AllMovie

Art and commerce are both parodied in this satiric look at corporate creativity from writer and director Joon Han Yeo. Rafflesia Pong (Jerrica Lai) is a journalist and filmmaker whose television show on contemporary art is languishing near the cellar in the ratings. The FONY corporation, who sponsors her show, wants something with a bit more commercial potential, and she finds herself attached to a new project, a reality show in which she chats with people who are terminally ill and close to death. Rafflesia finds herself crossing paths with another cog in the FONY machine, Eric Tan (Peter Davis), an engineer who has designed a new kitchen gadget that's practical and inexpensive. However, Eric has problems similar to Rafflesia -- his superiors at FONY (Kee Thuan-chye and Lim Teik-long) wanted something a bit less innovative, and Eric's creative ambition gets him fired. Featuring a handful of musical numbers, Sell Out! was Joon Han Yeo's first feature film, and was financed under unusual provisions by the Astro All Asia Networks media conglomerate -- the filmmaker was given full creative control over his project as long as the results were deemed "commercial" by the backers.