One of the biggest comedy hits of the early nineties, the starring vehicle for Dodo Cheng has not aged as gracefully as other films from that period. The story is basically a remake of the old Garbo comedy Ninotchka, with Dodo playing a mainland cop who's in HK working with Tony Leung Ka-Fai to apprehend a criminal. Much of the film's humour comes from the fish out of water aspect of the story - Dodo plays her character as a walking caricature of the spartan and somewhat unsophisticated communist cop who enters HK spouting maoist slogans and calling everyone comrade, but eventually warms to some aspects of capitalist society. This type of storyline may have offered some consolation to HKers worried about the pending handover, but it doesn't feel very authentic or poignant in its portrayal of mainland stereotypes (Stephen Chiau parodied these much more effectively and viciously in From Beijing with Love). Nevertheless, the movie does feature a great performance from Dodo, and it should be applauded for trying to concentrate on situational humour driven by dialogue rather than low-brow sightgags and slapstick.

Marginal recommendation.