Homerun

Homerun is a Chinese movie from Singapore. It was aired on NTV 7 last Tuesday at 10 p.m after being banned by Malaysian government for three years. The story is simply superb.

A story about a poor Chinese family of five living in a little village consist of a father doing odd jobs to earn money, a pregnant mother took weak to work, a little boy of 10 (Ah Kun), a little girl (Seow Fang) and a baby.

The movie begins with Ah Kun loosing Seow Fang’s only pair of school shoe while running an errand. Afraid of telling their parents, they agreed to share Ah Kun’s school shoe. Seow Fang will wear Ah Kun's shoe in the morning, then run home so that Ah Kun can go to school in the afternoon. But Seow Fang finds getting back on time rather difficult. Hence, Ah Kun find different ways to get a shoe for Seow Fang.

At first he manage to get a shoes by doing his classmates homework, but it turn out to big for Seow Fang. Then, they managed to locate Seow Fang’s missing shoe, but it was with a poor little girl with blind father. Understanding the girls’ situation, they choose to ignore it till one day they discovered the shoes was thrown away in the dump. They somehow manage to find those shoes but it was thorn into pieces right before their eyes during a riot. Finally, Ah Kun got another opportunity by participating in cross-country competition. However, instead of getting third place and receive the shoes, he slips, fell and wins the race. He was given a meddle!

He cried and cried and cried even more when his rich classmate, in third place throws the shoe into the pond out of anger. Feeling disappointed he goes back home to inform his sister. They both sat at a corner of a little bridge looking at the worn off shoe when the rich classmates hands him two pairs of shoe, one for Seow Fang and another for the Ah kun before he leave to England.

The movie did not end there. Unlike other movie, this one had perfect ending. Feeling very happy, Ah Kun and Seow Fang walked back home wearing those new pair of shoes when they encountered a long stretch of muddy roads in the village awaits them. Bravo!

The simplicity of the story and the character as well as the focuses on the shoes is what attracted me to watch the movie, however it’s the enduring love between the siblings that made me truly enjoy every scene, every tears and every joy. The whole Home Run team did a brilliant job in bring out the true essence of the movie.