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A schlock to the system

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Perfect Exchange, with Tony Leung Ka-fai, Andy Lau Tak-wah, Lee Yuen-wah, Liu Kai-chi, and Kristy Chung Lai-tai. Directed by Wong Jing. On Golden Harvest circuit.

A Confucius Family [Queli Renjia], with Zhu Xu, Zhao Erkang, Zhang Wenrong, and Ning Li. Directed by Wu Yigong. In Mandarin with Chinese subtitles. On Southern circuit.

IT'S no wonder that the Hong Kong film industry is in a severe state of crisis, what with schlock comedies like Perfect Exchange. One of the ''biggest'' pictures of the autumn season, with two of Hong Kong's biggest stars, the slipshod production is substandard even by Wong Jing's standards.

It's one of those plots that defies description because it never makes any sense. But I'll give it a try. Mandy (Andy Lau) is a gambling con artist who tricks a vicious gangster, Joe (Wan Chi-keung). Joe takes Mandy's best friend (Liu Kai-chi) and girlfriend, Lily (Kristy Chung), hostage to force the gambler to go to jail on an undercover mission: to locate billions of dollars hidden by Joe's former father-in-law (Kwan Hoi-san), whom the mobster has framed for murder. Meanwhile, it develops that another gambler, Chung Cho-hung (Tony Leung), is actually a prison guard who proceeds to wreck havoc on Mandy's life.

Is that clear? Of course, as with most Wong Jing movies, this is less a comedy than a smorgasbord with a little bit of everything: gambling picture, action film, drama, crazy farce. And like many buffet dinners, the various courses are mass-produced withlittle regard for freshness or quality.

The picture lacks a shred of continuity and human feeling. In the midst of the ''hilarity'', for instance, Liu's leg is painfully broken by a thug while Lily is stabbed in the thigh. In another comedy scene, Mandy discovers his best friend's corpse in a closet. Then it's a fast cut back to the sexual antics of Cho-hung and the gangster's mistress.

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