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Moh waan chue fong or its English title Magical Kitchen is the latest Hong Kong movie in offering for the lunar new year. However, there is not a single mood or occasion of a Chinese new year movie in it. I should say this movie is much better for a Christmas fare or Valentine's date movie.

Yau (Sammi Cheng) is a successful chef and owner of a restaurant which is located in a flat called Magical Kitchen which is more like a home rather than like a restaurant. In a tale told by Yau's mother, that she would be haunted by a family curse overshadowing three generations, which destines her (Yau) to fail in every relationship. On a tour of the Iron Chef TV show in Japan, Yau is at the crossroads between her love life and career.

To spice up the this "dish" (movie), we have Yau's assistant chef, Ho played by the hunky Jerry Yan of the fame popular Taiwan teen-throb quartet, F4. Yan is secretly in love with Yau but doesn't have the guts to express to his 'boss'. Next comes in the picture is Yau's former boyfriend, Chun Yao (Andy Lau) who is a sports goods company operations manager and a bowling expert. Further throw in two girlfriends of Yau, played by Maggie Q and Nicola Cheung, and you have a relationship roller-coaster ride.

Sammi plays her usual unpredictable self similar to her previous movies such as Love on a Diet, Good times Bed times and Needing You. Still she's a delight to watch. The same, however cannot be said about Jerry, who is extremely wooden here, and shares little or no chemistry with Sammi. Perhaps we got to blame the casting here as with one look at it we will feel it's a mismatched couples in all the roles.

If the name Magic Kitchen would have made you thought of some sort of a similar cooking stunts like Stephen Chow's The God of Cookery then you would be truly disappointed. Nothing unusual or special dish were being cooked up. At best, Magic Kitchen is good for a few laughs and the chance to see so many good looking actors (as well as other famous actors in cameos) on the big screen. But story-wise, it's wasted.

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.

In this movie, Michelle Yeoh plays Lulu Wong, a much-idolised rock star and philanthropist by day, and a super heroine, Silver Hawk, who fights injustice in skin-tight black leather outfit as her alter-ego. Richie Ren plays police detective Richman, who has an uncanny instinct and incredible wit, but he hates Silver Hawk for being always two steps ahead of the police. Both of them, however join hands to fight a baddie, Wolfe (Luke Goss) who wants to dominate the world through a special microchip in mobile phones which will broadcast subliminal message to users.

Directed by cinematographer-turned-director Jingle Ma (Hot War, Tokyo Raiders, Summer Holiday, Goodbye,Mr.Cool and Para Para Sakura), the action scenes are beautifully choreographed, especially the one where a group of bungee jumpers armed with hockey sticks attacking our heroine in an outdoor arena. The opening sequence is also awesome with Yeoh riding a motorcycle and jumping over the Great Wall of China. There's also ample use of CGI to enhance the action sequences throughout the movie. Although the script is pretty straight forward, Ma succeeds in presenting the story in an entertaining way with constant flashbacks to the past when Lulu and Richman were studying at a Shaolin Temple. The two kids who play them are excellent, especially the boy.

Yeoh is a delight to watch. She looks great in her well-designed outfits and executes her fighting scenes with style and finesse. Her experience in martial arts helped tremendously. Providing comic relief is Brandon Chang, who plays a computer whiz kid who constantly pops up to annoy Richie Ren. Wolfe's role was downplayed. Instead his two assassins played by Bingbing Li and Michael Jai White (Universal Soldier: The Return and Spawn) got most of the action. Surprisingly, both of them had no dialogue in the movie.

Nonetheless, Silver Hawk is an entertaining movie which promises good laughs and visual delights for this Lunar New Year.