Mak dau goo si (2001)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Toe Yuen

Writers:

Alice Mak (comic)
Alice Mak (writer)

Release Date:

15 December 2001 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Animation | Drama | Comedy | Family

Plot:

McDull is not the brightest kid on the block, but he continuously tries to do his best to please his mother. Still it seems he may not be destined for great things like she wishes, but McDull strives to try anyway. |

Plot Keywords:

Poverty | Working Mom | Olympics | Animal That Acts Human | Stupidity

Awards:

6 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jan Lamb	...	McDull (Adult) (voice)
Sandra Ng Kwan Yue	...	Mrs. McDull (voice)
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang	...	School Principal / Logan (voice)

Also Known As:

Mai dou gu shi (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
My Life as McDull (International: English title)

Runtime:

Japan:75 min | Argentina:75 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:All | Argentina:Atp | Hong Kong:I | France:U

Company:

Bliss Picture Ltd.

Quotes:

McDull: My mind boggles as I practice. After all, I am not a fan of bun snatching. I am only doing this for mother.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Chun tian hua hua tong xue hui (2006)

An innovative and moving animated feature

The little pig McDull and his cousin McMug are huge favorites in Hong Kong, but this lovely and complex film is unlikely to get a distributor outside of Asia. More's the pity, because it's one of the richest of recent animated films, even counting Studio Ghibli's work. It starts as a charming, off-beat account of an extraordinarily ordinary kindergardener in Hong Kong and his his obsessed but loving single mom, animated with an eye-popping variety of techniques that convey perfectly the hallucinatory intensity of early childhood. (We see Mrs Mc charging through her work day as the heroine of a video game; and her cooking show--with every permutation of chicken, bun and paper imaginable--must be seen.) Soon, though, it takes shape as a memory picture, and deepens and darkens without ever losing its cockeyed playfulness.

The visual direction of Alice Mak, McDull's creator, is exceptional, and so is the superb music, borrowing heavily from Schubert, Schumann and Mozart in a perfect balance of absurdity and tears. At the end the film moves seamlessly into live action, bringing its meditations on the end of childhood, the disappointments of life, and the mysterious possibilities of joy to an open-ended close. I'm sure that I miss a lot of the humor, since I don't know Chinese; but the subtitles convey a surprising poetic feel that surely is even stronger in the original. Not for children; but don't miss it if you have the chance.