Mao Shan Wang Zhong Wang / The King of Musang King (2023) - Malaysian-Singaporean Comedy-Drama with Many Ups and Downs - 6/10 (12/01/24)

The King of Musang King is a Malaysian-Singaporean comedy-drama of epic proportions. The story revolves around durian farmer Liu Mei Lian who has to deal with numerous challenges. She has raised three children as a single mother for twenty years. Suddenly, her estranged husband shows up again and causes a lot of trouble. He is accompanied by a failed businessman who is unable to mind his own business. Liu Mei Lian's personal and professional relationship with Wang Mao Shan start to get more complicated under those circumstances. Three elderly businesspeople keep putting Liu Mei Lian under constant pressure. The coronavirus pandemic has serious financial and health impacts on her business. When she tries to use social media to adapt to such difficult circumstances, some people push their radical opinions and reactions too far.

On a positive note, The King of Musang King convinces with an adventurous yet realistic story that makes its characters go through multiple ups and downs. The balance between comedic situations such as the business partner and the estranged husband trying to impress Liu Mei Lian and dramatic passages such as Liu Mei Lian and her son getting sick with the coronavirus is particularly appealing in this movie. Lead actress Yeo Yann Yann proves to be an excellent actresses as she impresses with authenticity, charisma and passion.

On the negative side, this movie certainly overstays its welcome with a length of two hours and twenty-nine minutes. There is not only a mid-credit scene but also a post-credit scene before further credits are shown. This film should have been cut by at least thirty minutes to make it more fluid. The beginning of the film is another significant flaw as the first twenty minutes feel like a propagandistic documentary about durian farming. Several actresses and actors constantly overact throughout the movie which becomes more and more tiring the longer the movie lasts.

At the end of the day, The King of Musang King is Malaysian-Singaporean comedy-drama that convinces with an excellent lead actress, a balanced genre mixture and a plot with many creative yet realistic ideas. However, several actresses and actors are constantly overacting, the documentary parts of the film feel clumsy and the movie's overall length can be described as being excessive. Watching a Malaysian-Singaporean movie is a rare pleasure for Western audiences, so open-minded cineasts should certainly give this unique film a chance. Local audiences might however be able to watch much better films from the underground and can skip this overambitious movie.