Love on Delivery

If you are familiar with the movies of Stephen Chow, then I assume that you are already familiar with "Love On Delivery" (aka "Poh wai ji wong"), the Hong Kong comedy from 1994.

Oddly enough, especially with my interest and fascination with the Hong Kong cinema, then it wasn't before now in 2021 that I stumbled upon this classic Stephen Chow movie. Actually I hadn't even heard about it prior to sitting down to watch it. And with it being a Stephen Chow and a Hong Kong movie, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down to watch it.

This is definitely and without a doubt a classic Stephen Chow movie, in every sense of that phrase. You had a funny storyline, detailed and funny characters, heaps of hilarious situations, with just a pinch of drama and fighting. And it works out wonderfully.

I must admit that I was more than genuinely entertained by "Love On Delivery", especially because the storyline was so funny. But the performances in the movie were also spot on. So what's not to like?

Writer Vincent Kok definitely wrote an interesting and entertaining plot and story for this movie, and director Lik-Chi Lee managed to make the transition from script to screen very well. And needless to say that the acting performances in "Love On Delivery" were good.

Speaking of acitng performances, then aside from Stephen Chow in the lead, this 1994 comedy also has the likes of Christy Chung, and Ka-Sang Cheng, and some special appearances by Philip Chan and Jacky Cheung. So if you are well-traversed in the Hong Kong cinema, then you will definitely see some familiar faces here.

If you enjoy Hong Kong comedies, then I can warmly recommend that you sit down to watch this 1994 movie. Even with 27 years passed since it was released, this is a movie that still proves watchable and holds up even this long afterwards. "Love On Delivery" is a movie that is quite well-worth a watch. My rating of this movie lands on a seven out of ten stars.

Not knowing any of Chow's films before seeing Shaolin Soccer, I only heard about this HK comic actor and thought he was just another of the typical broad comedians that come out of the HK film industry. Shaolin Soccer was a real revelation but it could have been a unique instance. Kung Fu Hustle showed me that he was an accomplished comedic talent. I have been trying to find his earlier films and am finally succeeding. I encourage you to do the same.

There's a lot to compare Chow with the classic comedians of the US film industry. Unlike Jacky Chan who has publicly stated his fondness for Buster Keaton, Chow seems to be more related to Harold Lloyd style. A low key personality in crazy situations. Unlike Chan and many other HK performers, Chow never forces his personality over the top. He surrounds himself with inventive situations and great supporting characters. The one unique aspect about Chow is the philosophic nature of many of the characters he plays. This film is a good example.

Lots of very good comic situations and a great climax. The main drawback is the overused wide-angle cinematography which make the film look cheaper then it should. This film has a lot in common with his more famous films so it should be enjoyable.

Good time.

Released in 1994, Love On Delivery (aka King Of Destruction) is a Hong Kong comedy starring Stephen Chow as a naive delivery boy who tries to impress a girl by learning martial arts from a wise master, who may not exactly be the all-knowing badass he claims to be.

Christy Chung plays Lily, a Judo student whose teacher (Joe Cheng) keeps hitting on her. This prompts her to kiss a stranger to get him off her back. The stranger in question is candid delivery boy Ang Ho-Kam (Stephen Chow) who suddenly finds himself falling in love with her. The problem is he just doesn't cut it when it comes to holding his own. After struggling to purchase Jacky Cheung concert tickets to take Lily out on a date (Cheung cameos in the film), he fails to defend her against the Judo master making advances so she breaks it off with Ang, calling him a coward. Defeated, Ang meets a shop owner called Tat (Ng Man Tat) who claims to be a martial arts expert and is willing to teach him, for a price. The price turns out to be all of Ang's money since Tat proves to be a very obvious conman. Can Ang learn... anything about self-defense before Lily gives up on him entirely?

One of Stephen Chow's earliest comedies as (co-)director, Love On Delivery marked his second collaboration with long-time partner-in-crime Lee Lik-chi and its quick pacing in terms of jokes helped establish a new wave of slapstick spoof comedies in the vein of the 70's Michael Hui classics, but with a more modern edge. Chow's trademark style of comedy is very much in full force here, as is his deadpan demeanor. The visual gags get goofier and goofier as the movie goes on and every character is sillier than the next, with the likes of The Terminator, Rocky and Kamen Rider getting spoofed along the way. Tat's effortless scamming of Ang is the highlight of the film as it leads to some truly hilarious confrontations including Ang's discovery of the Fire Spin move which consists of simply grabbing someone then falling down a flight of stairs with them.

About halfway through, the film sees Ang sport a Garfield mask and fight his nemesis, the mean Judo teacher, but the real challenge he has to face is a professional fighter played by Ben Lam who challenges him to a big match after wooing Lily. The fight in question is, of course, a complete farce (think Charlie Chaplin's boxing short film) and provides lots of laughs. This is easily one of Chow's funniest movies and it holds up surprisingly well. Some of his more well known works feel a little overrated at times but Love On Delivery delivers (pun intended) in the most important department: the jokes themselves. One would've liked for Christy Chung to do a little bit more in the second half of the film, since her character was meant to know martial arts as well, but other than that the film makes the most of its fun, energetic cast.

If you're looking to discover the works of Stephen Chow and Lee Lik-chi, then the brilliantly anarchic Love On Delivery is not a bad place to start. It's refreshingly not as gross-out as some of Chow's other films, and the slapstick is supported by a genuinely very funny script, which is not always the case.

A good time.

This is the funniest Hong Kong movie I've seen (though I've only seen a few dozen) -- even better than Jackie Chan's stuff. In fact, it's one of the funniest comedies of any kind that I've seen.

The scene where the seemingly indestructable hero keeps popping up, fists on his hips (in a Superman pose), wearing that incredibly ridiculous Gar Fai (AKA Jim Davis' Garfield) mask, is to die for.

Christy Chung stars as a Judo student and her teacher feels that he should be able to have her. Since she knows that she can have anybody, she decides to play around with her teacher and Stephen Chow shows up at just the right moment to get asked out to a Jacky Cheung concert right in front of the Judo teacher. In a poop involved confrontation, the teacher accidentally hits Chritsy in the face and Chow doesn't stand up for her. He says that he loves her dearly, but she won't date a coward. He starts training in kung fu, and like all Chow movies, there is no training and this is just a reason for more comedy. They drag the story out with tons of hilarious stunts and jokes. So after briefly learning kung fu, Chow sort of gets lucky against the Judo master where he fights him in a Garfield mask. After saving Christy from possibly being rapedd, he ends up losing credit for his good deed and she finds a boyfriend in no time. One that can protect her that is. This guy just kind of shows up to get rid of all types of martial arts since his Karate is so superior. He also takes the credit for being the masked Garfield hero and Chow ends up having to fight him in a contest.

There are 3 fight scenes. The first one is played for laughs, the second is a huge throwdown, and one of the very few times I found myself rewinding a Stephen Chow movie for the action. A lot of effort was put into this scene and that is for sure. The final battle in the arena is a mix of comedy and realism. Some of the choreography is good and MMA is put to good use. Chow never does end up learning kung fu, so he has to defeat his enemy by using his wit. Luckily, he did do some weird training on top of a moving van and it proves to be very useful. The gags never stop. Another Stephen Chow classic.