This is a good night to rent a video as the programmers at TVB Pearl, in all their wisdom, have scheduled a Japanese children's cartoon for prime time viewing. Not much of an alternative to the Macau Racing programme airing at the same time on World.
In Kiki's Delivery Service (Pearl, 9.30pm), friendly witch Kokiri must preserve her only two skills - flying on a broom and concocting herbal medicines. When her daughter Kiki is born she passes on her skills to the budding witch. Wasn't this the same plot line of Bewitched ? At least that programme was funny. Hong Kong viewers deserve better than this.
A much better film is Switch (World, 1.35am), the Blake Edwards comedy which explores the age-old premise of body switching. Steve Brooks (Perry King) is the type of guy often found frequenting Lan Kwai Fong clubs. Debonair, handsome and full of himself, he will say anything a woman wants to hear so he can get her into bed. Sadly, some women fall for this.
In Brooks' case, his philandering results in his demise but he is given a reprieve by God who returns him to Earth as a beautiful woman (Ellen Barkin) to see the error of his ways. The results are pretty funny as Brooks still thinks like a man. Jimmy Smits (NYPD Blue ) co-stars along with Jo Beth Williams and Lorraine Bracco.
Fight fans should set their VCRs for Percy and Thunder (World, 3.15am). As a professional boxer in the 1940s and 1950s, Percy Banks (James Earle Jones) would never bow to the criminal ways of the men who controlled the sport. As a result, he was never able to reach his aspirations of a world title.
As a trainer of upcoming middleweight Wayne 'Thunder' Carter (Courtney B Vance), Banks hopes he won't run into the same obstacles that impeded his boxing dreams. The film is a realistic portrayal of the politics and unsavoury characters which control professional boxing. Billy Dee Williams and Robert Wuhl co-star.