BIG-Mandarin circuit seems to be running out of movie. While 'My Heart Will Go On' is showing, they had not put up the next change movie. Now with the poor box office of 'My Heart Will Go On', they put up 'A Tale of Rascal' to wait for Hong Kong movie 'Bullets Over Summer', which will open on 5 August 1999.

'A Tale of Rascal' is a Taiwan production by CHU Yin-ping. This time it is directed to CHEUNG Kwok-lap casting NG Kei-lung and TSUI Yuk-uen. Mou (NG Kei-lung) is a homeless teenager. One day a litter girl sticks to him. Mou accidentally fought with a group of guys who are filming movies. He became one of the replacements in the movie and meet actress Gigi TSUI (TSUI Yuk-suen). With Gigi's help, Mou has the chance to go back to school on agreement that he can be the Top 5 in the class. However, it is a hard job for Mou who hates lessons. He takes the short cut by dating the principal's daughter Icy and cheating in the examination. He was at the top of the class and got the love from Gigi but his plan has been unveiled by Icy. Then Mou falls to a life where his daily life is just the duplication of his yesterday...

Frankly speaking, it may be hard for Hong Kong audience to tolerate the stuffs in 'A Tale of Rascal'. The main problem of the movie is the plot. The plot is something without much focus. Maybe the main theme of the movie is about the love between Mou and Gigi and the love between the little girl and Mou. However, poor linkage of the movie resulted in the failure to fulfill such function. It is very strange to see the little girl laughs from time to time in the movie without reasons which is so annoying.

The first ten minutes about how Mou thought to eat in a restaurant without paying money is totally redundant. Then the first touch between Gigi and Mou is okay. However, the switch for Mou going back to school is non-sense. At least I think there should be some descriptions about the bad guys in the school like 'Two Weird Power'. Now they only film the scene in a classroom for a single lesson. I consider they can make the movie entertaining if they would like to put efforts in presenting how Mou behaves in schools. The dating between Mou and Icy is also too smooth and the scenes taken are not critical. It is also strange that you cannot find the progress of love between Gigi and Mou during Mou's days in schools.

The second half of the movie is something weird. The playing of repeating daily lives of Mou just like a kind of copycat from Hollywood movie. However, I cannot see any reason for them to repeat 5 times, around 6 to 8 minutes per time without much stuffs in. At least I think if they would like to play such repeating trick, they can copy a bit from Jim Carrey's 'The Truman Show' also. Now it is very boring, if you play this movie at home and you can fast forward these scenes. The ending of the movie is also weird. I cannot see the reasons for NG Kei-lung to change and there is no process for NG to change his relationship with others. It is so weird!

In short, the whole movie has got a poor script. The first ten minutes is redundant while the second half of the movie is just a duplication from other movies without any input. Together with the annoying pointless laughs from the little girl over the movie, there are enough reasons for you to tell how worse 'A Tale of Rascal' can be.