Just Follow Law Fann Wong Pink and White Dress

JUST FOLLOW LAW

Just Follow Law is one of the many Singaporean comedies directed by Jack Neo. As usual, Neo tried to satirize social issues in a comical manner. Specifically in this film, he attempted to highlight two topics, namely the bureaucratic inefficiency in Singapore government offices and the importance of families.[1] The film was reported to be inspired by the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long's 2006 National Day speech about the lack of professionalism among Singaporean workers.[2] Neo then pitched the idea to Fann Wong and immediately garnered her support.

In this film, Neo heavily used the polarization technique when developing the two lead characters, i.e. Tanya Chew (played by Fann Wong) and Lim Ting Zui (played by Gurmit Singh).  The table below summarizes the contrast between Tanya and Ting Zui.

Tanya Chew	Lim Ting Zui
Female	Male
Department director	Electrician
Educated	Uneducated
Financially well off	Financially needy
Government elite	Low social status
High IQ	High EQ
Follows the rule	Breaks the rule
Has a mother she cares little about, but gives a lot of financial support	Has a daughter he cares a lot about, but can't really buy anything

The only thing in common between Tanya and Ting Zui is that both of them are public servers as they both work in the fictitious government organization WAS. However, I found it inappropriate to classify an electrician as a public server. Moreover, both characters are developed heavily based stereotypes. For instance, Tanya is portrayed to be a government elite who is smart and hardworking, but socially inapt and rule abiding.

Other than polarization and stereotyping, Neo adopted another trick that is familiar to many audiences—switching bodies. The comical effect is brought out nicely due to the polarization between the two characters. Neo allows Tanya and Ting Zui to observe their own families through the body of the other person only to realize how little they have done for their loved ones. This subtly calls upon audience for self-reflection about filial piety.

However, Neo failed to maintain a consistent personality of the character before and after "switching bodies". For instance, Tanya is a scholar who is intelligent, driven, determined and strong. However, after switching body with Ting Zui, she becomes vulnerable, weak, and indecisive. And in contrast, Ting Zui, who was previously weak and ignorant, became the decision-maker among the two and took a dominating role. This is against the character image built up earlier and was difficult for the audience to follow logically.

The message of the film is, however, clear and to the point. Throughout the film Neo is trying to bring cross the idea that Singaporeans should not just follow the rule, we should be more flexible and adaptable based on different circumstances. This point is demonstrated through various scenes.

The starting scene was an interesting one. It shows Ting Zui and his daughter arguing about whether to cross the road when the traffic light is red but there is no vehicle on the street. This lays the foundation for the entire film and brings out the central debate—should we just follow the rule?

In this scene, Ting Zui represents Jack Neo while the kid represents the general public. The use of children is strategic because it implies how education affects Singaporean's mindsets and behavior. It is almost implied that Jack Neo is criticizing the education system for limiting children's creativity and ability to make judgment on their own. Such implication is confirmed in later scenes when Ting Zui's daughter got into a car accident and Ting Zui blamed that "…school teaches everything but never teach what to do when traffic light breaks down…"

"You need to email to write in, cc me, HR, finance… photocopy 2 copies on both side, take 3 working days to process …" This is a recurring line in various scenes , and Jack Neo deliberately used such repetition to highlight the bureaucratic inefficiency in government. This line appears when Tanya tries to switch on the air conditioner after office hour, or borrow a fan; as well as when Ting Zui applies to access his qualification document and view his own profile data. Those scenarios bring the audience to question the necessity and rationality of the rule.

Another recurring scene in the film is the "flying arrows" in the office, which represent the unseen battle between various directors. It also reveals Singaporeans' obsessions with "black and white".

When directors are typing the emails to "shoot" each other, Jack Neo used very shaky shots to achieve a chaotic feeling. He also switched swiftly between scenes and characters to create the sense of urgency and simulate the atmosphere of a "war". These efforts serve to show how government officers backstab each other while lower rank employees often become the casualty of their fight.

Another scene that explicitly criticizes the behavior of backstabbing is when Tanya meets other three directors in the office canteen. The scene was set with cold and shadowy lighting, creating a sense of insecurity and conspiracy. Three directors only appeared after Tanya closes the door of the fridge—a frequent technique used in horror movies where ghost appear unexpectedly to surprise the audience. This further heightens the tension and prepares the audience for a "war".  In subsequent scene, these three directors also tried to sabotage Tanya's event and even to eliminate Tanya's department. These scenes demonstrate how "dark" government organizations are.

My question is, however, how fair is such representation of Singapore's public servers? And to what extent may such behavior be reasonably managed with proper policies? Jack Neo seemed to express his dissatisfaction without offering proper justification and viable suggestions. The film appears to be heavily one-sided and therefore lacks persuasiveness and credibility. However, as a comedy, it did bring out laughter from its audience[3] and was a box office success.[4]

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Source: https://yihuanw.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/just-follow-law/

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