Just Follow Law (2007) User Reviews

Just Laugh Loh! - Funny, though lacking in focus and direction

[themovieclub · 6/10 · 8 February 2007]

Directed by Singapore's most successful commercial filmmaker, Jack Neo's "Just Follow Law" looks into the rigidness of the local civil service. From "Money No Enough" to "I Not Stupid", his films never fail to make a social commentary on the society, with characters who reflect reality of life in Singapore.

Through the experiences of a director and technician who exchanges souls in a freak accident, "Just Follow Law" demonstrates the bureaucracy, endless red tape, and inefficiency of government bodies and organisations. It would strike a chord with local blue collared workers. But the emotions and angst of the common people which made the "I Not Stupid" series very strong, was not well-developed. The sub-plot of soul switching and 'mini-MTVs' slowed down the pace and shifted its focus during the middle.

After criticisms of her English on foreign TV, Fann Wong showed her improvement playing the elite scholar Tanya Chew. After the switch of souls, she slipped in comfortably as a vulgar technician who scratches her (his) backside and sits with open legs. She certainly made her 6-figure paycheck worth and proved her versatility in acting.

Gurmit Singh was not overly exaggerated as in most of the comedies he performed (including the disastrous Singapore Idol hosting), but turned in a subtle and gentle performance as a trapped woman.

Other minor characters such as Lao Char Bo (Fann's mother), the Indian security guard and the administrative staff stole the show with their stereotypical, yet realistic portrayal of people we see around. Are we laughing at them or laughing at ourselves?

Product Placement is a double-edged sword. Without sponsors, there won't be a movie, but it diminishes the artistic merits of the movie. Spot the number of sponsors and see how much you get correct at the end credits. It isn't too difficult as most are repeat sponsors from previous movies. So expect Fann Wong to open a fridge full of Super products, also indulging in her New Moon abalone. Talk about subtlety! Tsk Tsk!

It gets worse as Jack Neo (who plays a doctor) also appears in a Mitsubishi ad and Fann Wong appeared in a Bella ad in the movie. Double roles or breaking characters? Major fault.

"Just Follow Law" does provide some laughs along the way through is characterisation and little situations we face in our working life. Unfortunately, mistakes made in his previous films resurface again. Songs should be used to bring a film forward not stall it Even though Billy Koh's Ocean Butterfly helped to produce the songs, 3 songs were too much. The focus on office politics got lost along the way, and the ending became another one of those predictable stage plays used in his last movie.

"Just Follow Law" still screams 'Channel 8' and lacks the movie quality. Overall, a good 'Chinese New Year' piece for the family, but expect no awards. Jack Neo may be a good social commentator but still has some time to go before he can be considered an accomplished director.

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A Nutshell Review: Just Follow Law

[DICK STEEL · 6/10 · 19 February 2007]

Jack Neo is undoubtedly Singapore's most commercially successful director, having made 10 films (including this one), and almost each time, you'd hear his movies topping the charts and breaking box office records. His films touch the common heartlander chord with his fusion of satire and subtle jabs at topical issues, much akin to his skits during his Comedy Night days, and given a huge fan base built, it's no surprise if local audiences turn up in hordes to lap up his latest offering which set its sights on the civil service.

Almost everyone can identify with the frustrations of red tape bureaucracy, that incident of unpleasantness with staff in their less than helpful robotic stick-to-the-rulebook answers, and of course, attempts to shift responsibility and cover their rears. Wait! Doesn't that sound familiar, like what every other company employee will do as well? For the first twenty minutes, it's recounting office politics 101 with spot on accuracy, jazzed up by some special effects, as every tactic in the office politic arsenal get brought out to the table.

The story is set in a fictitious government body which is tasked to create jobs and encourage skills upgrading. But the fact is that almost everyone in the department needs a serious upgrade and look at themselves. You can spot the inept CEO, the conniving scheming colleagues, the unskilled miscellaneous workers, the bootlickers, and the elite scholars all having a go at each other. And at times when you laugh at their antics, somehow you're wondering if you're laughing at yourselves, especially when you recall incidents you experienced, or characters whom you see in others.

While the idea was there, the delivery was somehow let down. It played out quite childishly, and looked more like mini school skits put together in a very choppy manner. You don't fault the number of ideas the story writers have, but rather at their inability to gel them all together into an engaging narrative from start until end. At times you might think you're watching a tele-movie plagued by too many minor characters, each being a one- dimensional mouth piece for the issues they represent.

