Suen sei cho

Oddly enough I hadn't heard about "Lawyer Lawyer" (aka "Suen sei cho") from director Joe Ma before now in 2020 when I was given the chance to sit down and watch it.

Of course I did sit down to watch it as it is a Hong Kong movie, and I am a great fan of the Hong Kong cinema. Plus, the movie had a rather interesting cast which included Stephen Chow, Karen Mok and Chingmy Yau. And if you are familiar with Hong Kong cinema, then these should be no strangers to you.

The storyline in "Lawyer Lawyer" was straight forward and enjoyable, so writers Joe Ma and Ho-Wah Wong definitely made it work. However, while the movie was enjoyable and watchable, this was hardly the top of the line of movies from Stephen Chow. Don't get me wrong though, because this is still a very good movie.

There was a good combination of drama, action and good old fashioned comedy throughout the course of "Lawyer Lawyer" and thus there is essentially almost something for everyone in the audience.

My rating for "Lawyer Lawyer" is a six out of ten stars. The movie is quite well worth a watch if you haven't seen it already.

By his constant abuse and trickery, lawyer Stephen Chow has driven apprentice Eric Kot away. Kot goes to Hong Kong, newly under British control, where he is railroaded into a bad hair cut and accused of murder. Chow is persuaded for his own honor to defend Kot. But this is in a court ruled by British legal principles, and Chow is well out of his areas of expertise.

Chow's comedies usually amuse me with their mixtures of low comedy, integration of standard practices with bizarre situations, and some clever comedy too. This one is a bit too strong on the low comedy aspect to please me, particularly with Kot in prison storing all sorts of things where the sun don't shine and Karen Mok as Chow's wife being named "Wu-Man". That said, there's a comic attitude to the law that seems to derive from W. S. Gilbert.... but without Gilbert's logic.

Stephen Chow plays a selfish yet in some places kind hearted barrister who tricks his servant in doing things for his own benefit.

Eric Kot playing the servant is misguided by what he thinks is love and leaves Chow vowing that he will never need Chow's help again in life. Shortly afterwards Kot gets into some big trouble (due to be executed) with the British and calls on Chow for help. Chow tries to help his client, but is fish out of water when he has to fight this court room case according to western rules.

The story itself is a bit weak, and i found that the film relies on the humour Chow provides. Some moments of the film are extremely funny while some scenes with Eric Kot in are meant to be funny but arent (maybe i just dont get his humour). Nevertheless it is a good Stephen Chow film and a must see for his fans. For the rest of the world, i would recommend that this is a rental. If you want to see some good Stephen Chow films try "King of Comedy", "Shaolin Soccer", "Forbidden City Cop", "God of Cookery" and many more. I would give this film 5 out of 10 stars