# Forever Fever (1998)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    THAT'S THE WAY I LIKE IT

     Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D.
     Miramax Films
     Director:  Glen Goei
     Writer:  Glen Goie
     Cast: Adrian Pang, Madeline Tan, Pierre Png, Anna Bell
    Francis, Dominic Pace

The ayatollahs, the Saddamites, and the French nationalists can holler from the rooftops all they want about the influence of American culture on their traditional values. Ultimately these spokesmen will not prevail. From at least 1945, when the Yanks captured the hearts and minds of Europeans with their generous offerings of chewing gum to war-torn youngsters, American culture has triumphed big time. In the Far East, for example, tensions between the majority ethnic Chinese and Malaysians in the Malaysian city of Singapore led to a pact granting Singapore the full status of an independent country in 1965. But the nationalism of Singapore's largely Chinese population did not stop that small nation from copying and maintaining Western culture from Burger King to the English language itself. In fact in director Glen Goei's semi-autobiographical movie "That's the Way I Like It"--which gets the title from one of the songs on the soundtrack--the characters speak English 95% of the time using the local Malay and Chinese dialects only occasionally with no rhyme or reason. In the director's words, the story "captures my own journey from an Asian culture to a Western one," the action taking place in the year 1977.

During the year that the Son of Sam was creating mayhem in New York City, forcing people in some neighborhoods to lock their doors and avoid city streets at night, the folks in Singapore had other ideas. While New York was suffering from feverish heat during that summer, a large percentage of young Singaporean people were suffering from a fever of their own--their passion for disco music and dance and their appetite for the style of John Travolta as shown in his groundbreaking "Saturday Night Fever." Though the government of Singapore--like many ruling forces throughout the world today--may have made every effort to hold on to traditional values, the death of Bruce Lee led the young to search for a new hero. Travolta was their man and at least one film featuring a Western dancer with an all-purpose southern accent captured the notice of sizable audiences of young people. The lead character (Dominic Pace) steps out of his movie in a touch of magic realism to become a guardian angel to one Ah Hock.

Ah Hock (Adrian Pang) is a young man who would not have dreamed of being taken in by the dance. A 20- something guy with a dead-end supermarket job, a provincial family, and a vivid imagination, hangs out at night with a typical bunch, including Hock's childhood friend Ah Mei (Madeline Tan). They bowl, they brag, they act in much the way young adults behave almost everywhere. Hock's life turns around when, inspired by the Travolta-like hero of the movie, he and Mei take dance lessons, later to enter a competition whose prize money could allow him to buy the motorcycle of his dreams. When the beautiful Julie (Anna Belle Francis) becomes attracted to Hock, Julie's rich and abusive boy friend Richard (Pierre Png) becomes enraged and takes steps to break up the budding romance.

In a subplot that further shows the freedoms that these Singaporeans are reaching for, Hock's 21-year-old brother, Leslie (Caleb Goh) shocks his family by expressing his desire for a sex change operation, which wholly alienates the lad's father while delighting his pulp fiction-addicted kid sister.

In writing and directing the film, Goei was obviously inspired in part by "Saturday Night Fever," but a good deal of his stimulus comes from the Australian cinema, particularly from the movie "Strictly Ballroom." In Baz Luhrmann's 1992 entry, a young ballroom dancer outrages his mother and the establishment by insisting on dancing his own provocative steps. He takes on a homely partner who blossoms under his guidance. By contrast, Hock appears to break his partner's heart by ditching her for a more sophisticated and accomplished dancer, thereby inciting violence against himself.

By the conclusion of "That's the Way I Like It," young Hock comes to regret his lack of ethics and good common sense, demonstrating his born-again ways in a remarkable show of altruism. The film challenges credibility by its view that a fellow with no interest in anything besides bowling, stacking cans in a supermarket, and dreaming of taking the place of Bruce Lee, could even think of entering a major nationwide competition with only a few weeks of lessons. Yet Adrian Pang convinces us that the experience of entering the contest has transfigured him from an unambitious wastrel frequently late to his dead-end job to a celebrity who learns the meaning of love and commitment.

Since Pang is not a professional dancer, the movie features abrupt editing (also an attribute of "Saturday Night Fever") and the scenes of violence are particularly unconvincing--as though the performers had to pull their punches at a performance on a live stage. A slight film throughout, "That's the Way I Like It" may lack the charm of Masayuki Suo's "Shall We Dance?" but profiles a dynamic, if familiar, soundtrack, with the repeated, obligatory rendering of the Gibbs' "Staying Alive." Brian Breheny's photography barely exploits the city-state's topography, his camera concentrating on indoor locations like Hock's household, a bowling alley, and a disco. Should any viewer be tempted to travel to Singapore, the film may dissuade him: what we see of that major port is little more than a modern metropolis devoid of Far Eastern exoticism.

    Rated PG-13.  Running Time: 95 minutes.  (C) 1999
    Harvey Karten

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