Before anyone accuses me of not putting enough screen caps of the gorgeous Anita, here's an entire page from this film: The Many Fashions of Anita. She wears a different outfit in every scene of this film, and this is just an overview. The Hunt for Tiger Shit The Communist fink is the house!
Not what it looks like Getting ready to flee mainland China
A very typical Clarence Fok film that is fat on style, incredible cinematography (courtesy of the incomparable Peter Pau), and anorexically thin on content. A super-silly romantic comedy about a mainlander (Chow Yun Fat) who illegally immigrates to Hong Kong with two buddies only to be seduced into high society by a guy whose fiancee left him at the altar. Anita Mui is the image consultant who trains him to become a playboy.
The Stunning Elizabeth Lee More Elizabeth Lee
Anita Mui is the image maker Anita Rotten decadent capitalists!
The three friends Locomotive (Chow Yun-Fat), Chicken Noodles (Shing Fui-On), and Skyscraper (Eric Tsang) long to flee mainland China and go to Hong Kong. For some reason, the first 10 minutes of the film involves them trying to steal tiger droppings from the zoo. A stupid, smelly, and generally unpalatable scene that ends in success (and a mouthful). Following another useless scene in which the communist fink (Yuen Wah) extorts bribes from them only to get nailed himself, the three set off.
Gratuitous shot of Anita What do you call this? A fork?
Chow Yun Fat is classy Pygmalion
They make it (not without totally hilarious scenes in which they use the bad breath from eating the tiger droppings to get rid of border patrol dogs) but become separated in the process and Locomotive ends up at an almost-wedding of Sze (Wong Ching) who is publicly humiliated by Lychee (Nina Li) and her snobbish friend Fong (Pauline Wong).
Yep, kissing carrots How to be a yes-man
Dirty Dancing I want to be a decadent capitalist too
To exact his revenge, Sze hires Anita (Anita Mui) to teach Locomotive how to be the greatest lover. She does that but this part of the film drags on for way too long. It's true that turning a country bumpkin into a high-class playboy is not easy, but we should not have been subjected to the entire process. The laughs wear thin very quickly and if it weren't for the many fashions of Anita, I would have fast forwarded. On the other hand, the scene where Chow "uses his masculinity" to woo the Miss Hong Kong wannabe (Sandra Ng) is not to be missed.
His breath stinks! And not only his breath...
Elizabeth Lee and Wong Jing Obligatory bathroom scene
Finally, Locomotive is unleashed on high society and predictably the two prima donnas fall for him immediately. He cavorts with them and finally gets engaged to both, setting the wedding for the same day, and then promptly stands them up at the altar. This would have been a heart-breaking scene if it weren't for the amazing kung-fu kick with which Nina Li dispatches her cohort in snobbery Pauline Wong flying into the draperies. Has to be seen.
Eye candy: Nina Li and Pauline Wong Falling (literally) for each other
Romantic pool scene with Nina Li We need to "examine" your "fertility"
In the meantime, Sze manages to get himself snubbed by yet another beauty, Fiona (Elizabeth Lee), and he wants Locomotive to do the same trick with her. However, Locomotive has developed certain feelings for Fiona and refuses, which gets Sze infuriated and he bribes Chicken Noodles and Skyscraper into exposing Locomotive's true identity (he has been passing himself as "Nelson Chow from America").
The wedding match Gratuitous shot of Elizabeth Lee
More Elizabeth Lee Yet another Pygmalion scene
When the affluent Fiona's mother (Rebecca Pan) surprisingly announces the engagement of her daughter to Locomotive, he realizes that he actually loves Anita (itself not surprising at all). Just as he is about to reveal this, Sze interrupts and promptly has himself made a fool of when Skyscraper refuses to betray his friend. However, Locomotive becomes overwhelmed with emotion and does not deny his friends, leaving everyone sobbing (but for different reasons). He then quickly follows Anita who has boarded a train to escape from her feelings for him. Needless to say, there's a happy ending.
Chow Yun Fat in traditional serious look Anita Mui saying "Yes"
Gratuitous shot of Anita And another gratuitous shot of Anita
A ridiculous film with a silly re-telling of the classic "Pygmalion" story, The Greatest Lover can be fairly amusing if one at once dispenses with the illusion that he would see anyone coming close to a real-life person. Wonderfully photographed, with not fewer than four absolutely gorgeous girls, the film is sure to keep one's interest as long as one can get over the atrocious dubbing job they've done for Chow Yun-Fat whose high-pitched laughter is horrendously annoying.
The Universe DVD is a bit soft but then again most Clarence Fok films look like they've been shot through a mist filter anyway. As usual for Peter Pau, many of the scenes are color-coded too. The letterboxed picture at 1.85:1 is fine although the old film does betray its age in the occasional scratch here and there. The Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is serviceable, there's also a Mandarin remix where Chow sounds much manlier. The subtitles are ok although they do fail to convey much of the verbal humor.
