(Review) The Great Lion: Kun Seng Keng

INSPIRED by the real story of local lion dance association Kun Seng Keng, the movie shows how two young men, Chong Kok Fu (Alan Kuo) and Si Tian Yong (Thomas Kok), struggle through ­challenges to be worthy representatives of world champion lion dance troupe Kun Seng Keng.
Selected as the third-generation team of the 15-time world ­champion troupe, the duo ­however didn’t perform well due to a lack of chemistry between them.
At the same time, they were facing criticisms from their own families and friends for ­choosing to be lion dancers.
Matters got worse when the troupe’s founder, Tan Chong Hing (Chen kon Tai), was diagnosed with cancer and the duo got injured just a couple of weeks prior to the 16th world tournament.
While director Lai had wanted to tell an inspiring story about the lion dance, he could have just film it as a documentary rather than a film with many crises thrown in at random, lots of montages on training and unnecessary slow motion scenes.
While the plot and acting are not bad, I find the dialogues cringe-­worthy. But what bothers me the most is the soundtrack.
The overly-dramatic music does not match with scenes where there are no dramatic tension. It seems a desperate attempt to create ­something meaningful out of such scenes.
Sometimes, music isn’t ­necessary at all, especially during ‘funny’ scenes. Let the dialogue do its work. You don’t need to add cute music to cue the humour. It’s just as bad as those laugh tracks in sitcoms.
To be honest, I don’t think Lai is a bad director. He has potential and knows how to make the film look good despite some obvious framing problems.
While his intention in making this story to inspire people is great, the execution is bad.
A documentary would have been more interesting and inspiring without the overly-dramatic cheap thrills.