Chow Yun-Fat, a year after his role in ‘A Better Tomorrow’ cemented his status as a superstar in Hong Kong, consolidated his position as a successful leading man with Wong Jing’s comedy ‘The Romancing Star’. A massive box-office hit, ‘The Romancing Star’ would give Chow Yun-Fat the chance to be the suave Cary Grant-style heartthrob.
Coarse but good-hearted mechanic Wong (Chow Yun-Fat) works, alongside his two loyal friends Ugly and Traffic Light, for Uncle Ken in a local garage. They all dream about escaping their confines and when the opportunity for a tropical holiday arrives, they jump at the chance. While away, the foursome befriend two women (Maggie Cheung & Agnes Cheung) who immediately capture their interest, so much so that Wong pretends to be a suave heir to woo the former. The deception works both ways though as Tung Tung’s claim of being an international supermodel is not quite true either. When the respective parties return to Hong Kong, they are determined to find each other but are not prepared for what follows.
I often resist the accusation that something, especially comedy, ‘hasn’t aged well’. It implies that we are so much more sophisticated today which, after a quick look around what passes as entertainment now, shows we are most assuredly not. ‘The Romancing Star’ might be a product of a particular time and culture, but its problems do not lay there – the fact is that it’s unfunny and annoying. It doesn’t start that way; the classic mistaken identities plot has mileage while the characters are fun for the opening twenty minutes. Yet that meagre promise is stretched beyond breaking point and the hundred minute run time feels like an eternity. Of course, you also know that a Wong Jing comedy of this era is a taste-free zone; the scene where our ‘heroes’, pretending to be statues, are peeing in the villain’s bath tells you everything you need to know about the film.
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