To Catch a Thief
Reviewed by Jack Sobjack
After swallowing one too many goldfish, Do
Do Cheng -- an overworked workaholic, decides that getting out of the city
and moving to the country is the best solution to her stress. But instead
of reducing her stress it only seems to get worse when a thief carrying
stolen diamonds escapes pursuing cops by hiding out in Do Do's new house.
Not only that, but poor Do Do has met her new
neighbors. Grand Grandpa (Ng Man Tat) and his son Berlin, or better known
to the locals as Grandpa. They seem like nice people. They get most of
the town folk to help her move her things into the new house. They bring
her gifts. However, these good deeds come with a price. And good old Uncle
Tat shamelessly charges her for everything. She can either pay all at once
or by installments. How generous! And to prove this, his son, says that
if she doesn't pay she may find ox excrement on her porch. Do Do's boyfriend
finds this quite funny much to her dismay as she was just bragging how
helpful and friendly the people here are.
Do Do's also having problems with her boyfriend
(Tony Leung Ka fai). Pleading that he quit his dangerous job as a
cop so that they can spend more time together. And to make things worse
for Tony, a new transfer has arrived at the station where he works.
The No. 1 Killer: Mosquito Paper (Moon Lee) is
an overzealous cop who is assigned to work with Tony on a case. Many of
the officers fear Mosquito Paper because she'll do anything to catch the
criminals. One scene has Moon jumping on the roof of a car and pounding
the windshield. When she is flung from the speeding vehicle Tony asks if
she's all right and then tells her to be more careful. Moon informs Tony
she is prepared to die and that she'll do whatever it takes to stop them.
The funny thing is, after that, when a call comes in to check out a simple
disturbance everyone at the station tries to make sure Moon doesn't find
out about it.
Even though this 1991 film is a comedy there is
quite a bit of action. And while some of it is played for laughs it doesn't
come off as corny as I was expecting. Moon has quite a few good fight scenes
where (in classic Moon-style) she tears apart her adversaries.
I found To Catch A Thief to be quite entertaining.
Plenty of laughs and solid action although a bit uneven at times. I'm not
sure this film is for everybody, though. If you're a big Do Do or Moon
fan then by all means check this one out. There's some odd humor in the
one! One scene that had me rolling was when Do Do was giving little Grandpa
a sex education lesson (he asked that infamous "where do babies come from"
question to which Do Do replied: "I'll do it together with a man I love.
He'll put a seed in my body. And the seed will grow every day. And one
day a beautiful baby will be born." Then Grandpa says, "Fine. I've got
a melon seed. I want to put it inside your body."). D'oh!!!
My rating for this film: 6.5