Starring: Eason Chan Yik-shun, Gillian Chung Yan-tung, Edison Chen Koon-hei
Director: Edmond Pang Ho-cheung
Category: IIB (Cantonese, English)
'Seven stories - one comedy', promises the Chinese tagline of writer-director-producer Edmond Pang Ho-cheung's uneven, often hilarious, sometimes glib, and occasionally touching insights into the battle of the sexes, Hong Kong-style. Based on Pang's short story collection of the same name, the serio-comic proceedings showcase the author's alpha male take on the seemingly trivial matters that prove all-important to the survival or demise of relationships.
It's a mixed bag, differing wildly in tone, length and look, and a clever idea (but not fully exploited to maximum effect) to shoot the various chapters in different genres, from the supernatural to musicals to gangster pictures and even science fiction. The result is a sampler of the fare that established Pang as one of the most distinctive Hong Kong filmmakers.
There's plenty of laddishness in the It's a Festival Day and Recharge vignettes, with horny guys turning to putty in women's hands, and the Rashomon-type quality of Vis Major provides a 'he said/she said' look at sex through the jaundiced eyes of a married couple.