Cast Member: Sandra Ng

Part two is lavish and colourful, but simply not as absorbing as it needed to be. A steadier hand at the helm may have rectified this.

A simple and fast moving story about a tough female cops, is told with style, if not great direction, by Yuen Kwai.

‘Simply Actors’ represents a modest enough cinematic diversion, even superficially entertaining in passages, for modern Hong Kong cinema aficionados.

It was a big box office hit on its release, features Chingmy Yau looking adorable and has some decent chemistry between the cast, but that’s not enough to drag the viewer through the ninety-minute running time.

The final word therefore is that ‘The Greatest Lover’ is certainly worth catching, but there are simply too many annoyances for this to be anything special.

There’s some well-developed comic moments that certainly raise the odd smile, while the atmosphere is infectious.

Although it’s not a laugh a minute showcase, it does feature some watchable routines and it is certainly good to see stars such as Sandra Ng and Anne Bridgewater in early roles.

Those who have difficulty sitting through long sequences of Hong Kong slapstick would be best advised to avoid this film as the main concentration of Wellson Chin is comedy and the usual antics of his stars.

There’s little room for Chow’s trademark “fast speak” here, and it’s definitely more ‘Three Stooges’ than ‘Monty Python’.

‘The Top Bet’ is that very parochial fusion of gambling and ‘nonsense comedy’ (mo lei tau) that many of us are still baffled by after all of these years.

When you’ve got Dean Shek, Sandra Ng and Eric Tsang all screeching for ninety minutes, you know it’s going to be a tough experience.

Admittedly some of the action is passable but the rest of the movie is generally so damn depressing and sloppy that I wouldn’t personally want to sit through it again.