All's Well End's Well 2012 八星抱喜 [ Movie Review ]

The Pitch

When it comes to Chinese News Year period, the other activity beside celebrating new year at relatives and friends' house, it would probably be a trip to the cinemas for a He Sui Pian (贺岁片 Chinese New Year Movie).

In recent years, Raymond Wong and Eric Tsang had been consecutively churning out authentic He Sui Pian (贺岁片 Chinese New Year Movie) for the Chinese New Year period. This year, Raymond Wong is back with another installment of the All's Well Ends Well franchise and Eric Tsang has another installment of I love Hong Kong.  

All's Well End's Well 2012 八星抱喜 features the likes of Sandra Ng, Donnie Yen, Louis Koo, Kelly Chen, Chapman To, Lynn Hung, Yang Mi and Raymond Wong.

The interesting point would be to note that who has the better He Sui Pian and who takes in the biggest slice of the He Sui Pian Box office. Since it's impossible to gauge who is the winner in this box office until the end of the Chinese New Year period, let's just see who has the better Hei Sui Pian.

The Viral Factor | 逆戰 [ Movie Review ] ★★★1/2

The Plot

A failed mission to protect a scientist who has stolen a copy of the smallpox virus left Jon Man (Jay Chou) severely injured and the scientist kidnapped by his traitorous colleague Sean (Andy On). The bullet is lodged in Jon's brain will paralyses him within two week and he decides to spend his final days with his mother (Elaine Jin).

What he didn't expect was that his mother revealed to him that he has a long lost brother Man Yang (Nicolas Tse) whom she left behind with his gambling addict dad Man Tin (Liu Kai Chi). To fulfill his mother last wishes, Jon decides to track Man Yang down in Malaysia.

En route to Kuala Lumpur (Capital of Malaysia), Jon befriends medical specialist Rachel (Lin Peng) and came across criminal organization attempting to kidnap her. During the process to foil this kidnap attempt, he discovers that Man Yang is a wanted felon working as a mercenary for Sean, who needs the help of a medical specialist to mutate the small pox virus and holds the world ransom.

After Man Yang failed to kidnap Rachel but escaped with the virus, the criminal organization attempts to control him by kidnapping his daughter. The righteous Jon has to decide whether to stop Man Yang from breaking more laws or assist his wayward brother in rescuing his niece and stopping Sean's diabolical plans?

Dance Dance Dragon | 龙众舞 [ Movie Review ] ★★★

The Pitch

Last year He Sui Pian (贺岁片 Chinese New Year Movie)  winner in Singapore box office was the local movie "It's a Great Great World". It made $2.43 millions, beating the likes of Raymond Wong's "All's Well, Ends Well 2011 最強囍事 2011", Eric Tsang's "I love Hong Kong" and Jack Neo's Homecomings.

This year Kelvin Tong (director of It's a Great Great World) and an ensemble of Singapore / Malaysia actors are back with another He Sui Pian call "Dance Dance Dragon". Kelvin Tong will be taking on the duties of a producer while handling over the directing duties to his long time collaborator Kat Goh.

Dance Dance Dragon is set up to celebrate the upcoming year of Dragon with the anticipation of the baby boom period in 2012 (Most Chinese believes the Dragon Year is the most auspicious time to have a baby). It's going to incorporate Dragon dance and perhaps other forms of dancing into the movie (hence the title Dance Dance Dragon).

 Dance Dance Dragon features local celebrities like Adrian Pang, Kym Ng and Dennis Chew (who is starring in this movie with his popular Aunty Lucy persona). Malaysian veteran actress Lai Ming is back again in another Singapore movie and personally, she is a delightful actress to watch out for.

But the biggest question remains. Will "Dance Dance Dragon" be able to repeat "It's a Great Great World" financial success at the box office this year? Let's wait to find out.

The Great Magician | 大魔術師 [ Movie Review ] ★★★

The Pitch

Without looking at the plot premises, The Great Magician 大魔術師 was already alluring with the people involved with this project. It has a stellar cast of Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Lau Ching Wan and Zhou Xun. Three actors had all impress me with their performance in respective movies (Happy Together, Hero, Mad Detective, My Name is Fame, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate & The Message - just to name a few) in the past.

