''Meow'' is a 2017
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
science fantasy
file:Warhammer40kcosplay.jpg, Cosplay of a character from the ''Warhammer 40,000'' tabletop game; one critic has characterized the game's setting as "action-oriented science-fantasy."
Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction ...
comedy film
The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed and produced by
Benny Chan. It stars
Louis Koo
Louis Koo Tin-lok ( zh, t=古天樂; born 21 October 1970) is a Hong Kong people, Hong Kong actor, singer, and film producer. He began his professional career as an actor in local television series, receiving recognition for his roles in ''The C ...
as a father who adopts an alien cat who is sent to invade Earth. Co-produced by Koo's
One Cool Group Limited, the film is also Chan and Koo's sixth film collaboration as director and star respectively.
and it was one of the last films directed by Benny Chan during his lifetime.
Plot
In the distant corners of the universe, a planet of alien cats known as "Meow" exists whose creatures are more civilized than
earthlings
Earthling or Earthlings may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Earthling'' (film), a 2010 sci-fi film
* ''Earthlings'' (film), a 2005 animal rights documentary
* ''The Earthling'', a 1980 drama film
* "Earthling" (''Fringe''), a 2009 TV episode ...
. Thousands of years ago, the king of Meow has been sending messengers to inquire the Earth, hoping to prepare for an invasion. However, over the years, every messenger sent to Earth never returned forcing the king to put aside his plans.
Today, the king decides to re-ignite his plan and selects the bravest and mightiest warrior of Meow, Pudding, as a vanguard to Earth. However, during the journey, Pudding loses a divine Meow device that can resist the particles of Earth and loses his divine powers. As a result, the lean-built Pudding becomes a giant fat cat Sai-sai-lei. Sai-sai-lei is then adopted by as a pet by a family consists of Ng Sau-lung (
Louis Koo
Louis Koo Tin-lok ( zh, t=古天樂; born 21 October 1970) is a Hong Kong people, Hong Kong actor, singer, and film producer. He began his professional career as an actor in local television series, receiving recognition for his roles in ''The C ...
), his wife Chow Lai-chu (
Ma Li), their elder son Ng Yau-choi (Andy Wong) and younger daughter Ng Yau-yau (Jessica Liu). Sai-sai-lei has no choice but to hide in the Ng household before finding his device to invade Earth. In order to start the invasion, Sai-sai-lei plans to cause chaos to the Ng family but after living and getting along together, Sai-sai-lei is moved by the family's love and sincerity and loses his desire for warfare. However, one day, Sai-sai-lei suddenly recovers his device.
Cast
*
Louis Koo
Louis Koo Tin-lok ( zh, t=古天樂; born 21 October 1970) is a Hong Kong people, Hong Kong actor, singer, and film producer. He began his professional career as an actor in local television series, receiving recognition for his roles in ''The C ...
as Ng Sau-lung (吳守龍), a well-known
goalkeeper
In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...
in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
with a brilliant track record who after retiring, becomes an occasional commentator for football matches, but longs to become the leader of a football team. Sau-lung is a kind-hearted man and good father, but he often dreams of getting rich over night and his mind is full of strange entrepreneurial ideas and plans which often backfire and fail in the end.
*
Ma Li as Ng Chow Lai-chu (吳周麗珠), an unpopular model resulting in little workload and is often idle at home. Lai-chu is very loving to her children and is often angered by her husband's entrepreneurial plans, but would always forgive him in the end.
* Jessica Liu as Ng Yau-yau (吳優優), the youngest girl in the family who was born with a disability on her left foot where she must wear long-term auxiliary equipment. Everyone in her family dearly cares for her while she also shares the closest bond with Sai-sai-lei.
* Andy Wong as Ng Yau-choi (吳優才), a year 2 secondary school student who dreams of becoming a film director who often holds a camera in his hand filming trivial things in his life to post on the internet, hoping to shoot to fame. His dream comes true when he films and posts online a video of Sai-sai-lei, becoming a "famed director" of the internet overnight.
*
Michelle Wai
Michelle Wai Sze-Nga ( zh, c= 衛詩雅; born on 24 November 1984), is a Hong Kong actress. She was a part-time model before entering the entertainment industry. She is currently under the Emperor Motion Pictures label.
Name
When Michelle Wai f ...
as Miss Lee (李老師), Yau-yau's physical education teacher who is normally very caring towards Yau-yau. At the same time, she also develops romantic feelings towards Sau-lung.
