Karmic Mahjong (2006)
Reviewed by: Chinoco on 2006-08-18
Summary: Low budget- and it shows.
I was looking forward to this movie. It's always exciting for me to order a brand new movie, especially one featuring Francis Ng. Being one of the first people in North America to view it is also cool. Karmic Mahjong was just in Hong Kong theatres in May. Even with today's shortened theatrical stays, it seems that the DVD release of this film was very quick. Unfortunately as I found out, the quick release may be due to the poor quality of the film.

Francis Ng stars as Wu Yuchuan, a mechanic who has fallen on bad times. He and his wife have a very strained relationship to put it lightly. She spends most of her time out with her friends playing Mahjong. Bad luck starts to hit Francis, and his already sad life begins to crumble completely. Seeking out help, he enlists the services of a blind fortune teller who tells him that his wife is the source of all his problems. Francis is doubtful at first; but slowly starts to change his mind as the series of unfortunate events continue to pile up. How far will Francis go to get rid of his band luck? Also, is his wife really the source of the bad luck, or is someone (or something) else pulling the strings?

The plot seems ok, and with a little more effort, something better could have been made out of this film. However the many problems include: laughable CGI, suspect acting (Francis excluded), and marginal directing. To be honest, the whole thing ended up being a big mess. The story really goes nowhere, and had Francis Ng not been in this film, I really would have disliked it even more. To be fair, I did get through the movie, and there were a few cool moments such as Francis acting like a fool in a nightclub; but they were few and far between. The main dialog in the film is Mandarin, and it was Francis speaking it. He did not voice the Cantonese track however, which was strange. That means that Francis can speak fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, and English which is impressive!

Don’t go out of your way for this one unless you are a diehard Francis Ng fan like I am.
Reviewer Score: 5