Beside the cast, The Great Magician is directed by Derek Yee. Like the cast, I enjoyed the director's previous works (C'est la vie, mon chéri, Full Throttle, Viva Erotica and Triple Tap) and I have yet to find a disappointing movie from him.

On a closer look, The Great Magician seemed to share a similar premise with Edward Norton's The Illusionist. A magician taking on a dictator for the affection on a woman. It's a pretty good movie and even if The Great Magician ends up as a rehash of The Illusionist, I am still looking forward to how this collaboration between Derek Yee, Tony Leung, Lau Ching Wan and Zhou Xun would turn out.

It's a Great Great World | 大世界 [ Movie Review ] ★★1/2

Last Year Eric Tsang's 72 Tenants of Prosperity was a success at the Hong Kong Lunar New Year Box Office. The movie basically reminiscence the past with various Hong Kong movies actors and TVB television actors. This year, he is back with I Love Hong Kong and here in Singapore, we are getting It's a Great Great World 大世界, a He Sui Pian with similar structure from director Kevin Tong (Rule #1) and the Singapore MediaCorp Artistes.

For the younger folks who don't know about the Great World Amusement Park, it was one of the three amusement parks in Singapore. Back then, they were Singaporean's top choice of entertainment before the onslaught of television and shopping centers. It's kinda ironic that the movie about the Great World Amusement Park are performed with the local television actors. The same bunch of people who are drinking from the well that killed Great World. Bet you never thought of it that way.

Anyway, It's a Great Great World is a rojak mix of good stuff and the not so good stuff. There are moments that it hits the sweet spot that it was going for and there are moments that it just flounder badly.

The film starts with a young fashion photographer, Ah Min (Olivia Ong) doing a final walkthough at her late grandma (Yvonne Lim) photo studio before closure. She came across some of her grandma's favorite photo and decided to set out to find the owners of those photos. Using her grandma's phone book, she managed to locate Ah Meng (Chew Chor Meng), one of the guy in the four photos.

This grumpy old man turned out to be a lok lok (assorted dip snack) seller at the Great World Amusement Park and he went on to tell her about the four individual stories that are attached to those old photos. It felt kinda strange that for someone who missed her grandma funeral and will be heading overseas the next day for work would want to undertake such a mission. But if Ah Min never persisted in such a strange awkward mission, we won't be getting the following four stories.
 
The first story is about Ah Boo (Henry Thia), a middle age guy who getting all dress up to meet Elizabeth Taylor when she visited Great World Amusement Park's Sky Theatre for a movie premiere. He got his roses and photographer ready but his boss, the ringmaster appeared out of nowhere and forced him back to work. It turned out that Ah Boo was a clown and his boss is a meanie that like to torture his staff to amuse the young audience.

The issue here would be how the filmmakers and cast tried to squeeze humour out of the segment. Is it funny to see a drunken ringmaster bullying his performers? Is the movie trying to say that the kids back then enjoyed such mean-spirited acts? The freak show that the segment is trying to muster is so poor constructed that if that was the kind of acts performing in Great World Amusement Park, it's understandable why the park had to close down. Then there's the lame ideas of helping Ah Boo achieving his objective with Elizabeth Taylor.

However, all the issues with this segment aside, when the movie revealed the final act of the segment, it has a touching quality that was quite unexpected. It has such a heartwarming moment that made all the poor buildup bearable.

The second story is about romance between Mei Juan (Joanna Peh) a game stall vendor and Ah Leong (Zhang Zhen Huan) an ointment seller from a Malaysia kampong. While Joanna Peh and Zhang Zhen Huan looked good as a couple, the setup for these two to fall in love was weak in many ways.

For example, Ah Leong was fleeing from some unsatisfied customers who happened to be gangsters and in an attempt to get away with it, he decided to kiss Mei Juan as a cover up. It's an overused film trick that poor executed here. The situation was not properly set up to make it seems like he had no choice but to force his way with her to escape those that are chasing after him. In fact, it would have been better if he just hide behind the game table. It just hard to believe that the female game stall vendor didn't struggle harder to break away from him (and thus exposing him) and those gangsters would miss all those smooching right in plain sight.

