Just Follow Law
Just Follow Law (Chinese: 我在政府部门的日子) is a 2007 Singaporean comedy film directed by Jack Neo.
| Just Follow Law | |
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| Directed by | Jack Neo |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by |
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| Story by |
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| Music by | Ocean Butterflies Music Pte Ltd |
| Cinematography | Ardy Lam |
| Edited by |
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Production company | J Team Productions |
| Distributed by | Golden Village Pictures |
Release date |
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| Country | Singapore |
| Language | English Mandarin Hokkien |
| Budget | S$10.5 million |
In the film, a blue-collar technician and the events and promotion department director swap souls after a freak accident at a fictional government agency Work Allocation Singapore (WAS). It was first released in Singapore on 15 February 2007.
Plot
Lim Teng Zui (Gurmit Singh) is a single father with a daughter named Xiao Mei (Grace Ng,) working as a technician for a fictional statutory board known as WAS, with assistants such as Bamboo (Suhaimi Yusof), Blackjack (Brandon Wong), and their advisor Nancy (Amy Cheng). WAS holds a boardroom meeting led by CEO Alan Lui (Samuel Cheong) and directors Tanya Chew (Fann Wong), Lau Chee Hong (Steven Woon), Eric Tan (Moses Lim). They discuss the planning of an event to welcome Chinese government officials led by Minister Seto (Henry Heng) and China's Minister of Manpower Chen to a visit to WAS. All departments are briefed, but Tanya's arrogance leaves her crew unmotivated to prepare for the day.
A few days prior to the visit, Chew notices a huge clutter of junk in the office. In preparation for the visit, Lim and the crew decide to temporarily dump the junk outside at the sheltered parking lot, after receiving a stern rebuke from the parking security guard Muthu (David Bala). Aware of the unsightly impression the rubbish creates, Lau tells Chew to conceal it, who in turn gets her crew to do so. Eventually Lim handles the matter by building a temporary wall held together by masking tape instead of nails.
The visit proceeds smoothly and ended with a photoshoot against the temporary wall. The wall then collapses due to the excessive weight of people pressed against it and exposes the junk behind it.
A shocked Lui holds an impromptu boardroom meeting to investigate who is responsible for the construction of the temporary wall. Finger pointing lands the blame on Lim, so the committee docks his salary and bonus. Lim confronts Chew in anger, which results in a car chase and collision of both vehicles, which run off the flyover and crash into the beach. Lim and Chew, knocked unconscious, wake up in the hospital with their bodies swapped. Both are shortly transferred to a mental hospital followed by a Chinese temple. After they are discharged, they are forced to experience living in each other's family and work roles. Lim upgrades her skills as a technician, while Chew idles around, performing poorly in his capacity as a department director.
However, Chew's negligence causes the department to grossly overspend their budget. Many of the subordinates, including CEO Lui, the department heads Lau and Tan, and Lim, plan to shut down the department in response. In an attempt to save it from closure, Chew and Lim plan a Job Fair Exhibition which, after a decision by the board, must operate with a small budget and scale.
Due to a traffic light malfunction, Lim's daughter Xiao Mei is hospitalized, and Lim depletes is savings to pay her medical bills. Back at the department, Lim and Chew hold a talk with the workers and reveal that the Job Fair will take at least three months to organize, due to red tape and lack of information from various ministries. Despite various obstacles, the Job Fair is realized.
On the day of the Job Fair, planned procedures are sabotaged, such as their dancers failing to turn up, walls collapsing from misplaced nails, and Tiong faking a heart attack. Lim boldly chooses to use masking tape to fix the wall due to a lack of time before the Minister's arrival, despite the earlier fiasco. Obstacles are dealt with as they appear (including the use fire extinguishers as a replacement for smoke effects) until the final sing-along session on stage with the minister.
During the sing-along session, Lim notices pyrotechnic cannons facing towards the curtain (kicked accidentally by the dancers during the dancing segment), and prompts the technician not to fire it; however, the technician mishears his intention as 'fire' and launches it, causing the backstage to catch on fire. In the chaos, the temporary wall sealed with masking tape collapses, providing an improvised exit route for the stage members to escape unharmed, with Chew valiantly saving Xiao Mei from the fire. Shortly after the incident, a Board of Inquiry investigation is conducted with the department interviewed one-by-one.
Lim is awarded the National Creativity Award for inadvertently inventing a fire escape door during the fire. Two months later, WAS is shut down and their respective members go separate ways: Tiong retires because of a heart attack, Tan is sacked and had his pension (CPF) confiscated after his attempts to sabotage the Job Fair are discovered, Chee becomes the first director in history to be given a pink slip for skills being obsolete, and CEO Lui is blacklisted due to repeated mistakes; Lui then establishes the Minced Pork Organisation, only to be dissolved three months later. Blackjack and Bamboo are respectively interviewed for positions in other companies such as Number One Engineering and Perfect Print respectively, and the latter finds out Tiong is the company's CEO.
Lim and Tanya, having gone in their separate ways, decide to reenact the accident on the exact location to reverse the swap and regain their original bodies. In the mid-credits scene, although Lim and Chew's attempts are revealed to be partially successful, they remain together and eventually get married, moving in together at Tanya’s home along with her mother.
Cast
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| Gurmit Singh | Lim Teng Zui |
| Fann Wong | Tanya Chew |
| Brandon Wong | 睹神 (Blackjack) |
| Suhaimi Yusof | Bamboo |
| David Bala | Muthu |
| Moses Lim | Eric Tan |
| Steven Woon | Lau Chee Hong |
| Samuel Cheong | Alan Lui |
| Lina Ng | Bee Hwa |
| Henry Heng | Minister Seto |
| Grace Ng | 小美 |
| Amy Cheng | Nancy |
Production
Development and writing
The development of Just Follow Law began when Jack Neo pitched the idea of Fann Wong during one of their backstage meetings, though they can't agree regarding the location of the agreement.[1] It was inspired by then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's speech at the 2006 National Day about the lack of professionalism among Singaporean workers. Most of the workers completes work on time during evenings and their mentality of staying beyond that time would be like doing as a favour. He hopes to use the movie to highlight the bureaucracy inefficiencies in office.[2]
Filming
This film began shooting in high-definition video format starting on 1 February 2006 and ending in March 2006.
Release
It had a strong opening during Chinese New Year, earning $421,000 from 35 prints for second place in the chart.[3]
- Singapore 15 February 2007
Reception
At the Golden Horse Awards 2007, Just Follow Law was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Visual Effects, while Gurmit Singh was one of four considered for Best Actor.[4] He did not win.
Movie connections
Just Follow Law contains many references and homages to films. The soul switching between the leading characters references to that from Freaky Friday and Vice Versa.
During certain sequences, some of the sound effects come from various sources, notably including the 2004 video game Half-Life 2. For example, the Minister falls down through a poorly erected wall during his visit of WAS; Lim Teng Zui's Citroën Berlingo crashes on the ground. Later on, the Ssangyong Istana doors open to reveal the bikini dancers and hunks; the Singapore Civil Defence Force's Dennis Sabre fire engine stops over a VIP lot.
See also
References
- http://www.moviexclusive.com/article/justfollowlaw/justfollowlaw.htm
- http://www.moviexclusive.com/article/justfollowlaw/onlocation_jfl.htm
- http://www.screendaily.com/neos-just-follow-law-has-strong-opening-in-singapore/4031126.article
- Foong Woei Wan and Lee Sze Yong (29 October 2007). "3 S'pore films get Golden nod; Home Song Stories, 881 and Just Follow Law up for Golden Horse Award; Gurmit Singh up for Best Actor". The Straits Times (Life!).