Flirting Scholar

Its the tears of joy,, cant stop laughing,, would rate it 20 of 10 weel done, sir

I was exposed to this film as a kid. It was dubbed in my language and I found it very funny during my childhood so I re-watched it a lot. It is one of those bizarre Chinese comedy films from the 90s. It is basically about a popular painter who got bored of his wives and fell in lust over some girl he saw while his friends convince him that she was the most beautiful girl ever. He desperately does the most to make her his.

A well-functioning comedy among all Stephen Chow's early works (not as nice as "From Beijing with Love" made in 1994). Chow plays legendary artist on the basis of a popular old Chinese story who leaves his house to seek true love. Li Gong plays the heroin (still young but already used as his inspiration in so many films by Yimou Zhang). She shows completely different charm from the other movies she's in. It's also nice to see Pei-Pei Cheng (my idol) playing such a comic role as almost a self-parody. Actions are relatively good, but there are too many issues in the movie, as Chow himself says, so it lacks the cohesion as a whole.

Stephen Chow is the greatest of the Four Scholars in Ming-era China. His paintings go for 30,000 taels a pop, his poetry sells like mad, he has eight wives who spend all their time playing mah-jong, and he is thoroughly miserable. Then he spots Gong Li and falls in love. She is a servant in the household of James Wong and Pei-Pei Cheng (who is very funny), so he sells himself to the household under a fake name. He quickly rises because of his scholarship, and is overjoyed when Gong Li confesses she loves his poetry and the man who wrote them. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe Chow is that man. Also, Madame Cheng hates him, sight unseen. There are also various subplots involving Wai Lam as King Ning, and the big fight at the end is with Chia-Hui Liu, who killed Inigo Montoya's father. I mean Chow's father. The only star to compare with Chow is Jacky Chan. However, while Chan performs his comedy stunts using practical effects and takes that often injure him, Chow's gags verge on cartoons. Chow also plays with Chinese mythology, and while I am unclear as to which legends this movie refers to, there's no need to understand the details if you have any familiarity with your typical Kung Fu movie. The details of the silly plot take up a lot of time, but there's still plenty of gags to make the audience laugh.

This is a must watch for all Stephen Chow fans and I highly recommend this for everyone that loves random comedy. The characters were compelling, the story was surprisingly not so predictable like thought from the beginning and the dialogues were well crafted. I really enjoyed this movie because it was very entertaining and there were so many new ways of making me laugh which was great. The movie is about a noble scholar who is not pleased with his gambling wives, because they play majhong all day. Stephen Chow's character in this movie can paint, sing and write poems. Then later he and his scholar friends sees this girl whose beauty outshines all other girls near her and then the Scholars try to disguise themselves just to get near her in weird but funny ways. The girl comes from a rival family which hates his family. So he tries to find a way inside to approach her without being noticed. But there is much more than just romance and comedy, so I highly recommend this hilarious movie to everyone. The movie wasn't as slow as I thought. Stephen Chow is just pure awesome in his genius way of making his audience laugh out loud.

One movie that makes me laugh all the way 'til the end. This movie is strictly to show how good Stephen Chow is, regardless of other actors and actresses. Seems the others were just a prop for Stephen Chow to utilize and shines unlike other movie where his most ideal comical partner Ng Man Tat (who plays the limp coach in Shaolin Soccer) would provide equal idiotic humor and balanced of his act. This movie have the most of my favorite scene in Chinese comedy, especially Stephen Chow comedy, if you can understand his type of comedy. His slapstick is not Jim Carrey's or Charlie Chaplin's slapstick, and I don't see any other actor in the world who does slapstick like he did, making it his trademark. Watch for these scene: 1)The whole chicken wing scene (using paint brush to apply sauce; the chicken wing song) 2)The courting scene in the monastery (the flying kick monk) 3)The who is poorer scene (having cockroach as pet) 4)The Chinese rap scene 5)The boast who got the best poison ala commercial scene 6)The scholar duel scene (air kiss; spitting blood) and many more!! If you like Cantonese silly movie especially Stephen Chow's, this is a must have gem!

