Reviewed by: ewaffle Date: 08/16/2005 Summary: Something for almost everyone "Beauty and the Breast" has some elements of a romantic comedy, a female buddy picture, a male buddy picture, an office romance and revenge against the insufferable. That it doesn't really develop any of them completely isn't a problem. While plots and subplots shoot all over the place there is an almost frenetic momentum that keep propels things through its first hour. By then most of the what we are interested in has been dealt with. The overwhelmingly vapid and treacherous boss, Chu Kai Fat, has been exposed as a fraud and sent packing. Fatty, the brother he has tortured is the new chairman of the company. The two insufferable Bosnian sales executives are on their way out the door after the disasterous introduction of their Chechnyan breast enhancement cream. Yuki and her friends are running the company and the women once again have access to the only ladies room in the building. All that remains is how Yuki and Mario and their sidekicks Amy and Harper will be reconciled--even the problem of the large womanly breasts that Mario and Harper have grown has been resolved. Although the second part of the movie progresses in fits and starts there is still a lot to laugh at--the meeting between Harper and the former internet CEO, each of them with huge bags of toilet paper rolls, is hilarious. One convention that is true of just about all movie making, whether Hollywood, Hong Kong or Europe--if one female character is supposed to be more attractive than another you simply state it. Lilliana and Cathalina are presented as real knockouts (mainly because of their large breasts) so for the first part of the movie the audience accept that they are more attractive than Yuki. The fact that Yuki is played by the astonishingly beautiful Michelle Reis can be ignored since we know that she will win (and become more beautiful, at least for purposes of the plot) than the Bosnians. Francis Ng keeps his portrayal of the very shallow and pretentious Mario on just this side of annoying. He and Raymond Yip kept the character a bit low key so that his quirks and pathetic plots were even more obvious—not overshadowed by overacting, which is not the least common problem in movies like this. Michelle Reis played the beautiful girl who is too good to be true. Mario is basically a stranger to her, but based on working in the same office and meeting him once, she picks him up on the street after he pretends to collapse, then takes him home, cleans his apartment and cooks his dinner. Since she is also jawdroppingly sexy, especially when she glances over her rectangular reading glasses, it is almost believable that Mario, while trying to seduce her to win a bet with the boss actually falls in love with her. Daniel Wu and Wong Fat Fei stand out among a generally good cast of supporting players. Recommended for those who like frothy comedies. Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: j.crawford Date: 05/26/2004 Summary: inventive, lighthearted comedy While similiar to the box office hit La Brassiere, this inventive, lighthearted comedy is quite a different film from possibly the best director working in Hong Kong these days. The screenwriting is excellent. Ng is funny as hell in this! It's more about breasts than bra's, hence Sophie Ngan is featured in a small role along side Angela Tong [Last Ghost Standing]. I liked this one quite a bit. Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: xiaoka Date: 08/22/2002 Summary: not bad. worth checking out. Just watched the dvd. I was expecting it to be a real brain dead HK comedy, but it turned out to better then that. The script is kind of uneven, and randomly changes gear, but thats normal for this genre... Francis Ng is good, of course. Daniel Wu's character is a bit underdeveloped though, and aside from Michelle Reis, the other female leads are a bit flat (no pun intended). But again, for this genre, its above average. The image of Francis and Daniel with Breasts is still burning my eyes! Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: zarrsadus Date: 07/29/2002 Summary: Enjoyable Other reviewers have already stated that this movie was simply a rip-off of La Bra, but for me who hasn't seen that one yet, I still found this movie really enjoyable. Sure it's basically an office comedy/romance, but the plot wasn't all that predictable, plenty of hilarious twists and turns to keep things going. To me this movie was funny and unique (remember I haven't seen La Bra yet so...). My only quarrel with this movie was how the plot switched from a crazy attempt at revenge into a love story halfway through. I mean I can sort of catch the transition from Yuki hating Mario to actually care about him, but it really seemed to come out of nowhere and could have been portrayed better in my opinion. Overlooking this flawed section of the plot, the two halves made for a good time spent watching this movie. 