It looks like 2000 isn't turning out to be the year for Johnny To and Milky Way. Following the debacle that is "Needing You...," the company brings us the strange hospital farce, "Help!!!" Again, like "Needing..." it is admirable that To & Wai Ka Fai have elected to tackle another genre. This one is slightly more successful, but it's general premise never quite takes shape amidst a lot of chaotic elements. Ekin Cheng, Jordan Chan, and Cecilia Cheung star as a group of determined doctors who work at a hospital where the employees slack off and do nothing to help their patients. This, of course, leads up to some interesting slapstick, incl. a great sequence where a deceased patient's ghost reappears to haunt the physicians. A parody of the opening title sequence of "ER" is also quite successful as well as a 70's disaster movie climax with an overturned bus & a person caught between bamboo sticks (reminiscent of a certain scene in Spielberg's "The Lost World"). Unfortunately, that's about all that really works here and the game cast is left stranded with a couple of disconnected plot threads. Will Johnny To eventually return to the gangster/cop dramas that are his forte? Stay tuned.
