BLACK COMEDY (黑色喜剧) (2014)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Wilson Chin
Cast: Wong Cho Lam, Chapman To, Kimmy Tong, Jim Chim, Susan Shaw, Benz Hui, Bob Lam, Evergreen Mak, Oscar Leung
RunTime: 1 hr 38 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Sexual References And Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw & Scorpio East Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 3 April 2014

Synopsis: Detective Johnny Du (Wong Cho Lam) was smart and agile but his short height has hindered him from joining the G4 protection detail for the HK Chief Executive. His sassy girlfriend bullied him all the time, leaving him depressed at work and at home. His helplessness attracted Vincent, the devil Prince (Chapman To) and Jim, the Angel to fight for his soul…

Movie Review:

Just when you thought Wong Jing has gotten back his comedic mojo, along comes a certain movie called ‘Black Comedy’ to convince you otherwise. To be sure, the multi-hyphenate isn’t in the directing seat this time round; instead, he is responsible for producing and scripting this nonsense, and has instead handed the reins over to ‘Lan Kwai Fong’ director Wilson Chin to make sense of this farce.

If you’ve seen the trailer, or read the synopsis, you probably already know the story from start to finish. Yes, it is that shallow. Essentially, TVB star Wong Cho-Nam plays a police officer named Johnny Du or To Kei-Fung (whose Chinese name basically sounds and reads the name as that of famed Hong Kong director Johnnie To) that dreams of joining the G4 protection detail for the Chief Executive. His height however is his Achilles’ heel, and it doesn’t help that his boss (Benz Hui) and girlfriend Angel (Kimmy Tong) are not as supportive as they could be.

Enter Chapman To’s devil Prince, who has been assigned by his mother (Siu Yam Yam) to procure more souls for the netherworld. Prince offers Johnny Du three wishes in exchange for his soul, which owing to the latter’s depressed state of mind, he readily accepts. What does Johnny use his three wishes for? One, he wishes that his sassy girlfriend would be sweet, demure and innocent; two, he wishes that he could be a rich man; and three, he wishes that he could indeed be part of the security detail for the Chief Executive.

Oh wait, have we just ruined the movie for you? Not quite, like we said, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve pretty much seen the entire movie. And the best part? You wouldn’t need to waste 98 minutes of your precious life sitting through extended versions of gags that are even more painfully unfunny than in their abbreviated forms. Yes, if Wong Jing seems to have written the script on auto-pilot, then Wilson Chin seems to have directed the movie with his eyes closed, so much so that what is supposed to pass off as amusing comes off as anything but.

We kid you not - for a movie that is clearly meant to be a comedy, there is hardly anything to laugh at. And in case you’re thinking that the title could mean that there is some subversive humour that we are not getting, well let us reassure you that Wong Jing doesn’t have the capacity for such subtleties. To make matters worse, the movie drags… and drags… and drags, lurching from one humourless scene to another with neither purpose nor direction, leading up to a predictable showdown between Prince and Angel (Jim Chim) for Johnny’s soul.

Saddled with such terrible material, it is no wonder that neither Wong Cho-Lam or Chapman To manage to rise above the fore. It’s certainly unfortunate that his first outing headlining a feature length film after cutting his teeth through many TVB serials and variety shows has turned out to be in an utterly dull film, and though Wong tries his best to use his trademark over-acting to inject some laughs, the result is pretty much like flogging a dead horse. On the other hand, To hardly even tries, the pair hardly sharing any chemistry here worthy of the kind of team-up which the movie promises.

There’s hardly any doubt that ‘Black Comedy’ is bad comedy, or for that matter, hardly any comedy in the first place. It is quite simply Wong Jing’s worst script in some years, made worse by a tone-deaf director whose ‘Lan Kwai Fong’ movies have only betrayed his clunky execution on full display here. If you’re a Wong Cho Lam or Chapman To fan, we urge you to steer clear, for there surely has to be something more worthwhile of both their talents combined or individually. This just simply isn’t it. 

Movie Rating:

(Not even two of Hong Kong’s best comedians can redeem this painfully unfunny turd of nonsense from producer-scripter Wong Jing and director Wilson Chin)