Happy Din Don
Director: Michael Hui
Year: 1986
Rating: 7.0
This very amusing comedy from Michael Hui is basically a HK remake of the American film “Some Like it Hot” in which Hui combines and plays both the Jack Lemon/Tony Curtis role, Cherie Chung is the Marilyn Monroe character and Bill Tung does the Joe E. Brown role. “Some Like it Hot” is of course one of the great Hollywood classics and though this film doesn’t nearly match its sublime comedy – it is still a considerable treat.
 

This comedy is more routine driven than character driven as it was in “Some Like it Hot”, but some of the skits that Hui creates are very clever. He can make something as simple as suppressing one’s laughter into a five minute sketch or a routine as old as pretending to be blind and the bad guys trying to expose the validity of this into something fresh. My favorite piece had to be an extended fight between Hui and one of the bad guys – while a similar fight is taking place on TV. So Hui keeps watching the TV to get tips and even fast forwards the tape at one point so he can figure out how to quickly get out of the hold he is in – and then both stop fighting during a commercial break! This was possibly the inspiration for a similar set up in Jackie Chan’s City Hunter.
 

The cinematography and sets are surprisingly sumptuous for a light comedy like this. In particular, when the story moves to Thailand it becomes a visual treat. Also in the category of “visual treat” would be Cherie Chung. She has never appeared lovelier than in this film – all creamy, desirable and delicious looking.

Michael Hui’s character Don is a down and out musician who witnesses a gangland slaying. After the bad guys break through his blind man impression (“do you have the time”), Hui is on the run with them in close pursuit. The two main gangsters are classic bad guy characters – one with a steel hand that can be turned into a deadly variety of utensils and the other with his cloudy eye and scary appearance – and add a lot to the film.


To escape the country, Hui  - with the help of his friend and roommate – joins a female band on their way to Thailand. He of course has to go in drag and his impersonation of a female is not at all bad – it would fool me I think! It certainly fools Bill Tung – a wealthy crocodile farmer – and Tung falls passionately in love with Don.
 

Cherie is Din, the singer in the band, and she has had enough of two bit musicians and is hoping to find a rich man – a King of Coconuts – to take care of her. Once in Thailand, Hui switches back and forth between his identity as a woman and his new one as a fabulously rich playboy to great comic effect. The bad guys figure out Hui’s disguise and follow him to Thailand where everyone ends up in a pond with a bunch of very hungry crocodiles.
 

The film finishes by taking the final dialogue from “Some Like it Hot” as Hui sadly breaks the news to Bill that he is a she – and Tung gives the classic Joe E. Brown response “Well nobodys perfect”.
 

The film also contains cameos from Anita Mui (an amusing singing one), Ricky Hui (as the man caught in bed with Hui’s girlfriend) and Walter Cho as the police captain.