DVD Hong Kong Mega Star Region 0 97 minutes Directed by Raymond Yip Written by "Not a Woman" With Francis Ng Michelle Reis Daniel Wu Halina Tam Available to purchase at HKFlix.com 
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Home | Upcoming | Reviews | In Cinemas | Links | Features | Editorials | Search R E V I E W Beauty and the Breast (2002) Raymond Yip Wai-Man has directed an interesting variety of movies. His first three films (the comedies Sixty Million Dollar Man and I'm Your Birthday Cake in 1995, the ghost story Till Death Do Us Laugh in 1996) were made for producer Wong Jing. He switched gears for the triad dramas Portland Street Blues in 1998 and Those Were the Days in 2000. Then he moved on to the near-universally panned For Bad Boys Only later that same year. Another less-than-impressive film, City of Desire, followed in 2001. This film played Hong Kong cinemas early in the year 2002. Director Yip has subsequently co-directed the comedy Women From Mars and a romantic piece, Loving Him. MOVIE Plot: Francis Ng is Mario, a "brown-noser" at a company that makes ointments who has developed a well-deserved reputation as a womanizer. He is 'training' co-worker Harper (Daniel Wu) to follow in his footsteps, which does not please his Harper's girlfriend, Amy (Halina Tam). Mario makes a bet with his boss, Fat, that he can bed new employee Yuki (Michelle Reis) by the end of the week. Meanwhile, Boss Fat acts outrageously toward everyone and brings in two new nasty female executives (from Bosnia) with a new breast enhancement product. Eventually the good women of the company exact revenge against their oppressors. Performances: Always a joy to watch, Francis Ng does the best he can with the thin character of Mario. Michelle Reis disappears nicely into the mousy role of Yuki (a mouse with the heart of a lion, it should be made clear). Neither Daniel Wu nor Halina Tam distinguish themselves with their "best friend" parts, although the latter provides a good deal of fire. Also featured are Amanda Strang (dubbed into Cantonese again), Sophie Ngan Chin Man (as the nastier of the two new executives), Angela Tong Ying-Ying (as the other), Lam Chi Chung (Hong Kong's most popular oversized actor nowadays, here playing the CEO's initially meek brother), and Matt Chow Hoi-Kwong (broadly overplaying as the CEO). Production: From the DVD cover art, it appears that the male characters will sprout breasts and learn how to live with them. Alas, it takes the film nearly an hour to arrive at this point. And when it does come to what should be a comedic highlight, the story is gasping for air and soon expires (though a clumsy and extremely extended coda extends the running time considerably). What went wrong? From the celebrity news items translated at Hong Kong Entertainment News in Review, it seems that breast enhancement products have been the rage in Hong Kong for some years. So it would seem a natural target for satire, along with trenchant commentary on male chauvinism and various prejudices. Instead, it seems the filmmakers were inspired more by the idea behind the much-more successful La Brassiere (i.e. men prancing around in women's products) and gave little or no thought to the inherent possibilities of the material. So we have an extremely obnoxious boss behaving badly toward his employees (a faded copy of Andy Lau's character in the runaway box-office smash Needing You from two years ago), a pair of attractive women characterized entirely by the size of their breasts and their nasty behavior toward the other, less-endowed women (Sophie Ngan takes the lead here), and an office lothario faking cancer to get a women into bed and thus win a bet. Clearly the film wants to operate in some sort of alternate universe of extreme behavior, but the outrageous antics seem precipitated by the exigencies of the plot rather than as expressions of the characters. Ah, well, perhaps others may find the film more amusing than I did. At the very least, I enjoyed the musical score composed by Lincoln Lo, full of an amusing variety of chirpy pop sounds. Rating: Category IIB for considerable profanity and sexual references. DVD Look: The letterboxed presentation looks decent but not outstanding. I can't quite put my finger on the reason, but the picture appears a bit fuzzy. The source print was quite clean, though. Sound: The DD 5.1 Cantonese audio track was adequate for this comedy. Some of the surround channel dialogue made me jump, because it was so localized to one particular speaker. Also included is a DD 5.1 Mandarin track. Subtitles: The white (with black) removable English subtitles were very easy to read, with few mistakes that stood out. Also included are traditional and simplified Chinese subtitles. Features: The original theatrical trailer is included (with different - and funnier - English translations of some of the jokes. Nine chapters can be selected from a still-frame menu. A brief synopsis and cast & crew listing are included. RECOMMENDATION A pale imitation of an old idea with a few genuine laughs. Buyer beware. Home | Upcoming | Reviews | In Cinemas | Links | Features | Editorials | Search |