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Thoughts in thread: To be fair, Herman Yau is listed as co-director but regardless, it seems like a quickly conceived and made Lunar New Year movie so no 3D, special effects madness here and Stephen reverts back to dealing with a character who lives for acting.
Making sure there’s highs and lows as E Jingwen’s Dreamy goes from inspired, aspiring. to losing hope in making it as an actress, that is both framed at extreme comedic levels (the scene where she’s thrusted into the role of a stunt double and is promptly beaten up is stuff Chow
nailed in 1991, in 1999 and he still manages to make the “pile on” gag work) but Chow explores the lows for emotional purposes too. Nothing here is inventive and goes outside the realm of the commercial comedy with a spot for feels but it does feel quite genuine despite.
Thanks to Chow working E Jingwen into both his rhythm of comedy but she holds her own in the more real moments and is truly likable. Wang Bao-qiang is broad and unhinged but there’s a purpose to his frequency and how his story intersects with Dreamy.
Meaning he gets to tone his act down as well. Enjoyable little Stephen Chow comedy at a time where I thought he was done doing small comedies.
