Royal Tramp II (1992)

The always entertaining Stephen Chow alongside Brigitte Lin returns as the conman Wilson Bond in Royal Tramp II. It starts almost exactly where the first movie finished, with the continuing misadventures of Wilson Bond following his involvement in palace intrigues. After foiling the plans of the various groups who were determined to have a hand in regal affairs, Bond now finds himself the target of significant opposition. One such enemy who had been foiled in her plan to impersonate the Queen Mother now swears revenge and also promises she will not be recognised when she returns. She comes looking completely different and is entrusted with the task of making sure a friend of her clan attains the throne.

A lot of the Chinese jokes went way over my head but there’s a lot of gags that I understood as well. It’s got a fair bit of over the top kung fu fights which is like watching ballet. You can’t go wrong with any Chow movie. Really funny.

Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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CJ7 (2008)

CJ7 is a very amusing HK kids movie starring Stephen Chow as a poor person struggling to make ends meet. Every penny he earns on a building site goes to sending his son Dicky to a posh school even though he’s teased for being so poor. One evening whilst scouring the local rubbish tip, the father picks up a green ball unaware that it’s an alien lifeform. Soon Dicky and the alien dog-like pet he names CJ7 are causing chaos at school.

It’s a nice change of genre for Stephen Chow to be involved in a kids movie. I thought it was wonderful. Similarities to E.T are justified. It turns somewhat sad towards the climax but the ending brings a happy conclusion to what I thought was a great family movie.

Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Out Of The Dark (1995)

A highrise apartment block is haunted by a ghost. A man teaches the security guys of the building how to fight them.

Stephen Chow’s darkest comedy yet finds him as a mental patient/ghostbuster who dresses up like the assassin Leon and talks to his plant. Even Karen Mok who plays his love interest dresses like Natalie Portman’s character in the movie. It’s got all the usual ingredients that makes a good slapstick Stephen Chow comedy (movie parodies and general silliness) apart from the copious amount of blood on show. Apparently this is Stephen’s least popular movie in Hong Kong during the 90’s, the audiences there hated it. I can’t see why as it’s totally hilarious. The guy is so funny and I never failed to be entertained by him.

Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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