| Liang Po Po: The Movie | |
| Director: | Teng Bee Lian |
| Producer: | Eric Khoo |
| Screenplay: | Jack Neo |
| Starring: | Jack Neo Mark Lee Henry Thia |
| Cinematography: | Yoke Weng Ho |
| Editing: | Lawrence Ang |
| Production Companies: | Mediacorp Raintree Pictures Zhao Wei Film[1] |
| Distributor: | United International Pictures |
| Runtime: | 100 minutes |
| Country: | Singapore |
| Language: | Chinese (Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese) |
| Budget: | S$800,000 |
Liang Po Po: The Movie (梁婆婆重出江湖) is a Singaporean horror-comedy film directed by Teng Bee Lian in 1999. It starred director Jack Neo himself, who cross-dresses as the titular character, whose name in English is translated as "Grandma Neo".
The main character, an 85-year-old lady named Liang Po Po, ran away from her retirement home in search of a new life, with a belief that she can still contribute to society.
On her first day, she was robbed by female gangster Ah Lian and her comrades, and when Liang tried to work as a gas pump attendant, chaos ensued. Liang then met and befriended a couple of gangsters named Ah Beng and Ah Seng, and got involved in a secret society that is involved in crimes. Taking advantage of Liang's unsuspecting nature, the society used her to sell pirated VCDs, as well as debt collection. As a loanshark runner, Liang resorted to stalking, house break-ins and other harassment tactics on the borrowers, thus evoking great fear in her victims into repaying their loans. Her feats exceeded the loanshark's expectations but he deliberately underpaid the naive old lady.
As Liang develops a genuine friendship with Ah Beng and Ah Seng, Big Boss, the man who runs the secret society, decided that his gang should be respected, and enlisted the service of two Hong Kong triad consultants, in an effort to improve the image and profile of the gang. The consultants chided the gang for engaging in petty crimes and squabbles, and trained them to commit bigger crimes like gun-running, mass murder and robbery. The gang members, included a still clueless Liang, began a serial slaughter of enemies on random nights in order to put fear in the hearts of their rivals. The consultants also insisted that gang members should be dressed in suits and sunglasses to reflect their new image. The gang's new aggressive actions caught the Singaporean authorities off-guard, who struggled to react to the sudden rise in violent crimes, but still failed to pinpoint Big Boss as the leader.
With the consultants' encouragement for the gang to exert greater influence on civil society, Big Boss declared an election campaign as an independent politician. His declaration was well-received by most of the people with the exception of a few, notably Liang Ximei, who apparently knew this man's criminal background. To raise money for the upcoming election campaign, the consultants persuaded Big Boss to orchestrate a bank robbery. Being impressed by Liang's achievements so far, Big Boss pressed the bank robbery job onto Liang, feeling that she's the ideal person because no one will suspect an elderly person for a robbery, and if caught, Liang is expected to gain sympathy from authorities. The plan was discovered by Ah Beng and Ah Seng, who then tried to send Liang away. Liang, however, refused to leave her friends, she was determined to follow through with the mission, unaware of what it actually entails.
Not knowing she was carrying a real, loaded gun, Liang brandished it before firing it off, unexpectedly horrifying the then-complacent bank staff into giving her the money. Even though an escaped Liang disputes the amount in private, the bank reported a much bigger amount of money missing, sparking a nationwide hunt for the old woman. Meanwhile, both the gangsters and authorities race against each other to find Liang and recover the money first. As she goes on the run, Liang realized she was used by Big Boss and his consultants. Deciding that she had nothing to lose due to her old age, she re-takes the gun and geared up for one final confrontation with the consultants. A standoff occurred between the final consultant and Liang, which ended with the consultant's shock when he realized that he was actually firing a water gun - which he intended to give to Liang for the bank robbery. The police then arrived and arrested the remaining gang members who had yet to flee.
In the aftermath of the confrontation, Ah Beng and Ah Seng are the only gang members other than the elderly Liang who avoided the police arrest. The three friends decided to go straight, and realizing that they can make more money posing as an elderly old woman selling goods, Ah Beng and Ah Seng dressed up as look-alikes of Liang and began their new lives anew.
In an interview, Neo claimed that he was inspired by western black comedy films like Beetlejuice and Death Becomes Her to make a Singaporean equivalent. This film was the first produced by Mediacorp Raintree Pictures,[2] and was based on a character created and popularized by a Television Corporation of Singapore (now MediaCorp) television series.[3]
Utilizing a crew of 50, this was the first Singaporean film to feature high-speed chases, as well as choreographed fight scenes involving hundreds of extras.[3]
In an effort to broaden the film's appeal, well-known Hong Kong celebrities Eric Tsang and Sheren Tang, as well as Malaysian singer Ah Niu were cast in supporting, cameo roles.[3]
In addition, Zoe Tay, Chen Liping, Evelyn Tan, Kym Ng, Robin Leong, and Chris Ho have cameos in the film.[3]