A Hearty Response (1986)



	A Hearty Response		Return to Review Archive - H
	Year:	1986	Joey Wong and Chow Yun-Fat
	Director:	Norman Law Man
	Producer:	Alan Tang Kwong-Wing
	Action:	Tony Leung Siu-Hung
	Cast:	Chow Yun-Fat, Joey Wong Cho-Yin, Lui Fong, Paul Chun Pui, Kent Cheng Juk-Si, Shum Wai
	The Skinny:	An unremarkable but competent action drama from Chow Yun-Fat's insanely overcrowded eighties film resume.
	Review by Kozo:	A forgotten cinematic experience from HK’s eighties heights, this multi-genre exercise proves to be nothing more than an average action drama that gets a big boost from its star casting. Chow Yun-Fat is Bon, a wacky cop who accidentally injures a beautiful mainland girl in the course of a routine sting. He and his partner (Lui Fong) take her to the hospital where she pretends to have amnesia, claiming that Bon is her husband Wai Hung. Bon plays along because he feels bad, and things go totally off course. He takes her home, she bonds with his mother, causes a break-up with his evil girlfriend, and still manages to be nothing less than charming and pure. Of course, she’s played by Joey Wong in one of her patented star turns. Despite the fact that she was only nineteen when she made this movie, she manages to be affecting and naturally lovely. However, it must be noted: this movie is cheesy commercial crap that was probably shot in about a week. Director Norman Law Man is a veteran of such slapdash cinema, and he shows it with his penchant for absurd wackiness and totally sappy montages. See Chow and Joey fall in love in cafes and on basketball courts, where Joey manages to beat Chow one-on-one at 64 frames-per-second! If you can deal with that stuff, there are some decent moments in this otherwise forgettable film. Chow and Joey display enough charisma and the few instances of action and stuntwork are impressive enough to keep you interested. Also, the movie manages to really grab you by the end as an evil bastard shows up to exact his revenge on Joey, who hurt him during an attempted rape. Chow must save her, but not before she’s placed in some pretty awful situations that should make just about anyone squirm with discomfort. Occasionally compelling, but not truly noteworthy. (Kozo 1998)
	Availability:	DVD (Hong Kong) Region 0 NTSC Universe Laser Widescreen Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks Dolby Digital 5.1 Removable English and Chinese Subtitles

		image courtesy of Universe Laser & Video Co., Ltd.
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