*
Louis Yuen
Louis Yuen Siu-cheung (born May 23, 1967) is a Hong Kong TVB actor. He co-hosted the Super Trio series, ''Super Trio Supreme'', in season 8 with Eric Tsang, Chin Kar-lok, and Wong Cho-lam. He also co-hosted the Fun with Liza and Gods series ...
as Mister Lam (林生), Sau-lung's boss who always says he will organise a football team for Sau-lung to lead but never actually takes action. He also loves to come up with lame gags.
*
Grasshopper
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grassh ...
as The Conmen Trio (騙徒三人組), three leaders of a fraud organisation who pose as a Buddhist monk, Thai native and an angry
Chaozhou
Chaozhou ( zh, t=潮州), alternatively Chiuchow, Chaochow or Teochew, is a city in the eastern Guangdong province of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, ...
native respectively. The trio sells a map to a
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
treasure to Sau-lung in an attempt to con his life savings.
*
Lo Hoi-pang
Lo Hoi-pang (born 21 December 1941) is a Hong Kong people, Hong Kong actor and singer. Lo attended TVB's Training Classes in 1973. Among his classmates are Chow Yun-fat and Ng Man-tat. Lo won the 2012 31st Hong Kong Film Awards for the Best S ...
as a debt collector.
* Allen
* Chui Ka-lok as Pudding (西米露), originally the bravest and mightiest warrior of planet Meow, but he loses a divine Meow device while descending to Earth, loses all his divine powers as a result and accidentally transforming into a fat cat who is then adopted by Sau-lung and renamed Sai-sai-lei (犀犀利). Having a big stature and born with a cute face, Sai-sai-lei begins to pick up the bad habits of human beings of being lazy and loving to eat and fell in love with potato chips, gradually losing his desire for warfare.
*
Lam Chi-chung
Lam Chi-chung (; born 16 August 1976) is a Hongkongers, Hong Kong actor.
Partial filmography
* ''The Sexy Guys'' (2019)
* ''The Incredible Monk 3'' (2019)
* ''Monkey King - The Volcano'' (2019)
* ''Flirting Scholar from the Future'' (2019)
* '' ...
* Harriet Yeung as Miss Kam (金老師), a teacher in Yau-yau's school.
*
Carl Ng
Carl Ng (吳嘉龍; born 27 March 1976) is a Hong Kong actor and model.
Early life
The third of four children, Ng was born in Hong Kong and is of mixed ethnicity of half English and half Chinese. His mother is Susan Ng, a British woman, wor ...
as a doctor.
Production
Development
According to the first behind-the-scenes featurette released, producer and director
Benny Chan stated the story of ''Meow'' was initiated by star
Louis Koo
Louis Koo Tin-lok ( zh, t=古天樂; born 21 October 1970) is a Hong Kong people, Hong Kong actor, singer, and film producer. He began his professional career as an actor in local television series, receiving recognition for his roles in ''The C ...
when the latter told Chan he wanted to make a film about cats which resulted in Chan having the idea about cats from another planet.
Special effects
In order to create the film's titular cat, Sai-sai-lei (犀犀利), three special effect companies were used to create over 1,000 special effect shots.
Of the three special effects companies, two of them were local Hong Kong companies while one of them was South Korean and they were responsible for separately creating the CG for Sai-sai-lei's head, lower body and entire body.
Release
The
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Hong Kong (SPCA) held a charity preview screening of ''Meow'' on 16 July 2017 at The Metroplex cinema located in the
Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre
The Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre (KITEC, formerly known as the Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre or HITEC), is an exhibition centre, shopping mall and performance venue situated at 1 Trademart Drive, Kow ...
to raise funds for animals that were abandoned, cruelly treated or injured in accidents
before being theatrically released in Hong Kong on 20 July 2017. The film was also released in China on 14 July 2017.
Reception
The film has grossed in Hong Kong
and in China.
References
External links
*
MEOW – One Cool Film
Meow – 英皇電影 Emperor Motion Pictures{{Benny Chan
2010s Cantonese-language films
2010s children's comedy films
2010s fantasy comedy films
2010s Hong Kong films
2010s science fantasy films
2010s science fiction comedy films
2017 films
Emperor Motion Pictures films
Films about alien invasions
Films about animals
Films about cats
Films about extraterrestrial life
Films about families
Films directed by Benny Chan
Films set on fictional planets
Films shot in Hong Kong
Hong Kong children's comedy films
Hong Kong science fiction comedy films