From Wong Jing and overacting god Jim Chim Sui-Man (with an assist from Lee Kung-Lok) comes Microsex Office, an adaptation of Chim’s same-titled stage comedies, which played to sold-out audiences at the Hong Kong Arts Center in 2009 and 2010. The stage productions were more sketch comedy than narrative work, but the goal of both stage and film versions is the same: to send up Hong Kong’s omnipresent and unique office culture with scathing satire and ribald jokes. Thanks to its local references and lowbrow humor, Microsex Office has the goods to satisfy a particular audience. However, those not in that audience may just be annoyed.

Chim stars as Ben Chow, the manager at Mui Fah Yeow, an ointment company intended to parody the White Flower Oil brand, a tabloid mainstay after its owner came under investigation for sexual harassment. That's a local media reference – the first of many in this ninety-minute film that will squeeze by foreigners and maybe even the Chinese diaspora. No matter, the film has plenty that they'll still get, since Ben's office is populated by inattentive losers who fantasize about sex instead of actually working. Harriet (Harriet Yeung) imagines getting sandwiched between sweating twin bohunks (amusingly played by twin Macanese pop duo Julio Acconci and Dino Acconci a.k.a. Soler), while Tarzan (Tyson Chak) has sudden erections at inopportune times. Hey, it's just like your workplace!

The setup to Microsex Office is good for overplayed gags, which are delivered with gusto by Chim, Yeung and Chak, who are all veterans of the stage productions. The actors bring their comic timing and sense of abandon from the stage, and their all-out performances are self-effacing and even surprising. Unfortunately, they also bring their tendency to project. On the stage, projecting helps because the performers are at a distance from the audience, but on film their thirty-foot-high mugs are right up in your face. Projecting then becomes overacting, which in turn can be irritating. Scratch that: it is irritating. When you’re stuck watching close-ups of constantly mugging, frequently whining individuals, it can only be described with one word: insufferable.

Also insufferable is Rachel (TVB fixture Koni Lui), the newest member of Ben's office and the owner of the most whiny voice ever. The four office colleagues satirize the workplace through crass gags that can be funny if you're familiar with HK office life. That doesn’t last, however, because the Mui Fah Yeow gets bought out by the mainland Chinese (Note: it’s a meta joke!). Ben's group now works for the China Adult Healthcare Group, who manufacture sex toys like vibrating panties, and must report to Miss Fang (Yedda Chao) and her gang of hot execs (Z.O., Jacqueline Chong, and Dada Chen). Instead of a deserved firing, Ben's group is tasked with creating an aromatic aphrodisiac oil. However, they attempt to sexually conquer their new bosses in lieu of actual work. When that fails (duh), they seek out Indian aphrodisiac guru (Gill Singh) to complete their project. Then there's an orgy.

Don’t your hopes up. Instead of seeing the actors writhe about onscreen in various states of undress, the orgy is portrayed with a white-garbed people-as-sperm dance routine (stolen from Woody Allen) plus a scatalogical finish. Microsex Office has plenty of smutty humor but little in the way of eroticism, so despite some of the actors being chesty or hot (not Jim Chim), you won't catch any nudity here. The Category IIB rating was assigned for dirty, crass and possibly offensive humor. To be fair, it's refreshing to see dirty jokes in a Hong Kong movie as the industry has become increasingly puritanical, and there's enough amusingly juvenile stuff going on that the twelve-year-old in all of us should giggle a few times. As an off-color parody of local culture, Microsex Office has its positives and can divert those looking for something cheap and lowbrow.

Where Microsex Office doesn't work is in its attempt at a story, e.g. actually having one or two characters care for one another and consider a romance. Since everyone here is a joke, a vapid piece of meat or an overplayed nitwit, it's hard to care if they decide to hook up or somehow change their life. Also, the story is thin even by Hong Kong's already generous standards. Add to that the largely terrible production values and you have a possibly diverting but mostly irritating and unnecessary time at the movies. There's an audience for this type of film, both local and even international, and hopefully you should be able to figure out if this is the movie for you. If you decide it's not, well, you're not missing that much. If you do, well, congratulations! We accept no responsibility for your decision. (Kozo, 2011)

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