On loh yue miu lam (2003)

Director:

Wai Man Yip

Writer:

Ho Leung Lau (writer)

Release Date:

24 December 2003 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Romance

Cast

Chuen-Yee Cha
Ekin Cheng	...	Ken
Tat-Ming Cheung
Mandy Chiang		(as Nga-man Chiang)
Suet-Fei Chiu		(as Xue-Fei Zhao)
Wan-Si Ho	...	Zoe
Shiu Hung Hui
Charles Ingram	...	Spencer
Yasuaki Kurata
Tats Lau
Lik-Chi Lee
Chia Yung Liu
Meng Lo
You-Nam Wong	...	Sam
Miriam Yeung Chin Wah	...	Anna

Also Known As:

An na yu wu lin (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Anna and the Martial Art World (Hong Kong: English title) (literal title)
Anna in Kung-Fu Land (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

Hong Kong:96 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Hong Kong:IIA

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Miriam in Eye-Candy Land

The kindest thing one can say about this romantic comedy is that it is a crowd-pleaser made for fans of Ekin Cheng and Miriam Yeung. There are very few laughs to be found in the entire movie and even less in terms of romance. The comedy is just as tacky and the kungfu won't even impress a child.

Comic book fan Kin (Ekin Cheng) works for a marketing company owned by the father of her girlfriend. One day, while trying to come up with ideas to promote a health drink for a client, Kin makes a wild suggestion that they organize an international martial arts competition offering a HK$5 million prize. As the client's company would be the main sponsor therefore worldwide exposure would be imminent. To Kin's surprise, this harebrained idea is accepted and what's more, a Shaolin master is even fielding some competitors. Next we find Kin flying off to Japan to invite a famous Chinese kungfu master to join up. However instead of agreeing to take part himself, the old man sends his daughter Anna (Miriam Yeung). However Anna has something else in mind besides the prize money. Learning that a talent scout from Hollywood is involved, she plans to use her kungfu moves to become a movie star. Somehow Anna is attracted to Kin, who already has a girlfriend and he is too much of a clad to come clean with the two women until it is too late.

Don't ask how the competition works because among the 16 odd-balls taking part, there is a pair of hot-chicks and three kids fighting as a team. There is also a black American and some of the sorriest looking martial arts exponents you can ever lay your eyes on. Director Raymond Yip Wai Man seems so proud of the fighting sequences that he repeats them as if they were costly stunts!

These days, the Hong Kong box-office goes for name-recognition rather than acting talent and budding singers like Miriam Yeung become movie stars almost by default. That should give you an idea of her performance here. Ekin Cheng is of no help either. He just goes through the paces as if he were attending a media function. But then, nobody really expected him to act, anyway.