18g of Love

There are some movies that you are dying to watch but that decision failed to crystalize due to demanding work commitments and lousy schedules in the weekends. "18 Grams of Love" is one movie that suffered the soddy fate when it was shown at the 2008 Singapore International Film Festival (mind you, it was sold out even faster than you can ask "huh, what show is that?"), and enjoyed a short run at the Sinema early this year (JT only managed to discover this gem on top of Mount Sophia recently).

The memorable Chinese comedy "爱情18克" is written by Han Yew Kwang (omg.. I didn't know how talented this guy is until I read from a commentary that he was the genius who wrote the script for 播音人, a local mandarin sitcom in the 90s). It centered on 2 guys who suspected their wives of having an extra-maritial affairs, and decided to test them by sending anonymous flirty love letters to them. Of course, the prank got a bit out of hand, and the misunderstanding grew too big a mess to handle. The drama has serious themes of sexual fidelity and effective communication between spouses layered with comedic elements to retain some entertainment value. The characters were given sufficient depth and were delivered brilliantly by the actors - Alaric Tay playing Zi Hua the geeky hen-pecked bookshop owner, his flirty on-screen wife Magdalene See taking the role of of a dramatic ah-lian Xiao Tong, Adam Chen playing the troubled PE teacher Ah Hui who feels that he is not good enough for his wife, and his on-screen wife Yeo Yann Yann playing Michelle who is often stressed-out and slowly losing interest in her vain hubby. The production was undertaken on a tight budget, but the set actually looks pretty inviting.

I particularly liked how the director dealt with the subject on love in this light-hearted show. It argues that it is so easy to communicate our thoughts and affection by a phone call, text message or email, that nobody in this modern society will bother to write a love letter. Unless the person really matters to you.

A piece of paper weighs 8 grams

An envelope weighs 10 grams

A love letter weighs a total of 18 grams

How much does your love weighs?

It definitely ranks as one of the best productions in the last 2 years, and deserves more support from the MDA to convert it from HD to 35mm format suitable for a big scren release.

This is one chinese movvie that can change the general perception of Singapore Chinese movie industry which is currently saturated with Hokkien-laced shows on ge-tai, ghosts, ah bengs, academic under-achievers and money-driven personalities.