Hapless delivery boy Ho (Chiau Sing-Chi) falls for pretty Judo student Lily (Christy Chung). However, his advances are spurned, as she believes Ho to be a coward. All is not lost though, as Ho makes the acquaintance of a seedy looking kung fu master (Ng Man-Tat), who isn’t all he seems to be. Ho must overcome his innate cowardliness and take on all his love-rivals – and face a brutal showdown with a martial arts master who most definitely IS the real thing!

Stephen Chiau’s comedies from this period (before he found worldwide fame) tend to be very Hong-Kong orientated and some are downright unfathomable to western audiences (take JUSTICE, MY FOOT for instance). However, LOVE ON DELIVERY uses no discernable trickery with the Cantonese language as far as I can see, and the jokes work in English quite well (although a working knowledge of Chinese pop-culture is highly recommended).

I’d even go as far as to say that pound for pound, for non-Cantonese speakers, LOVE ON DELIVERY is probably the funniest film Chiau has ever made.

It may be low budget, but it certainly packs the gags in. Some are obvious (yes, even blindingly obvious), but you’ll be surprised at the subtlety of some of the visual gags. It “misses” more than it “hits” I suppose, but with the sheer amount of jokes thrown at it there’s usually something you can have a chuckle at. Highlights are plenty, but mention has got to be made of the TERMINATOR 2 parody and the scene where Chiau becomes a Garfield-masked superhero. Crazy stuff, but Chiau has never been more likeable than in this film.

LOVE ON DELIVERY has recently been remastered by Celestial and released as part of the legendary Shaw Brothers catalogue – a move that is long overdue for this classic comedy. The previous release by Mei-Ah was just a VCD port with the customary burnt-in subtitles (which go missing for the fight commentary at the end) and was noticeably worse than my old VHS version. There are a few odd moments (there’s a reference to BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN here – some eleven years before it was made!) but on the whole, they work well.

Funnier than SHAOLIN SOCCER, less pretentious than KUNG FU HUSTLE, and easily less offensive than some of his 90’s films, LOVE ON DELIVERY is still worth a look. But beware, the humour is dating fast. See it while it’s still funny.