Romancing Star (1987)
Director - Wong Jing
DVD Released by : Mei Ah
Player reviewed with :Citizen JDVD 3820
Receiver reviewed with : N/A
 
Features:
Cantonese 5.1, Cantonese and Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 Soundtracks
English, Traditional, and Simplified Chinese Subtitles
Enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs
Running Time : 102 mins.
Region - ALL
From prolific Hong Kong schlock master Wong Jing comes a nonsense comedy in the tradition of the Luck Stars series only without the action. Unfortunately given his track record of more misses than hits under his belt, this sad little picture falls squarely under the miss camp.

Basically Chow Yun Fat loses his girlfriend, so his buddies help him woo another girl leading us all on a merry chase of wacky shenanigans. Or so it should be. Even this cast of gifted performers cannot save this sinking ship, weighed down by humdrum situations and mind-numbing jokes. Sure Stanley Fung Sui Faan as the gruff boss is as acerbic and sarcastic as ever, and Eric Tsang Chi-Wai plays his usual bumbling and cowardly idiot shtick, but Nat Chan Pak Cheung is virtually wasted as the lecherous cad having nothing to do in the film. Particularly bad though is Chow Yun Fat given his display of comic chops and penchant for humour in better comedies like Diary of A Big Man, but here he's forced to play the straight man, albeit with an uncontrollable cursing habit as his buddies get him into trouble trying to get the girl.

And why do they bother? Well in this case the girl happens to be the beautiful and talented Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk. But the moment her character opens her mouth, she becomes a superficial annoying twit, which is ironic given the film's theme of looking beyond people's looks or money. Through their constant bickering, she and Chow have absolutely no chemistry and since I can't stand either of them it's incomprehensible why they would like each other much less even want to be together. Spice things up a little and throw in the obligatory villain, whose predatory advances are at least minimally amusing, and therefore the person I'm most rooting for to win, just so something -anything- interesting might happen and you have a recipe for crap.

It isn't all bad however, the recurring "A Better Tomorrow" gag with Eric Tsang deserves a chuckle or two although it fails to capitalize on Chow's presence and Carol "Do Do" Cheng Yu Ling has a quick bit as an aerobics instructor. Most memorable is a short appearance by a very young Sharla Cheung Man as Chow's initial girlfriend. She is simply adorable and her two scenes with her cranky parents are among the film's funniest.

Note that two scenes have reportedly been cut from this DVD. The first concerns Chow's friends arranging a romantic date, and the second during the closing credits has one of them begging in the street, although neither has Chow Yun Fat present.

The film is surprisingly drab with muted colours and dreary art direction with none of the bright spunky look expected of a comedy. The image is soft at times, but this goes back to the dull cinematography and perfunctory camerawork which just makes the whole effort look dated, even more so than the older Lucky Stars films. At least the print is in good shape with no noticeable film damage and only minor specks and dirt. The anamorphic picture is fine with no compression problems.
The disc includes the original post-dubbed Cantonese and Mandarin mono soundtracks, something that should be done with all catalog releases along with a new 5.1 Cantonese track. The limited sound design of the comedy doesn't really benefit from the remix treatment, and the music and effects are either forgettable or annoying. The old mono sounds slightly fuller and just more appropriate.
The English subtitles are adequate with few spelling errors. Although they're understandable, the humour doesn't necessarily come across very well.

Menus are animated with accompanying music, but considering that there are no extras except for a synopsis reprinted on the back of the box and a short list of the cast and crew, I wonder why they even bothered. There isn't even a trailer. Disappointing.

Romancing Star is a perplexing addition to Mei Ah's series of remastered DVD releases. While some films, such as their excellent God of Gamblers are more than deserving, this seems like a wasted opportunity when better films in their library have yet to be released. Frankly, there wasn't much effort put into this and based on the film's quality it would not have been worth while anyway. Although it was popular enough to spawn two unrelated sequels, this is a dud that doesn't even match up to lesser efforts like Wong Jing's own Crazy Companies or even the aforementioned Lucky Stars. Unless you're already a fan I just cannot recommend this tepid comedy.

-Leon Ho

Reviewed 4/15/2004