Review | Life Must Go On movie review: Ekin Cheng hams it up for goofy dodgeball comedy that blends life-affirming messages with a rather sketchy story

A social worker thinks her teenage charges can become a dodgeball team, and hires a coach – played by Ekin Cheng – to get them ready for a tournament

Ying Chi-wen’s feature film debut has its moments, but is too thinly plotted and Cheng’s larger-than-life character sucks the oxygen from the rest of the cast

Reading Time:2 minutes

Ekin Cheng in a still from Life Must Go On.

Published: 7:19pm, 5 Oct 2022Updated: 7:30pm, 5 Oct 2022

2.5/5 stars

A zany sports comedy that attempts to cheer up its audience with plenty of life-affirming quotes wrapped around an underdeveloped story, Life Must Go On marks the feature debut of its director, Ying Chi-wen.

It’s also the first Ekin Cheng Yee-kin movie to receive a cinematic release since 2018’s Golden Job – and what a welcome return this feels like.

The film’s lively opening introduces us to the urban myth of a “midnight gymnasium” in Fanling, a town in Hong Kong’s northern New Territories. In fact, what we see is social worker Yanki’s (Catherine Chau Ka-yee) well-intentioned but misguided programme to keep a community sports centre open to wayward young women so that they can spend their evenings in a healthy environment.

Yanki’s passion project faces closure as a result of a lack of funding and meddling by her obnoxious new colleague (Chu Pak-him).

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