Sister Cupid
Though most Maggie Cheung fans have a real fondness
for her early silly but sweet comedies, Maggie has made mention a few times
that she looks back on them with a bit of scorn due to her lack of acting
skills at the time. If that is the case, I have no doubt that Maggie would
love to see this 1987 film buried deep down in the Nevada desert along
with radioactive waste. She giggles, grins and pouts her way through this
film like the Energizer Bunny on power jolt caffeine and displays not even
a hint of acting ability – and yet every time she is in a scene you can’t
take your eyes off of her. The Magster just has that effect on you.
Even with Maggie acting like a runaway-bouncing
ball that has inhaled a large dose of laughing gas, this film has very
little going for it. The excellent cast of Maggie, Jacky Cheung, Do Do
Cheng and Pat Ha have absolutely no material to work with and one almost
begins to feel sorry for them as they flounder around trying to grab onto
something substantial. The plot is aimless, the comedy falls woefully short
of being funny and I am still trying to figure out what the hell the ending
was all about.
It is a simple story – Jacky and Pat Ha have been
in love with each for years, but Jacky is completely dominated by his tough
witchy sister, Do Do Cheng, who doesn’t want the couple together. In fact,
Do Do and Jackie’s relationship comes very close to being on the edge of
perversity – and the film certainly would have been more interesting if
it had explored this angle a little deeper – as Do Do won’t let her brother
go free and Jackie can’t break away. In an effort to break up the couple,
Do Do invites Maggie who she meets at a party thrown by Dan Bik to stay
with them. Do Do makes sure that Pat and her cousin Natalis Chan are aware
of what is going on.
Maggie is a bit of a strange girl though – extremely
immature, afraid of hot things, able to seemingly disappear at will, takes
baths with ice cubes in it and can stick her tongue out very very far.
Yes, Maggie is a ghost. She died in an accident when she was just a child
and though she has grown up physically, her mental outlook is still that
of a child. Pat and Natalis realize this first and do their best to convince
Do Do that even Pat is a more desirable sister-in-law than a ghost. Jacky
on the other hand does his best to keep his eyes open during the film as
he constantly looks in danger of falling into a comatose state. I was fairly
close to falling into one myself – and only the occasional injections of
Maggie madness kept me from going down for the count.
My rating for this film: 3.5