Money No Enough - Production

Production

In the 1990s, Neo, Lee and Thia had became well known in Singapore for their performances in the Channel 8 television show Comedy Night. Neo then acted in the 1997 Eric Khoo film 12 Storeys, and saw potential in the then virtually nonexistent local film industry. He wrote a screenplay about expatriates in the advertising industry, but decided the concept would not appeal to most Singaporeans, so he thought of writing a story about Ah Bengs (uneducated Chinese men), drawing on the humble backgrounds of Lee, Thia and himself. Inspired, he contacted Tay Teck Lock, a former producer for Channel 8, and suggested they collaborate. They decided on a plot about three Singaporean men facing financial difficulties. Neo spent eight months writing the script, while Tay helped develop the characters and jokes. Despite the Speak Mandarin Campaign, Neo chose to use Hokkien dialogue to "reflect real life" and "reach a different audience".

Money No Enough was produced by JSP Films on a budget of S$850,000. The production crew included Deri Ng as first assistant director, J.P. Tan as producer, Kamis as cinematographer, A. Supranamian as film editor, Anthony Ng as art director and Abdul Shukar Mohd as sound designer. Filming was plagued by financial problems, such as poor quality shooting equipment, confiscation of props that were not paid for, and a High Court petition against the producer which almost caused the project to be declared bankrupt. After the Board of Film Censors reviewed and approved Money No Enough, distributor Shaw Organisation released the film on 21 screens on 7 May 1998. The success of the movie led to a dispute between Neo and JSP Films over their shares of the profits. To mark the tenth anniversary of Money No Enough in 2008, the film was re-released in cinemas and was followed by a sequel, Money No Enough 2.