Hauhap Gai Yun

Alternative title: Chicken Rice War, The
Synopsis: Feature film comedy. The Chans (led by Vincent) and the Wongs (led by Wu) are compelled to have their chicken rice stalls next to each other which intensifies their long-standing feud. Audrey, Vincent’s daughter, is cast as Juliet in a school rock production of Romeo and Juliet with her boyfriend, Nick, cast as Romeo. His gives a dreadful performance and Fenton Wong, who has long admired Audrey, is brought in to replace him. Audrey gradually falls in love with Nick. Lanier (op cit) notes that the film uses many motifs from Baz Luhrmann’s WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET in its MTV-style editing, pop soundtrack etc. He concludes ‘The film has a divided attitude about Shakespeare, at once referencing his work and mocking it - after the prologue for example, the cameraman complains ‘I didn’t ask you to sound like Shakespeare, do it again!'.
Language: Chinese (Singapore)
Country: Singapore
Medium: Film
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 2000
Duration: 100 mins

Director

CheeK

Producer

Cheah Chee Kong; David Leong

Cinematographer

Daniel Low

Screenplay

CheeK

Production Design

Nick Ng

Cast

Notes: Dialogue in English and Cantonese.
The DVD available from yesasia.com is the US version available Region 1 only (11/2008).
Figures: SG$460,000 at box office
Awards: Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2001
Reviews: Lanier, Douglas ‘Film Spin-Offs and Citations’ in Burt, Richard (ed). Shakespeares After Shakespeares: an Encyclopedia of the Bard in Mass Media and Popular Culture. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. (p. 297, entry 1260).

Rosenthal, Daniel. 100 Shakespeare Films. London: British Film Institute, 2007. pp 229-30.

Shakespeare, "Hauhap Gai Yun". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av67982 (Accessed 20 Sep 2024)

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