Filmmakers shouldn’t be surprised when people have polarising views about their movies. But still, no one likes it when their work is being hated on.
Recently, local director Jack Neo took to Facebook live stream to address derogatory comments about his new Chinese New Year movie I Want To Be Boss.
The 65-year-old had taken offence at online haters, especially those who urged others to not catch his movie in cinemas.
According to a HardwareZone forum thread, a netizen claimed that “a lot of people left halfway” when he caught the movie on January 23.
The netizen also shared that he “cannot imagine a single person walking out of the theatre thinking the movie is good.”
Another netizen went on to say that they fell asleep while watching the two-hour-and-three-minute film. Other netizens also asked others to not “waste money” on tickets.
I Want To Be Boss revolves around a Chinese restaurant owner, played by Henry Thia, and his AI robot Ling Ling (Patricia Mok), who helps him with his household chores as well as mediate his relationship with his wife (Aileen Tan).
We guess Jack has the last laugh given how the film ranked first at the box office in Singapore on Chinese New Year eve and has since raked in over S$1mil at the local box office.
Jack also celebrated on Instagram the movie’s success in Malaysia, where it has made over 2.8mil ringgit (S$853,000).
We guess Jack was not happy with getting just the last laugh, he also wanted to get the last word in.
On a recent live stream, Jack gave his haters a piece of his mind.
“Just because you didn’t like it doesn’t mean others wouldn’t. You’re destroying another person’s hard work when you do something like that,” he said.
While he can’t deny the viewer’s right to have their own opinion, the director lamented that this is the first time he’s being “repeatedly attacked without any basis”.
Jack went on to stress that he puts in a lot of time and effort into making his movies and each movie was planned at least a year ahead with many rounds of discussions with production and distribution companies in Singapore and Malaysia.
He added that more than 100 people were invited to watch a raw version of his movies and that their views were taken into consideration during editing.
“Everyone has their views when watching a movie, that is understandable. But I hope they won’t be telling other people things like: ‘Don’t watch this movie’,” he stressed.
Jack also wouldn’t dissuade viewers from catching another filmmaker’s work because he knows how “tedious the process can be” and that the failure of a movie can cause a filmmaker to “lose their entire fortune”.
The director admitted he was unhappy after seeing the criticisms, and it prompted him to tell his side of the story.
He also argued that his movie is definitely not something that would make the audience want to leave the cinema halfway or fall asleep.
“Please give us a chance and give your friends a chance [to watch the movie]. Maybe they would enjoy it,” he said, before urging viewers to have some “respect for filmmakers”.