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Golden ChickenYear of release: 2002 Genre: comedy/drama Director: Samson Chiu Script: Matthew Chow Stars: Sandra Ng, Eric Tsang, Andy Lau, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Chatman To, Eason Chan, Alfred Cheung Rated IIB for sexuality and language Version reviewed: Panorama VCD |
I'm not normally a big fan of the whole "dramedy" genre, but Golden Chicken is a pretty enjoyable movie, mostly due to the force of Sandra Ng's performance. She plays a hooker who is held up at an ATM by a man down on his luck (Eric Tsang). When the power goes off and they are locked in the ATM booth, Sandra begins telling tales on how she became Hong Kong's "golden chicken" ("chicken" is HK slang for a prostitute).
There's lots of funny and interesting stuff in Golden Chicken, but most of it will probably fall flat on those not versed in a bit of HK history -- both in real life and on film. As with Stephen Chow's movies, most of the humor is dependent on one's knowledge of HK pop culture and Cantonese. However, again, as is with Chow's films, where his performance often carries the movie for foreign viewers, Sandra Ng's character is so interesting and she plays it so well, that even the most naive HK movie viewer will probably enjoy this film, especially with some very funny cameos from actors like Andy Lau.
Golden Chicken is especially refreshing in this day and age of cookie-cutter teeny-bopper movies that a character like Sandra's is treated with respect and dignity, and allowed to be fleshed out instead of being turned into a cartoon. Instead of using a bunch of cheesy special effects or idiot pop stars as gimmicks, the film-makers actually used a smart script to tell their story. I only wish more movies of this type -- from anywhere in the world -- used this approach.
RATING: 7
