Wednesday May 6, 2009
Gags aplenty
ON THE AIR
By SETO KIT YAN
Join Mr Siao’s Mandarin Class to pick up not only the language, but also a barrelful of laughter.
NTV7’S latest Chinese series Mr Siao’s Mandarin Class sure has a lot going for it, including the eye candy provided by former beauty queens, which is always welcome. And after only a few episodes, the laugh-o-meter is already hitting a high as everybody who has watched it has given it a thumbs-up.
It’s a bit like the hit Brit sitcom Mind Your Language, only our Made-in-Malaysia version tickles the funny bone with locally-flavoured punchlines and a muhibbah ensemble cast that plays a hilarious bunch with amusing names and even funnier personalities.
Having colourful characters speaking Chinese dialects like Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka and Hokkien as well as English, Malay and Tamil, provides the multi-lingual sitcom a rich source for hilarious word play.
Kudos to director Berg Lee and producer Tan Boon Huat for a fine sitcom and the experienced actors for very well-developed and colourful personalities.
First-time director, theatre and indie enthusiast Lee definitely has a way of getting the best from his motley crew of performers.
The story goes that the owner of a multi-level marketing setup Dream Big International, buoyed by the success of his company in local markets, makes plans to expand his business to China.
Mr Siao’s Mandarin Class stars (from left) Ling Tang, Ramasundran, Zahamin Baki, Steve Yap, Auguste Kwan and Loo Aye Keng. To prepare his agents, Robert Toh (Kee Thuan Chye) hires a Mandarin teacher to put them through an intensive Mandarin class.
He divides the eight agents into two opposing teams and appoints his two most competitive and successful agents as team leaders: tough-talking Chung Kok Keong (Loo Aye Keng) nicknamed Firey Phoenix and Hakka-speaking “Queen of Pasar” Dai Bai Sha (Ling Tang) nicknamed Great White Shark (which is actually what her name sounds like in Cantonese).
Kee’s Mr Robert has amusing lines that would have you practically falling off your seat. An example is the erroneously spouted “luo yau ren bu zhi, chu fei bu yao zuo” (which should be “ruo yau ren bu zhi, chu fei ji mo wei” – meaning “if you don’t want others to find out then you had better not do it”).
Introduced by Mr Robert as “the handsomest Mandarin teacher in Malaysia”, Auguste Kwan is as as cute as a button playing the teacher, whose Mandarin name Siao Lang sends his students into fits of laughter because it sounds like “orang gila” (mad person) in Hokkien. Mandarin class is made more fun as the teacher resorts to creative play-acting like dressing up as a circus ringmaster complete with tophat and whip in hand and as a chef.
Each episode begins with Mr Siao in a lift. It turns out that the cute guy has a phobia of being stuck in a lift due to a traumatic childhood experience.
Viewers get an idea of the extent of his phobia when he is trapped in a lift with the curt Miss Q (Miss World Malaysia 2008 first runner-up Cindy Chen), who is amusingly economical with words and declares she cannot tolerate chatty types.
Alvin Wong’s portrayal of the finicky British English-speaking Tan Tai Shan will have you rolling on the floor with laughter.
Wearing the same green shirt with a variety of colourful bows, his is among the most animated of characters.
I must say that Steve Yap has outdone himself playing Tey Eng Jun or Hanson, a Hokkien-speaking lanky baba from Bukit Mertajam. Nicknamed Handsome, the lad attends Mandarin class just to be with his dream girl.
Elvanna Raine is as adorable as Cherrie Chung Chor Hung (also the name of a sexy Hong Kong actress). Her breathless speech and the coy way she peers through her luscious lashes has Hanson totally smitten and eating out of her hands.
Ever heard of Ma-Can-Lish? It’s a term coined by the Cantonese-speaking Dang Huan (Tony Ong), nicknamed Don Juan, for the tongue he speaks – a mixed-up Malaysian Cantonese English. The spiffy dresser is always seen with a scarlet ribbon tie and keeps trying to woo Cherrie.
In a case of the blind leading the blind, we have the Malay man and the Indian man correcting each other to obvious hilarious outcomes.
Shah Rukh Khan (Ramasundran) from Batu Caves loves Jacky Cheung so much he even has the singer’s hit song Wen Bie (Kiss Goodbye) on his phone. He is eager to learn but cannot differentiate between Cantonese and Mandarin.
He’ll have you in stitches with his over-enthusiastic rolling of his “Rs” as he tries to teach Amir how to count “yirr, errr, sanrr... (one, two, three ...).
Meanwhile, Amir (Baki Zainal) arms himself with an electronic dictionary which seems to help him progress faster than the rest.
Miss World Malaysia 2008 Soo Wincci plays Sophia, Toh’s wife who pretends to be the counsellor for the class to help her husband spy on the progress of the training. Of all the performers, Soo seems the least at ease, perhaps overwhelmed by so many far more experienced and talented performers. Yet, one cannot deny that she is nice to look at all the same.
The Indonesian cleaning lady named Siti (Chai Jen) is another colourful character who seems to have an agenda which we have yet to find out.
Mr Siao’s Mandarin Class airs on Ntv7 at 9pm every Wednesday.
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