and happy. Given that Singapore as much as Taiwan (where this film is really set) relies on the labour of lowly-paid foreign workers living in appalling and even jail-like conditions, one really does wonder.
While a Singaporean filmmaker would have taken a sharper edge with more unflinching social commentary on this film, Malaysian emigre Ho Wi Ding is content to play it for laughs. The pair of labourers in Pinoy Sunday are Manuel (Epy Quizon) and Dado (Bayani Agbayani). One is carefree, daft, and full of crazy ideas while the other is a responsible, pragmatic man who wants to keeps out of trouble, above all things. One generally makes all the funny lines while the other slaps him on the head for being silly. Did I mention that one is fat and the other is thin?
It’s on a lazy Sunday afternoon when the pair discover an unwanted brand new sexy red sofa (which contrasts just nicely with their drab factory-dormitory-jailhouse, as well as with the equally drab Taipei urbanscape) that all hell breaks loose. Yes, it’ll be another fine mess the duo will find themselves in as they find themselves traipsing through the Taipei county with their little red sofa in tow.
Ho’s decision to make Pinoy Sunday an accessible, almost timeless comedy might be more appropriate than the Singaporean angst that his script could have drawn upon. But still, one wonders...
PS. Ho Wi-ding will attend special Q&A sessions at Cineleisure Orchard cinema after the 5pm and 7pm screenings on 18 June 2011 and after the 11am, 1pm and 3pm screenings on 19 June 2011.
Printable Version
RSS Feed: Lifestyle
