Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd

Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, also known as PCK Pte Ltd or Phua Chu Kang for short (鬼馬家族 in Chinese), was a Singaporean sitcom on MediaCorp TV Channel 5. The show debuted in Singapore in 1997. A sequel, Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd debuted on NTV7 on 25 March 2009 and aired in Singapore's MediaCorp TV Channel 5 on 6 October 2009.

The sitcom centres on an eccentric contractor with his trademark yellow boots and large facial mole. While it carries the traditions of a sitcom, many unusual elements were used such as flashbacks, quick gags and celebrity cameo appearances.

Plot Summary and Cast

Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd

The series revolves around the Phua family, most notably Phua Chu Kang (Gurmit Singh), a contractor who boasts that he is the "Best in Singapore, JB, and some say Batam" - this is despite the fact that he has only two men working for him and they are both inept and lazy. He is also noted for his famous cliché or catchphrase: "Don't play play" (pronounce as "pray pray" according to his articulation). There is also another famous catchphrase which is being used in his famous 2003 music video called "PCK Sar-vivor Rap", that is, "Use your brain!" (pronounced as "blain"). His personal clothing trademarks are his yellow pair of boots, curly hair, a giant black mole, and long nails on his pinky fingers. Phua Chu Kang is portrayed as an "Ah Beng", which is a Singlish slang for a stereotypical, uneducated Chinese gangster, complete with habits such as hoisting one leg up on the seat of a chair when he sits down and growing one long fingernail to scratch his ears.

His family and Relations

Phua Chu Kang lives with his wife, Rosie Phua Chin Huay (Irene Ang) who loves playing mahjong and wearing loud, colourful clothing. At the end of Season 6, she gave birth to twins, Romeo Ferrari and Crystal Jade. Chu Kang's brother is Anthony Phua Chu Beng (Pierre Png) who works for PCK Pte Ltd as an architect (his speciality being designing toilets), while Chu Kang is often regarded as strong but stupid, Chu Beng is the sissy but smart son. The one person who drives Chu Beng crazy is his obsessive compulsive vegetarian wife, Margaret Phua Hwei Lian (Tan Kheng Hua) who consistently makes fun of her brother and sister-in-law. Together, they have a son, Aloysius Phua (Marcus Ng). Another family member is Phua Ah Ma (Neo Swee Lin), Chu Kang and Chu Beng's mother. She left at the end of Season 4 to be with her new lover. Joining the cast after, is Ah Loon (Wendy Ng) who plays Rosie's overbearing mother.

Chu Kang's two lazy workers are the fat and lazy King Kong (Charlie Tan) who loves "tau huay" (a Chinese bean curd dessert) and slow-witted eyecandy Ah Goon (Ray Kuan) who dresses in revealing denim cut-offs all the time.

Former Cast Members

• Alwin Low acted as Ah Boon (from season 1 to season 2).
• Don Yap acted as Ah Soon (from season 2 to season 3).
• Neo Swee Lin acted as Ah Ma (from season 1 to season 4).
• Edwin Chong acted as Phua Chu Beng (in season 1).

Other Appearances

The Phua Chu Kang character made his first appearance in the second season of "Gurmit's World", a comedy in which Gurmit Singh portrayed his 'relatives' in a series of skits.

In The Amazing Race 3, PCK handed out clues at one of the detours. Participants in the race were required to locate a HDB apartment in Choa Chu Kang, Singapore where they would be given the clues by PCK. Apparently, the original idea was to have PCK at the pit stop alongside Phil Keoghan (at the end of every stage of The Amazing Race, there would be a local person dressed in traditional clothing welcoming the contestants to the country), but Singaporeans protested that this would give foreigners the wrong impression of the local people in general.

In 2003, during the SARS outbreak, PCK appeared in a music video called "PCK Sar-vivor Rap". This 4-minute-long music video is to teach the local people on how to prevent SARS in their country. Sar-vivor Rap (Video) It also comes with an audio version (with remix) of the song. Sar-vivor Rap (Audio Remix) In addition, a limited edition compilation album called "The Sar-vivor Rap" was launched on 1 July 2003. This album also includes 14 bonus tracks from artistes such as Mandy Moore, Destiny's Child and Jessica Simpson.

