bo (ronald cheng) is unlucky in love. well, that is to say, his girlfriends are. there's nothing wrong with bo, he's a nice enough guy but, unfortunately, he's cursed. unless his sister, chu (sandra ng), gets married, it would seem that all of his girlfriends are likely to befall some kind of terrible fate. not good.

so, bo decides to enlist professional help, in the form of dick cho (louis koo) - love therapist. for a fee, cho claims that he will open sandra's heart to the possibilities of love and then free her to fall in love and get married. however, cho's technique of allowing ladies to fall in love with him, before he reveals this to them, looks risky as the potential spinster becomes enraptured with him. then, further complications arise, when cho finds himself falling in love with mandy (miki shen). still, things may be looking up for bo, when he meets bucktooth jane (yao chen)...

so, another instalment of the 'all's well, ends well' series: in fact, it was this film which resulted in me buying the three disc set. i was standing in a dvd shop in mong kok, chuckling at a dishevelled sandra ng, sitting in her dressing gown, sporting five o'clock shadow on her upper lip and clearing phlegm from her throat after a very undignified yawn. a young lady who worked in the shop then pointed me towards the dvd and, as it was only a few dollars more, i picked up the set that had the original and '97 incarnations as well.

if the scene described above is not filling you with a desire to watch the film and you're already groaning on the inside, you'd probably best avoid it. if, on the other hand, you are powerless against the lure of even the silliest, most formulaic and over blown hong kong comedies, you should probably snap it up. the film dips into the 'all's well...' bag of tricks and sets up three pairs of couples, tangles them up a little, throws in a mixed bag of increasingly stretched situation comedy and lots of nonsense, aiming to make its audience feel good and giggle.

for me, it was great fun and i grinned like an idiot for most of the film. there's nothing big or clever or original about it, it's just a good solid slice of daftness. sandra ng, whom i love unashamedly is in pretty good form, louis koo and ronald cheng are both very likeable and seem to be having fun. raymond wong is raymond wong. meanwhile, miki shen is rather cute and a good foil for koo, whilst there's something strangely alluring about yao chen, even when she has her huge fake teeth...

fun, if that's what you like...