Ninth Happiness.
Directed By: Clifton Ko (1998).
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Wu Chien Lien, Raymond Wong, Kenny Bee, Michael Chow, Cheung Tat Ming, Amanda Lee, Gigi Lai.
Courtesy/Permission of "Hong Kong Movie DataBase"
Erm, one of the most bizarre Hong Kong films I've seen for a while, if not one of the most bizarre I've ever seen. It was certainly one of the most entertaining, I can tell you that much. Clifton Ko puts a Bollywood stance on things and creates a film which randomly bursts out into musical mode every 5 minutes. Myself not being such a great fan of musicals, I was a bit unenthusiastic whilst preparing to watch this, not to mention the fact that it was a bit late and my eyelids were starting to drop. That's why I found this such a pleasant suprise.
The story revolves aroung the town of Choy Yung, where absolutely everyone is completely over the top happy happy joy joy. No casinos, whorehouses or opium dens. If Truman lived 100 years ago, this is where he would reside basically. Then 3 brothers arrive, 2 of them some kind of officers (Raymond Wong and Michael Chow) intent in spreading their ideals of corruption, the other (Leslie Cheung) on a mission to prance around happily and fall in love, etc..... He does so, at first sight, after bumping into Wu Chien Lien in the forest. Meanwhile, the Wong and Chow have egged one of the town's lustful members, Cheung Tat Ming into spiking the town's wine supply with what i can only guess is some kind of old-school viagra. This of course, causes everyone to get the horn, leading to several instances of rather amusing molestation, one of the funniest being a scene invloving Kenny Bee and the town's Old Mrs. Minister. In no time at all, it seems everyone in town is "fevering" with one another, a whore house is opened and happy town has been well and truly corrupted. This leads to a misunderstanding of epic soap opera proportions, in which Kenny Bee and Wu Chien Lien believes Leslie Cheung is getting it on with his missus (Gigi Lai) and Leslie Cheung thinks Wu Chien Lien and Kenny Bee are getting down to a bit of slap and tickle. Mrs. Minister must head the court finale in order to get everything back on the straight and narrow.
This is a successfull parody of the musical genre and deals out a tonne of intentional cliches, without any element of cheesiness. The musical numbers, although no my normal cup of tetley, were catchy and the lyrics often had me in stiches. In fact, the dialogue in general was pretty damn funny the whole way throughout, which isn't easy to keep up for 90 odd minutes. As for the players, Leslie Cheung really shone above the rest, although everyone put up a great performance, especially Cheung Tat Ming (the mentalist emperor from Forbidden City Cop). In a superb running gag, he has been told to pour water on his head whenever he feels lustful. At various times throughout the movie, these stunning female individuals approach him with a "hello" and pull off the most priceless seductive twitches. By the end of it all, he's jumping off bridges!!
What else can I say, it's a wonderful film and I'm glad I took the time to check it out. Might not be everyone's idea of entertainment, but you never know, you may be as suprised as I was - 9/10