Let’s Sing Along (2001)
Timid office worker Anita Mui is entered into a big-time karaoke competition by her ex-boyfriend in a bid to stop her hiding her talent for singing, but every time she tries to sing in front of other people, her crippling stage fright lands her in embarrassing situations, and her ex’s new girlfriend spies an opportunity to show her up in front of as many people as possible. Help may be at hand in the form of her loud-mouth party animal colleague (Dayo Wong), if only she can put up with him for more than five minutes…
An amusing time-capsule of Y2K culture, this is a fairly mild film that could really have done with a tighter script, but it is heartening to see Mui return to the kind of screwball comedy she did so well, in what would prove to be one of her last film roles. While Anita could charm the birds from the trees, however, Dayo Wong is the weak link. His annoying sponge of a character might have worked for a more charismatic lead, but the story never allows him a clear chance to prove his worth, so the overall effect is a bit like seeing Audrey Hepburn paired with Rob Schneider (a derp de derp).
All Night Long (1989)
On her way home from a night out, lonely school teacher Carol Cheng ends up the hostage of a wounded bank robber, who demands she help him into an all-night convenience store to make a phone call. Getting into a scuffle with two female employees, however, the bandit drops down dead, leaving the hapless group with his enormous bag of money, a gun, and the equally huge dilemma of what to do with it.
Channelling both the look and feel of Martin Scorsese’s darkly comic yuppie panic-attack, After Hours, this generally has a bit more bite to it than the usual Hong Kong comedy fare of the time, with the main characters having to think on their feet to keep the dead body under wraps, while they deal with the variety of late night weirdos wandering in and out of the store. Gradually it evolves into something more lightweight towards the middle, however, with the only real threat to their new fortune coming from a couple of harmless local coppers.
The four women at the centre of the story do bounce well off each other, with the flashy, opportunistic Elizabeth Lee dominating the group as a kind of mirror image to straight-laced Carol, but it would have been nice if the film had allowed their shifting dynamic to remain its main focus throughout. Once the rest of the robbers, lead by an increasingly unhinged Stanley Fung, show up, it feels as if their role is largely relegated to ‘women in peril’. While we’re treated to some nice cinematography for a chase across the city as things head towards a climax, this last act also feels painfully drawn out, with a number of occasions on which it feels like the film is about to end, but somehow just keeps going.
There’s something to this one that I feel makes it stand out from the crowd, it’s just unfortunate that it never quite solidifies into anything more than an intriguing oddity.
Timid office worker Anita Mui is entered into a big-time karaoke competition by her ex-boyfriend in a bid to stop her hiding her talent for singing, but every time she tries to sing in front of other people, her crippling stage fright lands her in embarrassing situations, and her ex’s new girlfriend spies an opportunity to show her up in front of as many people as possible. Help may be at hand in the form of her loud-mouth party animal colleague (Dayo Wong), if only she can put up with him for more than five minutes…
An amusing time-capsule of Y2K culture, this is a fairly mild film that could really have done with a tighter script, but it is heartening to see Mui return to the kind of screwball comedy she did so well, in what would prove to be one of her last film roles. While Anita could charm the birds from the trees, however, Dayo Wong is the weak link. His annoying sponge of a character might have worked for a more charismatic lead, but the story never allows him a clear chance to prove his worth, so the overall effect is a bit like seeing Audrey Hepburn paired with Rob Schneider (a derp de derp).
All Night Long (1989)
On her way home from a night out, lonely school teacher Carol Cheng ends up the hostage of a wounded bank robber, who demands she help him into an all-night convenience store to make a phone call. Getting into a scuffle with two female employees, however, the bandit drops down dead, leaving the hapless group with his enormous bag of money, a gun, and the equally huge dilemma of what to do with it.
Channelling both the look and feel of Martin Scorsese’s darkly comic yuppie panic-attack, After Hours, this generally has a bit more bite to it than the usual Hong Kong comedy fare of the time, with the main characters having to think on their feet to keep the dead body under wraps, while they deal with the variety of late night weirdos wandering in and out of the store. Gradually it evolves into something more lightweight towards the middle, however, with the only real threat to their new fortune coming from a couple of harmless local coppers.
The four women at the centre of the story do bounce well off each other, with the flashy, opportunistic Elizabeth Lee dominating the group as a kind of mirror image to straight-laced Carol, but it would have been nice if the film had allowed their shifting dynamic to remain its main focus throughout. Once the rest of the robbers, lead by an increasingly unhinged Stanley Fung, show up, it feels as if their role is largely relegated to ‘women in peril’. While we’re treated to some nice cinematography for a chase across the city as things head towards a climax, this last act also feels painfully drawn out, with a number of occasions on which it feels like the film is about to end, but somehow just keeps going.
There’s something to this one that I feel makes it stand out from the crowd, it’s just unfortunate that it never quite solidifies into anything more than an intriguing oddity.