Love on Delivery

My first introduction to Stephen Chow was when I saw Kung Fu Hustle opening day when I was eight years old. I loved every second of the movie thanks to its visual comedy and slapstick, as well as its Abbott & Costello-esque banter between characters. Pretty much every movie that Chow has made and starred in has had similar elements throughout their runtimes, but no other film of his that I've seen has made me laugh harder than Love On Delivery.

Good lord, this is one of the funniest films I've ever seen. This could be described as a "laugh-a-minute" film, but where movies that have that same description might lose the comedic energy they had at the start, this film never once falters in its pacing or its laughs; I don't think there's a single joke that doesn't work, whether it be visual or spoken.

Focusing on a love-struck but cowardly delivery boy who has to fight a karate master to win the heart of a beautiful martial arts student who's searching for a hero, the movie introduces you to a variety of wacky characters that feel like they're ripped straight out of a cartoon, with action sequences that will have you impressed with their choreography as you're doubled over wheezing with laughter.

There are even lots of impressive practical effects on display here, most of them had me scratching my head wondering how the crew managed to pull them off. The film also has an unbelievable amount of heart and charm; the characters are just so genuinely lovable and fun that you can't help but happily go along for the ride and see how all these crazy events that happen turn out.

I seriously can't recommend this movie enough. It's currently on Netflix and I implore you to watch it so it stays on there and hopefully finds a bigger audience. There are so many jokes that'll have you laughing after the film ends and you're going to want to show it to everyone you know. Let's hope this gets a Blu-Ray release someday!

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.

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.

Stephen Chow is a comedic genius. Sure, Love on Delivery can at times be childish or even banal, but the overall effect is one of sheer insanity of the best kind. One of my favorite scenes is the satire of the Terminator. The characters are genuinely funny caricatures of the down on his luck loser delivery-boy, the dreamy lover girl, the penny-pinching boss, the cocky martial arts instructor, the dirty cheat out to make a quick buck, and many more.

Like Shaolin Soccer, Chow manages to create a mindless romantic comedy mixed with chopsocky martial arts and it works, but expect something more like a cartoon that your typical western comedy.

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.