Hang wan yat tiu lung

Stephen Chow works at the Lucky Coffee Shop, when he isn't making the girls fall in love with him. But his boss's lease is up, and the owner wants a twenty-fold rent increase. When Chow works his magic, she bites him, and a doctor informs Chow he's now rabid.

This movie by Chow's usual director in this era, Lik-Chi Li, is more an ensemble comedy, with everyone having at least a brief scene in which they get to do something funny. This goes on for about 80 of the movie's 100 minutes, and then, of course, the comedy slows down so the plot can take over a bit.

The movie never takes that plot very seriously, and we know that matters will turn out well by some unprefigured deus ex machine, but that's all right. There are plenty of good laughs along the way.

After forty years of running his coffee shop, Mr. Li (Man Tat Ng of "God of Gamblers", "Shoalin Soccer", and "God of Cookery", among others) gets the news that his lease is about to expire and his rent is going to be raised exponentially. Li needs to find a way to get the money. That main plot is intertwined with three romantic subplots: one involving Stephan Chow as Sui, "Prince of egg tarts", whom everyone goes to for advice, put's on an act that makes him look like a ladies man, and may have met his match in Candy Yip (acting and singing star, Sammi Cheng) a girl he wronged in the past, another between Li's son, Nam & Fon Fon, a girl who tells Li that she's engaged to Nam in order to avoid loan sharks, and the third with a delivery boy trying to woo Fanny, a secretary at a karate school.

While this film isn't as off-beat, frantically paced, or sheerly madcap as Stephan Chows more well known films ("God of Cookery", "fight Back to school", "Kung Fu Hustle", etcetera...), it's still a fun little film. All of the main characters are fairly well fleshed out, likable, and well acted. And while the plot is hardly anything new, in fact fairly generic. It's heart is in the right place and there are enough laughs throughout to make it worthy for a watch with a loved one.

My Grade: B-

This is one of Stephen Chow lesser known productions, especially for non native Hongkong viewers here in the west, but has all the Stephen Chow trademark perks. In comparison with his more international acclaimed titles as Shoalin Soccer or Kung Fu Hustle. The ingenuity of nonsensical dialogue scenes together with slapstick humor makes this movie a worthwhile watch. Even though a low key production for Stephen Chows standards, but nevertheless it can be rightfully said that its a genuine Stephen Chow Classic!

It was a pretty good movie with some funny scenes. Their wasn't really a storyline, the main thing that happened was a shop was saved from destruction, and 3 guys get the girls of their dreams. If you like funny love movies with no plot and happy ending then this is the movie for you.

Rating 7/10

I can't help but feel that this movie was rushed to meet the deadline (of Chinese New Year). There are many big stars in this movie, especially Sammi Cheng. The jokes often require repeated viewing to fully appreciate, especially the scene with Prince Egg-Tart and Ah Fuk both taking turns to be turned down by Fanny.

The other funny scene from the beginning of the movie where Ah Sui (Prince Egg-Tart) was dumped by an old lady for not being mentally in the same "channel" while Ah Sui turning down a babe who bought him a car and apartment is particularly amusing.

Overall, the movie is quite good, especially with Stephen Chow and Sammi Cheng, but like all the other Chow fans out there, I recommend repeating viewing to fully appreciate the movie.

I have watched it 7 times so far.