Personally, I don't think Tang Bohu is just a side shot of the Star Master! Brilliant and humorous, yet incredibly lonely and lonely. In recent years, his white hair has become more and more bushy, and an aura of aging has swept over his face. How many people regret that this genius has given us a lot of laughter but is still alone. I hope he can find his ideal partner soon and give him happiness! Then I hope he can find his Qiuxiang sister soon! Genius also needs beauty to accompany, and beauty also needs hero to accompany! Finally, give a call to Xingye's acting skills and humorous plot! There are really not many humorous moments that make people think about life after laughing loudly. I always watch Zhou Xingxing's dramas! The plot and acting skills are captivating, and Zhou Xingxing's youthful appearance was also great. Hmm, it's a great viewing experience!

Technically this film is a romantic comedy, inspired by a well known (though likely invented) story from the life of Táng Yín (1470-1524), also known as Tang Bohu or Tong Pak Foo. According to Wikipedia, the real Tong Pak Foo "was a Chinese painter, calligrapher, and poet of the Ming dynasty period whose life story has become a part of popular lore". At the beginning of the film, Tong Pak Foo starts out unhappily married to 8 wives. In the end, after going to extraordinary lengths to pursue a slave girl, I guess he ends up with 9 wives. Even in a Hong Kong movie, Tong Pak Foo might have been, like Kung Fu Panda, the son of a restaurant owner. But the film plays it safe and goes the traditional route of making him one in a line of Kung Fu artists. Tong Pak Foo has inherited one dangerous enemy from each parent. The Evil Scholar killed Tong Pak Foo's father and wouldn't mind finishing his job by killing Tong Pak Foo himself, if and when a convenient opportunity happens to present itself. And there is a spurned lover who is probably still jealous and extends her hate of Tong Pak Foo's mother to Tong Pak Foo himself. So much for the basis of the overall plot. But it doesn't really matter because the plot's only purpose here is to provide a sense of overall direction to a series of jokes and funny episodes. Everything is subservient to the humor. At any time there is a chance that in the next second something completely unexpected happens, possibly moving the film in a new direction, possibly being forgotten a second later. The film has the familiar Hong Kong feel of British humor transferred into a Chinese context, which I love in Jackie Chan films. Only here it's a bit cruder and I think slightly more Chinese. More in the direction of Carry On or Benny Hill, though fortunately not far enough to make this a bad film. The English subtitles aren't optimal. I imagine they are surprisingly good at capturing the original Cantonese jokes; but the English is often wrong and says the precise opposite of what it should say. This can be a bit distracting. In my opinion this is a very good film (8 stars). If the crude jokes were replaced by slightly more sophisticated ones and there were stronger sense of overall coherence -- tying up the loose ends in a convincing way without damaging the overall flow of the film -- I would easily call it excellent or even perfect. But as it is, I can also understand those who rate it 7 stars or less for being a bit too low-brow.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of Stephen Chow's earlier works. Not that they were bad, but they were not as good as the classics such as God of Cookery, King of Comedy, Shaolin Soccer, and of course, this film. I found the early films with Stephen talking in a cartoonish "comedic" voice annoying. The ones where he has more creative control tend to have him speaking in a more natural, and more deadpan voice and those films tend to carry deeper messages than just a mindless comedy. Seriously, some scenes are moving. Now back to this movie, there's really not much to criticize here. The acting, the dialogue, the typical Stephen Chow style of humor, all fantastic. There aren't many ROFL moments, but there are endless classic funny moments that the film will make you grin from ear to ear pretty much from start to finish. And I know that I personally still quote some lines from the movie in my everyday life... :) The one knock I do have is Gong Li, whose talents seem wasted in the film. No doubt she looks great in the film, but she's not given much to do and seems rather wooden as if she did not enjoy herself in the movie. Knowing Gong's talent, it felt strange to see her character just be a "vase" love interest and nothing more. I guess you don't want to have anyone upstage Stephen but in that case why not cast a starlet with a less impressive resume than Gong? However, overall, this is a great film and I highly recommend it.