The character made guest appearances on four other local sitcoms: ABC DJ in 2006, the Mandarin sitcom My Genie together with Rosie, Living with Lydia in which PCK revealed he had a somewhat romantic encounter with the series' main character Lydia Lum (Lydia Sum), when she first arrived in Singapore in 1979 to be a Singapore Girl, and in the sixth season of Under One Roof in 2001 where he was called to do renovations for the house of Ah Teck and Dolly's son and daughter-in-law played by Andrew Lim and Selena Tan respectively.

PCK has also appeared on two TV advertisements. He, along with Chu Beng, made his first advertisement appearance regarding the introduction of 3G mobile services and phones in Malaysia by Maxis and recently, an advertisement called Bob's Big Surprise. In 2003, PCK appeared in another commercial in Malaysia introducing plant-based administration for pain relief by Kinohimitsu that was aired on TV1, TV2 and TV3.

On 23 May 2009, Phua Chu Kang and Rosie made their appearances on the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), as part of a campaign by Singapore Kindness Movement and the public transport authorities. A music video titled "A Happy Journey Starts Like That", similar to the earlier "PCK Sar-vivor Rap", substitutes the security video that is currently shown at LCD displays on other MRT lines.^[1] The video reminds that commuters should be gracious and thus creating a happy journey for everyone.

Achievements

Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd won "Best Comedy Programme" at the Asian Television Awards for six consecutive years from 1998-2003. The cast also won "Best Comedy performance by an actress"- Neo Swee Lin (1999), Tan Kheng Hua (2001) and Irene Ang (2002) as well as "Best Comedy performance by an actor"- Gurmit Singh (1998-2001 & 2003).

Singlish criticism

This popular comedy is notable for its characters' use of Singlish- a hodgepodge of English, Malay and Chinese Dialects- in everyday conversation.

Much like another popular Singaporean sitcom, Under One Roof, the show was put under pressure by the government to use proper English instead of Singlish. Critics of the show have labelled Phua Chu Kang as an inaccurate or disgraceful representation of Singapore, and denounced his appearance in The Amazing Race. However, Phua Chu Kang remains immensely popular in Singapore and Malaysia.

Trivia

• King Kong (played by Charlie Tan) is the lazy, keng-kah-liao (Hokkien for 'Tries to escape all forms of work') of PCK Pte Ltd. In reality, Charlie runs a media and events company and hosts many live shows. He has also appeared in many other English TV productions over the years prior to PCK Pte Ltd, like Growing Up, Under One Roof and Shiver, and has starred in several children's programmes on Channel 5, Singapore Television Twelve (STV12)'s Premiere 12 and its successor, Kids Central (now known as Okto). Along with Gurmit Singh, Irene Ang and Tan Kheng Hua, Charlie is an original cast member of the hit show, successfully reprising the King Kong role, and starring in all 8 seasons, spanning over 10 years.
• Ah Goon (played by Ray Kuan) is the goondu (silly person) of the show. In reality, Ray is actually the one with the most impressive academic qualifications of the entire cast. He graduated with honours in Building and Real Estate from the National University of Singapore.
• Ah Goon was the replacement for Ah Boon and Ah Soon, Chu Kang's employees in the earlier episodes. They are related as cousins in the series. They also appeared together in an episode featuring them as an upcoming boy band.^[2]
• Gurmit once ate his prosthetic mole, after it fell into a bowl of bubur-chacha which he later had to eat for a scene.

Episode guide

• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 2)
• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 5)
• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 6)
• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 7)
• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 8)

See also

• Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd
• Phua Chu Kang The Movie

References

• Ex-teen actor starts jail term for insubordination in NS - AsiaOne
• Ex-teen actor starts jail term for insubordination in NS - Straits Times
• Actor's detention upheld - Today

External links

• Phua Chu Kang at the Internet Movie Database
• Phua Chu Kang - The Musical Official Site
• Phua Chu Kang Programme Showcase
• An interview with the show's stars about Phua Chu Kang - The Musical (Article No. 1)
• An interview with the show's stars about Phua Chu Kang - The Musical (Article No. 2)