What A Hero! (1992)

What a completely stooooopid movie!

Benny Chan directs, Andy Lau plays a country boy policeman who gets transferred to Hong Kong CID on account of his being "very competent" on the Lantau beat. This may be a reference to his Tae Kwon Do skills, or just a general commendation. In Hong Kong he is assigned to "Team 1" under Michael Chan... these are the losers of the station - not surprising since the only tactic they seem to have for solving crime is praying to Kwan. He also makes an enemy right away out of Roy Cheung, leader of "Team 4" - the station golden boys and arrogant bastards. Rivalry and conflict ensues.

Meanwhile, he leaves Maggie Cheung back in Lantau as his lover-in-waiting, but alas she's been promised since before birth to her cousin in the US, who turns up and proves to be a horrible loud-mouthed loud-suited bastard. More rivalries and conflict!

Add to this a very young looking Anthony Wong as Andy's psychic colleague who falls for his mother and Shing Fui-On as a goofy postman in short pants and... well, the whole result is quite mind bogglingly daft! Definite mo lei tau comedy, and if Andy had been Stephen Chiau and Michael Chan or Paul Chun had been Ng Man-Tat then this movie would probably be an all-time fan favourite by now.

As it is, the cast can't quite carry it off as well as the Chiau/Tat power combo can, and the movie doesn't hold up as well as a result. There are still some great laughs to be had along the way though. The action scenes feature moments of coolness, but are a little cheaply constructed, and neither Andy nor Roy have the real skills to be truly impressive - some of the bit players are pretty good though. There's a huge Once Upon A Time In China influence on the way the scenes are filmed, but obviously less of a budget behind getting them right.

Mildly recommended if you like Andy and you like Stephen Chiau, but if the nonsense doesn't click with you then you'll probably really hate it!