Where is Josephine Siao Fong-fong when we need her? Last year she not only saved Summer Snow from mediocrity, but propelled it to box office success and awards.
Ah Kam reunites Summer Snow director Ann Hui and scriptwriter Chan Man-keung, but without Siao to fill the screen as only she knows how, Ah Kam falls flatter than its eponymous stuntwoman.
The film is divided into three sections. Part one introduces us to Ah Kam (Michelle Yeoh), a stuntwoman for five years. Incredibly, in an industry where there is a dearth of females, neither stuntmaster Tung (Sammo Hung) nor his team have heard of Ah Kam.
Even more incredibly, within a few days the film-makers transform her from a shy nobody to an expert so skilled in her craft that the hospitalised Tung chooses Ah Kam to take over as martial arts director.
The film flits from vignette to vignette, none very interesting or illuminating about the world of stunt people. Subsidiary characters, such as Ah Kam's man-hungry roommate (Crystal Kwok Kam-yan), come and go with little rhyme or reason. If the movie is trying to explore the line between reality and fantasy, it misses the mark.
A 'real' fight between the martial artists and thugs in a pool hall, for instance, comes across as phony. Matters are not helped by the visual evidence that, due to Yeoh's injury during the shoot, the star frequently uses a martial arts double.
Part two concentrates on Ah Kam's love affair with rich playboy Sam (the first major film role for model Jimmy Wong). She ends up managing a karaoke lounge for him in Shenzhen, locale for more 'real' fights and a few insights into the corruption rife across the border.