An Na yu wu lin

The kindest thing one can say about this romantic comedy is that it is a crowd-pleaser made for fans of Ekin Cheng and Miriam Yeung. There are very few laughs to be found in the entire movie and even less in terms of romance. The comedy is just as tacky and the kungfu won't even impress a child.

Comic book fan Kin (Ekin Cheng) works for a marketing company owned by the father of her girlfriend. One day, while trying to come up with ideas to promote a health drink for a client, Kin makes a wild suggestion that they organize an international martial arts competition offering a HK$5 million prize. As the client's company would be the main sponsor therefore worldwide exposure would be imminent. To Kin's surprise, this harebrained idea is accepted and what's more, a Shaolin master is even fielding some competitors. Next we find Kin flying off to Japan to invite a famous Chinese kungfu master to join up. However instead of agreeing to take part himself, the old man sends his daughter Anna (Miriam Yeung). However Anna has something else in mind besides the prize money. Learning that a talent scout from Hollywood is involved, she plans to use her kungfu moves to become a movie star. Somehow Anna is attracted to Kin, who already has a girlfriend and he is too much of a clad to come clean with the two women until it is too late.

Don't ask how the competition works because among the 16 odd-balls taking part, there is a pair of hot-chicks and three kids fighting as a team. There is also a black American and some of the sorriest looking martial arts exponents you can ever lay your eyes on. Director Raymond Yip Wai Man seems so proud of the fighting sequences that he repeats them as if they were costly stunts!

These days, the Hong Kong box-office goes for name-recognition rather than acting talent and budding singers like Miriam Yeung become movie stars almost by default. That should give you an idea of her performance here. Ekin Cheng is of no help either. He just goes through the paces as if he were attending a media function. But then, nobody really expected him to act, anyway.

If you are just as baffled by the comments here as I was - there's a reason for that. You, like me, enjoy the silly, slapstick, over-the-top, incredibly goofy type of Hong Kong flick that this is. It amazed me that anyone watched this movie expecting some sort of high brow, high energy action flick. It's called "Anna in Kung Fu Land" for American audiences so I took that as a HINT. Expecting THIS MOVIE to be anything other than goofy would be like expecting "It's a Drink, It's a Bomb" to be a high-drama crime thriller.

Is this a romantic picture? No. Is this an action picture? No. Is this an incredibly goofy comedy? YES. If you enjoy movies on par with City Hunter and the recent spate of Korean romantic comedies (like "My Sassy Girl" and the definite rip-off "Marrying Schoolgirl") then this is definitely worth a look.

Don't look for high concept, don't look for high drama, don't look for believability or get annoyed when something is "illogical". Check your brain at the door and enjoy the goofiness.

This is a bad film that had potential. like many HK productions, internal logic is thrown to the wind whenever the mood comes along. Ekin manages to keep his dignity and Miriam Yeung has no acting talent, but gets by on sheer presence.

The story is a simple one involving crossed romantic communications and a rather strange martial arts competition that in it's final scenes could have saved the film on some level, but, the action is interrupted so many times by clumsy comedy bits, even this element is ruined.

As usual, westerners come off poorly in these films, but, I was shocked to see the American representative in the tournament, Spencer, an African-American, referred to with a racial slur, at least in my subtitled copy.

The actors: They have three facial expressions and emotions: 1. Overly silly happy, 2. wooden (no, wood has more expression on it...), 3. saaaad, in fact sooo saaad you wonder if they die of that damn stupid face.

The Plot: I've been watching Asian movies for many years now and I am used to the different mentality and sometimes absurd stories and to westeners sometimes unlogic cut of the movie. But this really tops everything I have ever seen in being senseless, dumb and unlogic. A martial arts contest is being held to promote a health drink. Kin (Ekin Cheng) flies to Japan to get a great kung fu master to attend the tournament but this master sends his daughter instead. Before I really recognized what's going on, Anna (Miriam Yeung) is close to Kin but Kin already has a girl friend which is being covered with the help of Kin's brother. No, there is not this hide the one from the other stuff going on. The two guys are "so good" at twisting things that both girls can sit together with Kin not realising he goes out with both of them... And when I write "so good" I mean a 2 year old (if he could talk properly) would be able to see through it. I told myself maybe I'm just too stupid to understand what's going on here but in the end I have to admit I just saw the most stupidly scripted movie ever... Ed Wood movies have a better plot that makes more sense. Oh, I almost forgot the martial arts contest. That's because you almost forget about it while watching the movie. In between this torrent of stupidity there are a couple of very, very boring martial arts sequences. They look a bit like some sort of "beginner's guide to basic martial arts moves".

Action: There are some martial arts scenes but as I said above they are really, really basic and boring. The charakters are so awefully cheap and lame looking it makes you beg the movie to switch back to the dumb wanna be romantic plot - which then makes you think about burning the movie or sueing the producer of the movie for psychological cruelty. All interesting martial arts scenes cut together would result in about 2-3 minutes of action. These 2-3 minutes would include parts of 6 different fights. So bottom line is every action scene has no more than 2 or 3 good moves and they are repeated throughout every fight scene...

Cult factor: Z-E-R-O!!! The movie is meant to be comic style which it succeeds in. And you know there are a lot of reaally baad comics on the market...

I give this movie a 2, worst Asian movie I've ever seen.

You would think that HK films would have outgrown their terribly racist and sexist components as they have become more commercially successful in the global market - certainly their production values have kept up. But it must be the same tired hacks that write and produce this stuff as ever. Try not to notice the wildly sexist key plot elements as the male ad exec lead uses feigned romantic interest to seduce the half-Japanese female lead into his competition. It's not just a plot device, its the main plot element. Laugh along as he zanily tries to keep his real girlfriend from realizing that he has lured the woman under false pretenses - ha ha! Then, do your best to totally ignore the culturalist and racist component to the lead martial artist in the fray, the Towering Black Man. Blink and you will miss the homophobic poke during the creepy Hollywood-producer-as-sex-offender scene.

All in all, it's what you would expect from HK these days, or any days - wildly inconsistent poor-to-good action, combined with wooden acting and stale plot. Still, it was nice to see Yasuaki Kurata in his all-too-brief scene (cameo really) right at the beginning of the picture. He really is an amazing martial artist and even the little bit that we see there is a treat for the eyes. Go rent Fist of Legend and look for the girlfriend's dad if you want to see plenty more of him. In fact, do that and skip Anna in Bad Taste Land entirely. There are lots more and better romantic action comedies out there - do some work and find one for yourself, you will be happier.

Also, the bizarre misogynist girlfriend-shooting-the-female-interloper fantasy sequence was really awful - ugly to watch and unnecessary. The more I think about it, the more I realize there is a lot to dislike in this film.

To be avoided despite its alluring title and premise.