Pi li da la ba

Sammo Hung plays tuba-playing-policeman dubbed Officer Tuba, who joins forces with Police Detective Chow (David Chiang) to capture a band of blackmailers. Chow is gunned down in the process and, in his dying moment, makes Tuba promise that he will defeat the gangsters and avenge his death. Tuba forgets his promise after he is preoccupied with another police mission and with wooing his girlfriend-to-be Joanne (Joey Wang). As a result, Chow's ghost pays a visit.

This is a somewhat conventional ghost-comedy from Hong Kong, with a plot that starts off riveting with all the police action, but then drifts off to some comedic, but laughable, moments. The dating scenes of Tuba and Joanne consume a lot of the movie, which tends to drag the plot and sway it away from the main police/ghost elements. However, the comedy, again, is pretty good and sent me and my brother reeling with laughter, especially in the scenes where Chow's ghost torments and play tricks on Tuba in getting him to fulfill his promise of avenging his death.

A lot of cameos were crammed into the movie as well, with appearances by HK actors including Paul Chun, Stanley Fung, Lam Ching-Ying, Melvin Wong, John Sham and Dennis Chan. Sammo does not showcase his martial arts moves much, as his character is portrayed to be somewhat of a bumbling weakling. Much of the heroic action is due to Jacky Cheung, who plays Tuba's colleague.

Action is limited, with the end fight being probably the highlight of all the scarce action scenes. However, with the decent humor and acting inserted, this is not a bad ghost comedy for some light entertainment.

Grade B-