With the success of last year's film Needing You at the Hong Kong box-office, it was only a matter of time before the same ingredients were used to try and cook up another hit. Thus again the audience is treated to Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng in front of the camera and Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai behind it. This time around some American special effects are added on as icing to the cake. But given that the film sahres its' opening day in Hong Kong with the new and overproduced Pearl Harbor, one can only wonder if it can find the same success.

To say this film is a 'big' production is a bit of an understatement. The main course features two of Hong Kong's biggest stars wear 'fat' suits throughout most of the film. The most humorous aspect of this is the fact that both Lau and Cheng are known for being extremely petite, or as locals like to say "hou fit". The two stars do work well together and while the effects are not always 100% convincing, their performance is. Another big plus to the film is that it has made the leap outside of the Hong Kong setting and occurs entirely in Japan.

The story itself is the typical Hong Kong style romance with a candy coating. If you like that type of genre then chances are you will like this film. If there is anything negative to be said about the film it would have to be its lampoon-like portrayal of overweight people as eating machines. This commonly portrayed stereotype makes the film seem silly and less genuine and some may find its cartoonish nature offensive. But taken with a grain of salt (and a big bucket of popcorn) this film serves up as a nice appetizer.

Overall review rating - 4 (out of 5)

Review by Paul Fox

Location:  UA Shatin
Time: Thursday 21 June   4:10pm