| Flying Marmotte | 4  |
|
| François | 3.75 |
A good entertainer, refreshing as a sweet fruit... |
| jeffy | 3.75 | |
| Anel | 2.5 | |
| Alain | 1.75 |
Coming from the director of Full Alert and Full Contact, a romantic comedy sounds quite odd... Especially with Hsu Chi and Andy On (Black mask 2). But once the fans of Ringo saw the trailer, some curiosity probably showed up, as the awaited romance turned out to be closer to an action comedy. Far from the concrete and violence of the Ringo's polars, Looking for Mr Perfect is just a piece of vacation, a moment of fun for both the director and his actors, and for the viewers also. Brainless, but a lot of fun.
The main quality of this surprising movie could be that every part is well done. The directing is nice, the acting is displaying a lot of fun, the romance is finally not that bad, the comedy is typical HK, stupid but funny, the action is inventive. Of course, that's a minor achievement in Ringo's filmography. The movie won't be remembered by the viewers as Full Alert can be. But if you accept the fact that Ringo is just having fun, you should have fun with him.
Especially if you like the stupid HK humor, as Mr Perfect is full of overacted performances from a very pleasant cast. Simon Yam, Hsui Chi, Lam Suet, Hiu Siu-Hung, Andy On, Ruby Wong, Raymond Wong, Chapman To, Isabel Chan, that's a nice mix of experienced senior and promising new talents. All of them have a lot of fun with funny characters, especially Simon Yam recalling his crazy character of Full Contact. His fighting duos with a very surprising Ruby Wong are of the must-see of the movie. Andy On displays some nice action skills, Hsu Chi also finds a nice partner with Isabel Chan, Chapman To tries to overact more than Lam Suet and Hui Siu-Hung.
The story manages to mix efficienly stupid comedy with nice action and some light romance. All those parts are quite well balanced, giving a good rythm to the movie. Even if the movie clearly didn't have a huge budget, the production value is very decent, with a very colorfull cinematography, underlining even more the "live cartoon" style of the movie. The action scenes clearly belong to the kung-fu comedy category, with a good use of accessories (mainly fruits) and sets. The fights are well done and funny, which is a rare quality in nowadays Hong-Kong cinema.
After the surprising Diva Ah Hey, Looking for Mr Perfect is the second good surprise of the year 2003 in Hong-Kong. It clearly doesn't deserve its flop at the box-office, due mainly to the SARS crisis. Of course, don't expect a masterpiece, there is clearly no message in this movie, except maybe "have fun". As it's what the movie delivers, I guess I can say that it's a success.
