03-09-2015, 10:25 AM
This is a non-classic Shaw Brother film, an early Stephen Chow doing a rather primitive version what eventually became his signature Mou Lei Tau humor. It features his longstanding comedic partner, Ng Man Tat. and Anita Mui, who was once dubbed the Asian Madonna, and who I used to dislike, but have grown to appreciate her take on the 'dragon lady' character. It's a period flick - Chow is smart-ass lawyer and Anita is his Kung Fu master wife. There is a running fart joke, which pretty much sums up the level of humor when translated. But this is an excellent example of a film that dies in translation as it is riddled with puns. Cantonese has this whole other dimension of punning because of the tones. I could only pick up one of the puns, a twist on some homophone to 'gay' (pun intended there). There rest was evident from the timing of the dialog. I'm sure if I saw this with a Cantonese speaking friend, they would have been laughing throughout it.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse