Eighth Happiness (Johnnie To, 1988) Hmmm, my foray into the early Johnnie To romcoms isn't going very well. This one might even be the worst of the lot.
It sounds pretty good on paper actually. Chow Yun-Fat, Raymond Wong and Jackie Cheung play brothers and spend the entire movie in the pursuit of romance. They manage to make this doubly difficult by creating obstacles through their own foolishness and hijinks ensue.
Raymond Wong plays a TV personality with a cooking show with a James Bond-like intro. Chow Yun-Fat plays an aspiring actor / womanizer whose wooing strategy is to basically pretend to be gay (yeah, I didn't understand the specifics). Jackie Cheung just hangs around parks watching women exercise.
I always know what I'm getting into with these movies and find much mirth and amusement in their convoluted plots and other silliness. Plus, these actors are super charming and always seem to be giving it their all which is so endearing.
But this one just felt exhausting. The plot is just way too confusing and while I'm used to it with these movies, the terrible way the women are treated in this movie got to me after a while. Jackie Cheung WINS his girlfriend in a pingpong match while she stands by quietly. Chow Yun-Fat cheats on his adoring girlfriend AND makes her cry by insulting her but she comes running back to him. Raymond Wong is the only decent guy in the bunch and even his romantic interest gets abused (and physically hurt) by Chow Yun-Fat. It's all a bit much.
Still, there's fun to be found by way of Chow Yun-Fat's enthusiastic performance and the final climax with all 3 of our protagonists dressing up in drag and performing Chinese Opera.
The next one coming up for me is an action movie To directed with Tsui Hark. Excited!