Stephen Chow's films fall into three categories :
1. All good
2. All bad
3. One half good, one half bad.
Flirting Scholar is in #3.

The first half is hilarious. Vintage Stephen Chow. Nat Chan being covered in ink and rolled around on paper was a killer, and the gags come thick and pretty fast ....... until the halfway mark, where the film falls flat, then struggles till the end. It is almost like two different movies back-to-back which just happen to have the same cast. On the plus side, the cinematography and set design are a joy to watch. Colourful and sumptuous to behold.

What really baffles me, more than the flat second half, is why this film is rated Category III (Adult). Apart from the obvious flippant point (i.e. nothing much Chow does on screen is EVER adult), I just can't see it. There's no nudity and not enough violence. The only clue seems to be Nat Chan in the opening scene. His clothes are ripped off and he's covered in ink. There are a few frames where he stands nearly full to the camera, but nothing is visible, and his nether regions are pixelled out (in blue !). Perhaps the original release was rated Cat III before the pixellation, and future copies had the C3 sticker kept on.

*shrug*

Anyway, a middling effort.