| (some spoilers) I've seen a lot of animation in my short lifetime and when I first heard good buzz about My Life as Mcdull, Hong Kong's first fully locally animated movie, I knew I'd have to get around to this movie. Well, after watching it, I have to say, I wasn't impressed. For one thing, the animation was "limited", which isn't always a bad thing but Mcdull's animation wasn't done well enough to win my favor. But it wasn't horrible either. About the only aspect of the movie that was interesting to me was that it seems to be very much in tune with Hong Kong culture.
In short, My Life as Mcdull is a story about a pig kid's relation with his mom and his attempt for glory in "bun snatching". The movie starts off with Mcdull's mother in the hospital, already having high expectations for her son even before he is born. We get to see Mcdull's dim-witted nature through kindergarten and being fooled by his mother into thinking he's traveling to the Maldives, etc.. I do feel the writers capture Mcdull's child essence well. There's one point at the doctors where we experience Mcdull's surreal fear of getting a shot. And there's the part where Mcdull doggedly finishes his bottle of medicine after his mother promises to take him to the Maldives if he drinks it all.
Mcdull's mother is a funny representation of a Chinese mother who wishes for his son's success. Among some of the amusing scenes is her directions on how to make a chicken bun, an arcade like spoof of her shopping, and her storytelling of the boys who were naughty and died.
I really think I would have liked My Life as Mcdull better if it kept it's plot to these little lifestyles of Mcdull and his mom. But perhaps, in hopes of a grander plot, screenwriter Brian Tse shifted the plot for Mcdull to be inspired by San-san, an HK olympist who won a gold medal in windsurfing. Mcdull subsequently decides to seeks out San-san's coach, Logan to be trained in windsurfing. Unfortunately, Logan only wants to teach Mcdull bun-snatching. This leads to a bunch of antics like Mcdull's mom writing to the Olympic committee to make bun-snatching an Olympic sport as well as Logan showing off his amazing calf muscles.
To skip over some other stuff, in the very end, Mcdull finds most of his life somewhat on the short end of the stick. Adult Mcdull reflects on some of the highlights he's had in his life like getting married, life, and death. It arguably gets somewhat philosophical actually. I really thought it was really weird when the live action clip of Mcdull was shown.
As I remarked earlier, I think this movie would have been better off just with Mcdull and his mom living up the ordinary lifestyles in Hong Kong. Though ambitious, I didn't really find the Olympic part terribly fulfilling. They got some strange songs in this one too. I think it's a movie you could both like and dislike, whatever that means. |
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