On His Majesty's Secret Service
(aka Forbidden City Cop: Smart Dog)
2009; directed by Wong Jing

Louis Koo does his best Stephen Chow imitation in On His Majesty's Secret Service, a new comedy helmed by Wong Jing. Taking more than a bit of inspiration from Forbidden City Cop -- which, not coincidentally, was also produced by Wong -- Koo plays a royal guard that uses his wits, rather than his fists, to get out of sticky situations. Like most of Wong's other releases, this goes all over the map, but it somehow ends up still being a fairly solid movie.

The plot here is your usual Wong Jing "kitchen sink" affair, with a boatload of sub-plots revolving around Koo's character Royal Dog, which include, but are not limited to, Dog marrying his sweetheart Faithfull (Barbie Hsu) despite her parents' objection, Dog trying to stop an evil eunuch (Fan Siu-Wong) from killing the emperor, Dog helping his buddy in getting the hand of the princess, and Dog trying to look, sound, and act like Stephen Chow without actually being Stephen Chow.

On His Majesty's Secret Service runs the usual Wong Jing playbook all the way to the end zone. There's lots of toilet humor, some eye candy from babes, a bit of action thrown in, and a feeling that Wong really doesn't give a whit about the proceedings as long as he's getting paid. Wong Jing is a divisive film-maker; certainly capable of producing some of the best Hong Kong cinema has to offer, but more often than not, simply making movies just to get some beer and ramen noodle cash. If you're not a Wong Jing fan, or Hong Kong comedies as a whole, On His Majesty's Secret Service is going to do nothing to change your perception.

On the other hand, if -- as with this reviewer -- you've developed a taste over the years for Wong's brand of film-making, you'll find at least a few things to like here. The cast is paced with a few ringers, like Sandra Ng and Leung Kar-Yan, who add a lot of whimsy to the proceedings. Even when the jokes fly over your head due to them being based on Cantonese puns, or simply fall flat due to them not being very funny, the cast seems to be having a good time, and that feeling is transferred onto the viewer. In no way could On His Majesty's Secret Service be considered a great film, but it does provide ninety minutes of disposable entertainment, which, considering the state of mainstream Hong Kong film-making these days, could be considered a victory, albeit a small one.

RATING: 6