The Millionaire Chase
Once again director Inoue Umetsugu delivers a
glossy delightful film that has just the perfect blend of light comedy,
silly romance, tuneful music and just a dash of drama. Like most of his
Hong Kong films, it is also filled to the brim with bright colors, pop
fashion glamour and the charms of some of the Shaw Brother’s loveliest
starlets. Unwinding playfully like a kitten with a ball of string, the
film briskly moves around Asia and jumps gleefully from one subplot to
another. There is never much doubt where it will end up, but it is a lot
of fun getting there nonetheless.
As in Umetsugu’s classic “Hong Kong Nocturne”,
these actresses come in a brightly wrapped package of three – Lily Ho,
Chin Ping and Betty Ting Pei (two of who starred in Nocturne) and they
are a great pleasure to watch. They have wonderful casual chemistry together
and feel like the old friends they are suppose to be. Lily is the leggy
glamour doll who makes men’s heads spin like runaway tops when she walks
by, Chin looks to be as small as a breadbox but is a complete and utter
sweetie pie and Betty is sort of the not too bright friend who eyes every
man like a piggy bank and breaks into hiccups. Only at the beginning
of her career, Betty was of course to gain infamy a few years later after
Bruce Lee died in her apartment. These three aren’t enough for Umetsugu
though so he also brings in the beautifully salacious Angela Yu Chien who
always sports a grin like a rumpled bed sheet. And finally to round
it out Helen Ma plays the spoiled man stealer – but it is always hard for
me to see her in any role but the swordswoman in “Deaf Mute Heroine”.
Lily, Chin and Betty are a singing and dancing
trio managed by Peter Chen who shows up in just about every Shaw musical
it seems. And by now I would be disappointed if he didn’t. He also manages
solo singer Angela, but his interest in her goes well beyond her vocal
talents and vice-versa. Unfortunately, she is married to a wealthy old
codger, which makes it difficult seeing each other on the sly. So
they scheme to take their show on the road to Taiwan, Tokyo and Bangkok
where they hope they will have the opportunity to ditch her husband for
a little hanky panky time. Peter invites his other act along to act as
cover and to hopefully induce the old man to chase after Lily.
The girls don’t initially want to go but soon
find reasons to – Lily has a crush on Peter, Chin has just had her heart
broken by a guy named “Melon” and Betty needs to get away from her overcrowded
living conditions. They all make a pact to find a husband on this trip
– preferably a very rich one – and they go after this mission with a glee.
Wasting no time, Chin and Betty spot a potential candidate (Wei Ping Ao)
on the airplane and after finding out that he owns stores all over Asia
they do a celebratory high five squeal in the aisle. He is kind of weasely
looking but with that kind of money who cares. Their plan starts falling
apart though when they soon bump their heads on true love – Chin with a
poor waiter (Chin Feng) and Betty with a gemologist (Chang Pei-shan). Lily
finds herself in a tooth and claw battle for Peter’s heart while also gladly
accepting gifts on the side from Angela’s husband. Into this already mangled
mix are diamond smugglers, sightseeing, a gigantic pie fight, a free for
all melee and of course musical numbers and it all adds up to a frothy
delight that I found enchanting.
The musical numbers are very basic – generally
just the three women performing their act on stage – nothing fancy with
some very rudimentary choreography that looks like they needed a few more
days to get their movements in synch. The songs though are fairly decent
– actually sung by Jing Ting, Fang Yihua and Zhong Lingling and include
songs titled “Happiness”, “Song of Taiwan”, “Hong Kong”, “Bangkok” and
“Formosa”. There is also a good guitar driven go-go number that is used
dramatically to shift back and forth between Peter and Lily dancing up
a storm in a club and Chin trying to fight off a rape attempt. In a “ how
times have changed” aftermath Chin later only gives the fellow a mean look
as opposed to nailing him to the wall with a zip gun and her friend Betty
doesn’t hesitate to go out with him.
My rating for this film: 7.5
