Pao zhi nu peng you

If we needed yet another Chinese Pygmalion, you'd hope the writers would take the trouble to inject something fresh and new into such a well flogged horse. As it is, even this stalwart Vicki fan can't find much nice to say about this unfunny mess of a film.

Joe (Cheng) is a HK rogue living off his clearly long suffering girlfriend. When he's inexplicably hired as an image consultant by Shanghai millionaire Cheung (Ng), to spruce up his long-lost, street urchin daughter Ning (Wei), the scene is (or at least, should be) set for a fun ugly duckling tale in the tried and tested rom-com style.

Unfortunately, we're asked to suspend belief on too many levels to make investing in this flick a possibility. It's difficult to care for any of the characters, and when the inevitable character transformations occur they're jarring, and even a bit annoying.

The leads are cute in their respective ways, so if that's all you're after you may get your money's worth. Just don't expect a decent story. More importantly for a comedy, don't expect many laughs either.

This film borrows liberally from "Pygmalion" and "My Fair Lady", which are much better. The story is a automaker tycoon has a daughter who lives in the slums and re-claims her. He hires an image consultant (Ekin Cheng) from Hong Kong, so she can fit into Shanghai society. The pretty even when dirty Vicky Zhao plays Ning, who lacks in social graces. Strictly, this is a by the numbers romantic comedy. Vicky Zhao cannot and doesn't even try to touch Audrey Hepburn (thats next to impossible anyway), but I'm giving it a possible see for anyone who likes romantic comedies. The film is just over 90 minutes and it looks nice, so its not horrible, just not very essential. If you're a serious moviegoer you can skip this film.

This is another Hong Kong version of the timeless Pygmalion (like My Fair Lady) plot.

When village lass Ning (Vicki Zhao) is reunited with her wealthy long-lost father (Richard Ng), the old man seeks an 'image designer' to polish up her rough edges. Enter Joe Lam (Ekin Cheng), a jobless conman who has no idea about style or fashion. Need I have to say more that she would eventually falls for him?

The plot, however, could do with some screen chemistry between Ekin and Vicki. Likewise the whole movie is pretty lame and I just wonder why Ekin would want to waste his time and effort doing this 'turkey'. Well all I could say is hopefully Ekin's upcoming "blockbuster", Heroic Duo co-starring with Leon Lai would make up for all the disappointment I had in this poor effort.

Finally just want to mention that Ekin is no longer the Chan Ho-Nam that we used to adore.