But then again, this segment did managed to have moments that generate the sizzle between these two. Especially the part when Ah Leong dared Mei Juan to take the ghost house ride. It's easily the most funny moment of the show and in the midst of all the spooky comedy, romance between these two character started seeping through. There's also feisty moments when Mei Juan tore down Ah Leong's attempts to be suave that a delight to watch. In the end, it managed to make one root for their unlikely romance and given the weak introduction to these characters, it's impressive in it's own right.

I Love Hong Kong | 我愛HK開心萬歲 [ Movie Review ] ★★★

Eric Tsang's previous He Sui Pian 贺岁片 (Asian movies made specially for the Chinese New Year period) 72 Tenants of Prosperity 72家租客 was a success. In the battle of Lunar New Year comedies, it defeated All's Well, Ends Well 2010 at the Hong Kong box office. "Critically" wise, 72 Tenants of Prosperity was my favorite He Sui Pian since the first installment of All's Well, Ends Well( that starred a certain Stephen Chow) With the success of 72 Tenants of Prosperity, Eric Tsang and his crew are back with I love Hong Kong 我愛HK開心萬歲 to usher in this Chinese New Year.

The setup for I Love Hong Kong would be as followed.

Ng Shun (Tony Leung Ka-Fai)'s  toy business just went bankrupt and had no choice but to relocate his family into his dad (Stanley Fung)'s place at one of Hong Kong old estates. It turned out that Ng Shun is not the only one returning to the old estate. His old friend Tok Shui Lung (Eric Tsang) and his old lover So Ching (Anita Yuen) had both return to the estate too. But it was not going to be an easy reunion as they have parted in a not-so amicable situation. Ng Shun still remember how Shui Lung ran away with the estate's charity funds 20 odd years ago and caused his dad to bear the loses.

Meanwhile Ng Shun's family is finding a tough time to adapt to the new life. Ng Shun's wife Shun So (Sandra Ng) rejoined the working class to help out with the financial burden. Work is not easy as her junior staff is now her immediate supervisor and she faced bullying in the workplace.

His son Ng Ming (Aarif Lee) is having troubles relocating back to the old estate as his job as a Food and Environmental Hygiene Department staff, he had caught many of his new neighbors. To make matter worse, his girlfriend (Fala Chen) is the daughter of one such hawker (Wu Ma) that was caught by him.

Lastly, Ng Shun's daughter Ng Chi (Mag Lam) is a model wannabe. The problem is that she lacks the figure and is unwilling to wear skimpy clothing to get ahead in the model industry.

The plot escalate when Shui Long promises to revive the old estate by revitalizing the current shop houses and allocate new cheap shop houses for the neighbors to start their own business. The neighbors rushed into signing a contact with Shui Long to capitalize in a deal that seemed too good to be true. It turned out that it might just be too good to be true as external developers turned up to buy over the old estate and Shui Long is no where to be found.

Comparing I Love Hong Kong to 72 Tenants of Prosperity, this one felt less comedic and is more prone to making social commentaries on some of the Hong Kong government bureaucracy. Although these social commentaries are intermixed with comedic set up (such as how the Ng family had to frighten a housing board officer off with spook story due to potential eviction), it can come off as a little too preachy for a He Sui Pian.

The story is also not well constructed and lacks a real direction as compared to 72 Tenants of Prosperity. Was it about the bonding between Ng Shun and his family members? or was it about old friendship and trust between friends? What was the story for the youngest member of the Ng family? I love Hong Kong took on too many elements and the various story arcs didn't gel well to bring out a decent story. 

But then again, the He Sui Pian's main function would be to bring in laughter for the festive seasons and it's been a long time since I laughed so hard in cinema.

Sandra Ng is the comedic gold for her performance in I Love Hong Kong. There are two Sandra Ng scenes that made me laugh out loud. The first one would be Sandra Ng getting all wrapped up in plastic for a slimming demonstration but no one bothered to unwrapped her afterwards. The poor Sandra had to find her way back home in a wrapped up situation. It's hard not to laugh when you see a Sandra Ng activate her smartphone with her hands all tied up.

The second one would be Sandra Ng accepting a stunt double job to meet TVB Wayne Lai. Needless to say, she got whack a lot and suffered plenty of bruises from that job. This kind of comedic setup had been done plenty of times but it's still exceptionally funny due to the precise timing and editing for this segment.

