Released at the end of last year, this comedy may have been a bit overshadowed by the likes of Infernal Affairs and Hero, which is unfortunate, as this is actually one of the most refreshing and hilarious comedies I've seen from HK in a while. The film is a showcase for Sandra Ng, who gives a colourful performance that is both over the top in a very funny way and yet nuanced and quite touching.

She plays Kum, a hooker trapped in an ATM booth with a desperate, unemployed sob (Eric Tsang) who initially tried to rob her of her last 100 dollars. She spends the night telling him her life story, which turns out to be a funny and bittersweet reflection of HK's rise and fall from the early eighties to the big spending heydays a decade later and then finally to the market crash and the ensuing economic hardships after the real estate bubble had burst.

Punctuated by cameos from big name stars like Andy Lau and Tony Leung Kar-Fai, the movie features a series of scenes that are set against the backdrop of cultural and political highlights of the last twenty years, held together by Sandra Ng's wonderful performance -- it's refeshing to see a movie so intentionally focused on local stories and issues at a time when so many other HK films have opted for being bland generic formula pictures aimed at an international audience. And while I doubt HK will experience a miraculous recovery similar to the happy end of the film, it was still heartwarming to see.

Highly recommended.