| Early days of Chow Yun-Fat and especially comedy Chow Yun-Fat aren't pretty, nor good. In fact, there's little the future superstar could do around this time to salvage matters and Joy To The World is further proof. He plays Lung, a medicine salesman who gets thrust into the position of a manager at a garment company. All being part of a bet between rival heads. One of the designers at the company is Tung Tung (Cora Miao) and Lung dare not reveal the fact that he's her boss and into a double life he goes. Actually, it seems very hard to find the plot in this stinker of a film on all fronts. Direction is stale and stagey without taking on a fine aura of theater like it could have plus director Gam Yan is clearly a bit of a voyeur as there are a handful of scenes of gratuitous nudity thrown in just for the heck of it. Desperate indeed and it's the only "talent" Gam Yan can show as his cheap cartoony comedy is sleep-inducing (despite Tin Ching running around with a Hitler moustache and a mirror on his foot to sneak a peak of women's panties). Chow Yun-Fat and Cora Miao's scenes are cute however, borderlining on cheesy in a joyous way. Of note especially is a scene at a club where the biggest laugh comes from the translation of the happy song performed before them. Available on Hong Kong dvd as King Of Comedy. |
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