There are plenty of funny moments and celebrity cameo spotting opportunities in I Love Hong Kong. Though some of the celebrities might not be well known in Singapore (or at least I am unaware of them) and the story lacks a strong main driving force, I Love Hong Kong is still entertaining to catch during the Chinese New Year period.
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All's Well, Ends Well 2011 | 最強囍事 2011 [ Movie Review ] ★★★

All's Well, Ends Well 2011 最強囍事 2011, the sixth installment of the Lunar New Year flick is here again. Making it the third in a row appearance for this series since 2009. There must be something appealing to this series that making the audience keep coming back for more. It's either that or they just don't know what else to do during the Chinese New Year.

The format for this series has been kept rather simple. Four different couples falling in love or rediscovering passion through various funny situations.

Clerk (Raymond Wong) is a wealthy businessman who is too busy with work. In order to pacify and keep his girlfriend, Dream (Yan Ni) busy, he bought over a cosmetic company for her to run. Clueless in running the business, Dream decided to turn to Sammy (Louis Koo) a well known effeminate professional make up artist for help.

Unknown to almost everyone else, Sammy is a straight guy who pretends to effeminate so that he could excel in the beauty industry. His lovely assistant Claire (Cecilia Cheung) is generally a down to earth, goody two shoes type of lady but strangely lacks confidence.

Having difficulties with the business, Sammy seeks help from his make up artist friend, Arnold (Donnie Yen). Arnold has a gift of understanding women and that made him a very efficient cosmetic salesman. However, the only one woman that he couldn't figure out would be his ex girlfriend Mona (Carina Lau), a failed writer who is constantly immersing herself into the roles that she is writing.

Meanwhile, Smoothie a billionaire (Chapman To) who is having the break up blues with ex girlfriend (Lynn Huang). Unexpectedly, he meets Claire and developed feelings for her because she is not a gold digger. Though there are many women throwing themselves at Smoothie, he realized that he has no experience in wooing someone who is absolutely not interested in his wealth. He seeks Sammy's help in pursuing Claire and romance blossom with a strange twist.

When it comes to a He Sui Pian ( 贺岁片 Chinese New Year Movie ), it's usually going to be a feel good comedic movie that not very well scripted. All's Well, Ends Well 2011 has a couple of segments that were poorly written.

For example, there's a segment where Sammy was instructing Smoothie on how to propose to Clarie and advising Clarie on how to handle the wedding proposal. That segment felt down right silly (not in a funny way) and the humour was crudely constructed as the writer was drawing a blank on how to merge one point of the story arc with another. It was also pretty obvious who the 2nd tier supporting characters that are generally disposable. Their characters and their story arc felt so unnecessary that the wrap up for them felt utterly lazy and uninspired.

But it won't be fair to say that All's Well, Ends Well 2011 is a dreary affair. There are some moments that are rather delightful to catch. Fans of action star Donnie Yen will have a fun time watching him trade punches for brushes. It's quite amusing to see him spoofing the Ip Man character that catapult him to A list stardom in Asia. But the one thing that drawing the most laugh in this movie would be Louis Koo's effeminate performance. He had tackle various roles before but I believe this is the first time that he is portraying an effeminate make up artist and his performance was pretty impressive.

There's also some homage to the original All's Well, Ends Well movie that fun to spot. It's not hard to link Louis Koo effeminate character with the one that the late Leslie Cheung did in the original. The fantasy segment between Donnie Yen and Carina Lau were a reminiscence of Maggie Cheung and Stephen Chow's multiple roleplay of different well known movie characters.

Last but not least, it's nice to see Cecilia Cheung back in the showbiz after the Edison Chen's nude picture scandal. Although there's not much material in All's Well, Ends Well for her to work on, her screen presence remained ever so mesmerizing. It would be a pity if she had left the Hong Kong film industry and I for one is glad to see her back working.
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The translation of the Chinese title for All's Well, Ends Well 2011 最強囍事 literally means the strongest happiness. But among the various incarnation of All's Well, Ends Well movie, this is definitely not one of the strongest installment. But it's equally entertaining (and flawed) as it's immediate competitor this year (that would be Eric Tsang's I Love Hong Kong). For what they are intended, both are equally adequate as an enjoyable time passer during the Chinese New Year period.