Casting Fann Wong was a coup, as she's one of the top darlings of Caldecott Hill. And one of the appeal in watching the movie, is to see how she junks her glamorous goody-two-shoes image, for a comedic role requiring her to act like a siao char bor (mad woman). And she pulled it off with aplomb, which is what manages to hold the attention of the audience. She burbs, farts, frequently molests herself by grabbing her boobs, walks like a beng, talks like a beng, swears like a beng too. According to reports, her minders got into fits with her role as Tanya Chew the scholar manager, who got her body swapped with Gurmit Singh's Lim Teng Zui, a lowly employee, as it called for her to act against her image. Well, she sure have thrown caution to the wind and it turned out well, but I thought she could have gone further, instead of having to rely on cheap editing tricks.

If Fann Wong acting like a man raised interest, the same couldn't be said for Gurmit's role as a woman, as it sure isn't like Mrs Doubtfire or Tootsie. It's relatively muted, and when the pairs on screen together, there is no doubt as to who is the movie star, with Fann giving the veteran comedian a run for his money. Although they have some chemistry together, I thought the story and dialogue sometimes lapsed into the two characters being their correct selves instead of their swapped ones. The other supporting characters are played by the usual faces from television, and are caricatures requiring

As mentioned earlier, scenes are usually made out of mini skits which try to be funny in itself, and then glued together with the lazy fade out transitions for the most parts. While there is a resemblance of a main plot, the subplots display meek attempts at comedy, or stick out like a sore thumb trying to shovel its social message down your throats, at times presenting itself awkwardly in out of place scenes. Being a Jack Neo movie, product placement is never far away, and in his latest offering, there are plenty of opportunities for product placement, which are milked to the max, one of which I thought was a mistake in having Fann seen in an advert. Jack too can't help but to put himself in a cameo, and hammering referential jabs in the script at the government (66.6% for a test out of 84, it doesn't come across any clearer than that).

The production values seem mixed though. Despite being budgeted at more than a million dollars, the look and feel at times seem like a million dollars, and at times, just felt cheap. There are a lot of special effects put into the movie, and that probably took a huge chunk from the budget, as did Fann Wong's paycheck. The effects though were rather surreal which brought out some fantastical feelings about the movie, and were also used as substitutes for obvious stunts or backdrops that proved relatively costly to make. For once, I was of the opinion that the songs in the movie weren't necessary as they failed to elicit or enhance the mood of the scene, and was there a recycling attempt at using one of the songs from an earlier film?

Just Follow Law will do well, given Fann's against-the-grain role, something audiences would not have seen before, and the fact that it's opening this Lunar New Year period. Fans of Fann, and the usual support base of Jack Neo, will definitely make this movie a hit. A pity that it could have been much better.

Gender Differences and Class Inversions - Review of "Just Follow Law"

[kampolam-75813 · 6/10 · 22 January 2023]

In 2002, Singapore released a blockbuster comedy "I Not Stupid" (2002), which has always been a strong area for Hollywood and Hong Kong Cinema, and Singapore Cinema suddenly became "overnight fame". It's directed by the famous TV comedian Jack Neo, with his Singaporean nature, rare humor and keen sense of multi-ethnic social ecology, he turned a film similar to educational TV program about the life of elementary school students into a social humor drama of laughter and scolding. Even the subject matter that Hong Kong filmmakers regard as poison can be brought back to life, and it has also captured Hong Kong's parents and educators, becoming a model.

As for "Just Follow Law" (2007), according to the director, it was because the head of state mentioned the work attitude of civil servants in a speech, which gave him an inspiration. Taking the government department as the theme, described the work attitude of civil servants, rigid, not doing a good job, and following the procedures of official documents in black and white, etc., recruited Singaporean actress Fann Wong and comedian Gurmit Singh to star, the two played the highly educated department head and the low-educated mechanic respectively. After a car accident, the souls of the two exchanged, making jokes about gender differences and class inversions.

The selling point of the film's publicity is that Fann Wong pretends to be a man and becomes the focus, and she and Gurmit Singh have performed well in dealing with identity swaps. This is thanks to the guidance of actor-turned-director Jack Neo. In the production special, we can see the director demonstrating how to play the two roles on the spot. Gurmit Singh also said that because the director is an actor, he has very precise instructions in terms of directing skills. In addition to the two main characters, other supporting roles are also very exciting, including many TV comedy experts Suhaimi Yusof, Moses Lim and Brandon Wong.

In terms of production quality, it's difficult to compare with Japan, South Korea, Mainland China and Hong Kong Cinema. As a rising star of Asian Cinema, Singaporean film director Jack Neo is undoubtedly a model, especially expressing Singapore's unique multi-racial social and cultural environment. A way of dealing with western humor, creating a film characteristic that belongs to Singapore. However, for a young country like Singapore, this kind of comedy will soon dry up in subject matter, making it unsustainable.

By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)

Jack Neo's latest government boot licking movie shows why he gets funding despite his mediocre talents

[jimmykin67 · 1/10 · 14 May 2007]

I saw this movie at a family gathering.

