Before Too Many Ways to Be No. 1, there was Days of Being Dumb. While it doesn't quite reach the brilliant parodic heights
of Too Many Ways, it gets an E for effort.

Like Too Many Ways, Days of Being Dumb is a parody of heroic bloodshed and triad films. It is a fairly silly film, but there is
enough cleverness that it never becomes purely stupid. Towards the end, it starts to wear out its welcome, but fortunately
it's all over before it becomes annoying. Despite the title's similarity to Days of Being Wild, there doesn't appear to be any
real relation between the two films.

Jacky Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai play Fred and Keith (unfortunately, I can't remember who is who), two 'gangsters'
who have been friends since they met as young children. Unlike many a Hong Kong movie gangster, these guys are total
cowards. During a gang battle, they pretend to fight each other instead of the other gang, meanwhile keeping away from the
center of the action.

After they join three different gangs and their boss gets killed each time, they earn a reputation as jinxes in the triad
community and no one will take them on. Meanwhile, they bring model Anita Yuen to Hong Kong with some money that
they manage to scrape together. They are under the impression that she is a prostitute but she has agreed to no such thing.

The bulk of the movie is mostly a series of jokes. The two main plot threads involve the love triangle between the two boys
and Anita Yuen and their eventual recruitment by the toughest gang leader of all (based on the theory that if he can
succeed even with these two jinxes at his side then he is all the more undefeatable).

The acting in the film is fairly over the top, particularly Jacky Cheung and Tony Leung. They do a good job of being silly
without overdoing it to the point of becoming irritating. They're a fairly likeable pair of fools. Anita Yuen's role is fairly
minimal. Most of the other characters in the film are basically straight men and women who set up comic situations for the
protaganists.

The movie is filled with jokes that make reference to the conventions of triad movies, so this is not for the unitiated viewer.
There are also a few jokes about the Hong Kong film industry's involvement with triads which were particularly on target. No
one would argue that this is a work of genius, but it is very funny and I laughed more or less through the whole film.