Reviews:Paper Marriage
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In terms of martial arts...
An entertaining sitcom in which Sammo and Maggie, down on their luck, must marriage to fool immigration authorities. To make money to pay off a gambling debt, Sammo must get into the ring. Features three major fight sequences vs. three big name screen fighters. 1. A boxing duel with Philip Ko. 2. A Thai kickboxing duel with Chow. 3. Full-out kickboxing with Dick Wei. Fans of Jackie Chan-style wild, complex stunt sequences in public places should enjoy the finale, which takes place in a Canadian theme park.
MARTIAL ARTS RATING quantity: 3.5 quality: 5
| This Sammo Hung film is primarily known for one thing -- it is the film in which Maggie Cheung mud wrestles! Yes the Maggie -- one of the great actresses in HK history -- one of the great faces of our age -- gets down and very dirty. The scene actually only lasts for a few minutes and it is more traumatic than amusing -- but it has gained a legendary status as a must see Maggie scene.
At the time this film was made Maggie did not have the acting reputation that she has today of course -- films such as Center Stage and her glorious moments in Ashes of Time were still off in the future, but she was very popular at the time. 1988 was a busy year for Maggie as she acted in eleven films -- one being Police Story II and then in one of her first major serious roles in Wong Kar-Wai's As Tears Go By. Here though she is just having a good time and being a very good sport. Not only does she have the mud-wrestling scene, but also has a few other body banging action moments. Sammo lives in Canada and is a bit down on his luck -- out of a job and deep in debt to some loan sharks. He takes whatever jobs he can. A friend tells him that he will get paid if he is willing to marry a girl coming from HK -- so that she can immigrate -- he jumps at it. What follows is a fairly funny movie. Maggie has a few classic moments and there are a few very funny scenes involving the immigration as the couple try and prove that they are in fact husband and wife in the real sense of the word. And as anyone would expect in a Sammo film, there is some action -- it doesn't dominate the film by any means -- but its quite good and Sammo gets to pair off against Philip Ko, Billy Chow and Dick Wei. Those are some pretty fierce opponents and brutal action sequences. Well worth seeing for classic HK action-comedy. |
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