Image: Astro Shaw
If you don't remember stories from your childhood, shame on you let us give you a quick reminder.
Story Time!
Once upon a time, there was a man and his son walking to the market with a donkey.
As they were walking, a passerby called them fools for walking instead of riding the donkey. So the man decided to put his son on the donkey and they continued their journey.
Soon after, they passed another group of people who criticised the son for being lazy and letting the father walk while he rode the donkey. So the man told his son to get off and got on the donkey himself.
Not long after that, you guessed it, they passed a couple of people who questioned how could the lazy father let his poor soon just tail along. At last, the man took his son and put him on the donkey together with him.
Once they reached town, the criticism didn’t stop! The townsmen began scoffing at them of overloading the poor donkey.
The father and son didn’t know what to do. At last, they decided to cut down a pole, tie the donkey’s feet to it, raise the pole and went along, carrying the donkey on their shoulders.
They thought they had finally solved the problem. But as they came to a bridge at the market, one of the donkey’s feet got loose and it started to kick, causing the boy to drop his end of the pole.
In the end, the donkey fell over the bridge and drowned in the river because its other feet were still tied together.
Now, if you’re wondering why we’re telling you this story instead of talking more about an upcoming movie that is supposedly going to make it big in Malaysia, bear with us for just a moment!
That fable taught us one important lesson, that we should never try to please everyone because “please all, and you will please none”, but instead, just be ourselves regardless of what other people say.
This was one of the stories that set the tone for Think Big Big, a movie about a plus-sized girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut.
Growing up in a small town, Moon has always received unconditional love and support from her parents. She lives a carefree life working as a mascot talent. She is very content with her job because she basically enjoys bringing joy to the people that she meets.
One day, Moon’s carefree world started shaking. Her debts began to pile up and reality finally hits. In order to solve her newfound problems, she is forced to join a competition that requires her to share her fitness journey on social media. And so begins her real #adulting journey in life.
Produced by Astro Shaw, Golden Screen Cinemas, Multimedia Entertainment and MM2 Entertainment, Think Big Big will hit theatres nationwide on 15 February, just in time to welcome Chinese New Year!
If you need further convincing on whether you should drag all your family and friends to watch this movie, here are some reasons why we think Think Big Big will be the next big hit.
#1 The Message
“You should go and love yourself” is not just a line made popular by Justin Bieber.Think Big Big hits you with a strong ‘be yourself’ message that will resonate so well, especially in today’s society where social media dominate.
Scrolling through Instagram and Facebook will lead you to other people’s seemingly picture perfect life. But the harsh truth about social media is the fact that it has led us to forget how to love and accept ourselves unconditionally, not just the ‘perfect’ outer self.
Think Big Big encourages you to love yourself, believe in yourself and follow your dreams despite other people’s opinions. You may not realise this, but it could be a little something we all need to hear.
#2 The Director
We believe this fact alone should be enough to convince you to watch Think Big Big because it was directed by Chiu Keng Guan who was behind The Journey (2014) and Ola Bola (2016), two of Malaysia’s highest-grossing films in their time!
In 1986, Chiu chanced upon an autobiography titled I Can Do It, So Can You by Taylor Gu-Jin Wang, a Chinese-born American scientist who became the first ethnic Chinese person to go into space. This book inspired him to become an astronaut.
Although it is obvious today that he didn’t become an astronaut, he has turned into an acclaimed movie director instead with a strong track record in the local film industry. Hence through Think Big Big, he is able to relive his childhood dream of going into space.
So with Chiu’s past couple of movies that had achieved big success, we don’t need to say more about why you should watch his upcoming film.
#3 The Relationships
Besides talking about being yourself and following your dreams, Think Big Big also highlights family, love and friendship.
Director Chiu mentioned that one of the difficulties he faced making this movie was how to tell the story about friendship between girls. The sisterhood between ladies is something very different to what boys have and this fact alone intrigued him.
After paying more attention to what girls talk about whenever they’re together and taking notes on how girls communicate, he was touched by the unconditional trust and support they give each other.
So ladies, you would probably want to get your girl friends to tag along and catch Think Big Big together because seriously, when was the last time you actually went to the cinema to watch a local movie as your girly time?
#4 The Cast
Staying true to Chiu’s unconventional choice of casting, the cast of Think Big Big are mostly female.
Think Big Big stars 2016 Miss Astro Chinese International Pageant champion Serene Lim in the leading role as ‘The Nation’s Goddess’, as well as newcomers Moon Young as the optimistic plus-sized dreamer, Vivienne Oon who plays the big sister role among her friends, Ruby Yap who covers her soft side with her strong exterior, Joanne Lau who is a slightly overweight girl aiming to slim down, and Keigrey Kam,the soft-spoken one among the group.
#5 The Location
Director Chiu is also well-known for translating scenic locations into breathtaking visuals in his movies, as seen in The Journey and Ola Bola. But they didn’t specifically select the most beautiful locations on purpose for those films.
“I think Malaysia is a beautiful place. Using our eyes and creativity, we showed people a different side of our country. We even heard people saying that they didn’t know their home is actually so beautiful,” Chiu said.
“Sometimes, we just need to see things from a different angle.”
This time, he took Think Big Big back to his hometown in Bukit Pelanduk, Negeri Sembilan. He wanted people to see the beauty behind some of the most common locations, such as the school and river.
It has been more than 20 years since Chiu moved away from his hometown, so this is his way of giving back to the community there. And we are definitely looking forward to see how this gets translated to the big screen!
In the words of the director, Think Big Big is like a good bowl of rojak. You’ve got stories about being yourself, dreams, outer space, losing weight, beauty standards, family relationships, friendship and love.
So let’s have a bowl of rojak this Chinese New Year!
Sumber Here's Why This Upcoming Local Movie Could Just Be Malaysia's Next Big Hit