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This is one of the bleak new wave of post-Handover HK crime films which include Full Alert, Beast Cops and A True Mob Story. Like those films, the characters here are very Hong Kong, but in a Hong Kong the place sense rather than a Hong Kong the movie myth sense. The opening is dynamite. Three inept Mainland robbers botch a jewel store holdup. One of them flees into a nearby apartment building, inadvertently leading the police to … (read more)

Three actors, four stories, no continuity.

How could they do this?!?

What were they thinking?!?

It starts well, at least enough to dull suspicion. Devoted aide (Yeung) secretly in love with playboy boss (Lau). Cantankerous, writers-blocked father (Hui) who hasn’t written a book in ten years. Assorted minor characters of a humorous bent. Then it all goes to hell, complete with handbasket. Or, in the case of Hui, complete with sword and straw veiled hat.

About every twenty minutes, the … (read more)

Yeah! Chinese New Year! Fireworks, Lion Dancing, Dragonboating, the colour, the energy, the food… and of course the mandatory CNY films out of Hong Kong to give us a kickstart into the new year of the Monkey.

And yes, Fantasia is one of those films that gives us a kick. Unfortunately not exactly the kind of kick you want to start the new year with (unless of course you LIKE rolling around the floor in pain – but who am … (read more)

There is nothing quite like watching a performance from somebody you dismiss as just another pretty face. Yes that is right. It seems Cecilia is more of an actor than I ever gave her credit for previously. When I think of what I have seen her in it is really hard to get past the constant ham and overacting that seems so common in films from Hong Kong. Lost in Time is pretty much HER film and her dramatic abilities … (read more)

It’s a silly [and superstitious] habit but I like going to the movies when Chinese New Year starts. I think it’s good practice and lucky to start off the New Year with lots of laughter. And what better way to put a big grin on the face that than to see a brand new Lunar comedy?

Over the past decade or so, the trend of putting out Lunar comedies has fallen on Jackie Chan and of course, the laff-meister Stephen … (read more)

Lau Ching Wan has returned to films after a one year hiatus, and somehow got himself onto a project which involves him sharing scenes with about a dozen pretty women in their undergarments. Hard work for some.

Johnny (Lau Ching Wan) and Wayne (Louis Koo) are hired as the first male bra designers for Sis, the firm run by Samantha (Carina Lau). Their mission: to design the world’s best bra, much to the mockery of current head designer Lena (Gigi … (read more)

Johnnie To is the coolest director in the known universe, bar none. He has a gift for making great movies, and this is one of his strongest. It doesn’t hurt that he’s assembled a solid cast, including Andy Lau, owner of the sharpest cheekbones in the business, and Lau Ching Wan, one of the best actors in Hong Kong. There are even credible female characters too, in the form of the lovely Yoyo Mung, and the redoubtable Ruby Wong.

But … (read more)

OK, this isn’t so much a movie but a series of gags, some good some bad, strung together with a loose narrative. Written by Chan Hing Kar and directed by Patrick Leung, it is the team who brought you La Brassiere and its follow up Mighty Baby. Unfortunately Good Times, Bed Times is more the puerile Mighty Baby than the snappy La Brassiere. Although it builds itself as a sexy sophisticated farce, the material is quite shallow with … (read more)