“I LOVE HONG KONG” 2011《我愛香港 開心萬歲》Movie Review. All KINDS of EVERYTHING remind ME of CASH $$$.

“I LOVE HONG KONG” 2011

《我愛香港 開心萬歲》

PRESS PREVIEW.

I daresay I liken “I LOVE HONG KONG” to this fun gadget called a party popper.

You tug at the attached string …. and the entire contents zoom upwards.

Next, you witness an assortment of colorful confetti flakes as they “explode” in mid air, sprinkling into a wonderment of rainbow colors.

Glorious sight to behold, yah.

It’s this metaphor, where an arresting cast ensemble of a myriad of Hong Kong TVB stars come together to rejoice in the Lunar New Year blitz, announcing the advent of a new spring, inviting you to patronize the film.

The TVB artistes are the colorful  ”confetti” flakes, lending credence to an otherwise slow-moving plot.

HOPE IS IN THE AIR?

I wonder.

The YEAR of the RABBIT is already scampering around, “knocking” at your door, hoping to be let in.

This Hong Kong feel-good comedic spoof is dedicated to family, neighbor and buddy love, telling us that where there’s love – then there’s always hope.

Hopefully after viewing “I LOVE HONG KONG” we’ll earn more cash in the coming new year.

This is the theme of “I LOVE HONG KONG”, viva l’amore.

Let’s get back to the film.

Kind of a let-down, I think.

More fluff than buff, I contend.

Why is the director CHUNG SHU KAI not ensuring a flow of consistency in this movie?

Editing is choppy and the goofy acting clearly lacks conviction.

Plus, there’s hardly any room for character development of the leads.

This feature reeks of a rushed project. Every artiste is elbowing in and dashing out, as soon as you see them, they are gone the very next second.

When you have a big station like TVB as the financier, and they naturally use their own  legion of television stars.

And most of them get only a teeny fraction of screen time for the Chinese New Year’s offering, appearing as “rabbits” and then scampering away.

Independent actors TONY LEUNG KA-FAI, SANDRA NG and ANITA YUEN are roped in to “beef up” the TVB cast.

The story?

TONY and SANDRA play a married couple with a few teenage kids, notably AARIF LEE.

Used to be rich, they now are back to being poor when the family man’s business hits a bad patch.

They move in with his father in a crowded housing estate, and reminisce about the past, where ERIC TSANG the scoundrel absconded with some charity funds years back.

After more than a decade, ERIC TSANG returns and the confusion-go-round starts.

“I LOVE HONG KONG” is not everybody’s cup of tea.

You either love it or you don’t.

Just as SINGAPORE has her own brand of comedies, so has MALAYSIA.

This is a HONG KONG offering of a CHINESE NEW YEAR slapstick.

The Hongkongers must love this kind of stuff, otherwise it wouldn’t be made in the first place.

Reality is big-time in HONG KONG.

No money, no talk, eh.

I love HONG KONG, but I love CASH better.

Now, this is happening in EVERY metropolitan city.

I won’t beg to differ on this one.