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囍歡您 (2001)
Fall for You


Reviewed by: Paul Fonoroff
Date: 05/22/2001

At least the cast and crew got a paid trip to Paris. The viewer derives little enjoyment from Fall For You, an unromantic and unfunny romantic comedy that accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of making La Ville Lumiere look like La Vie de l'Ennui.

Despite a running time under 90 minutes, director Cha Chuen-yee relates a tale so disjointed and lethargic that it feels longer than the silent epic Napoleon. Not that there is anything epic in Chow Yin-han's script about a struggling painter, Yu (Francis Ng), who falls for a struggling gold digger, Yee (Kristy Yang). To say that one is left mystified by the various plot twists assumes an interest on the part of the spectator. That is an assumption almost as great as the filmmakers' belief that they were creating a credible motion picture.

Even moments with campy possibilities somehow get flushed down the Seine. Yu's sexual dysfunction and his penchant for using nude women as painting utensils are neither droll nor erotic. A well-endowed tap-dancing black friend, Yu's excessive use of hot chili peppers in cooking, a musical interlude in the kitchen of a Parisian Chinese restaurant, a series of never-explained auditions-all these and more fail to coalesce into even an anarchic farce, not that this is necessarily the movie's goal.

Judging from the title and the attractively designed poster, Fall For You is supposed to be the love story of Yu and Yee. If so, theirs is a match made in movie hell. The sequence where she gets blotto and he carries her on his back through the streets of Paris is so tedious that one wishes Prohibition was on the French law books.

Not to spoil the ending for potential viewers, but the climactic wedding scene between Yee and the Prince of Morocco is so unregally cheap that it might pass as tongue-in-cheek satire if one could only figure out what the filmmakers are satirizing. Still, it got the entire team to Paris, so hopefully they got something out of Fall For You even if the audience does not.

1 Star

This review is copyright (c) 2001 by Paul Fonoroff. All rights reserved. No part of the review may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Reviewer Score: 2