Film Review: Hardcore Comedy falls on its face

HARDCORE COMEDY
Starring: Kelvin Kwan Chor-yiu, William Chan Wai-ting, Dada Chan Ching, Oscar Leung Lit-wai
Directors: Henri Wong Chi-hang, Chong Siu-wing, Andy Lo Yiu-fai
Category: III (Cantonese)

The fallout from the surprising triumph of Pang Ho-cheung's Vulgaria (2012) continues with Hardcore Comedy, a crass and lazily plotted dud that assumes it has the local audience's support simply because its filmmakers are not sucking up to the mainland censors for a change.

With each of its three parts produced by an established filmmaker and directed by a debutant, the project is themed around three major vices: prostitution, gambling and drugs. The result couldn't be more underwhelming.

The highly stylised "Shocking Wet Dreams" section, produced by Derek Kwok Chi-kin and helmed by visual effects veteran Henri Wong Chi-hang, opens the film as arguably the most memorable of the trio. It follows two porn-obsessed friends (Kelvin Kwan Chor-yiu and Terence Chui Chi-iong) who end up living in a rundown apartment building turned brothel.

As they shift their focus from losing their virginity to saving a beautiful neighbour (Michelle Wai Si-nga) and the prostitutes from the clutches of a corrupt cop (Timothy Cheng Tse-sing), Wong offers sometimes clever, mostly infantile gags about everything from Japanese porn to TVB dramas.

The next segment, "Run on Drugs", is produced by Ng Kin-hung and helmed by music video director Chong Siu-wing. It centres on a heartbroken and dorky young man, Kit (William Chan Wai-ting), who is tricked into delivering psychedelic mushrooms for a cross-dressing dealer.

Joined by a hard-partying client (Dada Chan Ching) he comes across in a nightclub, Kit spends the night going around town and meeting one wacky client after another, while a cursory, mostly forgettable romance blossoms between the two.

Rounding it out is "Can't Stop the Killing". Produced by James Yuen Sai-sang and directed by Andy Lo Yiu-fai, it revolves around Pang (Oscar Leung Lit-wai), a womanising sushi chef with a gambling addiction. When he's forced to eliminate a mobster boss (Louis Cheung Kai-chung) as a debt settlement, Pang chooses to revisit his estranged family and his dream girl from high school (Christine Kuo Yun-hui) before the mayhem.

Throughout, there is a bland emptiness where the laughs are supposed to go. We may blame this on film industry trends. After all, at least a few filmmakers have recently been encouraged by Pang's success to turn their focus from the lucrative Hong Kong-mainland co-productions to other local projects marketed as cultural statements.

Most of these Pang wannabes have missed the simple fact that vulgarity is not in itself funny. Hardcore Comedy seems so preoccupied with giggling at its own silliness that the result barely registers as a comedy. And no amount of nudity or drug use could fix that.

edmund.lee@scmp.com

Hardcore Comedy opens on August 29