This is
a bit of a curious entry. It’s a
collaboration between tons of people in the Hong Kong film industry, raising
money for a relief charity to aid people affected by severe flooding of the
Yangtze in 1991. It was both written and
shot incredibly quickly, and as a result, it feels fairly slapped together, but
you get the sense that the main draw for audiences (besides giving to charity)
was seeing so many Hong Kong celebrities together in one film.
Mr.
Tsang, an anything-for-a-deal business man, is desperate to land a contract for
“rebuilding Kuwait.” Eager to get in
good with Kuwait’s prince, Mr. Tsang learns how devoted the prince was to his
late father and decides to demonstrate the same quality, planning a birthday
party for his own father that will double as a celebration of remembrance for
the prince’s. Two problems: 1) he hasn’t seen his working-class father in
over a decade, and 2) even if Mr. Tsang can convince him to come, Mr. Tsang
thinks his father won’t fit in with all the high-society types he’s inviting to
the party.
Much of
it is what you’d expect from a farce.
There’s a needlessly-intricate plan, outrageous lies, some My Fair Lady-ing, and ludicrous
Hail-Mary fixes to last-minute catastrophes.
It’s pretty broad and, as I said, has a definite rushed quality to it,
but it’s okay. There are places where
it’s over-the-top in a good way – “My cancer is acting up again!!” is a great
line – and there are fun bits of humor I enjoy, like a silly gag involving a
dream sequence and Leslie Cheung.
As
mentioned, this film is packed with Hong Kong celebrities. The ones I recognize are all from Wong
Kar-wai movies: again, Leslie Cheung,
Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Jacky Cheung, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Leon Lai,
Michelle Reis, and Gong Li. Fair warning
that most of these are cameos. However,
Jacky Cheung (most notably As Tears Go By)
has a good-sized role as one of Mr. Tsang’s yes-men, and Tony Leung Ka-fai (Ashes of Time) has some amusing moments
as Mr. Tsang’s estranged brother-in-law.
Luckily,
Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s role is also more than just a cameo. His character, Wai, is another of Mr. Tsang’s
yes-men. Not so much a character in his
own part as someone who facilitates aspects of the farce, there’s not a lot to Wai in particular, but he does get
some laughs. I like the recurring gag of
Mr. Tsang telling Wai to hire “the best (insert job title here) in Hong Kong”
for various party preparations, with Wai inevitably bringing in someone in his
extended family as a ringer. Leung and
Jacky Cheung work well together as a comic duo, too – their seamless fawning
over Mr. Tsang’s “genius” is funny. And
one thing I will say, Leung seems curiously good at doing broad comedy without really mugging, which is a nice
skill to have.
It’s
not a great film, but I feel like the actual reason it was made gives it a
little leeway. Rather than being a
well-crafted work of cinematic art, or even a splashy blockbuster, it’s a big chunk
of Hong Kong’s movie industry all working together to put something out for
charity, sticking as many faces into it as they can and getting it together as
quickly as possible; it’s the Chinese farce equivalent of “We are the World,”
and that lets me appreciate it for what it’s trying to do more so than what it
is.
Recommend?
In
General
– Not necessarily. It’s amusing in
places, and I liked playing “Find the Wong Kar-wai Actors,” but there’s nothing
too amazing here. Interesting, I
suppose, in that I don’t think I’ve ever seen an entire feature-length film
made expressly for charity before.
Tony
Leung Chiu-wai
– Again, not necessarily. Fun but
trifling.
Warnings
Swearing,
some gross-out humor, drinking/smoking, and slapstick violence.
how can i find this movie sir?
ReplyDeleteI'd found a subtitled copy of the whole film on YouTube, but that was several years ago - taking another cursory look, I'm not seeing it now, so I'm afraid I don't know what direction to point you in. But if it could be found online once, it probably can again, so do some poking around!
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