Kung Fu meets disco in Singapore. Hock is a grocery clerk longing for a motorbike. He lives with his parents and sister; they idolize his younger brother, Beng, a medical student calling himself Leslie. Hock loves Bruce Lee; he works out and imitates his moves. When Hock sees a cheesy local version of "Saturday Night Fever," he gets the disco bug, taking his pal Mei to nightly lessons in hopes of winning a contest and buying the bike. He's blind to Mei's falling in love with him, and, at the last minute asks another woman to be his partner in the contest. Meanwhile, Beng reveals a personal secret to his family and a crisis ensues. Hock, Beng, Mei and her rival: it's Night Fever.
Reviews
Best movie of this year hands down!
Such a frustrating disappointment
A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
When's the last time you saw a movie shot in Singapore? And in English, yet? THAT'S THE WAY is just such an animal, and tells the story of a grown man (Adrien Pang) living home with his parents and siblings who wishes for nothing more than to have a motorcycle. To do so, he enters a disco dance contest, and begins taking dance lessons. The plot is derived directly from Saturday NIGHT FEVER. In fact, our blue-collar hero even sees John Travolta done up as Tony Manero whenever he daydreams hard enough. The music is mostly horrible re-creations of the SAATURDAY NIGHT FEVER soundtrack, but the dancing is terrific. And the Bruce Lee-looking Pang is a nifty kung-fu fighter to boot. It all comes to a predictable ending, but one we wanted it to get to.
This movie fits to the formula of the genre (i.e. disco dancing triumph of the underdogs) but the setting in Singapore and the local color makes it special. Engaging performances and solid production values. I prefer not to recount the plot since the plot is obvious and has few surprises. What makes it interesting it the location specific components - the local dialect was authentic (per my limited knowledge), the subplot with the transgender brother added poignancy. I find this especially interesting as an example of global culture - what starts out as a US cultural icon (in fact an urban east coast cultural moment) spreads not only through the US but worldwide. Who'd have thunk it?
This is a charming and touching Singaporean combo of STRICTLY BALLROOM and Saturday NIGHT FEVER with bits of ENTER THE DRAGON (!) thrown in for good musical kung fu measure and pleasure. I am sure you never thought in a million years that you would read that all in the one sentence. Well, all in the one film makes it a delightful mix. Lurching in and out of English Spinglish and various Asian dialects FOREVER FEVER has a wonderful sense of itself as both a urban musical and an Asian romantic drama. Like Bollywood films pinching plot and images from various western films, this low budget Malaysian production manages to lift whole plot ideas and reverse them, and then even chuck in some PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO cinematic off-the-screen advice and ideas from viewer to screen actor. Well made and with a terrific soundtrack FOREVER FEVER could easily be remade in 2006 as a regular Anglo/American/Aussie film and succeed all over again. FLOWER DRUM SONG it is not.
i saw this movie over the summer. then i saw saturday night fever for class. while not an exact remake, there are a lot of similarities between the two films. the brother that becomes the family pariah. the disco contest. room decor. but there are a couple of crucial differences that make seeing this movie worthwhile. if nothing else, the kung fu fight scene performed in disco attire.
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