Chasing Girls
I have been told that when this film came out
in 1981 it was extremely popular and to some degree it was a groundbreaking
film in the way it mixed slightly risqué comedy with action. It
was one of Cinema City’s first films and it’s success helped generate many
such similar films afterwards. Time of course can treat all of us more
poorly than we like and this film is no different. Twenty years after the
fact, this film clearly shows its age. Comedy perhaps more than most film
genres seem to age quickly and have time pass them by.
Directed by Kara Maka, it stars Dean Shek and
Eric Tsang as two footloose and free men on the prowl for available women.
The film begins in New York City where Dean (attired in an Afro) is happily
seducing gweilo females much to the dismay of his mother. She tells him
enough is enough and sends him back to Hong Kong to find a good Chinese
woman who can control him.
He hooks up with his cousin Eric who has had no
success with the opposite sex and Dean sets out to teach him how to get
women. Dean sets his eye on a model (Flora Cheng), and has Eric come along
for lessons. Things go surprisingly well – and Flora is soon demanding
that his wandering eye come to a full stop. But then a cute little waitress
becomes interested in Dean and she soon proves that Dean is an amateur
when it comes to manipulation.
There really isn’t much more to this film than
that, but it does have some enjoyable scenes. In one Dean displays some
amazing bowling skills as he bowls the ball backwards between his legs
for strikes (I wonder how many takes that needed!) and he and Flora put
on a nifty ballroom dance performance. The best is saved for last though
as Dean races wildly through the streets of Hong Kong in various cars and
motorcycles in an enjoyable and funny chase in which the crashes and car
wreck count is very high.
Even so, this film doesn’t have the snap and energy
of many of Cinema Citys later films and feels caught in a bit of a time
warp.
Sammo Hung and Maka have a quick cameo in the
film.
My rating for this film: 5.0