Don't let the summary and title fool you. While this is a movie satiring the bureaucratic behaviors of the staff of a typical Singapore government agency, it goes all out to convince the audience that the problems lie with the staff, the ordinary Singaporeans and not the country's leaders. Instead the leader/minister in the movie is portrayed as a open minded visionary who supports and rewards new ideas. This is illogical considering that Singapore practices top down leadership to the extreme, so how can the leader be so different from the staff? Add in the indirect encouragement to Singapore's Prime Minister Lee to work harder for the next elections, one couldn't help but feel that Jack Neo tries harder to boot lick the country's leaders than to make a decent movie.

And as usual, Jack Neo tries to disguise government propaganda as social commentary. The portrayals are too familiar and can be found in the daily nation building newspapers. Just 2 of the false portrayals I remember clearly.

• Old folks scavenging for empty drink cans are portrayed as financially independent people who just want to kill time (You will easily see how absurd this is if you are a foreigner).

• Blue collar workers are portrayed as lazy under-skilled workers who spend all their money on lottery and luxury items, and thus cannot even afford their children's medical fees. The truth is that one's potential is limited and wages for blue collar workers in Singapore is very low while the cost of living is high. Most blue collars workers in Singapore put in 50, 60 hours per week and still stay poor. Lottery is their only hope of making big.

The subplot of the 2 main characters switching bodies is an old idea and the director adds in nothing new.

To conclude, don't waste your money or time watching a movie that insults your intelligence, insults you and has no original funny moments.

Follow my Four Bs please!

[symeon_chiam · 9/10 · 15 April 2007]

Just Follow Law is a comedy/drama and focuses mainly on two of the characters, one upstairs - Tanya Chew (played by Fann Wong) and one downstairs - Lim Teng Zhui (played by Gurmit Singh aka PCK). Tanya Chew is a business scholar working for WAS and is the manager for the E&P Department whereas Ah Zhui is a technician working under her. Both the scenes that revolves around the main two characters would reveal much of the intention of what producer Jack Neo wants you to know and that is - for some things in life, it is not whether CAN OR NOT but whether you DARE. Tanya Chew is portrayed in this movie as a cold-blooded superior executive boss who loves ordering people around, having a lot of IQ but having nothing when it comes to EQ. Stepping on people's toes, being tactless and implying authoritarian behavior in front of her downstairs, she still do keep a certain good value (although mostly indirect being unable to display her affections), and that is being filial to her mother and having a deep heart for all her downstairs in not wanting them to fail and lose their jobs. But, such affections turned into commotions when it comes just right out from her mouth, making her being the person who least have PR skills. Have I also mentioned that she is hot-headed? Oh well, yeah, she is! =) As for Ah Zhui, being a technician he is, the first few scenes displayed his attitude as being carefree, a rule-bender (and he's really happy with it), a task-avoider and well it all sums up as being lazy. Ironically, he wants the best for his daughter, which can be seen in sending his daughter (only child) to tuitions and piano lessons. As can be seen, when asked to fix the neon lightings for the company, his first response was to 'call the contractor-lar'. Fann Wong was eager and smarty pants enough to retaliate - 'so I pay the contractor your salary?' and his reply was to avoid being the main person to 'kena arrow' by pointing to Bamboo - 'eh your joke lousy lar'... He leads a very simple life, wanting nothing more but eagerly anticipating for the payday to arrive and when it does, spend generously on food and basic necessities. They are not well-off, staying in small lots, but at least they are happy with their ongoing life, wishing for a better tomorrow.

A freak accident happen after an argument between Tanya Chew and Ah Zhui when the main blame dawns upon Ah Zhui for using masking tapes to prevent one of the boards (enclosing a heap of mess in the parking lot) from falling after running out of nails. The boards fell (and so did the minister in the heap of mess) during a photography session with the China minister upon his visit to WAS. Ah Zhui's bonuses were withdrawn, but he needs the money to fulfill his promise to his daughter, and that is to buy her a piano for her lessons and practice. Due to this argument alone, and how Tanya looks down upon him, Ah Zhui with relentless effort got himself involved in a car-chase with Tanya and what happens then was an unexplainable tragic incident.

They both exchanged souls while in the hospital and then like what they would explain and describe, Ah Zhui's body - I am Tanya Chew, Tanya is not Tanya, Ah Zhui is not Ah Zhui, Tanya is Ah Zhui, and Ah Zhui is Tanya, and I am Tanya Chew, can't you see that? Even I am confused! But speaking of which, with obvious fact, one is upgraded to a luxurious life with plenty of money and vacations to spare and spend while the other gets downgraded to a small simple life in which of obvious fact, a high achieving scholar like Tanya would probably not have experienced before. The consequences was a definite nonadjustable havoc, but watch as you will laugh coz that's where all the fun part is. Both learned about themselves when they are in another person's body and learn to help one another to again save their 'ca-cheng'. Tanya learns the most important lesson of all and that is even though the fact is clear cut about the hierarchy system in almost any companies or job description, you will never know when you will need the person's help and needed it most. Anyone can be your hero for the day or otherwise. As for Ah Zhui, well he learned about himself alright, not being able to pay for her daughter's medical fees, not being able to fulfill his daughter's desires and needs (buying a piano for her to practice, and having to borrow money for her daughter's tuition fees and piano lesson) and not being a good father to his daughter. He began to see all of these and appreciate what he once took for granted. His incapability in carrying out even the simplest of task made him aware of his status, not only towards his daughter, but to his friends and to himself.

