This movie is available for purchase at www.sensasian.com

Rating:

6

AKA: The Shaolin Idiot, Look Out Officer

Year of release: 1990

Genre: ghost/comedy

Director: Lau Shut-Yue

Writer: Chui Jing-Hong

Producer: Lau Tin-Chi

Action directors: Poon Kin-Gwan, Benz Kong

Cinematographer: Wong Man-Wan

Editor: Chiang Hsing-Lung

Music: Sherman Chow

Stars: Stephen Chow, Bill Tung, Vivian Chan, Stanley Fung, Cutie Mui, Amy Yip, Sunny Fang

Rated II for crude humor and brief nudity

VCD Information

Company: Celestial

Format: widescreen

Languages: Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese/English (electronic on lower black bar)

Extras: trailers

Notes: The subtitles could use some cleaning up -- though they are much better than the old Mei Ah version.

Movie Review index / Main Page

Look Out, Officer!

Look Out, Officer! centers around a young police cadet (Stephen Chow) who is haunted by his superior's (Stanley Fung) dead partner (Bill Tung). Chow is too spooked to work with the ghost at first, but after Tung promises that he'll help him woo Ng's comely daughter (Vivian Chan), Chow agrees to help get revenge on the drug smuggler that killed Tung. The only catch is, no one else can see Tung, and everyone around starts to think Chow is going crazy.

This early starring effort from Stephen Chow was done before his working with Wong Jing and the full fleshing out of his style of "nonsense" comedy. As such, viewers who have only experienced his later films like Shaolin Soccer might be disappointed, as the movie has a style and tone much closer to the comedies of the 1980's done by the other two stars of this film, Bill Tung and Stanley Fung -- whose careers were on the decline just as much as Chow's was in ascension at this point in history. That's not to say that Chow doesn't put on a good effort here. But, for the most part, he actually plays the straight man and is the subject (rather than the instigator) of many of the movie's jokes.

Still, there are some pretty funny segments, such as when Chow tries to avoid a doctor who gets a little too "hands-on" with his patients, and a wonderful (but painfully short) cameo from Amy Yip as the object of Stanley Fung's lascivious attention. Some of the comedy goes a bit too far into the toilet humor territory, most notably a sequence where Chow and Fung must get a virgin's urine, a cat's feces and "a genie's fart". I'm sure that last part puzzled you as it did me -- like most Stephen Chow movies, subtitles aren't exactly the best way to "get" a lot of the jokes. Semantics aside, do we really need to see Chow getting soaked by an old woman's pee while he holds a cup under her (thankfully clothed) crotch? And more importantly, do we really need to see a close-up of a cat taking a crap twice in one movie? I think not.

Yes, I know that I've given expolitative "trash" like Naked Weapon high marks, so the previous statement might come off as odd, but this segment almost threatens to derail the movie. Look Out, Officer! does redeem itself at the end with a decent action sequence, which manages to still be exciting and funny despite having some of the worst "special" effects this reviewer has ever seen. Overall, this is by no means Chow's best work, but it is well-done for the most part, and fans of his should enjoy it.