Romancing the Star III
Director: Sherman Wong
Year: 1989
Rating: 6.0
I am not sure if it was the excess of turkey I
ate on Thanksgiving or the late hour that I began watching this (2 a.m.)
that effected my brain, but I found this slight Wong Jing comedy fairly
amusing though now I can’t think exactly why. Poof – it was gone faster from
my brain than thoughts of love on a spring day. It has a totally insubstantial
plot that is there only to frame a number of hit and miss gags around. There
are a series of three Romancing the Star films though I am not clear if there
is a connection other than Wong Jing producing and Stanley Fung appearing
in all of them.
What is really surprising in my basic enjoyment of this film is that it
completely wastes the talents of the actors that I watched the film for.
Chingmy Yau, Cheung Man, Vivian Chow and Andy Lau are utilized terribly while
the spotlight falls on the likes of Wong Jing, Lawrence Cheng, Shing Fui
On and Chan San Hui. Andy was likely doing three or more films at the same
time – and so (though prominently displayed on the cover) only has time to
pop in for a few quick cameos and then vanishes again – while the women are
there primarily to act as a foil and a lusting target for the male characters.
A criminal misuse of resources in my book – but still a little Chingmy is
better than no Chingmy!
Stanley Fung owns a car repair shop and hires the four fellows – and then
learns that an old rival in love, James Wong, has opened a competing repair
shop next door. Assisting him are his three daughters – Chingmy, Vivian and
Wanda Yung – and his sister-in-law Cheung Man – not your typical grease monkeys!
The boys immediately have eyes for the girls but their courting techniques
are clearly lacking so the Love Doctor (Andy Lau) makes a house call and tries
to teach them the 13 Ways to Seduce a Woman!
Another thread running through the film is everyone’s desires to emigrate
– and everyone is trying to make enough money to get out of HK as soon as
possible. Stanley also runs an emigration business on the side – and depending
on how much money his clients have he sets them up overseas. For the four
boys, the only place they can afford is somewhere in Africa where natives
are still running around with spears – another blatant non-PC example of HK
film’s lack of sensitivity in certain areas. Later they perform in a gay club
in San Francisco with equal sensitivity! Also appearing in the film are Fung
King Man as the head of a gang, Dennis Chan as the theater owner and Sandra
Ng making a cameo as a waitress.
The film is full of corny routines, film parodies and just plain nonsense
that ranges from extremely lame to slightly amusing – but never inspired comedy
– yet it has an overall easy going humor to it that hit the right spot –
but clearly something I would not likely bother with ever again.