Malaysian director Adrian Teh made a local remake of “Goodbye, Mr. Loser,” a hit Chinese movie which garnered five awards at the Gold Aries Macau International Film Festival. The movie held its world premiere at the 2017 Osaka Asian Film Festival recently in Japan.
Movie’s Cast
Yan Fei and Peng Damo, joint writer-directors of the original Chinese movie which grossed $142.1 million after 12 days of exhibition in 2015, went to Malaysia to watch Teh’s version of their blockbuster film, Star 2 reported. The lead role went to Ian Fang, an actor who was born in Shanghai but now based in Singapore. His leading lady is Hoon Mei Sim, a Malaysian actress, who is Ian Fang’s wife in the movie.
Playing the role of his high school crush in the Malaysian remake of “Goodbye, Mr. Loser” is Anjoe Koh, the Miss Astro Chinese International Pageant 2014 winner. There are three member of the Malaysia shuttlers Olympic team who have cameo appearances in the movie. They are Chan Peng Soon, Goh Liu Ying and Goh V Shem.
Veteran Malaysia actors are also in the cast. Jack Lim, a Malaysian actor, plays the school teacher, while portraying the school principal is Singaporean actor Richard Low. Cast as Lin’s mother is Phoebe Huang, a Taiwanese actress, while playing Lin’s classmates are Tan Li Yang, Lex Pun, Vinx Lim and jack Yap.
2 Months to Cast
Teh said it took him to cast the film since for the male lead, there were 100 actors who auditioned for the role. The production, based on guidelines from the original directors, avoided hiring big names so as not to overshadow the movie character. Their criteria when they auditioned actors for the remake was the applicant must be a fresh face and have no movie experience.
Since the Malaysian censor in strict, Teh said the Malaysian Censorship Board initially gave the movie, which premiered on March 18 at the GSC Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, an 18-rating and ordered 18 cuts. But he appealed and the movie got a P13 rating. The board reduced the cut to just one three-second scene when Fang and Koh kissed.
The film started its regular run in Malaysia on March 23, while it would exhibit in Singapore on March 30, Cinema reported.