| Three mainlanders (Chow Yun-Fat, Eric Tsang & Shing Fui-On) swim ashore in Hong Kong, hoping to prosper. As luck would have it, a wealthy man played by Wang Ching is out for revenge due to the humiliation cast upon him by women in his life (namely Nina Li Chi and Pauline Wong) and he hires image consultant Anita (Anita Mui) to make a playboy out of Chow's character...
The sometimes reliable Clarence Fok provides the manic in both comedy and melodrama for this 1980s effort, creating an uneven experience but one that comes with an enjoyable pairing of Chow Yun-Fat and Anita Mui. While Chow's character does everything from eating tiger poop (and just about anything he can get his hands on), kiss Eric Tsang, generally whine and act retarded, it's an annoying performance in intent in a way as Chow then grows into the trademark suave character that's such a immortal image of 80s Hong Kong cinema. Mui also gets a role that is just tailor made to fit with her image in entertainment circles as she was constantly changing her looks in real life, being nicknamed the Asian Madonna in the process.
80s Hong Kong cinema had the uncanny ability to simply entertain despite a flawed package and even hugely flawed packages. The Greatest Lover therefore is highly questionable on a film quality level but does the job commercially and for fans of the star's. Elizabeth Lee, Sandra Ng, Wong Jing and Anders Nelson also appear. |
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