Recess week is finally here! If you’ve started to feel a little burnt out from all the assignments and projects due, you’re not alone. Enter recess week: the perfect time to take a little breather. For those days when you’re bored of studying and need to lighten the mental load, here is a compiled list of five of our favourite comedy shows/movies – across a variety of genres and cultures – shortlisted by our team here at Residential Life.
1. We’re The Millers
Although this American crime comedy was produced way back in 2013, the wicked plot line and funny characters still hit home, every time. It’s a classic that you can watch a million times and still not get sick of.
Description:
We’re The Millers features a small-time pot dealer, David Clark, who owes a massive debt to a drug lord. Broke and desperate, he is forced to smuggle two metric tons of grass into the U.S. for cash. However, knowing that a single white male driver in grubby attire would immediately cause suspicion, David recruits a fake family – inclusive of a 19 year-old runaway petty thief, an 18-year-old nerdy neighbour, and a down-on-her-luck stripper – to accompany him on his journey.
If you need something to kick back, relax and take your mind off work, this movie would do just the trick. Get ready to hop on for the ride of a lifetime, cause this adventure is one that is sure to leave you gagging with laughter.
2. She Was Pretty
For all you K-fanatics out there, this is an ode to one of the original Korean dramas that kicked off the whole K-drama craze in Singapore. Based on a true story, this comedic K-drama explores the concept of love, and its beauty that overcomes all circumstances.
Description:
Set as a romantic comedy, this story is about two childhood friends who meet again in a fashion magazine’s publishing office.
Our protagonist, Kim Hye-jin was a beautiful girl from the rich Cha family. However, after her family’s publishing company went bankrupt, she experienced hardships and lost her beauty. Her childhood friend, Ji Sung-joon, on the other hand, had been a unattractive boy with low self-esteem, but eventually grew up to be a handsome and successful editor.
When the two decided to meet again as adults, Sung-joon was unable to recognize Hye-jin. Ashamed to meet her first love and ruin what remaining positive perception he had of her, Hye-jin asks her attractive best friend, Ha-ri, to appear in her place. However, things soon get complicated as the lies spin out of control.
Featuring an innocent, child-like love, this light-hearted drama would leave you convinced that true love still exists. Not to mention, Hye-jin’s lovable and relatable character is one that you too, are sure to fall in love with.
3. Fresh Off The Boat
With its 90s hip-hop references and intricate relationships, Fresh Off The Boat is a funny American sitcom that all asians can relate to, or if you’ve ever lived away from home.
Description:
A daring, heart-warming sitcom, Fresh Off the Boat features a Taiwanese family who faces culture shock after moving from Washington, D.C., to Orlando during the 1990s. It was inspired by a life memoir of celebrity chef and food personality, Eddie Huang, and is largely about questioning the idea if there is a single “authentic” form of any experience.
Eddie himself wrote a long, nuanced essay on the experience for New York magazine. Check it out!
4. Kim’s Convenience
We’ve all had them – family squabbles and drama, but in the end, family is still family. Kim’s Convenience illustrates this dynamic with its on-point humour, culturally aware humour and characters that we’re all bound to recognise. The show will leave you in stitches, and yet with a lingering feeling of comfort – just like drinking a warm bowl of chicken soup!
Description:
The show focuses on the Kim family of Canada where Umma and Appa (korean for “mom” and “dad”) run a neighborhood convenience store in downtown Toronto. Throughout the show, we watch the Kims handle big city life as a multigenerational immigrant family, as they encounter work, family, and relationship drama along the way.
With four seasons under its belt, the show has already gained a cult following – and it’s not hard to see why. Join the Kims on Netflix and we promise that every episode would be filled with laughter!
5. Crazy Rich Asians
Making it the second Constance Wu film on the list, Crazy Rich Asians received much hype when it was first released. Being one of the first few shows featuring an all-Asian ensemble cast, it’s a movie that is iconic in its own right.
Description:
Chinese-American New Yorker, Rachel Chu travels to Singapore with her boyfriend Nick Young, to attend his best friend’s wedding. She soon discovers that he comes from one of Asia’s most wealthy, prominent families. As a commoner among the social elite, Rachel then becomes a target for single women vying for Nick’s attention as well as for his judgmental mother, who wants nothing more than to break them up.
This movie will bring you through a rollercoaster of emotions, as you follow Rachel through the hardships she faces while meeting Nick’s family. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and maybe even bawl your eyes out at one point. Plus, we hear that the movie may be even better than the books (but we’ll leave you to be the judge of that).
Hope you enjoy these shows as much as we did. If you have any other fantastic comedy shows or movies to recommend, do share them in the comments down below. Have a good recess week!
