The Hunt for Chicken Rice War by Samhita adapa

 3/1/26

The Hunt for Chicken Rice War 

by Samhita adapa

In 2000, a Singaporean director, named Chee Kong Cheah(CheeK), made a film called Chicken Rice War, released by Rain Tree Pictures. It’s a modern day retelling of Romeo and Juliet, not uncommon at all, set between two feuding chicken rice selling families in Singapore, whose kids fall in love with each other. Since then, the film has been played at multiple different festivals such as the IFFR in 2002, and more recently The Far East Film Festival just in April last year. Despite it being over a quarter decade since the film was released, no digital copy exists today and I’m set out on a seemingly endless journey to find this film. 

I first came across this film over the summer last year. I remember it vividly. It was 11:30 on a warm Thursday, July night and I was scrolling through IMDB when I found the film Firefly Dreams. Firefly Dreams is yet another movie I can’t find on the internet, however, there are still copies being sold on Ebay. Seeing how my parents probably wouldn’t let me buy a DVD for 50 bucks, I was searching for more films like it when a redditor recommended, under a decade old thread, to watch Chicken Rice War. That’s when I set out on my hunt. First, I went to Youtube and found nothing other than a trailer and a few second long clips. That’s when I started to sail the high seas. I searched practically every mainstream pirating site for this movie, but to no avail. Then I had to delve into the more underground sites. Speaking of which, I found a cool site to watch old, rare films called rarefillmm, so go check that out. It’s completely legal too. Back to Chicken Rice War, I ended up going to some russian site with the most obscure movies ever and yet I STILL couldn’t find this film. Almost 2 hours of searching amounted to absolutely nothing. Even the Internet Archive didn’t have it. This film just didn’t seem to exist digitally. 

This was when I realized I wouldn’t find this film normally. I went to Wikipedia, found the list of producers. I created a new Instagram account and dm’ed producer Suat Yen Lim after following her, asking if she produced the film and if she happened to have a copy of the film that she could slide over. Unfortunately, and it's been over 5 months, she never responded to me and granted, I probably wouldn’t respond to a day-old Instagram account with no followers asking about a movie I financed 25 years ago. While I was waiting for her response, which I didn’t realize would never come, I sent an inquiry to the Asian National Film Archive through their website. 2-3 months later, I got a response saying “If you're located in Singapore, you may watch the film at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library located at level 8 of the National Library”. Regrettably, I don’t live in Singapore, nor do I have any plans to go there anytime soon, so I responded, thanking them for their help and time and explaining that I was in the States. 

After this, I did some more digging. A redditor 8 months ago had the same question and was wondering where to find the film. Someone responded with a link to www.nas.gov.sg, the National Archives of Singapore. There you could buy the film. Before I could even consider dropping close to 100 bucks on just the second half of the film, the VCR went out of stock. Right in front of my eyes. When I checked back today, I added it to my cart but I can’t seem to get past the checkout page. I don’t even know if they ship internationally or if they even have the first half of the film for another 70 dollars. This was the end of my search in the summer, and I forgot about the film. 

And then, 6 months later, one of the actors from the movie replied to me in a youtube comment section. I remembered that back in July, I left a comment on the trailer, asking where to watch the film. The man who played Mr.Pillay in the movie responded with “Just Google Chicken Rice War the full movie. 🍿 I am Mr Pillay in the movie”. This was when I considered dropping the entire search. “ Just Google Chicken Rice War”. It seemed like all my searching, all my emails and comments, was just summed up to 5 short words. It wasn’t that easy. Doesn’t this dude know I searched EVERYWHERE? But I took a deep breath and replied, “I searched everywhere, dude. Any chance you have a link? Would appreciate it a lot”. However, the fact that one of my inquiries got noticed, to the point of one the actors replying, reignited my passion. I started to search again, going all the way to the 10th page of results on Google, where the only Chicken Rice War I found was recipes and restaurant reviews. I did find a recent interview with the director about the film on Facebook, on page 4 of search results, so I made an account and commented, asking where I could watch his movie. There's an MIT archive about Global Shakespeare adaptations on page 6 so I emailed them on their page on Chicken Rice War. On page 9, 4 years ago, Elsa Verina wrote an article on Medium about the film, so I commented, asking where I could watch the film. As of right now, no one has responded to me. Yet…hopefully. 

Honestly, I don’t know why this movie has such a hold on me. From the reviews I’ve read, it seems very mediocre. Nothing special. But the saying goes “You want what you can’t have”. The unattainability of this film makes me want it more. Every second I spend chasing this movie, the more I want it. There are more recent reviews on letterboxd, which means people are still watching it. So it's possible. If I need to take a trip to Singapore this summer, so be it. I will watch this movie. 

Works Cited

“CHICKEN RICE WAR.” Fareastfilm.com, 2026, www.fareastfilm.com/eng/archive/2001/chicken-rice-war/?IDLYT=15535. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.

“Chicken Rice War - IFFR EN.” IFFR EN, 2024, iffr.com/en/iffr/2002/films/chicken-rice-war. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.

“Chicken Rice War – MIT Global Shakespeares.” Mit.edu, 2022, globalshakespeares.mit.edu/chicken-rice-war-cheah-ck-2000/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.

“Chicken Rice War 鸡缘巧合 | Asian Film Archive.” Asian Film Archive, 16 Apr. 2020, asianfilmarchive.org/catalogue/%E9%B8%A1%E7%BC%98%E5%B7%A7%E5%90%88/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.

“Reddit - the Heart of the Internet.” Reddit.com, 2025, www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/1lnyqgx/tomtmovie2000s_movie_about_an_adaptation_of_romeo/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.