Tri-Star (1996)



	Tri-Star		Return to Review Archive - T
	Year:	1996	Anita Yuen and Leslie Cheung
	Director:	Tsui Hark
	Cast:	Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing, Anita Yuen Wing-Yee, Lau Ching-Wan, Catherine Hung Yan, Sunny Chan Kam-Hung, Fung Wai-Hung, Alvina Kong Yan-Yin, Xiong Xin-Xin, Shing Fui-On, Moses Chan Ho, Raymond Wong Bak-Ming, Chung King-Fai, Michael Tse Tin-Wah, Jason Chu Wing-Tong, Rain Lau Yuk-Tsui
	The Skinny:	Silly Lunar New Year Comedy from Tsui Hark is sometimes funny but mostly tiresome. It was a major hit, however.
	Review by Kozo:	This wacky, strange New Year’s Comedy from master director Tsui Hark really goes nowhere despite big stars and good production values. The plot is about a damn good-looking priest (Leslie Cheung) who charms ladies in spite of himself. He goes out of his way to save a quartet of wacky prostitutes, led by the wackiest one (Anita Yuen), who owes 200,000 HK dollars and might end up being shipped to the Middle East to pawn her wares there. Anita is afflicted with one of those rare HK diseases: she cries when happy and laughs when sad, which does nothing for her emotional states. Leslie does his best to help her but she, not knowing that he’s a priest, starts to fall in love with him. Then there’s Three’s Company-type humor thrown in via a scummy detective (Lau Ching-Wan), who suspects Leslie to be a triad member who is somehow in league with the evil triad guys that Anita owes money to. However, he finds himself strangely attracted to Leslie’s psychiatrist sister (Catherine Hung), who he thinks is a prostitute too. Hijinks ensue. Leslie Cheung sleepwalks through the flick and Anita Yuen is upstaged by her blue eye-shadow and padded bra (though she does manage to show some range). There are some charming moments and the three big stars try hard, but a lot of the gags simply flop and overall the film falters. Tsui Hark directed this thing? Cute, but a throwaway flick by far. (Kozo 1996)
	Availability:	DVD (Hong Kong) Region 0 NTSC Fitto Mobile Laser Widescreen Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks English and Chinese subtitles

		image courtesy of Fitto Mobile Laser Co., Ltd.
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