Gau sing bou hei

Two wily brothers descend upon an unsuspecting town with the sole purpose of corrupting it and reaping the profits, while the third and youngest brother, Leslie Cheung, finds himself playing the love game with the town beauty and the town of Choi Hung will never be the same.

Ninth Happiness is yet another silly lunar New Year's comedy and a musical of sorts to boot, stuffed with wackiness from end to end. Oh, yes, and a little kung fu too. There's no real rhyme or reason to it because it's not meant to have any. This film was done purely for entertainment purposes even if it sometimes pushes things a bit at times.

Leslie Cheung is always fun to watch even in the slightest fare— which is what Ninth Happiness is, and Amanda Lee is particularly goofy as the lustful family maid.

All in all a fairly fluffy piece which leaves little to the imagination but manages to find some laughs along the way.

Yes its fluffy, and the first 20 minutes or so really tried my patience, but I persevered. Eventually it became enjoyable and light entertainment, hence the perfect 5.

The musical style makes a refreshing change, and in particular the re-lyricing to a set of famous songs (that I remember from my ballroom days), whose titles frustratingly were at the tip of my tongue. If you recognise the base tune to each, I think you'll appreciate it.

Overall the world's not going to stop if you don't see it, but its a good time waster.

(Almost tempted to a 6 towards the end.)

This is a period comedy from Hong Kong, a story about the happy-go-lucky people of Choi Hung village, where there is love, secrets, jealousy and corruption.

The setting is nicely done with colorful period costumes and cinematography. I was excited that some of my favorite Hong Kong actresses, Gigi Lai and Amanda Lee, were in this movie. However, this movie is basically a goofy and messy attempt at being a laughable comedy. The plot goes all over the place and the slapstick humor is too screwball to be entertaining.

Hong Kong is known for its wild comedies, but a lot of them have plots you could actually follow and have a formula that is both suspenseful and captivating. This film is just one disorganized fair of screwy jokes after the other. I wouldn't bother with this film and check something else instead.

Grade F