Given my love of the Hong Kong cinema, then of course I had to sit down and watch the 1988 comedy "Gai Tung Ngap Gong" (aka "Chicken and Duck Talk") when I had the chance to sit down and watch it for the first time here in 2024.
I had never actually heard about the movie prior to watching it. But that hardly mattered, because it being a Hong Kong movie that I hadn't already seen before was more than sufficient to make me sit down and spend 99 minutes on watching it.
Writers Michael Hui, Clifton Ko, Joe Ma and James Yuen put together an enjoyable and entertaining script and storyline. Sure, it was a late 1980s Hong Kong comedy in every sense of those words, but that was actually a good thing. I was genuinely entertained throughout the course of the entire movie. The movie's story and narrative actually still holds up today, given the small independent restaurants that are found all over Hong Kong, the ones that have way more charm and style that those chain restaurants that overshadow them.
The acting performances in "Gai Tung Ngap Gong" were good, though I was actually only familiar with Ricky Hui on the entire cast list. But I will say that the actors and actresses put on good performances and made the movie all the more enjoyable.
While this wasn't a comedy that had me bursting out laughing, it was still an enjoyable comedy, because it was definitely a feel-good type of comedy. And it was a mixture of the storyline and the well-written characters that made it so.
All in all, "Gai Tung Ngap Gong" is a movie that is well-worth sitting down to watch if you enjoy the late 1980s Hong Kong cinema.
My rating of director Clifton Ko's 1988 movie "Gai Tung Ngap Gong" lands on a five out of ten stars.
