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Flower in the Pocket
Malaysia 2007
produced by Michelle Lo, Tan Chui Mui (executive) for Da Huang Pictures
directed by Liew Seng Tat
starring Wong Zi Jian, Lim Ming Wei, James Lee, Amira Nasuha, Mislina Mustapha, Yon Inom, Azman Hassan, Yong Wen Xin, Lo Kah Loong, Chong Zhang Phang, Venus Chong, Wong Tuck Cheong, Farah Abdul Rani, Kim Kiew Suet, Andre Au, Chee Cheong Hoe, Charlotte Lim, Pua Yan Fan, Kim Yoke Chia
written by Liew Seng Tat, music by Arif Rafhan Othman
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Ma Li Oh (Wong Zi Jiang) and Ma Li Ah (Lim Ming Wei), two pre-teen
schoolkids, grow up without a mother while their father Sui (James Lee)
works all day and usually comes home when they're already asleep, while
they head off to school before he's woken up - and besides that, he hasn't
the faintest idea about parenting anyways. Still, the boys make the best
of what little they've got, and despite being poor they decide to take
care of a puppy, whom they even share their own food with - even though
the puppy tears apart their schoolbooks and gets them into trouble with
their teachers. Eventually, Sui is even called to the school's
headmaster (Wong Tuck Cheong), whereupon he decides the puppy has to go.
When the boys get ill afterwards, he decides he has to put a little more
effort in bringing them up - though not necessarily with the best of
results ... A remarkably unsentimental and unexcited film about
two neglected boys and their father, told not as high drama but as an
episodic comedy - and many of the film's scenes are simply hilarious, just
because of the movie's unexcited style, and its very subtle, unspectacular
direction (made up of many a static shot) really does work in favour of
the film's light-footed and light-hearted mood. Recommended.
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