Paper Marriage

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Year of release: 1988

Genre: action/comedy

Director: Alfred Cheung

Action directors: Sammo Hung, Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-Ying

Producer: Choi Wing-Cheong

Writers: Wong Wang-Gei, Alfred Cheung

Cinematography: Jimmy Leung

Editor: Peter Cheung

Music: Joseph Koo, Sherman Chow

Stars: Sammo Hung, Maggie Cheung, Alfred Chueng, Joyce Godenzi, Billy Chow, Dick Wei, Phillip Ko, Chin Kar-Lok

Rated II for violence and language

DVD available for purchase at www.hkflix.com

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Paper Marriage  Paper Marriage

Paper Marriage  Paper Marriage

In Paper Marriage, Sammo Hung plays Bo, an ex-kickboxer who has fallen into debt via his gambling habits and the alimony demanded by his ex-wife (Joyce Godenzi, Sammo's spouse in real life). So when Bo's friend hatches a plan for him to enter into a sham marriage so that Jade (Maggie Cheung) can get her green card, Bo accepts. But Jade's actual fiancee, Peter (Alfred Cheung) himself gambles away the money that was to go to Bo, and so the reluctant couple find themselves taking odd jobs to make ends meet.

Bo subjects himself to medical experiments and competes in underground kickboxing matches. Jade tries to add some cash of her own, but after being humiliated during a mud-wrestling contest, she decides to go back to Hong Kong. Just as things seem to be at their lowest, Bo and Jade stumble upon a bag full of money. Trouble is, though, that it's actually the property of a notorious drug dealer (Dick Wei).

Paper Marriage subscribes to the Hong Kong "golden age" art of film-making all the way, mixing in just about every genre in the book. Probably the only thing missing here are some hopping vampires. But there are mimes and people dressed as Native Americans thrown in, which comes off as lame as it sounds. Honestly, the comedic portions of the movie aren't anything great, but the proceedings are made much more tolerable with Sammo and Maggie's chemistry.

They obviously got along behind the scenes, and that feeling translates on to the screen. Even though it seems like a minor point, that sort of thing makes jokes that revolve around Sammo's bathroom habits or him running around in his tighty whities actually not come off as the duds they really could have been, and make the film much more enjoyable as a whole.

Some note should also probably be made of the aforementioned mud-wrestling scene, which seems to be the reason many people have checked out this film. Sadly to say for you all of you pervs out there, the scene is not played for cheesecake, and actually comes off as a bit heart-wrenching.

At this point of her career, Maggie Cheung was getting tired of "cutie-pie" roles, and wanted to be taken as a serious actress, which she did manage to accomplish later the same year with Wong Kar-Wai's As Tears Go By. One gets the sense that she was channeling a lot of those emotions of conflict into this scene, which ends up making it fairly powerful, if a bit melodramatic.

As for the action, as you might expect with Sammo, Yuen Wah, and Lam Ching-Ying handling the direction, it's solid stuff. Unfortunately, it feels like there could, and should, have been more of it. There are a handful of boxing matches during the first two acts which are well-done, but over far too quickly, particularly the showdown between Sammo and Billy Chow.

The final act does ratchet things up, with Sammo and Maggie facing off against Dick Wei while being chased through a huge mall. Even Maggie takes a few impressive bumps, and Chin Kar-Lok (as one of Dick Wei's thugs) lands a sweet-looking somersault kick that'll make your teeth rattle. Sammo and Dick Wei do get in some tight and hard fisticuffs, which should satisfy fans of both actors' work.

While it doesn't do anything spectacularly, Paper Marriage has that special Hong Kong magic of being able to draw in several different genres together for a good film. Yes, it does meander during some of the exposition, and the comedy isn't firing on all cylinders, overall, Paper Marriage is one of the better movies of the genre this reviewer has seen in some time.

RATING: 7.25