100 Ways to Murder Your Wife
Reviewed by YTSL
A cautionary note: There is a very strong
possibility that I missed out on a lot of the featured jokes in this comedy
on account of my not being able to understand its Cantonese dialogue and read
the horridly huge subtitles which had so much cut off on the sides and from
the bottom of my TV screen that they might as well not have existed.
Alternatively, it really might have been my good fortune that this offering
is more reliant on visuals rather than verbals to elicit guffaws, giggles,
chuckles, sniggers and smiles from its audience. It also is not impossible
that I might have grossly misinterpreted the tenor of this 1986 movie's humor.
If the latter is true, perhaps it was for the best; since I found so much
of this Kenny Bee-directed film to be an incredible laugh riot.
Beyond the language issues: With a title like 100 WAYS TO MURDER YOUR
WIFE, and a story-line which really does involve two men making a pact to
kill the other's wife for him, there is some likelihood that not everyone
might be as appreciative of that which I did find hysterically funny.
For what it's worth though, this female (re)viewer thought that this star-studded
production (whose leads are Chow Yun-Fat, Joey Wong, Kenny Bee and Anita
Mui; and which features guest appearances by Wong Jing -- yes, THAT Wong
Jing! -- and Wu Ma) is much less misogynistic and mean-spirited than
many might assume. At the very least, even while it's the men in this
film who do provide the audience with the bulk of the laughs, it's the women
who come off looking like better -- or more grown up -- human beings.
In 100 WAYS TO MURDER YOUR WIFE, Chow Yun-Fat plays the captain and goalkeeper
of a Malaysian soccer team which came to participate in a tournament in Hong
Kong. Football Fat -- yes, this is one of those movies where some of
the characters have the same name as the actors who play them! -- also happens
to be the immensely jealous husband of a beautiful as well as sweet former
Miss Malaysia named Joey (who is portrayed by -- you guessed it! -- Joey
Wong). When Fat sees Joey happily chatting with other men, be it the
soccer squad's gay doctor or a friendly but equally innocent member of a
rival team, he gets so enraged that he not only has to utter wordless screams
but also needs to pull all the leaves off any poor plant within grasping
distance.
Things come to a head one day when Fat thinks he's overhearing Joey and the
team doctor plotting to poison him (I can't be sure but my sense is that
they were in fact trying to figure out how to add vitamin and other kinds
of healthy supplements to his diet). That evening, there's a party
at Fat and Joey's temporary Hong Kong residence (loaned to them for the duration
of their stay there by Wong Jing). Roberto, the star of the Hong Kong
soccer team (who comes in the form of this film's director), is one of its
attendees. He himself is stewing about his wife (a clothes designer
with questionable tastes, high ambitions and an obviously sharp tongue portrayed
by Anita Mui), who had humiliated him in front of his neighbors just before
he left for the party. Ignoring her instructions to not drink alcohol
while there (and also return home early), Roberto proceeds to drink the evening
away with Fat and come to an agreement which sends Fat off to kill his already
angry wife while he does the same to the unsuspecting Joey.
Suffice to say here that the first murder attempts were not successful.
And although there weren't as many as 100 ways enacted by the two bumbling
men to kill their wives, we are indeed shown quite a few; many of which are
obviously too imaginative and outlandish to be all that easily and successfully
carried out by rank amateurs. Piranhas, a giant television set, a swimming
pool, a deck chair, ice darts propelled from a catapult, thick glass designed
to channel the sun's rays to burn and more get commandeered by the men for
their nefarious purposes. Along the way in 100 WAYS TO MURDER YOUR
WIFE, we also are treated to such sights as: Anita Mui and Chow Yun
Fat brandishing large kitchen knives at each other; Joey booting Fat in the
head with a soccer ball and also whacking that part of him with her hand;
Anita Mui pouting until she is allowed to score a goal past Kenny Bee; Roberto
washing his hair in a urinal; Fat playing a drinking-cum-chanting game with
a dummy; the two husbands bawling like babies and getting mistaken for a
gay couple in at a discotheque; and the two wives throwing temper tantrums
plus hijacking a hot air balloon.
If the descriptions furnished so far of events in the film do not make you
smile or want to check out 100 WAYS TO MURDER YOUR WIFE, then it will obviously
not be your cup of tea. For myself, the zest and glee with which its
stars inhabited their roles and did whatever they did in the madcap movie
was itself a truly fun sight to behold. How much did I enjoy this work?
Let's say that I almost didn't want it to end; and as it was, took about
twice as long to watch the movie as one might usually do because I found
myself rewinding and rewatching so many bits of it. Furthermore, I
am being entirely serious in stating that this is one of those gems that
I am extremely happy to have stumbled across in my continuing exploration
of what Hong Kong cinema has to offer.
My rating for the film: 8.5