I want a refund

[ukybes · 3/10 · 18 February 2007]

It's not everyday that we see a movie so bad that we feel like walking out of the theater barely half an hour into the movie. This movie was one of those bad picks.

Why is this so bad? First of all, it's a known fact that Jack Neo gets overtly preachy in his films (semblance of well-thought-out social commentaries). It got really annoying to hear him narrate in the background exactly the point that he was trying to portray in different scenes. It makes one wonder if his script writer is so inept at building these messages into the plot that the director has to summarize the messages for the audience.

Secondly, the pacing of the movie was terrible. The movie spent too much time on the goofs after the main characters went through a body swap. The result was a really slow moving, hardly funny, occasionally distasteful half hour that made it hard to any thinking audience to stay watching.

Thirdly, you know a movie is bad when it has to resort to creating jokes out of farting, urinating, and hurling swear words in a different dialect. In fact, there were so many expletives that I totally think it deserves an NC-16 rating for coarse language. You know it was a bad movie when the only thing you hear coming out of the theater was a young kid citing the swear words that were repeatedly used by one of the leads.

I applaud Jack Neo's intention at highlighting social ills through comedies with mass appeal. But I think he has done it at the expense of art and craftsmanship. The result is a dull and unsophisticated TV drama that happens to be on the big screen.

A cheap, and sometime funny, "TV movie look-a-like" film

[mr_cyclopede · 4/10 · 28 March 2007]

Thou it's started like a comedy and social criticize of the famous Singaporean 'No U-turn', Jack Neo's movie turn, itself, quickly in a poor copy of Black Edwards' comedies when Fann Wong and Gurmit Singh exchange their souls to find themselves in each others body. Without this 'deja-vu' effect, Neo would have reach his moral easier and more originally.

Neo's direction still looks like a newcomer film student who wants to play with the effects and have more the aspect of a TV film than a cinema feature. Even during a serious scene (Gurmit's daughter hit by a car), the cheap special effect starts laughs among audience instead of fear.

This movie should have been be produce for TV with a cheaper budget, maybe this could have let a chance for others, and better, Singaporean filmmakers to produce a higher quality feature.

But you know they let him do. It's just because, long time ago, Jack Neo made laughs...

Just Follow Laaa ! Takes a Jab at bureaucracy

[ichocolat · 9 August 2007]

This is Jack Neo's tenth movie, and I personally think this is his best yet. Like all of his previous movies, this movie topped the box-office list in Singapore.

This movie stars Fann Wong, and Gurmit Singh (from the famous Phua Chu Kang sitcom), Moses Lim, Selena Tan and many other famous actors in Singapore.

The story goes that Lim Teng Chui (at first played by Gurmit Singh before they changed bodies) hated his boss, Tanya Chew. He didn't believe in bureaucracy, a thing which is very common in Singapore. It caused her boss much trouble because she was accustomed in doing things bureaucratically.

One day, after a heated argument, Lim Teng Zui followed Tanya Chew in a high-speed car chase, which resulted in a 'freak' accident.

When they woke up from coma, they didn't know that they have changed bodies. Only when Gurmit (now plays Tanya Chew) went to the toilet to do his 'business', & when Fann Wong (now Lim Teng Zui) look into the mirror, they found out that they've changed! So to the doctor they went, only to be told that they were only imagining and that it happened because of the trauma to their head.

So what did they do next? Watch this movie to see how they have to adapt in their 'adopted' bodies. It's hilarious! I like this movie not just because of the silly antics by Lim Teng Zui, Tanya Chew and their colleagues, but because of the message of the story that the director wishes to convey. In a country that follow bureaucracy strictly (up to a point in which they believe there's no other way to do things), it takes a jab at this system.

In the movie, Tanya Chew requested for a fan, but the clerk said that she must provide three copies of a written letter requesting for a fan, 1 to the Human resources Dept, 1 to the clerk, and the third copy to the manager. Crazy, huh? But that's the current style in Singapore.

All in all, I think this is a great movie, with numerous jokes to keep the audiences laughing, and one with a good moral lesson.

Don't leave the cinema once the credit is shown, as towards the end of the credit there is a short clip of Tanya Chew & Lim Teng Zui waving to their son, and decide whether they manage to return to their own body or not.