Everyone's gushing about this Patrick Leung comedy, and there's a good reason why: it's a riot. A total blast. A warm, intelligent, colourful, well-written, funny, endearing comedy that features Lau Ching Wan like you've never seen him before, Louis Koo in a very affable role, Carina Lau competent and under-stated as always, as well as Gigi Leung (whom I normally don't care much about but who had me convinced in this one).

The plot initially didn't seem too appealing to me: 2 male product designers (LCW and LK) join an all-female bra design company to come up with the "ultimate bra". "Oh no", I was thinking to myself, "90 minutes of puerile breast jokes, giggling females swooning at the sight of Louis Koo, predictable romance, and some silly pronouncements on what women truly want..." Well, I was right - and I was so wrong at the same time... The movie is all this, and yet, it's put together in a way that makes it work! Who would have thought that the spirit of Billy Wilder would be revived in HK, and by Patrick Leung of all people. He has put together a candy-colored confection that manages to wrap its silly premise with so much witty observations and inspired funny moments that I soon forgot about my initial reservations and was totally into it. Much of the credit here goes to the 2 male leads, who seem to be having the time of their lives (who wouldn't), and are not afraid to make fun of themselves, including a lengthy sequence that requires them to try on some fake breasts and bras for half a day in order to better understand how women feel. LCW and LK have sort of a Jack Lemmon/Tony Curtis dynamic going here, and much of the humour comes from seeing these two icons of masculinity slowly shifting towards more female manners of behaviour over the course of the movie (highlights here being a sobbing LCW being comforted by his female coworkers after he is found naked in the office, and LK taking on the traditionally female role in a seduction scene...). The movie stays fairly even-handed, though, and pokes fun at both genders in equal measure.

There are so many small moments in this movie that made it work for me (and that showed how much attention was paid to the script). Each character is well fleshed out with their own little quirks and idiosynchrasies. Gigi Leung's character, for example, is depicted as sassy and tough on the outside, yet is later revealed to be living in this ludicrous girl fantasy world with flowing meadows and birthday party hats on the inside, afraid of "being bullied by plastic bags" (you have to see the movie to understand the significance...).

The only downside to this movie I can think of is that it's so good, we'll probably have to live through the indignity of a Hollywood remake starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts a few years down the road...

The DVD presentation is excellent, with a clean anamorphic transfer that adequately captures the carefully arranged colour schemes in the movie (lots of pastels and bright candy colours) and some nice extras. The only criticism would have to be the rather small size of the optional subtitles. Strongly recommended.