Local Documentary HOW CHEE! Screens at The Broadway Theatre April 2nd
SASKATOON, SK — A cringe-worthy TV commercial that Saskatonians have never quite forgotten is finally getting the full story it deserves.
How Chee! is a one-hour documentary from Saskatchewan writer and storyteller, Craig Silliphant. It will screen on Thursday, April 2, 2026, at 7:00 PM at the Broadway Theatre.
From 1996 to 1998, a low-budget television commercial for The Great Buffet of China aired relentlessly in Saskatoon. Featuring a Caucasian pitchman introducing the “Chinese” phrase, “How Chee,” and a group of painfully amateur young actors enthusiastically repeating it, the ad became infamous. Some laughed. Some cringed. Some hated it with a passion. Many considered it the worst commercial of all time.
Thirty years later, the commercial continues to resurface (even going viral in China) and sparking new conversations about cultural representation, marketing, and media memory.
How Chee! explores the unlikely origins of the ad, including the friendship between an immigrant restaurant owner with a failing business and the university professor who set out to help him save it. The film also revisits the now-adult actors who found themselves locally famous long before going viral was a thing. How Chee! examines how the commercial shaped their lives in ways both hilarious and complicated.
Blending humour, nostalgia, and cultural reflection, How Chee! looks at fame, marketing, friendship, and what happens when something seemingly small becomes part of a city’s collective lore.
There will be a Q&A after the film with several of the cast and filmmakers, hosted by CTV’s Jeff Rogstad.
Screening Details:
Thursday, April 2
7:00 PM
The Broadway Theatre, Saskatoon
Tickets are available through The Broadway Theatre’s website (broadwaytheatre.ca)