Stephen Chow stars in and co-directs
this wacky spy flick that's more Casino Royale (the David Niven/Woody Allen version) than
From Russia with Love. Chow plays dumb but cool as
pork vendor/secret agent Ling Ling Chat (007), a forgotten
Mainland agent called into action when some dinosaur bones
go missing. Ubiquitous Anita Yuen shows up as his Hong Kong
partner, who also happens to be double-agent working for the
opposition. She's assigned to kill him, but slowly starts
to melt before his strange, non-sensical charms. Meanwhile,
any semblance of an actual plot is destoyed beneath various
timeouts for physical and verbal gags.
The pairing of Chow plus Yuen yields
surprising laughs, though their chemistry is nonexistent to
begin with. The film starts deceptively slow, and appears
to go nowhere through the first half-hour. However, when things
pick up, they pick up incredibly well. Chow's superspy is
more fool than fantastic, but he manages to create a thoroughly
loveably spy savant who packs more toughness than even the
viewer can imagine. As the assassin in paw-print pajamas,
Anita Yuen seems miscast, but her comedic charms prove an
excellent foil to Chow's inanity.
What makes the film a bit tough
for casual viewers are the numerous verbal puns that litter
the film. Unlike some of Chow's earlier films, the jokes aren't
dismissed with yet another quickly-inserted mo lei tau
moment. Sometimes the jokes include long pauses for appropriate
laughter, which can prove frustrating for those who have
no idea what's supposed to be so funny. Also, the film seems
incredibly cheap even by Hong Kong standards.
However, that doesn't take away
from the obvious visual humor of the film, which takes its
cues from Chow's anime-flavored performance style. Bond films
are obviously parodied, but references to C'est La Vie,
Mon Cheri and Days of Being Wild pop up, too. Many
of the visual gags are just more nonsense thrown on top of
the pile. In that, they're not unlike Chow's verbal mo
lei tau.
Where the film really departs from
previous Chow films is in character. Stephen Chow's characters
have typically two varieties: the pathetically loveable loser
who overcomes all odds, or the sarcastic and self-assured
misfit who inevitably triumphs over those around him. Unlike
those other characters, Ling Ling Chat isn't inherently engaging.
It's only through Chow's even performance and some cool narrative
trickery that we come to really like and care for Chat.
From Beijing with Love
works best when it sticks to the physical humor and situation
comedy instead of the esoteric verbal gags. At first glance
it's not a drop-dead funny movie, and by now it's not even
Chow's best film (God of Cookery wins that award).
However, it's hard to find a Stephen Chow film that grows
on the viewer as much as this one. (Kozo 1995/1999) |
