Review | Everything Under Control movie review: Hong Kong remake of Korean horror comedy, starring Hins Cheung and Ivana Wong, is wacky but not very witty

Directed by Ying Chi-wen of Life Must Go On fame, this Lunar New Year comedy remake of Korean movie To Catch a Virgin Ghost is goofy but inconsistent

Underwhelming turns by lead actors with ill-defined roles, and genre hopping from heist movie to horror, fail to engage; but newcomer Jeffrey Ngai shines

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(From left) Michael Ning, Hins Cheung and Jeffrey Ngai in a still from Everything Under Control (category IIA, Cantonese), co-starring Ivana Wong and directed by Ying Chi-wen.

Published: 1:30pm, 18 Jan 2023

2.5/5 stars

Everything Under Control is a genre-blending exercise that starts out as a heist thriller with flashes of gangster-movie parody, before morphing into a rural mystery that may or may not involve an unsolved murder and elements of supernatural horror; it even has some random martial arts action thrown in for good measure.

In fact, this Lunar New Year offering by new director Ying Chi-wen – who made his feature film debut last year with the life-affirming dodgeball comedy Life Must Go On – is a bit of a mess.

Cantopop singer Hins Cheung King-hin plays Yau-shing, the leader of a small squad of security escorts, who can talk the talk with the best of them only to fold like a cheap suit in the face of danger – as he demonstrates in front of armed robber Monk (Michael Ning) in a funny early scene.

A member of Yau-shing’s team, Jelly (singer-songwriter Hung Ka-ho), takes off with the diamonds during the chaos, but gets into a road accident and is held in a remote village by the five eccentric farmers living there; they are led by Wong Cool (Ivana Wong Yuen-chi), and seem to be guarding a dark secret together.

Meanwhile, Monk is forced by his vicious gang boss, Mr Lai (Juno Mak Chun-lung), to join Yau-shing and his young colleague Penguin (TV actor Jeffrey Ngai Tsun-sang, making his big-screen debut) as they track down Jelly – all the way to that mysterious village.

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