Ming Dynasty Emperor Zheng De (Chang Chen) and his sister, Princess WuShuang (Faye Wong) long for adventure away from the sanitized life inside their fortress home. The Princess, disguised as a man, encounters Li Yilong (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) and she falls in love with him. Li is somewhat confused over his feelings for his new friend, whom he accepts as a man, and endeavours to marry “him” off to his sister, the mannish Phoenix (Vicky Zhao). But, though she is more than willing to accept, Li’s worrying feelings for his friend won’t go away. And then the Emperor himself escapes the castle and meets Phoenix and falls in love...

Chinese Odyssey 2002 is a sparkling romantic comedy based on an old Chinese legend of love that transcends social boundaries and produced by Wong Kar-Wai. There’s certainly nothing new here – all the gender confusion gags are present and correct and the romantic angle is completely by the numbers (you can confidently predict at which point our loving couple is going to get torn asunder and that they will ultimately get back together right at the end), but it’s written with heaps of wit and charm. There are gags about Ming-era speed cameras, the unreliability of Wuxia super-powers and parodies of Wong Kar-Wai’s Film Noir voiceovers.

No doubt cast because of their on-screen chemistry in Wong Kar-Wai’s sublime art house rom-com Chungking Express, Tony Leung and Faye Wong are joined together again in this, and are every bit as good together as before. Tony Leung really is Hong Kong’s Mr Reliable – he always gives a strong performance and this is no exception. Faye Wong is quirky, charming and loveable as usual. I have been a fan of Faye Wong for a while and I must admit I kind of took her performance for granted back when I first saw this in 2002. On seeing her now, you really do see that the film and music business lost something special with her “retirement”. Vicky Zhao, although glammed-down as the Tomboy-ish Phoenix, is still irresistibly watchable, especially when heartbroken over being spurned by the Princess – only to fall in love with the Emperor!

I don’t know if it’s the influence of Wong Kar-Wai, but Chinese Odyssey is also shot beautifully. Almost every shot has a kind of fantasy feel to it – even the comedy scenes. It is let down on the audio front though, with some pretty invasive dubbing of voices. It’s a terrible shame that a film that excels so well at the visual should screw it all up on the audio, but that’s the way it goes, I suppose. Besides, we get a couple of musical numbers from Faye thrown in, so it’s not all bad news. The original DVD release came with the OST, and although it’s a little samey in places, it’s still a nice memento of the film.

I find it increasingly hard to find films that make me laugh out loud, but this one still does. Nearly ever gag hits the spot, and though trite, the cross-dressing and gender confusion mayhem are always going to raise a smile in even the most cynical viewer.