Happy Family (2002)
Reviewed by: Yellow Hammer on 2002-05-08
Summary: Really good movie!
This movie is a real hidden gem. It is perhaps the funniest HK romantic comedy I've seen since Needing You. OK, some of sequence of events in the movie are somewhat far-fetched and unbelievable, but then again so were the sequences in movies like Fat Choi Spirit too.

Little Han (Nick Cheung) is the heir apparent and owner of one of the largest and most influential real estate companies in HK. His parents Big Han (Kenny Bee) and his wife (Cecilia Yip) are publicity hounds, retired and hell bent on having their memoirs published by the best writer in all of HK Pig Yik (Almen Wong) and then have a movie made about their lives. Kaka (Candy Lo) is from a single parent family, a triad girl perhaps in a previous life, who's into jazz and who gets a job as a manager in the real estate company that Little Han runs. Funny cameos by director Herman Yau, Alfred Cheung, and Simon Lui as Prince Alan at the very end of the movie. By the way, don't quit on the movie when the credits roll. Amanda Lee plays Kaka's mother, the 'other' girl.

Candy in typical fashion is a tough girl that she plays so well in most of her movies. Every movie that she's been in she's done remarkably well, from Time and Tide to Twelve Nights, to her role in this movie and in Marry A Rich Man. The chemistry between she and Nick Cheung is quite good, despite some of the flaws in the storytelling. This is a testament to her very good acting abilities. I thought Nick was quite good in this movie as well.

References are made quite frequently to the classic 1983 movie Let's Make Laugh, which in the subtitles is referred to as the 'Seven Nightmares' movie. Not so coincidentally, Kenny Bee and Cecilia Yip were two of the main stars in that movie, with Alfred Cheung directing the movie.

I highly recommend this movie for some really good yuks. To be honest I've never heard Candy sing before, but now after this movie, I'm going to pick up a couple of her albums as well.