Mr. Mistress

Director: Chui Pak Lam

Starring: Ho Shou Hsin, Nina Li Chi, Eric Tsang and Cherie Chung

Plot: Mr. Ho (Ho Shou Hsin) is a sales executive and is happily enjoying married life with his sporty wife Mimi (Nina Li). One day Ho’s old schoolmate Peter (Eric Tsang) shows up in Hong Kong and announces that he is the manager of USA’s aerobics champion Alice (Cherie Chung). Peter and Ho quickly catch up with old times but Peter falls for his wife Mimi. Meanwhile Alice has just got out of a close relationship with Robert (Melvin Wong) and is weak hearted, after a few meeting with her, Mr. Ho starts to feel for her. Peter takes advantage of the fact that Mimi is home alone most of the time, and he doesn’t waste time in getting to know her.

Review: The director Chiu Pak Lam, who is probably better known for his “That’s doggy shit” role opposite Jackie Chan as the king of sticks in Drunken Master, does an okay job in directing this romantic drama. As with most 80’s films that stars Eric Tsang there is bound to be comedy, he doesn’t disappoint here either. He gets himself into a few sticky situations. In one scene he dreams how he drugs Nina Li and gets her into bed, but when the actual event happens, he manages to drug himself and dress up in women’s underwear. Nina Li is great, she goes through a lot of grief and does a convincing job of crying. She is certainly on display here though so don’t expect an golden horse winning performance. Ho Shou Hsin carries the film well and I was impressed with his range, he switches between comedy and seriousness without to many problems. Cherie Chung the other leading lady is also great, I have thought in her past films that she’s an annoyance but she has turned the tables on my views with her performance here. Like Nina she is on show as eye candy for the viewers though she does manage get some emotion out, especially in the final scene.

As you can imagine all the characters get mixed up with the wrong partners and this brakes Mr. Ho and Mimi apart. The showdown is a aerobics bout between Nina Li Chi and Cherie Chung, this is instead of the final reel fight scene. The film is very much in two halves, the first showcases Eric going after Nina and the second shows Ho falling for Cherie. This does ruin the pacing, I felt that with better editing it could have been achieved to be happening more simultaneously. After a sad break-up and a competitive dance off, the love is restored and there is a happy ending.

Guest appearances include Melvin Wong as Alice’s ex-boyfriend, Charine Chan as Mimi’s cousin and later Peter’s love interest, Ni Kuang as the boss of Mr. Ho, Cecilia Yiu as Melvin’s current girlfriend, Ho Pak Kwong as the pervert and Carrie Ng as the erm…well as Eric Tsang’s character puts it “Whore”.

This a nice change from the many action films Hong Kong has to offer but don’t expect to be watching it over and over again. I can recommend this to Nina Li fans as she has fairly a lot of screen time, to everyone else, this is a try and see rather than a must.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.0