The new painfully funny 6 x half hour comedy series Maximum Choppage premieres on Tuesday February 24 at 9.00pm on ABC2.
Simon Chan (Lawrence Leung – Lawrence Leung’s Choose Your Own Adventure and Lawrence Leung’s Unbelievable) has returned to his hometown after many years training in a faraway martial arts temple. He is a born hero, defender of the weak and champion of the honest people of Cabramatta… Well, not really.
For Simon, it’s only a matter of time before everyone discovers he’s just an ordinary guy, because Simon has a secret. Whilst everyone thinks he was training at a legendary martial arts school in Beijing, the truth is Simon was at Marshall’s Art School, in Melbourne.
Now back in Cabramatta, armed with a fistful of pastels and a crippling sense of obligation, Simon knows that eventually the truth will hurt… literally. He could lose his life – or worse – disappoint his mother (Kathryn Yuen.)
The world Simon returns to is familiar yet oddly different to the Cabramatta you may know. It’s a mix of Asian traditions, absurd superstition and colourful contradictions. A world where brutal gangs terrorise the community with bad karaoke singing; where a magical duck recipe can cast a horny spell and where pirated DVD’s are the new crack cocaine. In this town, evil spirits attack nail-and-beauty parlours, council debates are settled via K-Pop dance battles and car parking spots are more valuable than gold.
The only thing that stands against all this craziness is Simon.
When the ferocious gang leader/karaoke singer Kai Le (Felino Dolloso) threatens to destroy his mother’s beauty parlour-cum-DVD shop, Simon is joined by his two best friends: Egg (Dave Eastgate -The Moodys), a quick-buck entrepreneur and Petal (Stephanie Son – Rake), a groin-kicking kung fu girl. But can they really protect Simon’s family from the Kylie Minogue obsessed gang lord? Will they uncover the corrupt Mayor Crawford’s (Darren Gilshenan – The Moodys) secret plan for the town? And can Simon keep his mind off Elle (Georgina Haig – Once Upon a Time, Fringe), the mayor’s daughter, for long enough to be (or at least pretend to be) the person everyone thinks he is?
Cabramatta needs a hero. Instead they got Simon, Egg and Petal.
Screen Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation present a Matchbox Pictures Production in association with Screen NSW. Directed by Craig Melville. Written by Lawrence Leung (EPS 1, 4 & 6), Duncan Sarkies (EPS 3 & 5), and Josh Mapleston (EP2.) Produced by Julie Eckersley, Sophie Miller and Linda Micsko. Executive Producers: Tony Ayres and Debbie Lee. Executive Producers for ABC TV are Rick Kalowski and Brett Sleigh.