Review | All U Need Is Love movie review: Hong Kong film industry unites for ensemble comedy with a coronavirus pandemic-theme
- A who’s who of Hong Kong cinema, including Jackie Chan, Louis Koo, Cecilia So, and Tony Leung Ka-fai, appear pro bono in film set mostly in a quarantined hotel
- A loosely conceived farce replete with the naughty innuendo typical of Hong Kong comedies, it has been made to raise money for hard-hit film industry workers
2.5/5 stars
Made by 10 of Hong Kong’s top film production companies, and with an admirable roster of actors appearing free of charge, it opens with a decent action scene shot in the Kai Tak cruise terminal – where Alex Fong Lik-sun’s suspected Covid-19 carrier tries to outrun the “Epidemic Task Force”. The rest of the movie is set mainly within the confines of one hotel.
After a couple of brief interrogation scenes in which Louis Koo Tin-lok’s investigator identifies two other carriers – Francis Ng Chun-yu and Lam Ka-tung, in memorable cameos – who have visited the same location, The Grande Hotel (in reality the Ocean Park Marriott Hotel) is sealed off for a 14-day compulsory lockdown and all guests are suddenly trapped inside.
Among them are rival gangsters (Louis Cheung Kai-chung and Julian Cheung Chi-lam) forced to coexist in the absence of their underlings; the hotel’s ever-grinning manager (Carlos Chan Ka-lok) and the cheeky worker – and single mother – he almost fired on day one (Fiona Sit Hoi-kei); and a bickering couple (Cecilia So Lai-shan and “6 Wing” Luk Wing-kun) who are due to marry soon.