Poh wai ji wong

A very silly comedy that makes the most out of the visual medium. This film makes its mark on the audience with intense zooms and dolly shots, wide-angle lenses, over-the-top sequences, strange and hilarious scene transitions, creative visual gags, absurd fight sequences, and rapid, witty dialogue. It plays with highs and lows with the unbounded imagination of a child and never relents. Poh wai ji wong is a light hearted comedy that earns its place on the silver screen.

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.

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.

Don't expect any kind of substance in this film (or in most of Chow's films). Director/producer Wong Jing has a knack for putting together ridiculously shallow but hilarious plotlines and throw them altogether like the way one tosses a salad. This film is no different. However, if you like Chow or if you like whacky comedies then you won't be disappointed; it sure has some ridiculously funny moments.

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.