Porky's Meatballs
 
      
Director: Clifton Ko
Year: 1987
Rating: 6.0

Attempting to capitalize on the teenage films from Cinema City with the Happy Troupe Girls as well as the American Porky films, D&B came up with this amiable high school fluff. They even brought in Loletta (now Rachel) Lee who had been part of the Happy Troupe Girls. They add a few more girls on the cusp of womanhood and you have Porky's Meatball - of which there is no meatball or Porky - but lots of teenage shenanigans. None of it is particularly funny but it is easy on the eyes and with a big cast they keep it moving with the typical high school movie tropes. Peeking on the girls in the showers, trying to get a feel as they squeeze by, cheating on exams, falling in love, practical jokes and getting the teachers drunk at the School Ball. It has the nerd, the heavy girl, the shy guy, the rich guy and the girl who thinks she is the gold standard All good clean fun. No Phoebe Cates moments. With Loletta you would have to wait till Crazy Love in 1993 for that.



In a very small way this is a high school Wong Kar-wai film. Everyone loves the wrong person, unrequited love is everywhere, heartbreak goes around. Passion and angst walk hand in hand. But this is a comedy and by the end all is well in the world. Again perhaps reading too much into it - there seems to be a warning about post-1997 within - but maybe not. There is no real plot per se - just students being students - and not very good ones. Loletta has a romantic fling while on vacation in the South Pacific with Tai (Chan San-hui) and at the end of it when he says he will write her, she says fine but I won't answer. He leaves home and journeys to Hong Kong and enrolls in her school only to be met with indifference. Vacations are vacations.



The adorable Nadia Chan in her film debut plays Moon who thinks a man is staring at her every day as she waits for the bus and begins to fantasize about him - only to learn that it is a mannequin. The shy guy (Timothy Zhao) is in love with her from a distance. Tse Tin (Stephen Ho) is the rich kid and is in love with Loletta as well - but Loletta only has eyes for the gym instructor played by none other than Russel Wong. And so it goes. The school is performing so badly that they demote the easy going principal (Teddy Yip) and bring in a strict disciplinarian (Ku Feng) from the military who walks around with a rider's crop hitting students. He brings in tougher teachers - Lisa Chiao Chiao and  Lam Chung. They put cameras everywhere, say don't spread fear and that Hong Kong is Watching You.



Throw in a few songs from Nadia Chan that are fine. Nadia (now Nnadia) was in show business since she was 14 singing on TV shows  - she was 16 when this film was made - but she has the most interesting lips - like she had just been botoxed - weird but very cute like Huey, Louie and Dewey. She has mainly done TV in her career. None of these young actors went on to real fame - Loletta was already a known one, Chan San-hui is the son of Jeanette Lin and half brother to Linda Wong but only made another 17 films. Some times fames hits you and some times it never does.