The Best Bet

Watching movies by Singaporean directors is my hobby! Well, the director whom I respect most is Jack Neo. Well, few years have passed since "The Best Bet" was released. Yes, I watched it on the internet. By now, I realise that one of the factors which makes Jack Neo famous is that his movies are hilarious and they have various values in it which people should learn. So in "The Best Bet", the main themes are the power of friendship, as well as the harms of gambling, it also promoted a healthy lifestyle.

So, when Richard struck lottery, winning a huge sum of $400,000 , his wife told him that he is not obliged to give his 2 friends money because in the 1st place, he already knew the number 7272 and he used his own money to place the bet. His wife convinced him that his friends were not involved in the winnings and that he should keep the four hundred thousand dollars to them. However, in the end, Richard decided to share the sum of money with his friends. After all, it was his friends who persuaded him to place a bet. His friend brought him to the "Tree God" where they prayed and got the number "7272" which he used to place a bet for 4D, a gambling game. When his family had four hundred dollars left, he took a risk and used the money to go gambling. A great element of friendship was involved in the decision, in my opinion. Based on the relationships of the 3 friends, the 3 friends trusted each other very much. Richard trusted the judgement of his 2 friends, and risked the health of his mother-in-law and son(because money was needed to be spent on their medical fees, as they were not feeling very well), he went ahead and used the remaining few hundred dollars to play 4D. And the 2 friends were in jail,yet they trusted that Richard would split the winnings if he won, and not flee. Thus the trust between the 3 of them proved tht their friendship was extremely close. Actually, Richard could have just kept his friend's portion. After all, it would bring him a fortune, but the power of friendship prevented him from doing so.

This movie was mainly about promoting the prevention of getting addicted to gambling. Nearly the whole movie was about the main characters placing bets and suffering the price for their actions. Money over $15,000 was borrowed to spend on gambling, and this happpened among friends. Once, in the HDB flat, red paint was on the world, harrassing Richard to pay his debts. Tan Chun Huang even strained his relationship with his sister because of gambling. His sister, Hui Min, means him well, and often advices him to stop gambling. But he often blames her for giving him bad luck. He only realised his mistake when he got arresed for illegal gambling. This shows that money, can do many things. They can even mean so much to a person that he is willing to go against his own family. And the saddest thing is that one's family will always be there for one when he faces great need. And all that was ruined, just because of money. It is really no use for me to stick to the usual line of,"It is not right." But I have to say that money is something which causes greed, because with money, a person can look for luxurious privileges which benefits themselves.

Lastly, the ending promoted healthy living. This is because the ending showed that the winnings were spent on setting up a Bak Kut Teh shop which would be able to constantly make money, and would be a more consistent income for the 3 friends rther than the unstable income of gambling. In this modern day society, healthy lifestyles are hard to come across. People like staring at that colourful screen all the time(The computer/television), and that is not healthy. In the situation of this movie, it is not healthy to gamble, and it would be better if the 3 brothers have a better way of earning money. Healthy lifestyles are hard to come by nowadays with all the distractions around a person. Such as the latest technology, which is used for entertainment purposes.

The Best Bet has actually lived up to its title, which refers to "The Best Bet" as the best decision. The Best Bet is yet again another great movie which incorporates good values among youths.