7 out of 10. Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 04/17/2002 Summary: Pretty good LA brassiere rip off i hear?? Not really but this movie is a step up from that and looks at Breasts rather than bras. But if you want to compare, which one is better?? Umm thats very hard but i had more BIG laughs with this movie. What i can say that the movie doesn't get going until half way through the movie. Hopefully by then you wont' be bored out of your brain. But when it gets going, it's pretty funny. Michelle Reis is excellent, the stand out of the movie. Francis Ng does well too but Daniel Wu's character i can't stand, what a wimp!! And just when you think the movie is going to end, it still goes on. The ending is suprising also, which gives it a good twist. Actually i liked this better than LA brassiere so i'll give this........ 6.5/10

Reviewed by: snookie_1 Date: 03/30/2002 a ripoff on the recent hit la brasiere...this movie talks abt the goings-on in the piggy oil company...harper and mario are perverted bootlickers while amy and yuki are two women in the company...bascially this is a chance to see francis ng and daniel wu with breasts and to see michelle reis(all those guys out there) anyway...nothing special...i wished they replaced amanda strang tho...half the time she doesn't kno what's going on around her...she's not even that pretty...my favorite thing was the logo for the new piggy oil...SOOO cute...it's not that bad but not that good either...5/10 Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: danton Date: 03/11/2002 Latching on to the popularity of La Brassiere, this office romance comedy starring Francis Ng, Daniel Wu and Michelle Reis is actually a quite entertaining, well-crafted movie in its own right, directed by Raymond Yip and based on a script by the ignominously-named "Not A Woman" who was also responsible for equally politically incorrect yet clever and funny movies such as I'm your birthday cake. The movie does indeed start with a focus on breasts - and I do mean focus: the first few minutes feature an endless parade of bustshots, with Francis Ng outlining a breast-centric world philosophy that reveals some of the more obvious aspects of the male psychology as well as some questionable conclusions about the relation betrween the shape of a breast and a woman's personality. It's meant to be funny, and there are indeed a few involuntary chuckles induced mainly by the English subtitles (which pointedly summarize the male objective in life as "Meet the Boobs"...). But things go uphill from this somewhat questionable opening. Pretty soon we have a standard romantic comedy of errors going, with Michelle playing Yuki, a shy, nerdy girl who's the latets target of office lothario Mario (Francis Ng). In order to gain her sympathy, he fakes a terminal disease, and good-hearted Yuki is ready and willing to go all motherly on him, until she finds out the truth. What's a girl to do? Well, this being a comedy, she plots her revenge by using Francis as an involuntary guinea pig for the company's new product - a breast enhancement cream based on ancient Chinese recipes. The lotion works wonders (oh the glories of Chinese medicine...) and soon Francis as well as Daniel experience some pretty impressive bodily enhancements that give them ample opportunity to bust their acting chops in the most tittilating manner... Overall, the breast theme remains a narrative device only. The script lacks La Brassiere's clever takes and insightful observations on the topic, and uses the whole breast angle merely as another gag. There are some scenes that try to carry the topic further along, such as the office girls playing a round of peekabo with each other, but those moments aside, the film is really just about the old formula, bad guy meets good girl, loses her, reforms himself and gets her back. The plot becomes just a trifle too complicated in the attempt to resolve all the lose threads at the end, but the movie as a whole still offers ninety minutes of solid fun, with good performances by the leads, amusing supporting characters and some decently funny set pieces. Recommended.

Reviewed by: Souxie Date: 02/17/2002 Summary: Good stuff I loved this movie (saw it in cinema) - very funny and the leads were great. Only let down by the guy playing the secret son (must we have moral plots thrown in at the last minute?), and Danny Wu's embarrassingly awful haircut. Francis Ng is absolutely fab as usual, the bloke can almost do no wrong. Will be buying the DVD when it comes out! 9/10 Reviewer Score: 9