Leaning forward in his seat in a cafe off Tsim Sha Tsui's Avenue of Stars, Singapore's premier comedian-director, Jack Neo Chee Keong, is excitedly discussing the notion of payback, one of the major themes running through his new apparition-laden portmanteau Where Got Ghost?
It's there in the story about three con men getting their comeuppance for their money-making scams, and in the tale of two soldiers running into paranormal beings when they take liberties during jungle warfare training. It's also there in the final story, in which three brothers complain that their recently deceased mother hasn't answered their prayers, only to find her haunting them from then on.
'I'm talking about greed - and how, if you [live by] this concept, you have to pay for it one day,' says Neo, who began his career as a television actor and programme host before crossing over to helming best-selling comedies in the mid-1990s.
As with his previous films - such as Money No Enough, a scathing critique about the petty-mindedness that permeates Singaporean society, and I Not Stupid, which lambasts his country's elitist educational system - Where Got Ghost? is entertainment with a moral compass, Neo says. This time, it's about staying on the straight and narrow: for those who succumb to temptation, a reckoning is never far away.
'What I want to share is that in real life, you do something and some incident strikes you - and it reminds you that, for example, if you take short cuts you have to pay for it,' he says. 'Like when people want to cross the road, they should use overhead bridges or zebra crossings - but because it's troublesome, they think, 'Oh, I'll cross the road by climbing over those dividers and fences'. I can't understand it ... sometimes, when you are not so sure, you will get yourself into trouble.'
Retribution is something Neo knows only too well. In March, a 22-year-old model, Wendy Chong, told the press about her two-year affair with the 50-year-old filmmaker. Her story shocked Singaporean society, given Neo made his living delivering films about family values and filial piety. Reprisals were swift: with his iconic family-man image in tatters, he was dropped by a string of advertising sponsors - among them Mitsubishi Electric Asia. The saga ended only when Neo apologised for his infidelity at a press conference, where his wife, Irene Kng, collapsed and had to be escorted away from a media scrum.