Tricky Brains (1991)
Reviewed by: JohnR on 2007-09-30
Summary: Good and somewhat overlooked CSC comdey
Lucy (Rosamond Kwan) has just come back to Hong Kong from Europe and taken the position of a clerk in the company owned by her dad (Baau Hon-Lam ) in order to learn the ropes from the bottom up. She's operating incognito, though she has an old friend, Banana (Chingmy Yau), who is in on the secret. As time goes on, she meets and falls in love with co-worker Kit (Andy Lau), who shares her feelings. Although Kit has recently been promoted, and his dad, Yan Chi (Ng Man Tat), also works at the company, he is from humble origins and Lucy has not let him in on the secret that she's the boss's wealthy daughter. But Kit is a humble, sincere, genuinely nice guy, so it looks like everything's going to work out for he and Lucy.

But Lucy had another suitor before Kit. And Macky (Waise Lee) is not going to step aside, especially not for someone as far below him on the social ladder as Kit. Macky tries to pursuade Lucy's father that Kit comes from a troubled past and indeed used to be a triad. When the dad isn't convinced, Macky turns to the handsome tricky master, Jing Koo (Stephen Chow Sing-Chi), for help in eliminating Kit as a rival. Jing Koo inserts himself into Kit and his father's household by passing himself off as Yan Chi's unknown son from a brief affair twenty years ago and begins his campaign to give Kit the appearance of not only having been a triad, but not having moved far from that rough world.

And that's a lengthy description of a plot that's really not so important, as it's just a loose framework on which Wong Jing hangs one joke after another. There is very little of the pathos found in most of these type comedies, including most of Chow Sing-Chi's, which act to humanize the main character, in this case Jing Koo, and act as a setting for the jewels - the jokes. There is some, but this is mainly a structure designed to give Chow Sing-Chi and Ng Man Tat room to strut their stuff, and they take full advantage. Even Andy gets involved, though on a limited basis since he's the straight man.

The jokes fly fast and furiously, and if you're watching with someone who understands Mandarin, they'll be laughing in more places than you because of some of the missed translations and jokes that don't translate well. And I strongly suspect that those who undertand Cantonese will be laughing more than the Mandarin speakers.

Although I wouldn't put this in the upper realms of Chow Sing-Chi and Ng Man Tat's work, it doesn't fall short by very much. They're both on top of their form and Andy Lau does a good job of playing the likeable Kit without using any saccharin. As for the ladies, Rosamond Kwan is here only as a flower vase. And though Chingmy starts out with what looks like will be a strong role, maybe something akin to her role in Royal Tramp, by the time the thing is a third over she's been relegated pretty much to the role of eye candy. It's as if Wong Jing (who also appears in the movie as one of the group's co-workers) consciously decided to immortalize Chingmy's beauty by dressing her up in expensive clothes and filming her, even if it had little to do with the actual movie. If this was indeed his intention, then I say, "Thank you Wong Jing; thank you very much!" Because feasting on this eye candy is enough to pull a person out of insulin shock.

I give it a 7.5 and recommend it. Especially if, like me, you miss these crazy Hong Kong comedies.