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2/10
A Sappy View Of A Misfit's Romance.
15 November 2005
As this thin comedy melodrama opens, Rocky (Eric Tsang), who has named himself after the Sylvester Stallone film character because "we both work with our hands", a short, pudgy, myopic office worker, is blissfully carrying a bouquet of roses to his wife Maria in honour of their first wedding anniversary, only to find her gone, but leaving behind a gift-wrapped video tape that is made by and of her as she reveals to her stunned husband that she has been unhappy during their year of marriage and is going to file for divorce. Despondent as a result, Rocky is taken in hand by his closest friend Charley (Ray Lui) who, along with his live-in fianceé Mil (Mildred), played by Lam Kee Ming, attempt to match Rocky with a new mate during a series of blind dates with attractive women, but he is uninspired by each of them, as he still dotes upon his former wife until she publishes an insulting pop-up book about him, depicting and describing his chubby frame and sexual insufficiency. A silly script would have us believe that this uninteresting topic makes of Maria's book a best-seller as evidenced by an unfunny sequence wherein all those around Rocky are reading it in public, on the street, in stores, etc., and while this works effectively to end his feelings of affection for his ex-wife, he continues to lack desire to seek her replacement until Charley begins to travel on business to Thailand and Japan, provoking Mil to become increasingly disillusioned with her lover, and sowing seeds for a romantic relationship with Rocky, for whom she has felt compassion. Directed slackly by Annette Sham in her sole effort at the helm, risibles are rare as Rocky is too beaten down by his marital failure to be effectively comedic, and Tsang's broad playing of the role misses the mark, but the lovely and expressive Lam is very convincing as a woman in search of emotional sustenance in this laborious comic misfire that yet is sweet-natured in its tone but will quickly pass from a viewer's memory. A DVD version provides no extras but does offer better than normal subtitles for a Hong Kong Mandarin language film.
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