“Fight for Love” runs (on the DVD we watched) one hour and 23 minutes. The outrageous padding necessary to get it to even that modest length that it calls attention to itself—the constant flashbacks, some to scenes that happened just a few minutes before in real time and a few hours before in movie time, become annoying, then ridiculous. There is very little action as such, either of the “action” category, Yuen Biao beating up bad guys, or in the more basic sense, what the actors do while they are onscreen.

Li BingBing’s understated beauty, perfectly expressive face and exceptional talent was barely used in “Fight for Love” while Yuen Biao’s unsuitability as a lead dramatic actor was emphasized. The director didn’t help him much. His character’s main flaw was his not so secret drinking—sipping from a silver hip flask when he though no one was looking. Playing a convincing drunk is neither easy nor in Yuen Biao’s repertory.

The most egregious example of lazy filmmaking that sinks this movie, though, is the centerpiece of the story, the kid. We are expected to believe that Yuen Biao’s character spends a significant amount of time with the kid over several weeks but has no clue that he is the kid’s father, so it is a shock when he brings the kid to his home and meets his mom. Oops, how embarrassing.

Even worse are the relative ages of the kid and his parents. Yuen Biao’s character has certainly lost the bloom of youth—he seems to have stumbled into (at least) early middle age. We discover in a flashback (how else in “Fight for Love”) that the coupling that produced the kid took place when the principals were much younger—early twenties at the oldest is my best guess. Based solely on what we seen on the screen—always a good idea since there isn’t any other basis to judge something in a movie—there would be at least fifteen years between the kid’s conception and his encounter with Yuen Biao. Since he is on a pre-school/first grade level, once the big reveal occurs everything after that is ridiculous including a character dying of cancer and another pining from unrequited love.

Sometimes movies are ruined during editing; while a viewer can’t tell what is missing it is clear that something important was cut out. This is the opposite case: so many extraneous scenes were added that the viewer is given too much time to think about the sloppiness of the film. Too many things wrong with “Fight for Love” to make it worth seeking out.

Two points due only to Li BingBing and YoYo Mung having significant time onscreen.