Close Ur Kopitiam Review: M’sia’s Smash Hawker-Vs-Influencer CNY Comedy Is Pacey & Wacky But Gets Lost In Translation Across The Causeway

Close Ur Kopitiam (PG13)

Starring Song Bill, Yuriko, Anthony, Dahee, Jaspers Lai, Mark Lee

Directed by Vince Chong

A kopitiam owner, Ah Bill (played by Malaysian influencer Song Bill), in Puchong, Selangor, hates influencers.

“No dogs and influencers allowed” says the sign.

When an unscrupulous food vlogger, Anthony Ant (Anthony), shows up to rate his food stalls, Ah Bill kicks him out. The altercation goes viral, wrongly making the owner look like a violent psycho. Instantly, netizen-haters, siding with the vlogger, pile angry comments against the popular coffee shop, driving away its customers.

The stallholders are left to mope about their zero-customer, thrashed-food misery. Ah Bill’s wife, Yuriko (Yuriko Heng), urges her hassled hubby to be nicer while he still collects their rents.

This Malaysian hawker-vs-influencer comedy about cyberbullying, resilience, a family of quirky co-workers, and pretty bad Jay Chou and Vin Diesel impersonators, is small-scale, small-town and well, very Malaysian.

So neighbourly-localised that in the outtakes, one dude selling SG-style bak kut teh crazy-pours pepper into the soup, quipping, “You Malaysians really like bold flavours”.

Actually, more like madcap flavours which may or may not be suited to our urbanite, snooty-modern taste. I mean, the issues here — online harassment, idle people looking sian (bored), money woes in ringgit terms — seem kinda provincial. Plus, Ah Bill still uses a boxy, prehistoric computer.

Maybe that's a Malaysian suaku (outdated) joke which eludes me.

Because we’re likely not getting half of the jiuhu-accented gags here with rapid-fire you-know-if-you-know digs at stuff such as Penang types, health inspectors, Burmese-Chinese differences and a kaypoh can-bribe-or-not policeman (Mark Lee in a cameo) who sits inside a crowded car to join other people's group discussions.

Throw in a Thor-Thanos spoof, Jay Chou fella and the Vin Diesel wannabe popping up to repeat only one line, “We are family”.

It's as though we're encroaching into a private brainstorm session to fill up a flick with scattershot gags of deadpan humour which some cool, enthusiastic dudes think are topically and absurdly funny.

Which is what's happening here as the people involved — from director/co-writer Vince Chong to the actors to perhaps the kopi lady — are mostly influencers and content creators (their YouTube group is called “Dissy”) who are making a big-screen pic together for the first time.

Kudos to these folks for at least not making a hawker deal about boring cooking competitions while keeping up its brisk pace with wacky ideas contributed, presumably, at late-night sarabat stalls.

Does this work? Depends on your kopi-O, kopi-C or kopi-C minus taste.

This peninsula-insular pic would probably be hilarious if you're from across the Causeway. Because you need to know jiuhu culture to really get it. The way nobody laughs at our CPF jokes except us. Although one gag about a big fella wearing a long wig to wash dishes because only women are hired is Stephen Chow-priceless.

Nevertheless, there's an easy-fun quality to this festive-light deal, this year's top-grossing CNY offering up north.

When it focuses on the kopitiam staff wallowing in their loser mode and lamenting their financial woes, it's amusing, interesting and kinda yummy because, man, that Malaysian-style wanton mee looks really deelish.

But when the movie zooms in on cyberbullying chaos — the main theme of its influencer-team creators — it sorta gets lost in territorial translation since over here, million-dollar scams are a bigger scourge.

Good thing is that the cast is a likeable bunch. Including Jaspers Lai turning up as a buck-toothed, saliva-splashing school-time crush of Yuriko in comical scenes.

For a while, there's even a chance Close Ur Kopitiam could've be truly insidiously wicked since Ah Bill is shown to be actually not a very nice guy by being a heartless bastard to his staff.

Director Chong almost has a great Mean Girls deal looming here. But he lets it slip by, perhaps due to our Asian gentleness.

He does insert one great big joke when Ah Bill threatens to collect rent from that SG bak kut teh guy in terrifying Sing dollars.

“Everyday pay pay pay,” the kopitiam boss reminds his stallholders about paying their rents on time.

Now that's something very Singaporean that we can truly relate to here. (3/5 stars)

Photos: Golden Village Pictures