Young & Fabulous: Is it a must-watch or must-miss? Here’s an impartial review

If I can only use one sentence to review Young & Fabulous, here’s it: It’s catered primarily for youngsters.

The movie has been in my to-watch list for a while: since last year, there has been various interviews with the actors of the movie, as if teasing us that a fabulous local movie is going to be out but we have to wait. After all, it’s Malaysia Chabor’s first movie, so it sure has garnered many guys’ attention, eh?

Even before watching the movie, the trailers have kind of given the story away: it’s about a group of youngsters wanting to fulfil their dreams of cosplaying, but face objections from both their parents and society. I don’t know about you, but isn’t that the plot of millions of movies, books and comics?

In other words, you won’t expect a story that will blow your mind—just a simple, albeit meaningful, story of kids grinding through the harsh knocks of society for their dreams.

The star-studded movie comprises several big names from both mainstream and new media: the older cast were primarily from the mainstream media while some of the young cast have followings so vast in social media that they could well have more fans. However, it seems like in terms of acting, only the older ones did exceptionally well: Quan Yifeng’s role is so convincing that you wonder whether she really has a son who is involved in cosplay.

Gurmit Singh’s “comeback” (he’s not coming back full-time to the small or big screen) is also a refreshing welcome: you can’t see any trace of the insanely popular Phua Chu Kang on him, yet he still manages to bring laughter with his natural acting.

But let’s face it: many people’s eyes are on Malaysia Chabor. How did she fare? Having seen and heard her speaking in YouTube videos, I just could not stomach the fact that she has totally discarded her JB accent and speak in a Singapore accent instead. But on the other hand, her model-like looks fit the character of an attention-seeking secondary schoolgirl, so that is at least some relief.

The theme is cosplay, and according to my limited understanding of it, is pretty accurate: the small community of cosplayers come from different backgrounds and cosplaying does give them a strong sense of satisfaction. If there’s one thing to pick up from the movie, it’s that cosplaying is merely another hobby—if you don’t feel the fun in it, you don’t need to discriminate it.

Giving credit where it’s due, the special effects (yes, there are!) in Young & Fabulous are actually pretty fabulous.

So, overall, is it a movie worth watching? You might not get a lot of good laughs from the movie, as most of the jokes only occur only with Henry Thia’s scenes. You’ll be better off laughing at a rerun of any Jack Neo’s movie.

But if you’re a parent who wants to understand how kids behave nowadays, it’s worth a watch, though I’ve got to admit that the exaggerated actions of the kids might be a little hard to believe. However, if you’re a youngster, you might be able to relate to the story—whether your passion is in cosplaying, arts, singing, doing business or even volunteering.

After all, it’s a story that has been repeated millions of times, but there’s got to be a reason why it’s repeated…yet again, right?