The Shopaholics

I'm going to the desert, the dirty dusty desert, there are things there worth avoiding....The Meat Puppets from Too High To Die

Nelson Muntz: ....just like they have in Candyland!
Lisa Simpson: Nelson, theres no such thing as Candyland!
Nelson Muntz: Sniff. There isn't? But I was going to move to Cuckoo Corners!

Unlike The World, which was made in Beijing and is set in a Disneyland-like context, The Shopaholics, which is made in Hong Kong and is set in shopping malls full of Gucci and Prada, doesn't really change course midway through the movie. The Shopaholics is a very Imelda Marcos movie, in American terms it would have something to do with both Paris Hilton and Leona Helmsley. Its star, Cecelia Chung, is a Chinese Shelley Long. It just doesn't stop, until halfway through, when one starts hitting the time bar to move it along, and then it is over in less than a minute.

The Shopaholics is about mental illness (shopaholism); The World is about improving oneself by reading. Maybe it's true that people in the north really do think about things more seriously. Or, maybe it's true that in the south, there are more things worth avoiding, and frothy plastic colorful warning signs are pleasing to the eye. I don't know. Buddha bless you. Both movies are available at Netflix.